eCommerce Blog

More and more online stores have embraced dropshipping, a business model that leverages third parties to add efficiency to an ecommerce website. In fact, anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of all online stores use dropshipping as their preferred fulfillment method.

Of course, implementing dropshipping as a business model isn’t as simple as it seems. You need to arm yourself with a strong business plan to help mitigate the numerous challenges associated with dropshipping.

Which challenges do[...]

If you've decided it’s time to start selling online with your very own eCommerce website, you're about to embark on one of the most rewarding journeys in the world: entrepreneurship!

Of course, it's not always going to be easy, and there's a lot to learn before you can even really get started.

You could imagine that eCommerce is like its own ecosystem, where web design, online security, credit cards, shipping, and more all come together in a relationship that makes everything work. It's[...]

In the pantheon of internet culture-defining websites, Craigslist ranks highly. You’ve probably used it in some way, shape, or form: to find a place to rent, recruit a guitarist for your band, track down a romantic “missed connection,” buy an inexpensive second-hand couch, even pick up a little extra work on the side.

Craigslist is just as infamous as it is famous, claiming a wide range of asterisks, especially when it comes to business transactions. Considering the marketplace isn’t highly[...]

For any ecommerce business, it’s impossible to know what’s working and what isn’t without the help of a robust analytics program. Problem is most out-of-the-box analytics platforms are built for website measurement, analyzing surface metrics like pageviews, time on page, bounce rate, and exit rate.

These are all important metrics for your business. But ecommerce websites are different. If the goal is to understand where you can improve your sales funnel, you need to see your customer journey[...]

If you sell business-to-business, it's in your best interests to make every step of the purchase and checkout process as smooth and easy as possible. B2B buyers rely on a streamlined experience — that's why they prefer to make their purchases online in the first place. Keep in mind, too, that B2B buyers are often pressed for time and working within a strict budget, which makes it even more important to nurture the relationships you've formed with them. Think of it this way: if you're always[...]

Most customers these days are used to shopping online, and they generally know what to expect. However, these expectations can work against you if your store operates any differently than how the customer thinks it will. If you lay out your store policies in an easy-to read format, and in an easy-to-find location on your website, you can help avoid misunderstandings with your customers and keep them satisfied.

When it comes to marketing a B2B ecommerce website, it can be hard to know where you should start. You want to meet potential customers where they are – but where do other businesses hang out online?

It’s a trick question. Even though we call it “business to business,” there’s still a regular old person doing research and making purchase decisions for that business. That’s why you’ll see a lot of overlap in the way B2B and consumer ecommerce websites are promoted.

There is a key difference,[...]

Inventory management is more crucial than ever, especially as the world shifts more and more towards online retail.

Managing your inventory isn’t easy. It can involve way too many excel spreadsheets, endless math, and tons of errors that can lead to a loss in sales.

An inventory management system, or WMS (warehouse management system), is a handy tool that can solve issues that might otherwise cost you sales.

Inventory management gives you the opportunity to make your business more efficient[...]

Cart abandonment.

In the ecommerce world, it’s a four-letter word.

At a time when 7 out of every 10 online shopping carts is abandoned, ecommerce owners have to get serious about addressing cart abandonment. After all, the best abandoned cart is the one that’s never abandoned at all.

That’s why it’s key to focus on prevention first. The lower your abandonment rate, the fewer sales you miss out on – and the less effort you have to spend to win them back.

With that in mind, here are 7 tried and[...]

Amazon is one of the most highly competitive marketplaces in the world and is home to sellers of all kinds and walks of life, whether you’re a hobbyist selling your crafts or a major corporation. However, with this in mind, more and more people are turning to Amazon to sell their products, meaning there’s more and more products on the Amazon's search results page.

And the more products there are here, the more products that could potentially push yours down the ranking list. But this doesn’t[...]

For eCommerce today, the name of the game is mobile. More shoppers will visit your online store from their smartphone every year, and if you're not catering to them, you're missing out on some serious conversions.

One of the quickest ways to raise your mobile conversion rate is by accepting payments through digital wallets, which are convenient services that allow a customer to save payment and shipping information for later use. Credit card details are not shared with the merchant, which makes[...]

Since its founding in 1995, eBay has grown into one of the largest and most popular online marketplaces in the world. Every day, millions of people log on to list items for sale or auction, or to shop for the products they need. Over 2 billion transactions are made on eBay each day and the site hosts thousands of dollars' worth of sales every second.

As an eCommerce retailer, what do these huge numbers mean to you? You may think that owning your own online store means you have to compete with[...]

When you own an eCommerce company, one of the last things you’ll want to typically think about is logistics. Nowadays, however, the pressure is higher than ever to deliver (pun intended) the best experience to your customers throughout the purchasing process. One segment of this process in which many eCommerce companies can improve significantly is the shipping speed to their customers!

I’m sure you’ve been there before: you order a product you’re incredibly excited about. However, as time[...]

It is getting tough to generate ecommerce sales because your buyers have a lot of options to choose from. Generating more sales is the top priority of 71% companies.

While there are several ways to boost ecommerce sales, nothing beats email marketing.

The daily email traffic in 2017 was 269 billion. This means 269 billion emails were sent every single day. Your email can easily get lost or ignored or deleted or moved to trash.

This is why email list segmentation is used to send personalized[...]

Privacy policy. The term conjures up images of grayed-out, minuscule links at the bottom of web-pages. Though often ignored, this legal document is easily one of the most important texts on a website.

Together with Terms of Service documents, acquiring user consent and Cookie Policy/Cookie Law, it's a key component of what should be a 360° approach to making your e-commerce website compliant to both national and international regulations.

With this in mind, iubenda and 3dcart are hosting a[...]

Dropshipping is a special niche of ecommerce. Though you still want the full feature kit and kaboodle, some features are much more important than others.

Online stores built on dropshipping models leverage these features to sell efficiently and with enough scale to make big profits on small margins.

Which features should you rely on to get your online store into good shape? Check out 4 indispensible dropshipping features below.

We all want something for free. And let’s be honest, one of the pain points of shopping online is having to pay a shipping fee to get your purchases delivered. For all the convenience that online shopping brings, consumers still balk at the cost of shipping (even when it’s a nominal fee).

According to FedEx: “73% of consumers want to see free shipping in checkout.”

Of course, when you offer free shipping, it means that you’ve got to tack on another added cost. Amazon sellers are aware of this[...]

E-commerce is growing rapidly.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s latest figures, e-commerce sales in the third quarter of 2017 accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. retail sales.¹ And it’s expected to account for 17 percent of all U.S. retail sales by 2022, according to Forrester Research. At the same time, payment technology is continuing to evolve at a blistering pace, giving retailers the ability to accept a wide range of payments and radically simplifying the payment[...]

Worldwide business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce sales may reach nearly $7 trillion USD by 2020, accounting for a significant percentage (perhaps a fifth) of all manufacturing and wholesale B2B trade, according to some estimates.

Companies that launch effective B2B ecommerce solutions now could deepen customer relationships, attract new customers, stave off competition, and become more profitable.

Our team has compiled some essential features any B2B website should be offering in this great[...]

The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, comes into effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR is aimed at strengthening the privacy of personal information for everyone within the European Union. But, what exactly is the GDPR and how will it affect you as an eCommerce merchant?

What is the GDPR?

The GDPR is a new EU Regulation adopted on April 27, 2016 and set to become enforceable on May 25, 2018. The GDPR replaces the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive (DPD) with increased measures to protect[...]