E-commerce News & Articles

The world of e-commerce can be a tricky environment in which to do business. 

Let’s say you’re a retailer with both physical stores and a Website. What are the key trends in retail technology that you need to keep in mind?

Having worked with a number of digital marketers over the years, I've noticed a recurring challenge among those eager to make positive change -- their momentum is broken when it comes to getting buy-in. This is especially true of launching testing programs. Multivariate testing is often uncharted territory for many, so they don’t understand it or its potential benefits. Why would they get on board? And why would they spend the money?

Despite the fact that converting existing customers is less expensive than attracting new ones, many online marketing budgets are still disproportionately allocated to traffic-driving strategies. 

A media ad spending report from Aggregate Knowledge has placed social media at the top of the buying heap, above other channels like exchanges and networks.

It’s a buyer’s world. According to a new Constellation Research report, buyers are rulers served by channels galore, a fleet of payment technologies, supply chains ready to do their bidding, and Big Data tracking their every whim. To keep up, the report said, sellers need to align themselves with this new environment, which it dubs Matrix Commerce.

A one-stop shop for small Web sites, Go Daddy has the tools for site building, management and domain registration, in addition to hosting services. Now, the company is expanding its mobile toolset with the acquisition of M.dot, which offers an iOS app for creating mobile websites.

Who doesn’t love a coupon? Why, there are even shows about people who love coupons so much they buy things they don’t even need, just for the thrill of the discount. However, for the rest of us who enjoy receiving coupons from the retailers and brands we follow, there’s a problem: coupons have gone mobile. And while they are often easy to access, they’re not always easy to redeem.

Mobile payments may become a US$ 90 billion industry by 2017, but banks and mobile carriers in the US are moving slowly on things like digital wallet technology in mobile phones.

Would you be interested in buying a “used digital object”? Amazon thinks that people will be, and it has just gotten a patent for such a secondary market.

Ecommerce platform Channel Intelligence, once a Google Shopping launch partner, will now become part of Google itself as the two have made a definitive agreement on the US $125 million deal.

Just because your Web CMS works, the digital assets are live and the site is conducting transactions, doesn't mean there isn't great value in capturing your users' feedback!

So your brand is selling online and on mobile -- after all, who isn't? -- and it’s been working... but you know it could be better. Or perhaps it’s not doing so well at all, and you need to figure out where the problem lies. How do you go about doing that? 

Like paying for stuff with a mobile phone? Then you are part of the zeitgeist, because US mobile payments were nearly US$ 13 billion in 2012, and Forrester predicts Americans will spend US$ 90 billion by 2017 via mobile.

For this week’s Mobile App of the Week we look at Netswipe for Android, an app that turns a smartphone into a credit card reader.