Merchant Voice - Practical Ecommerce

The benefits of a thriving consumer forum

Richard Stubbings — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 13:43:22 +0000

An ecommerce website can have content other than products for sale. Consider a forum, for example. What makes a good forum? In my experience, it is where participants can ask questions and receive relevant answers within a few hours, no longer.

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The best way to select a software vendor

Richard Stubbings — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 15:00:51 +0000

As a company grows, so does its reliance on software. The right software drives efficiency and profits. It can lower employment costs. But software cannot become an obstacle. It cannot prevent a business from growing or evolving. When it does restrict growth, change your software.

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Local consumers are your next online customers

Richard Stubbings — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 15:19:54 +0000

In normal years, January and February is the time to review the just-completed holiday sales and look for ways to improve. But not much is normal about the last three months. Instead, look ahead. What if you had mainly local customers?

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Serious changes are coming to the E.U. VAT

Richard Stubbings — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 13:59:28 +0000

As I write this in mid-December, there is no Brexit trade agreement between the U.K. and the E.U. Businesses in the U.K. have no idea what will happen on January 1, when the U.K. formally exits from the E.U. However, the real problem for U.K. and other merchants will be adjusting to changes in the E.U.'s value-added tax.

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‘Shop local’ applies to ecommerce businesses, too

Richard Stubbings — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 15:02:47 +0000

The pandemic has altered the behavior of consumers, moving from in-person shopping to online. We have experienced it here in the U.K. Online ordering has increased significantly.

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Should you buy a failing ecommerce brand?

Peter Keller — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 14:33:25 +0000

Have you been itching to get into ecommerce? Perhaps you've watched a slew of training videos. You're ready to take the plunge. There are a few ways to get into the ecommerce game.

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My response to negative Amazon reviews

Richard Stubbings — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 14:56:07 +0000

In last month's post, I described instances of giving preference to an Amazon customer rather than one from my own site. I hated that. It is one of the reasons I scaled down my Amazon listings. For me, customer service is paramount. It is one thing an independent retailer can do better than the large box shifters.

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After 20 years of ecommerce, change is the only certainty

Richard Stubbings — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 21:26:15 +0000

Designing, building, and launching a website is just the beginning of an ecommerce business. Attracting and converting visitors is the next, all-important step. A website alone does not guarantee anything. But the most critical factor in long-term success is the ability to change and adapt.

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9 exercise tips for desk-bound workers

Peter Keller — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 14:45:43 +0000

It's easier than most people think to get stronger, fitter, and healthier. That's especially true for desk workers, such as digital marketers and ecommerce merchants. Here are nine tips for desk-bound personnel to get stronger and healthier.

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The 3 rules of ecommerce design

Richard Stubbings — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 18:29:05 +0000

My ecommerce website went through many visual changes in the 20 years that I operated it, from 2000 to 2020. Sometimes I retained a designer, and sometimes I did it myself using the ecommerce software I was using at the time. One of the worst designs was by a professional in 2002 who persuaded me that my demographic of science-fiction geeks would love it.

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Amid Covid-19, it’s time to build

Peter Keller — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:48:09 +0000

"It's Time to Build" is a popular blog post by Marc Andreessen, the Internet pioneer and investor. He wrote it in April 2020 at the onset of the worldwide pandemic. Ecommerce businesses are lucky. Amid the global pandemic, our industry is thriving and pushing forward.

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Lessons from 20 years of ecommerce

Richard Stubbings — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 15:31:17 +0000

My first ecommerce site was a supplement to my brick-and-mortar shop in 2000. There was little online competition. Amazon sold only books. Most of my competitors were small independents like me, and it was easy to stand above the crowd. I advertised the site on shopping bags, on leaflets at conventions, and in an occasional magazine. This post is the second in a series on starting and growing an ecommerce business.

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How I maintain mental and physical health (to grow my business)

Peter Keller — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 13:07:32 +0000

Managing a fast-growing ecommerce business is not for the faint of heart. I've picked up a few practices over the last decade to keep my mental and physical health while scaling FringeSport.

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Launching an ecommerce business: the first steps

Richard Stubbings — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 14:42:56 +0000

My previous post described the launch of many ecommerce businesses in the U.K. due to the pandemic. It reminded me of when I started roughly 20 years ago. One of my first tasks was to think of a domain name.

