Ecommerce Conversations

Most ecommerce merchants own several domain names, perhaps buying and selling them as opportunities occur. One merchant in Missouri just purchased a domain name. He paid $700,000 for it. The domain is RunningShoes.com, the merchant is Chad Weinman of Cat5 Commerce — owners of MilitaryGear.com, TacticalGear.com, HikingBoots.com, among other sites — and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock t...

Cloud computing is a term that’s frequently discussed, and also frequently misunderstood. Google Docs would be an example of cloud computing, whereas Microsoft Office — locally installed on a computer — is not. In the ecommerce industry, there are many hosted, cloud platforms. One of the leading ones is Shopify. Its chief platform officer is Harley Finkelstein, and he joins us to discuss cloud com...

The balancing of copyright law with the dissemination of information on the Internet can sometimes get tangled. And nowhere is that more evident than in the recent, so-called “orphaned books” case, which involves Google’s attempt to scan and distribute the content of out-of-print books. To help us understand that federal case, and the broader implications of applying U.S. copyright law to the Inte...

Attempts to simplify the administration and collection of Internet sales taxes might be the most daunting task in the ecommerce industry. There are thousands of state, county and city taxation districts in the U.S., and they all have different tax rates, and rules. But the Streamlined Sales Tax organization is attempting to make it easier for ecommerce merchants and its executive director, Scott P...

There is nothing more confusing to ecommerce merchants than credit card processing. The rates wildly fluctuate and the monthly statements are hard to follow. But yet, credit card processing is key to virtually every ecommerce business. To help us understand how merchants can save money on their processing costs, we are joined by Sloane Bouchever. He’s a credit-card ecommerce pioneer, having left A...

Rick Wilson The evolution of Miva Merchant continues. That pioneering platform, which first launched in the late 1990s, was acquired almost four years ago by an independent investor group that included seasoned technology executives. They have moved to upgrade the platform, enhance the company’s revenue, and generally ensure its long-term survival. One of those executives is Rick Wilson, now the c...

There are many countries with fast-growing economies — and fast-growing Internet audiences — that are not natively English speaking. How do ecommerce merchants reach those countries, and those audiences? Through translation and localization, mainly. We’re joined by an expert on those topics. He’s Christian Arno, founder of Lingo24, a global translation and localization firm. He speaks with Practic...

Most merchants like the idea of the credit card industry policing itself, versus lawmakers getting involved. PCI Security Standards Council is the industry’s attempt to do just that. But how ecommerce merchants meet the PCI’s standards is confusing to many, and the penalty for not being compliant is hard to understand, too. Bob Russo, general manager of the PCI Security Standards Council, is with...

The holiday selling season is important for many online merchants. This includes David Sasson, the founder and CEO of OverstockArt.com, a retailer of reproduced oil paintings that experienced a 25 percent increase in 2010 holiday sales, from 2009. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss what worked — and what didn’t work — for OverstockArt this past holiday season.

Many ecommerce merchants want to sell products to consumers in other countries. But the process is not as easy as selling domestically. The complexities can include tariffs, customs and export laws. But for United States’ based merchants, the U.S. Department of Commerce can help. That department has just published a free PDF guide to help merchants with export sales. And the official responsible f...

Many ecommerce merchants sell products from large manufacturers and suppliers. Increasingly, those manufacturers and suppliers also sell the same products. There’s a company, Shopatron, that refers sales from manufacturers’ ecommerce sites to retailers, who then fulfill orders to customers and profit from the sales. The CEO and founder of Shopatron is Ed Stevens, and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s...

