52

Great
Ecommerce
Ideas
Practical Ecommerce | 52 Great Ecommerce Ideas | 1
Introduction
I recently overheard a conversation between two ecommerce merchants at a conference. They were
discussing options for shipping their products. Merchant A, I’ll call him, was doing most of the talking.
Merchant B was listening, intently.

A few minutes later the conversation ended. Merchant B approached me. He said, “That guy just saved me
$10,000 a year in shipping costs.”

Ideas are powerful.

Surely there’s no better source of ecommerce ideas than the contributors to Practical Ecommerce. If
there’s such a thing as an ecommerce all-star team, they are all starters. They have provided the 52 ideas
in this ebook.

The ideas address the primary functions in running an ecommerce business — on-site conversion, search
engine optimization, shipping, marketing, advertising, management, finance, content, infrastructure,
design, social, mobile, and, yes, Amazon.

The names and bios of all contributors are in the back. The ideas themselves we’ve listed randomly,
in no order.

The priority of Practical Ecommerce, since 2005, is our readers — ecommerce merchants that grapple
with nonstop changes in algorithms, inventory sources, marketing methods, competitors, marketplaces,
you name it.

Readers like you are our purpose and our inspiration.

All of us here at Practical Ecommerce thank you for signing up to our email list and downloading this ebook.

KERRY MURDOCK
PUBLISHER, EDITOR

SEPTEMBER 2019

Practical Ecommerce | 52 Great Ecommerce Ideas | 2

Find Your Why
A key turning point for our company was when I bought the book ‘Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for
Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team.’ Determine the real reason you are in business. At FringeSport,
for example, it is: ‘To help people improve lives through strength.’ Our staff and culture now align behind it.

PETER KELLER
FOUNDER AND CEO, FRINGESPORT

Invest in Backend Infrastructure

Investing in backend infrastructure will pay off. In my ecommerce business, we invested heavily at our
mid-growth point of about four years in a customer-resource-management system and a scalable ecom-
merce platform. Both helped us be as efficient as possible in our supply chain and fulfillment operations.
Through automation, it saved us a great deal of labor and allowed us to weather the storm when the 2009
recession was at its peak.

DALE TR A XLER
VP COMMERCE SOLUTIONS, RIGHTPOINT

Focus on Usability and Navigation

To convert visitors, focus on website usability and navigation. At fashion brand Ed Hardy, a former employer,
we invested in an outside conversion firm for consulting, redesign, and testing. We doubled our conversion
rates as a result. If your visitors have any issues with navigation, they will leave the site in a few seconds.

VIK TORIA K ANEVSK Y

ECOMMERCE AND DIGITAL MARKETING CONSULTANT

Use Curiosity to Grow and Scale

Growing and scaling is simply curiosity. You have a problem to solve, such as not enough sales. What are you
doing to solve that problem? My curiosity flow is (i) educate myself, (ii) test new things, (iii) analyze the data,
and (iv) repeat what is successful and kill what’s not.

ERIC BANDHOLZ
CO-FOUNDER, BEARDBR AND

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Focus on Efficiency
Think Crucial is a direct-to-consumer home appliance parts and accessories company. We started with a
single product. As the brand took off, we kept adding SKUs. Today we sell thousands of products. Seven
years into our company, our little six-person ecommerce business was valued at $20 million. Our success
is due to focusing on efficiency over revenue growth. Today, I manage the entire business on Skubana (an
operations platform that I founded) with one full-time employee and several virtual assistants.

CHAD RUBIN
PRESIDENT, THINK CRUCIAL

Avoid 2 Common Mistakes with Google Display Network

The Google Display Network serves over 80 percent of worldwide internet users. It has the potential to
generate massive traffic. But GDN can cause powerful harm when mistakes occur. For success on GDN,
avoid two common mistakes. First, use the ‘Content exclusions’ settings to ensure your ad does not appear
on an inappropriate page. Second, apply ‘Frequency capping’ to avoid annoying readers, especially if you
have narrow targeting criteria.

ROBERT BR ADY
FOUNDER, RIGHTEOUS MARKETING

Get Small Wins Every Day

Most startups expect to go from 0 to 60 very quickly. But that type of launch is the exception, not the rule.
What I always focused on in my consumer startups is to get small wins every day, such as increasing sales
by 5 percent. The percentage depends upon the sales base. The point is to focus on an obtainable increase
every day or week. If you can do that, in a month or two, you’ll have a foundation to scale faster.