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New U.K. ecommerce businesses need guidance

Richard Stubbings — Thu, 28 May 2020 09:00:15 +0000

It has been two months since we started the lockdown in the U.K. It seems longer. One thing has occurred during the lockdown that I did not predict but is obvious in hindsight: There has been an explosion of small internet businesses.

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‘Organizational debt’ is hurting my company

Peter Keller — Wed, 27 May 2020 14:32:54 +0000

FringeSport has been experiencing growing pains. I recently became aware of the idea of "technical debt" and realized that we have "organizational debt." I then Googled organizational debt and realized that I'm not the first person to have thought of it.

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Planning my business for a new world

Richard Stubbings — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 13:41:16 +0000

Journalists in the U.K. keep pressing the government about ending the Covid-19 lockdown. Governmental leaders prefer not to say, concentrating on the here and now. A business, however, should plan now for the end of the lockdown. How will your company operate?

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How Covid-19 affects U.K. businesses

Richard Stubbings — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 16:20:05 +0000

Unsurprisingly, many ecommerce businesses in the U.K. have reported an increase in sales during the pandemic. Sales of fashion, clothing, and luxury items, however, have dropped. The U.K. government has put in place measures that should help my business and many others.

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What I look for in an employee

Richard Stubbings — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 20:43:32 +0000

What should you look for in an ecommerce employee? In this post, I’ll describe my hiring process.
To start, I list job duties. Then I list skill requirements in two columns:

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Need good employees? Be a good employer

Richard Stubbings — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 19:06:00 +0000

Hiring and managing employees is among the most challenging tasks of business owners. An employee-employer relationship is much different than a social one. You'll spend many hours a day together. But employers should never forget that the relationship is about business.

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For 2020, use pre-orders to avoid dead stock

Richard Stubbings — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 20:21:12 +0000

It is time to plan for the new year. Consider offering pre-orders. It's a topic by itself — researching suitable products, marketing to potential customers, and then communicating with those prospects about their requirements.

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Plan for fraud (but try to prevent it)

Richard Stubbings — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 20:03:06 +0000

As much as 7.5 percent of all online transactions are fraudulent in one way or another. They all cut into profits. Merchants should plan for fraud and build it into cost calculations and into the necessary margins to cover. Merchants should also strive to prevent it.

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E.U. anti-fraud legislation emphasizes mobile

Richard Stubbings — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 14:42:35 +0000

Recent E.U. legislation requires banks and payment processors to use two-step authentication. For online transactions in the E.U., the payment now requires not only the card number and the three-digit ...

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My experience with SEO

Richard Stubbings — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 13:29:35 +0000

Relying on organic search traffic is risky for small ecommerce businesses in my experience. Other marketing channels, such as Facebook, could generate a better return on investment. Traditional methods of ...

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Sales training starts with The Dummy Curve

Peter Keller — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 15:00:10 +0000

Say you are good at something, and you want to get even better. You study, practice, and work at it. But, instead of getting better, you get worse. It's what happens with many of the salespeople we hire at FringeSport.

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The power of an ecommerce blog

Elizabeth Hollingsworth — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 13:43:02 +0000

I used to post to my blog weekly. But now it's every three weeks as my business has grown and I have less time to write. I began to wonder whether I should continue posting. The answer is "yes." Here’s why.

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What’s the best ecommerce platform for your business?

Richard Stubbings — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 12:31:05 +0000

I recently read arguments in forums regarding the best ecommerce platform. Two self-appointed “experts” stood out. One argued passionately for custom, bespoke coding for producing the most efficient system.

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The evolution of my customer service team

Peter Keller — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 19:29:51 +0000

I love the book “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos. It is mainly about the culture of customer service that Zappos became famous for.
One of the throwaway anecdotes ...

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Quality, low-volume goods are a growth market

Richard Stubbings — Tue, 27 Aug 2019 17:41:28 +0000

There is a growing concern for the environment. Conserving resources is becoming more popular. Have you considered how your business can help the environment and make money whilst doing it?

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Is it time to reassess importing products from China?

Elizabeth Hollingsworth — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 12:18:20 +0000

Like many online retailers, My Event Décor imports products from China. President Donald Trump’s recent swathe of tariffs on imported Chinese-manufactured goods, as well as the ongoing and increasingly violent street protests in Hong Kong over perceived Chinese interference, makes me nervous.

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