Ecommerce Conversations, By Practical Ecommerce

Sue Chapman, director of merchandising solutions at Mercado Software, discusses how online retailers should prepare for the upcoming holiday shopping season, includng how to fine tune your website for the holidays.

Betterphoto.com’s President and Founder Jim Miotke continues his discussion of the intricacies of product photography.

Betterphoto.com’s President and Founder Jim Miotke discusses the intricacies of product photography.

Practical Ecommerce is joined by Betterphoto.com’s President and Founder Jim Miotke. The two discuss the latest in photography, including tips and tircks for product photography.

Practical Ecommerce is joined by Insider Hosting’s CEO, Steve Mizrahie

Listen in as Practical Ecommerce Contributing Editor Pat Callahan is joined by Matthew MacDonald, author of Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual for the second part of this interview. The conversation includes a topical discussion about the future of both websites and ecommerce.

Listen in as Practical Ecommerce Contributing Editor Pat Callahan is joined by Matthew MacDonald, author of Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual. The conversation includes a topical discussion about the future of both websites and ecommerce. Part 1 of 2.

Vince Talbert, vice president of marketing for I4 Commerce, discusses the Bill Me Later function that ecommerce merchants can implement at their sites. Talbert outlines the benefits merchants have with using alternate payment options for their online endeavors.

MOTIF Modern Living operates a unique contemporary furniture outlet just 10 minutes south of downtown Austin, Texas, and it launched a website last year. Its president, Steven Lora, is facing the start-up challenges that most online operations face. He discusses the hurdles his ecommerce business has with marketing its online site and search engine optimization. He also talks about the special challenge he faces with shipping, given the cumbersome nature of handling furniture.

Chuck Bankoff, director of web services for web design firm Wsieworks.com, provides tips on what questions should be asked by merchants when they are hiring a website designer. Bankoff also outlines various things merchants should be aware of when working with designers and the importance of setting performance benchmarks. In addition, he issues a caution about any designer who tosses out a flat price for design services.

Stephan Spencer, senior contributor for Practical Ecommerce and author of the popular SEO Report Card for the magazine, talks with SEO specialist Jonathan Hochman about the value of Wikipedia, using the resource as a way to build knowledge about and traffic to your website, tips about avoiding "linkspam" and things you should definitely not do to anger the Wiki editors.

It takes a special type of visionary to create an entirely new marketplace. Thomas Parkinson and his brother Andrew launched online grocer Peapod in the late 1980s. As pioneers in online selling, they have weathered the storms of changes in technology and market whims. Peapod was a key player in the dot-com bust, and the company has survived to tell about it.Peapod serves about 260,000 customers from Boston to Milwaukee and from Washington, D.C., to Long Island, N.Y. Thomas Parkinson continues his discussion with Practical eCommerce’s Michael Cox in the second installment of a two-part podcast, and discusses the company’s history, its struggle to survive and what’s in store for the future of one of the Internet’s online pioneers.

It takes a special type of visionary to create an entirely new marketplace. Thomas Parkinson and his brother Andrew launched online grocer Peapod in the late 1980s. As pioneers in online selling, they have weathered the storms of changes in technology and market whims. Peapod was a key player in the dot-com bust, and the company has survived to tell about it.Peapod serves about 260,000 customers from Boston to Milwaukee and from Washington, D.C., to Long Island, N.Y. Thomas Parkinson talks with Practical Ecommerce’s Michael Cox in the first of a two-part podcast, and discusses the company’s history, its struggle to survive and what’s in store for the future of one of the Internet’s online pioneers.

Organize.com began in 1998 in Riverside, Calif., as Organize Everything — one convenient place to shop for storage and organization solutions. For those who have a garage or closet in need of some serious organizational help, Organize.com features a full slate of organizational products, shelving, boxes, bins, hangers and storage systems.About a year after its beginning, the company launched a website. That channel propelled sales to about $10 million annually, 92.5 percent of which is generated through online channels.Kevin Watts is director of ecommerce for the company. He spoke with Practical Ecommerce’s Mitch Bettis about the company’s growth and the success it has had in a niche market.

As with many great products in the marketplace, the diaper caddy was conceived out of necessity. Melissa Bramlage, a mother of two, needed a product that could hold all the essential baby care items in one convenient location. It seemed that every time she needed to change her child’s diaper, the new diaper was on the opposite end of the house from the place she left the ointment. Melissa visits with Practical Ecommerce’s Contributing Editor Mitch Bettis about the process of conceiving, creating, manufacturing and selling a unique product in the marketplace as well as her experiences running the company’s website, Sarabearbaskets.com.

Roman Kagan has built a successful niche business selling hard-to-find appliance parts to do-it-yourself types around the country. The site was launched in 1999 and has grown to about $5 million in annual sales with 150,000 unique visitors per month. Kagan’s custom-built site search functions help customers find appliance parts for which they are looking within a few clicks. What started as a site featuring about 300 products has grown to showcase more than 1 million parts for 170,000 appliance models.

Zimini offers a digital couponing and promotion platform to provide merchants and marketers with a robust set of geographic, demographic and interest-based targeting tools. If you’re an online or brick-and-mortar retailer who wants to offer a product coupon, a product like Zimini could be the answer. Consumers select a variety of personal interests (e.g., Italian food, dogs, travel, etc.), and Zimini allows a merchant the ability to target specific customers based on the criteria the consumers posted. It’s an inexpensive way to get a coupon in front of a customer who is specfically interested in your type of products.

A Foster & Smith catalog is a familiar sight at the home of many pet owners. Whether a household includes dogs, cats, birds, reptiles or other animals as pets, Foster & Smith has been a resource for more than two decades for pet owners to purchase supplies and products. Gordon Magee is Internet marketing and analysis manager for the company, and he discusses the company’s evolution from vet clinic, to catalog operator, to pet supply business to its successful online sales channel. In the late 1990s, the company launched a website that now boasts 1 million unique visitors per month and generates about $125 million annually, accounting for 57 percent of the company’s total revenue.

Jeff Stibel is the CEO of Web.com, a company providing an all-in-one hosted solution for business owners wanting to launch a website. Jeff discusses how easy it is for a business owner to launch a website, and how all-in-one solutions make it easy by combining hosting, shopping carts, SSL certificates, marketing services, design templates and more into a single package. Stibel also discusses why service-based businesses should launch a web presence. He notes that service businesses can create various online services including those that allow customers to download coupons for restaurants or other services that help schedule appointments to get a car fixed or schedule a visit with a physician.

What is one sure-fire way to reduce shopping cart abandonment? Ed Dawidowicz, senior consulting director for Creativegood.com, provides his advice in the second part of an interview with Practical Ecommerce’s Mitch Bettis on improving customer experience at your website. Dawidowicz identifies some of the frequent errors web site’s make with navigation and design. He also answers that age-old question of whether blue is the best color for text-based navigation link and whether that link should also be underlined.