PHIL MASIELLO
FOUNDER AND CEO, CRUNCHGROW TH REVENUE ACCELER ATION AGENCY

Invest in Quality Content

Quality, comprehensive content converts visitors. When you run an acquisition campaign, prospects that
arrive on your site need to understand immediately what you can do for them and how it’s better than the
competition. Investing in content and continually tweaking and improving it will pay off.

VIK TORIA K ANEVSK Y

ECOMMERCE AND DIGITAL MARKETING CONSULTANT

Practical Ecommerce | 52 Great Ecommerce Ideas | 4

Try to Win Google’s Answer Box
The answer box — Google calls it ‘featured snippet’ — occupies prime real estate at the top of Google’s
organic search results. Only ads appear higher. To win the answer box, target answerable keywords, provide
helpful info, be concise, arrange the content carefully (such as with bullets or tables), and use structured
data.

JILL KOCHER BROWN

DIRECTOR OF SEO, JUMPFLY

Use HTML Caching to Increase Page Speed

Heavy traffic to a website can result in performance problems, slower page speed, and fewer conversions.
One little-used way to speed up page loads is to cache not just images and scripts, but also the HTML con-
tent. After all, if the HTML takes too long to load, it will delay every other request.

HAMLET BATISTA
FOUNDER AND CEO, R ANKSENSE, INC.

To Ship Like Amazon, Focus on 3 Areas

Amazon spent more than $20 billion on shipping in 2018. We can be certain that it is spending millions to
improve and optimize its shipping processes. Here are three tips to fulfill like Amazon, even if you’re a frac-
tion of the size. First, manage carrier contracts by the numbers. Negotiate better rates using data and ana-
lytics. Second, audit and analyze your own operations routinely to automatically deliver orders faster and
cheaper. Third, offer shoppers more shipping choices. Increase conversions by giving customers options that
provide greater certainty of delivery times.

MANISH CHOWDHARY
FOUNDER AND CEO, PULSE COMMERCE

Don’t Outsource Graphic Design

Ecommerce merchants require the help of designers to build promotional banners, landing pages,
newsletters, and so forth. You need to have a consistent, in-house source for that work. Outsourcing is hit
or miss. When you need it the most, an outsourced designer could be unavailable.

DALE TR A XLER
VP COMMERCE SOLUTIONS, RIGHTPOINT

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Improve B2B Shipping with B2C Tactics
B2B ecommerce merchants frequently offer poor shipping experiences to their buyers. B2B merchants
should mimic the shipping expertise of B2C companies. Avoid common B2B glitches, such as limited ship-
ping options, allowing only one shipping address per order, little to no in-transit visibility, not providing exact
delivery dates, complicated return processes, and not disclosing real-time inventory levels (which leads to
cancelled orders for out-of-stocks).

GAGAN MEHR A
MANAGING DIRECTOR, DELOIT TE DIGITAL

Focus on Core Competencies

A big decision for us early on was to bootstrap and stay lean. This forced us to outsource many services
(including production) and focus on core competencies, which are product development, marketing, and
customer experience. Have a vision for how you want to build and scale the business. By understanding
where you want it to be, you can make early decisions to help with your journey.

ERIC BANDHOLZ
CO-FOUNDER, BEARDBR AND

Use Google Shopping

As a small online-only retailer, I wish I had joined Google Shopping much earlier to increase my site’s visibility
and sales. Imagery is the strength of Google Shopping. Consumers who search for a particular product are in
buying mode. They’ve done their research and know what they’re looking for. They recognize the item when
they see it. After just 10 weeks, Google Shopping now accounts for 25 percent of my revenue.

ELIZ ABETH HOLLINGSWORTH

FOUNDER, MY EVENT DÉCOR

For Success with Amazon Advertising, Focus on 4 KPIs

Advertising on Amazon is challenging for many sellers. The confusion often stems from sellers approaching
Amazon ads the same way they would Google Ads. To get the most from advertising on Amazon, focus
on four key performance indicators: (i) advertising cost of sales (ACoS = Ad Spend ÷ Sales), (ii) search term
impressions, (iii) conversion rate, and (iv) order acquisition cost.

PHIL MASIELLO
FOUNDER AND CEO, CRUNCHGROW TH REVENUE ACCELER ATION AGENCY

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Don’t Outsource Customer Acquisition, Marketing
We never should have outsourced customer acquisition and marketing. It wasn’t catastrophic, but I am a
huge believer that you must become an expert at customer acquisition. As a side note, I also wish that we
had not listened to the echo chamber of ‘you must pay Google and Facebook to acquire customers.’ Certainly
you can pay Google and Facebook (and Amazon) to acquire customers, but that is not the only path. Find
your own way, and prosper.

