eCommerce Blog

By now, you’ve probably heard of the recent success of group coupon websites like Groupon and Living Social. The average Groupon has earned $8750 in revenue from roughly 350 sales. The average Groupon discount is roughly 56%, providing businesses with a convenient way to market and attract local customers by reaching out to them online.

Perhaps the greatest contributor to the smash success of a website like Groupon is its mass support in social media. Today, customers are looking for daily[...]

Have you ever worried about your website going down? Whether you run an online store or manage a blog, a downed site can mean lost traffic and business. While infrequent and short site outages are normal, some sites can go down for a much more malicious reason – a DDoS attack.

If you’ve ever been the target of a DDoS attack, or have witnessed one for yourself, you know exactly how debilitating it can be. But, what exactly is a DDoS attack, and how can you protect your website from it?

Let’s[...]

While most people tend to assume that the ads they see on Facebook don’t work, the reality is that, for many online businesses, they do. And not only do they just “work,” but they can be highly effective, making Facebook one of the top places businesses and brands go in order to generate leads and find new customers.

Want to increase visitors to your online store and make more sales without spending a penny extra on advertising?

Encouraging customer reviews is the way to do it.

Register for the following webinar, presented by Listrak!

Tuesday, June 28th at 1:00 PM EST!

Click here for further details and registration information.

The rise of social media has given marketers a new perspective—one that changes that discounts some of the wisdom of marketing’s old guard. In the past, businesses looked at marketing as a one-way communication channel to draw in potential customers. Now, savvy marketers are starting a dialogue with their audience—and feedback forms have replaced the less effective, unpredictable surveys of yore.

As online consumers, we’ve all seen free shipping offers from our favorite stores and brands. And, while we love these offers as consumers, as business owners it’s hard to imagine being able to offer shipping for free.

I am your ideal customer. I want exactly what you are selling. I only have to find you. If only Google made it that simple, right? Unfortunately, Google is needy. It needs you to make a search engine's job easy. You have to make it totally clear to Google that your page offers the information the user seeks, which means making your ecommerce site SEO-friendly.

You don't have to be a coffee drinker to appreciate the marketing strategies that grew Starbucks into a multibillion-dollar company since its founding in 1971. Once a small coffeehouse in Seattle, Washington, Starbucks now has over 27,600 locations all over the world, spanning 6 continents. It's a classic success story of a small business growing into a global household name, and represents the ambitions of millions of entrepreneurs everywhere.

Does packing boxes and printing shipping labels feel like it’s getting in the way of running your business?

It happens to nearly every company as they scale, facing a challenge of trying to hire more staff to handle a warehouse or potentially turning those operations over to a partner that focuses specifically on fulfillment operations.

It’s a critical juncture and one that can make a major difference for today’s costs and tomorrow’s growth. There are challenges to deciding to keep fulfillment[...]

Preparing for Cyber Monday’s Online Sales - 4 Ecommerce Tips for Merchants

Since its introduction in 2005, Cyber Monday has become the biggest day for online sales. Immediately following Black Friday, consumers are in “shopping mode” and want to continue purchasing any goods that couldn’t be acquired during Black Friday sales.  Online shopping during Cyber Monday helps fill this need to complete their yearly holiday purchasing.

So, with millions being spent online during Cyber Monday, online[...]

Customers can be apprehensive about shopping online, and for good reason. The number of reported scams, successful hacking attempts, and instances of credit card fraud is increasing every day. It's also not helpful to a small business that so many scam websites pop up, which makes it harder for customers to trust any website they're not closely familiar with.

It's right (and smart) for online customers to be cautious. But for small online business owners, it can be a struggle to keep up with[...]

Arguably one of the most important aspects of a website is its design. The look of your eCommerce website is often the first, and most lasting, impression that’s left on potential customers. Good web design can establish trust in the customer, and make the shopping experience user friendly — especially if it’s responsive and easy to navigate. 

What should your priorities be when setting up your online store? Ideally, you should give yourself the time and use the resources necessary to make sure that every aspect is optimized to near-perfection. With that said, some aspects are more valuable and deserving of your attention than others. If you do not get them right, nothing else you do with your store will matter.

Running an online business is hard work, but the possibilities for online marketing are limitless!

One of the most important considerations when choosing an eCommerce platform is the type of support that will be available to you. As a business owner, you're sure to have a lot on your plate, so quick access to useful help and resources can make all the difference. Shift4Shop maintains a robust technical support and customer service system that provides several methods for you to get the answers to your questions and report any emerging issues.

We've made support options available for all[...]

For most online businesses, social media presence isn't just recommended – it’s necessary. If you don't have a strong profile on every popular and relevant platform, you'll miss out on a huge audience.

But, if you can build the perfect Facebook Business Page, you’ll capture more customers than ever before.

How should you price your products? This is one of the most crucial elements to consider when building your online store. Mistakes in your pricing strategy can be costly. In fact, pricing is one of the elements that will make or break your online venture.

The groundbreaking metrics expert Katharine Delahaye Paine once said, "the moment you make a mistake in pricing, you're eating into your reputation or your profits." But what did she mean? How can you avoid these mistakes?

You don’t want to[...]

Upon the public launch of the World Wide Web nearly three decades ago, people all over the globe were optimistic about the internet. Few could have predicted how much it would change our lives, but many could see the potential. Among the most exciting aspects was the exponentially increased ability to connect, communicate, and share information with other users from anywhere on Earth. By pooling our resources, we could create repositories of knowledge more comprehensive than all the world’s[...]

Every day, over 4 million blog posts are published.

With the Internet exploding with content in this new digital age, people are inundated with options. To stand out, your online content writing has to be engaging and sharp.

If the post rambles or has offensive material, you can say goodbye to that reader forever. In a poll conducted by a market research firm in New York, over 35% of people admitted they would not buy products from a company that has offensive content.

In this article, we’ll[...]