Chris Malta's EBiz Insider Podcast

Running an online store from home doesn't mean you've got to stay locked in the basement like some weirdo running a hamster cult. A Google Business Profile is one of those tools that makes you look like an actual business instead of a random stranger with a PayPal button.

If you're posting to your blog, Facebook, Instagram, or email list whenever you feel like it, you're basically a kid throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks. That's fine if this is your weekend hobby, but if you actually want sales and traffic, you need a better plan.

Most sellers treat alt text like that weird broccoli side dish you push around your plate to make it look like you ate some. They slap in "image1" just to shut the system up and keep moving. That harmless little box isn't harmless at all. It's quietly draining traffic, sales, and trust.

Picture this: a shopper is seconds away from bailing. The mouse slides toward the top corner, the phone thumb heads for the close button, and your sale is about to disappear. Then - bam - you show a slick little message that says, "Want a deal before you go?" That's exit-intent email capture. No smoke and mirrors, just a polite move that can turn a lost sale into a paying customer.

Local pickup sounds easy: order online, grab it at the shop, skip the shipping drama. But plenty of stores still manage to make it feel like a scavenger hunt. If you run a physical shop and sell online, this is your chance to look like a genius.

Online shoppers hate surprises. A tiny label that says "navy" or "oak finish" tells them almost nothing. Is that navy closer to midnight blue or cheap ballpoint ink? Is the oak a warm honey tone or the color of an old picnic table? Real visual swatches - clear, clickable images of every option - show customers the truth so they buy with confidence and you stop drowning in returns.

Few things tank a sale faster than a mystery shipping fee that pops up at the very end of checkout. Customers sail through your product pages ready to buy, then a surprise charge smacks them in the face and they slam that tab shut like a cat bolting from a vacuum.

Ever land on a product page and feel like you're solving a crossword puzzle just to figure out what you're buying? Your customers feel the same pain. If they can't get answers about size, fit, compatibility, or shipping right on the spot, they're gone. Not in a minute. Not in thirty seconds. Gone instantly. And when they vanish, they usually pop up at your competitor's site and spend their money t...

You run a real store in a real neighborhood. People can walk in, smell the coffee, or kick the tires. But guess what? Nobody shows up cold anymore. They grab their phone, type "best [your product] near me," and read what the locals say. If you're rocking three stale reviews from 2019, you might as well hang a sign that says "Don't bother."

Ever watch a shopper open twenty tabs like a caffeinated squirrel? They're trying to compare specs, prices, and features while you sit there watching a sale slip away. If your store makes people hop all over the internet just to figure out which widget is better, you're basically telling them to buy somewhere else. A built-in comparison tool keeps them on your turf and gets them to the checkout bu...

Most products don't need a demo video. A coffee mug? Nope. A lamp? Please. Even a fancy desk chair doesn't need a Hollywood production to show somebody how to sit down. If a product ships with a decent instruction sheet or is obvious the second you see it, shoppers already know what to do. Only a tiny handful of "what the heck is this thing" gadgets deserve a full-on demo on the product page. This...

Most new ecommerce sellers treat wholesalers like customer service reps. They send sloppy emails, ask a dozen rookie questions, and then wonder why suppliers don't take them seriously. The truth is, the way you communicate with suppliers can make or break your business. You can have the right paperwork and the right products, but if you sound like a clown when you reach out, doors close fast.

There's nothing like the 3 a.m. panic when you realize your best seller just sold out and you didn't even see it coming. That's ecommerce whiplash. Customers are clicking "buy," you're half asleep, and suddenly the product that pays the bills is gone. Want to avoid that gut punch? Get smart low-inventory alerts working for you.

Minimum Advertised Price sounds like something cooked up by a committee of lawyers to keep you awake at night. And honestly, it kind of is. MAP, Minimum Advertised Price, is the lowest price a brand lets you advertise their product for. Not sell it for. Advertise it for. That tiny difference is where new sellers get flattened like a squirrel in rush hour.

Wholesalers aren't running adoption agencies for dreamers. They don't want to take a chance on you because you're passionate and you've got a killer idea. They move truckloads of product every day and they're allergic to risk. If you roll up with nothing but a Gmail address and a long story about your vision board, they'll shut the door faster than a bouncer at a nightclub spotting a fake ID.

Most ecommerce sellers lose sleep over finding customers. Cute. The real gatekeeper is your payment processor. That's the company that lets you take credit cards, and they judge harder than a reality show host on a bad day. To them, you're not a bold entrepreneur chasing glory. You're a risk profile. They don't care about your shiny logo or your dreams of scaling to the moon. They care about one t...

Most new sellers think shipping is a cakewalk. Slap on a label, toss the box at UPS, and boom, it's magically in Paris by breakfast. Sure. And unicorns handle customs paperwork. The moment you try international shipping, you find out fast that carriers aren't your fairy godmothers. They keep long "nope" lists, and every country adds their own pile of "absolutely not" rules.

Every seller wants better pricing. That's obvious. The problem is that too many rookies treat negotiation like they're hustling at a garage sale. They think if they argue hard enough or push long enough, suppliers will cave. That's not how wholesale works. Try that, and you'll just end up on the "do not answer" list.

Selling overseas feels like you just leveled up. Bigger reach, bigger orders, bigger bragging rights. But the honeymoon ends fast when you realize international shipping isn't just domestic shipping with a longer drive. Borders slow everything down, customs plays by rules you'll never see, and local carriers sometimes move like they're stuck in molasses. If you don't set expectations right from th...

Fraudulent orders are like termites. You don't notice them right away, but they quietly eat your profits from the inside. One day you think you've landed a big sale, and the next day you're staring at a chargeback, missing inventory, and a fee on top.

One of the fastest ways to kill a supplier relationship is by being the seller who doesn't follow up at all. The second fastest way? Being the seller who follows up so much that the supplier dreads seeing your name pop up.

Humans have been following each other's eyes longer than we've been making fire. If somebody in the tribe suddenly snapped their gaze toward the bushes, you didn't stop to think, you looked too. That instinct kept us alive, and it's still baked into the wiring. Today the saber-toothed tiger is gone, but the reflex lives on every time you land on a web page.

Selling internationally sounds exciting until you realize customers in other countries get hit with extra costs you never thought about. They're called VAT and GST. And if you don't understand them, your first international order might be your last.

Selling outside the U.S. sounds glamorous. Bigger audience, more sales, more money. Then you ship across a border and smack into the world of customs. Think of customs as the DMV wearing uniforms: slow, picky, and loaded with rules you don't get to argue with.

Every ecommerce business hits bumps in the road. Orders get messed up. Paperwork gets misplaced. Shipments arrive late. Mistakes happen, and wholesalers know it. What matters isn't whether mistakes happen, but how you handle them when they do.