PETER KELLER
FOUNDER AND CEO, FRINGESPORT

Use Server Logs to Uncover SEO Problems

Sometimes websites have search-engine-optimization problems that Google Search Console, Google
Analytics, and off-the-shelf SEO tools cannot locate. When this occurs, I often rely on an old-school method:
web server logs. Server logs record every visit to a site, whether from humans or robots. Think of web server
logs as automated journals of all the activity on your site. Server logs can identify Googlebot crawl errors,
URL parameter mistakes, and much more.

HAMLET BATISTA
FOUNDER AND CEO, R ANKSENSE, INC.

Emphasize 5 Areas to Improve Instagram Performance

Thirty-five percent of online adults are Instagram users. Optimizing Instagram performance should be a
priority for companies, especially fashion and lifestyle brands. To attract and engage Instagram followers
and ultimately generate traffic and sales to your ecommerce site, focus on five areas: (i) post consistently, (ii)
create quality content, (iii) post when followers are online, (iv) encourage mutual engagement, and (v) use a
reverse hashtag strategy to find new followers.

VIK TORIA K ANEVSK Y

ECOMMERCE AND DIGITAL MARKETING CONSULTANT

To Improve Instagram Marketing, Study Successful Brands

Studying prominent brands on Instagram can help merchants generate ideas for their own marketing
campaigns. Ten prominent brands that excel at Instagram marketing, based on the number of followers, are
National Geographic, Nike, The Ellen Show, Real Madrid C.F., FC Barcelona, Victoria’s Secret, 9GAG, NASA,
NBA, and Marvel Entertainment.

SIG UEL AND

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, PR ACTIC AL ECOMMERCE

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All Products with Photos Should Use Pinterest
Back in 2013, I was one of the most followed men on Pinterest, with over 1.8 million followers. I pinned about
men’s style. Businesses in nearly all industries can use Pinterest to some degree. If your product can be pho-
tographed, grouped, or if it’s something that gets shared, then it likely has a place on Pinterest.

MICHAEL STANCIL
GROW TH PRODUCT MANAGER, ZAPPOS FAMILY OF COMPANIES

Facebook Groups Can Drive Relationships and Sales

Ecommerce businesses can use Facebook groups to help potential customers, build strong reciprocal
relationships, and encourage sales. Maintaining or contributing to a Facebook group is a form of both social
media marketing and content marketing. The goal is to listen to the conversations that take place in the
group and contribute in a positive way — answering questions or providing helpful information with posts,
links to articles, or similar.

ARMANDO ROGGIO
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, PR ACTIC AL ECOMMERCE

Use Google Lighthouse to Monitor, Improve Site Speed

Site speed is a ranking signal for Google and a key factor in a visitor’s experience. Google’s Lighthouse, a free
site-auditing tool in Chrome’s Developer Tools menu, provides detailed suggestions for improving the tech-
nical quality and speed of a site. Best of all, each Lighthouse recommendation comes with a list of specific
files to optimize and a ‘Learn more’ link to understand the basics.

JILL KOCHER BROWN

DIRECTOR OF SEO, JUMPFLY

Use Facebook Messenger Chatbots to Support Live Chat

Live chat is a proven way to close online sales and provide post-order support. But live chat has a few
obstacles that can prevent its implementation, such as the cost of the software and the need for additional
staffing. Chatbots can help bridge the gap between live chat and self-help support pages. There are many
affordable ways to integrate personal chatbot conversations. Facebook Messenger ranks near the top of the
list for both small and large businesses.

PAMEL A HA ZELTON
ECOMMERCE AND BUSINESS CONSULTANT

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Pop-up Stores Can Help Online-only Sellers
Physical pop-up stores enable merchants to test new products and create in-person experiences for
shoppers to try the merchandise and meet the staff. Pop-up shops are especially important for online-only
sellers, to engage customers and prospects. For best results, market a pop-up store before and during the
event. It will drive physical traffic and, also, encourage prospects to shop your entire online inventory.

CHARLES NICHOLLS
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SAP UPSC ALE COMMERCE

Outsource Warehousing and Fulfillment

When I launched Crucial Vacuum, we had a warehouse with 17 employees who gave me daily fires to put out.
Once I outsourced our warehouse to a third-party fulfillment company, we saved $10,000 in the first month
on returns alone. If I were to start over, the most significant change I would make is to use a 3PL from the
get-go.

