Ecommerce Conversations, By Practical Ecommerce

ALT The Christian Science Monitor, a 100 year-old Pulitzer-prize-winning newspaper, recently announced plans to drop its daily printed paper in favor of a mainly web-based publishing model. Other newspapers will almost certainly follow suit over the next few years. To discuss The Monitor’s decision and the future of news delivery, John Yemma, the editor of The Monitor, joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

ALTGail Goodman is CEO of Constant Contact, a leading self-service email marketing company with over 220,000 customers worldwide. She joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss email marketing in a slow economy, the challenges of running a (fast growing) public company and how merchants can best use email marketing.

ALTNinety per cent of cell phone users in the U.S. can receive text messages. Marketing to these cell phone users via text messages could be an opportunity for ecommerce merchants. mobileStorm is a text-message-marketing company and its CEO, Jared Reitzen, visited with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock on how text-message (also known as short message service, or “SMS”) marketing works.

ALTNetSuite is a pioneer is providing hosted software solutions to small and mid-sized businesses. NetSuite’s ecommerce platform is used by thousands of businesses worldwide, and, as a testament to its success, the company’s common stock is now publicly traded. We asked Zach Nelson, NetSuite’s CEO, about software-as-a-service, NetSuite and the future of ecommerce. Mr. Nelson joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

ALTThe use of video and rich media can enhance an ecommerce site. SellPoint is a firm that provides video and rich media (for free) to ecommerce merchants and we’ve asked its CEO, Rick Martin, to discuss the use of video and how, exactly, it increases the purchase conversion rate for online merchants. Mr. Martin joins Practical Ecommerce publisher Kerry Murdock.

ALTMany ecommerce merchants run pay-per-click ad campaigns on the major search engines. But Jason Prescott, CEO of Toptenwholesale.com, argues that merchants can obtain a higher return-on-investment by advertising on specialized virtual search engines. He discuss this with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Neal CreightonWith the existence of social networking and consumer review sites, disgruntled customers can post negative comments about an ecommerce merchant and cause lasting harm. Neal Creighton is CEO of RatePoint, a firm that provides reputation management tools for ecommerce merchants. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss ideas for managing a firm’s online reputation, including RatePoint’s reputation management solutions.

ALTCraig Vodnik is vice president, North America, for Cleverbridge, an ecommerce platform that helps online merchants sell software, music and other digital products. Vodnik joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock, and offers his ideas for the best way to sell digital products online and how to maximize international sales of digital products.

Melih Abdulhayoglu is founder and CEO of Comodo, a firm that provides Internet-security and fraud prevention services to ecommerce and other web-based firms. Adulhayoglu received in 2008 an Ernest & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award and is an authority on online security. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock, who asked him about the logic of EV SSLs, site seals and other steps that ecommerce merchants can take to ensure a safe shopping environment.

David Heinemeier Hansson created the Ruby on Rails software framework and is a partner in 37signals, producers of the popular Basecamp suite of online collaboration tools. Hansson joins Practical Ecommerce Publisher Kerry Murdock to discuss Ruby on Rails, web development and the state of ecommerce.

Dan Robbins is Vice President of Marketing at Enquisite, a search analytics company that follows customers from search to conversion. He joins Practical Ecommerce Publisher Kerry Murdock to discuss Enquisite and how it can supplement a merchant’s other analytics programs.

SLI Systems CEO Shaun Ryan discusses site search and SLI’s hosted site search solution with Practical Ecommerce Publisher Kerry Murdock.

Keirsun Scott is Social Media Director for OneUpWeb, an online marketing consulting company. He joins Practical Ecommerce Publisher Kerry Murdock to discuss the benefits of social media for ecommerce merchants, citing examples of companies who make use of social media.

Amit Das, Managing Director for the U.S. division of Worldwide Business Research, speaks with Practical Ecommerce Publisher Kerry Murdock about the upcoming virtual ecommerce trade show, eTailXpo.

Jim Rue is a freelance and technology journalists, and recently attended the Annual Book Expo. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce Publisher, Kerry Murdock, about the migration of content delivery to digital format, and what the future holds for printed content.

Jody Hartwig is the Vice President of eBusiness at Netconcepts, a company specializing in natural search marketing and ecommerce. She joins Practical Ecommerce Publisher Kerry Murdock to discuss Microsoft’s new Live Search cashback program.

Michael Shatz is the publisher of The Merchant’s Guide, a resource to help ecommerce merchants lower their credit card fees. He joins Practical Ecommerce Publisher Kerry Murdock to discuss credit card payments and how his guide can help merchants understand credit card issues.

Damon Schechter is CEO and Founder of Shipwire, a shipping and storage solution for ecommerce merchants. He joins Practical Ecommerce Publisher Kerry Murdock to discuss Shipwire and how it can help merchants get their inventories out of their garages.

Jason Keenan is the Media Advisor with ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers, which regulates domain names globally. ICANN was created in 1998 to perform various Internet administrative tasks previously done by a range of bodies including universities, private companies and the U.S. government. Keenan joins Publisher Kerry Murdock to discuss ICANN and the future of the domain name system.

Rhett McNulty is Chief Operating Officer for ShopIt, a social networking sales application for ecommerce merchants. He joins Practical Ecommerce's Kerry Murdock to discuss ShopIt and the value of social networking.