eCommerce Blog

For many Americans, fall is the best time of year, but for retailers, it's the calm before the storm. According to a recent report from the National Retail Federation (NRF), holiday sales are expected to increase in November and December by about 4% this year, as compared to last year, for a total close to $680 billion.¹

One of the most important things you need to consider when building your online store is product photos.

Product images tell your customers whether or not your item is what they want to purchase, and poor photograpy might be the cause of cart abandonment and lost sales. 

Taking high quality pictures may seem like something you need to hire a professional for, but you can often get great looking pictures on your own by following thse simple hints and tips.

One of the biggest barriers to starting an online store is the startup cost.

Like any business, ecommerce is a big investment. On the frontend, it costs money to set up your online store. But the meat and potatoes of your online store is where it can really get dicey. After all, you need a product to sell, and you need inventory of that product.

To sell a product, many online stores invest heavily in creating or stocking that product. But what if we told you there was a way to start an[...]

Smart business-to-business (B2B) companies pay attention to trends, listen to customers, and take actions to improve their business.

In the coming year, for many in the B2B world this will mean developing a B2B ecommerce strategy that provides a great, omnichannel customer experience.

This article presents the  five B2B ecommerce trends you'll want to watch in 2018.

Some eCommerce business owners may resent or balk at the idea of offering free shipping. The sentiment is understandable: it is only free for customers, and the business eats the cost. With that said, savvier minds may see many potential benefits in offering a perk beloved by customers of every demographic. For evidence of its potential effectiveness, look no further than the annual holiday-season event known as Free Shipping Day.

Online shoppers are a large and diverse group, and just like with any large part of the population, personal preferences vary greatly. If you want to widen your customer base, you need to be aware of the different options potential new customers will have an interest in.

Customers' personal preferences extend to their payment methods, whether for practical reasons, security concerns, or simple convenience.

Some shoppers prefer never to enter credit card information, while others want to use[...]

Green Monday is the last Monday with at least 10 days until Christmas, which usually the second Monday in December.

The name was first used by eBay in 2007 to describe it as their best online sales day during that month, and since then it's become known as the third-best day for online shopping, right behind Cyber Monday and Black Friday. 

Green Monday is also called Cyber Monday 2 as it's seen as technically a second Cyber Monday, and consumers are drawn to the "second chance," especially[...]

The holidays are coming up fast, and you’re not the only one who’s thinking about them.

With U.S. retail eCommerce sales expected to climb by 16% this year, now is the perfect time to engage with your customers (and future customers).

Competition is always strong during this time of the year, especially with many eCommerce stores offering free shipping or other special promotions for the holiday season, so you’ll need to be at the top of your game to keep up.

With U.S. eCommerce salesreaching[...]

Let's face it — returns are no fun, but there's always a chance they'll happen.

No matter how informative your product descriptions, how high-quality your images, and how great overall your products are, you'll still need to deal with customers who want to return their purchase.

In fact, some customers deliberately buy multiple variants of a product — usually clothing — intending to keep only one and return the rest!

The use of an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) system to handle returns[...]

Email marketing has one of the highest returns on investment of any of your owned media channels. You have a direct line into the inboxes of people already interested in your services in some form or another.

That cuts out a ton of grunt work and wasted effort, and while marketing to people who have already bought or subscribed to your mailing list doesn’t guarantee conversions, it certainly puts you in a strong starting position.

But how do you make sure you’re sending the right kind of[...]

When running an online store, the selection of what shipping methods to offer your customers is going to be one of the most important decisions to make.

The effect of this decision goes beyond the prices you and your customers pay for shipping — it can have an overall effect on the way you run your business.

Customers love free shipping, but it's not always possible for an online store to make it available.

Besides, there are other ways to make shipping relatively painless for your customers,[...]

Customers love to save time and effort, especially on tasks they often find frustrating.

For this reason, gift wrapping has been a popular service offered by retailers for over a hundred years.

Some people feel that wrapping is part of the fun of giving, but a large portion of gift shoppers can't stand wrapping gifts themselves. They find it too time-consuming and too difficult to do well, and also cite running out of materials and having no room at home as reasons they don't like to wrap gifts[...]

Enterprise-level retailers with millions of dollars in online sales may face at least five ecommerce challenges, including,

• Site performance,
• Scalability
• Product information
• Data security
• And mobile optimization.

If you have run into any of these in your online business, this article will help you understand the impact these issues can have in your business and will give you some important tips to tackle them.

Retailers worldwide look forward to the holiday season with intense anticipation. Every recent year, holiday eCommerce shopping numbers have steadily climbed. People are showing a greater preference for shopping online than ever before, and it's time you got in on the action.

Touch a button; pay for your coffee. It's simple, right?

Mobile wallets empower consumers to make every transaction with increased speed and convenience. Since Apple Pay launched in 2014, followed by Android and Samsung Pay 2015, consumers have enjoyed the power to pay at their fingertips.

Although adoption rates are on the rise, obstacles to more widespread consumer adoption remain. To get you up to speed on the current state of mobile wallet trends, we'll look at the mobile wallet[...]

Selling business-to-business (B2B) has changed. About a half of B2B buyers — your customers — will make professional purchases over the internet in 2017, according to estimates from Forrester Research.

Building an online store can be exciting and scary all at the same time. It’s exciting because you’re getting your product out there for the world to see, but it can be scary because you may worry over whether your store will attract visitors. Implementing your store means that the planning and envisioning portion of building your business is done, and that means it’s time to see how the world will view your store. The best way to ensure a successful virtual grand opening is to avoid these six[...]

It's never too early to start preparing your online store for the holiday season. Even months ahead, you can get a few tasks out of the way to give yourself an easier time later on, when you'll likely be much busier.

We're not saying to cover your homepage in gifs of snowflakes and holly in mid-October — rather, to start early with the behind-the-scenes preparations so you can seize the moment as soon as holiday shopping begins.

These 10 action items will help you get ready for the busiest[...]

Online stores can’t understate the importance of a comprehensive SEO strategy. That said, there is such a thing as an overzealous one. If your SEO program is over the top, Google and other search engines won’t look kindly on your website.

You migth not be aware that your website has been penalized by Google, but if visits keep slowing down, follow the simple actions listed below to help you determine if your website is currently being penalized. And learn the common reasons that could be[...]

Understanding your customer is one of the most important goals for any business, whether eCommerce or brick-and-mortar. The knowledge of what motivates your customers will help you build a solid strategy for forming good relationships with them. Among other things, you need to know what they like and dislike, why they prefer certain products over others, and why they sometimes return their purchases.