CHAD RUBIN
PRESIDENT, THINK CRUCIAL

Encourage ‘Buy Online, Pick Up In-store’

The emergence of buying online and picking up in store, as well as in-store returns for online purchases,
is driving consumer shopping expectations. But less than half of physical retailers offer these capabilities.
To encourage BOPIS: (i) promote heavily on your ecommerce site, (ii) communicate BOPIS in post-purchase
emails, (iii) provide BOPIS-specific parking, and (iv) create dedicated BOPIS experiences in-store.

ALEX BERG
CEO, FELL SWOOP

Convert Amazon Buyers to Your Customers

Through proper merchandising of their products, independent brands can turn Amazon buyers into their
own loyal customers. Focus on three areas. First, offer products on Amazon’s Marketplace that drive visits
to your own site for replacements or replenishments. Second, use the printed portion of your packing for
branding and special instructions. Third, provide great service on Amazon and then ask customers for
reviews, which will help others remember your company.

PHIL MASIELLO
FOUNDER AND CEO, CRUNCHGROW TH REVENUE ACCELER ATION AGENCY

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B2B Sellers Can Learn from Amazon Business
Amazon Business hit $10 billion in sales in 2018. If you sell to companies, Amazon Business should get your
attention. Independent B2B sellers can learn from Amazon Business’s success by making it easy for buyers
to complete orders via (i) pay by invoice, (ii) multi-user accounts, (iii) approval workflows, and (iv) facilitating
punchout integrations so that buyers can easily add items to their shopping cart. (Amazon integrates with
more than 60 procurement systems.)

LORI MCDONALD
PRESIDENT AND CEO, BRILLIANCE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

Close the Mobile Commerce Gap

A 2018 study from Adobe Analytics found that mobile devices generated 61 percent of internet traffic but
only 33 percent of ecommerce conversions. There are three primary ways for merchants to close the mobile
commerce gap. First, emphasize visual navigation, as smartphone shoppers rely on tapping and swiping
images. Second, and most critical, employ a one-tap buy. Never force shoppers to enter credit card details.
Third, emphasize speed and usability with, preferably, a progressive web app.

CHARLES NICHOLLS
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SAP UPSC ALE COMMERCE

To Track B2B Performance, Keep It Simple

Measuring B2B ecommerce performance should be straightforward. Too often, however, measuring means
having a complex strategy with confusing key performance indicators. A simple yet powerful method for
tracking B2B performance will (i) identify what you should measure (number of customers, sales, growth),
(ii) determine the best methods for measuring (single dashboard, enhanced presentations), and (iii) allow for
audits and revisions to strategy.

SHAWN ARNOLD
ECOMMERCE AND MARKETING MANAGER, TURNER SUPPLY

B2B Exchanges a Good Way to Get Started with Ecommerce

Selling on a B2B exchange is an easy and inexpensive way for suppliers to get started with ecommerce. A
supplier does not typically need its own website to list products on exchanges. Exchanges usually allow
buyers to rate the suppliers they purchase from. A good rating can attract new buyers. Some suppliers sell
products not just in bulk, but also in single units, to attract first time buyers who want to inspect.

GAGAN MEHR A
MANAGING DIRECTOR, DELOIT TE DIGITAL

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Ecommerce Sites Should Follow W3C’s Accessibility Guidelines
Even though the U.S. Department of Justice has not established guidelines for accessible websites,
businesses (including ecommerce sites) are well advised to follow W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines,
version 2.1, for several reasons. First, multiple sovereign governments (including the U.S.) use those guide-
lines for their own websites. Second, businesses need to start somewhere and following existing standards
is easy and safe. Third, the U.S. government will almost certainly set regulations for web accessibility. It’s
unlikely it will deviate significantly from international standards.

JOSEPH C. DOLSON
WORDPRESS DEVELOPER AND ACCESSIBILIT Y CONSULTANT

Avoid Discounting Products

Increasing sales via discounts, coupons, and undercutting competitors (or a combination of all three) isn’t
typically the best practice for smaller companies. Shoppers that have a ‘no discount, no purchase’ mentality
may not be ideal customers if you intend to turn a profit. To drive sales without discounting prices, empha-
size (i) unique selling points of the products and your store, (ii) urgency, (iii) affordable or free shipping, (iv)
streamline purchasing, and (v) a sense of community.

PAMEL A HA ZELTON
ECOMMERCE AND BUSINESS CONSULTANT

Use Attribution Modeling in Google Analytics

Marketing attribution is the process of identifying sources or channels that led to a desired outcome, such
as a sale or a subscription. Attribution can become complicated when multiple channels contribute. Google
Analytics offers attribution modeling at Conversions > Attribution > Model Comparison Tool. There are a hand-
ful of models to select from. You can compare models to establish the effectiveness of each source.