The adoption of product videos on ecommerce sites continues. Most every merchant, seemingly, can benefit from product videos and we are joined here by a product video expert. He’s Craig Wax, CEO of Invodo, a video company for ecommerce merchants, and he’s here to discuss product videos that convert with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Merchants contemplating mobile optimized ecommerce sites should also consider specialized mobile site search. SLI Systems is a leading provider of ecommerce site search solutions, and that company has just launched a mobile search option. Shaun Ryan is the CEO of SLI Systems, and he’s here to discuss specialized mobile site search with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Mobile commerce is coming. Many merchants, both large and small, are contemplating their mobile commerce strategies, and one merchant that has just launched a mobile version of its ecommerce site is ThePopcornFactory.com. The person responsible for marketing that company and that site is Tom Russell. He’s senior vice president for the parent company of ThePopcornFactory.com, and he joins Practical...

The notion of adding additional revenue to an ecommerce business presumably appeals to merchants. And, increasingly, one way to do that is with the use of subscriptions. Amazon Prime may be the best example of a merchant selling subscriptions, but there are many ways smaller merchants can do it, too. To discuss the possibilities of subscription revenue, we welcome Massimo Arrigoni, the CEO of Earl...

The lack of capital can prevent an ecommerce business from growing. But many merchants are unsure as to how to obtain capital, or how the funding process works. Our guest today has raised many millions of funding dollars over his career, most recently with RatePoint, the reputation management firm. He’s Neal Creighton, RatePoint’s co-founder and CEO, and he joins us to explain the funding and vent...

Every ecommerce site has a web host. Some are hosted by shopping cart providers; others are hosted by third-party companies. And increasingly, many are hosted by cloud providers, where bandwidth and usage can adjust with the seasonal needs of a site. Our guest today has recently switched the hosting of her ecommerce site to the cloud environment. She’s Theresa Fox, managing director with SoundsTru...

Ecommerce merchants are innovators. And many in that industry continually find new and better ways to sell products online. One of those companies is Spotlight Retail, an ecommerce firm with 30 niche websites. Its new “Spotlight Visualizer” enables consumers to see how an item will look, in consumers’ own environments, prior to purchasing it. John Montague, the founder and owner of Spotlight Retai...

Financial management is critical to ecommerce companies. But the tools to manage financial matters vary, and many of them don’t automatically integrate with a merchant’s ecommerce site, making the financial tracking and reporting process even more burdensome. To help us understand financial management for ecommerce firms, we are joined by Jim McGeever, chief operating officer for NetSuite, the hos...

Comparison shopping engines can drive traffic to an ecommerce site. But there are over 120 such engines, and how to decide which of them to use–and whether to use them at all–is our topic today. We are joined by an expert in comparison shopping engines and a pioneer in ecommerce generally. He’s Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, an ecommerce software and service provider. He speaks with Practical...

You could argue that a center of the online, retail art world is in Kansas. That’s where OverstockArt.com is located, and in nine years it has grown to be a leading, online retailer of original art reproductions. The founder and CEO, David Sasson, has grown the business from inception to where it is today, and he’s with us to discuss it all. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Specialized shopping search engines are becoming increasingly important for consumers. And among the largest of these shopping engines is TheFind.com. The site receives over 25 million visits per month, and, for ecommerce merchants listening to this, most every ecommerce product is already on that site, as the company uses patented search-engine type spiders to index virtually all products for sal...

Most every ecommerce merchant either uses QuickBooks or is familiar with it. There’s a new 2010 version of that program that includes new document management, online banking and other features. To discuss QuickBooks 2010 and future Intuit plans, we’re joined by Alex Hood, product management leader for QuickBooks desktop for Windows. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The Bilksi case involved, potentially, a dramatic shift in U.S. patent law. It’s been awaiting decision by the U.S. Supreme Court since the Fall 2009, and today the court rendered its opinion. The case involved the scope of potential patents, and whether an invention must be tied to a machine to be patent eligible. It could impact many thousands of technology and Internet-related patents that are...

Alibaba is a leading force in global, business-to-business ecommerce. The company is based in China and it links millions of wholesale suppliers with businesses that resell those products. The company has allocated $100 million (USD) to invest in U.S. ecommerce-related businesses and it just announced the first such investment in acquiring Vendio, the U.S.-based ecommerce platform. Joining us to d...