ANNA K AYFITZ
FOUNDER AND CEO, STR ATEGICDB CORPOR ATION

Understand Shortcomings in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a powerful, free web analytics platform. However, it has gaps that are better served
by other tools. These include (i) basic heat mapping capabilities, (ii) visitor session recordings, (iii) compre-
hensive dashboard reporting, (iv) user-level reporting, (v) social media reporting, (vi) activity from online
marketplaces, and (vii) phone-order sales.

MORGAN JONES
PRESIDENT OF ECOMIQ AND POWER MY ANALY TICS

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Minor Tweaks Can Improve Email Marketing Results
Tweaking just a few areas of an email program can greatly increase conversions. Five areas to focus on are
(i) subject lines and preheaders, (ii) calls-to-action, (iii) a seamless experience from email to checkout, (iv)
retargeting for smartphone users who click on an email, and (v) auto-load promotional codes.

CAROLYN NYE
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL INTER ACTIVE GROUP, ACXIOM

To Improve Email Marketing, Monitor Successful Competitors

Email marketing helps even fledgling companies drive sales. To maximize returns from email, monitor
successful competitors, especially larger companies. Larger competitors may have spent thousands of dol-
lars on email marketing agencies and consumer research. While you cannot read their survey results and
study data, you can see how they use email marketing, emulating them when it makes sense.

ARMANDO ROGGIO
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, PR ACTIC AL ECOMMERCE

Use Marketing Automation to Deploy Segmented Emails

Marketing automation can integrate email with your ecommerce platform to create relevant campaigns. But
the most important feature for ecommerce merchants is to sync a visitor’s on-site behavior, such as prod-
ucts viewed, to that individual’s profile in your platform. Then merchants can create segments based on,
say, purchase history and recently viewed products. Or, geolocation and viewed products. A merchant could
deploy an email for a specific item within minutes of a consumer visiting that product page.

ANNA K AYFITZ
FOUNDER AND CEO, STR ATEGICDB CORPOR ATION

Use Ecommerce to Help B2B Sales Teams

B2B companies that don’t embrace digital will lose opportunities. Increasingly, buyers prefer to research
online before speaking to a salesperson. Done right, B2B ecommerce can support sales teams, not hurt.
A compelling B2B platform can provide (i) strategic content, marketing automation, and lead scoring, (ii) a
‘request a quote’ feature, (iii) a draft order from sales staff to present to a prospective client, and (iv) price
quote configuration based on predetermined rules.

LORI MCDONALD
PRESIDENT AND CEO, BRILLIANCE BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

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Resellers on Amazon Can Damage Your Brand’s Reputation
Selling on Amazon can generate revenue, reinforce your brand’s reputation, and expose your product
to 8 million U.S. visitors per day. However, resellers on Amazon can easily damage a brand’s reputation.
Protecting your brand should be a top priority. It requires careful and aggressive control of distributors and
resellers. Although they are a brand’s customers, distributors and resellers will be competitors if you allow
them to list your product on Amazon.

PHIL MASIELLO
FOUNDER AND CEO, CRUNCHGROW TH REVENUE ACCELER ATION AGENCY

Use Micro Conversions to Instill Trust

Micro conversions are smaller actions that can lead to sales. Micro conversions can instill trust, and
therefore influence the 90 percent of visitors who do not intend to immediately purchase. Eight micro con-
versions that are especially helpful are (i) email signups, (ii) text-message signup, (iii) account creation, (iv)
registering for rewards, (v) save for later purchase, (vi) liking or following on social media, (vii) using the ‘tell
a friend’ feature, and (viii) filling out a contact form.

PAMEL A HA ZELTON
ECOMMERCE AND BUSINESS CONSULTANT

Identify Fraudulent Credit Cards before Orders Are Consummated

Ecommerce merchants continue to rely on credit card payments for sales. Credit cards are convenient and
fast, but they also come with risk. To minimize credit card fraud, the best approach is to identify a fraudulent
transaction before the order is consummated. Credit card companies provide their own rules and checklists.
And there are many third-party fraud-prevention services.

GAGAN MEHR A
MANAGING DIRECTOR, DELOIT TE DIGITAL

Use Market Basket Analysis to Identify Complementary Items

Market basket analysis is based on the idea that a customer who buys product A is likely to also buy product
B. The model seeks to find relationships among purchases — a customer who purchases pasta presumably
needs pasta sauce. Large retailers often use sophisticated modeling tools to identify complementary prod-
ucts. However, smaller retailers with relatively fewer SKUs and limited budgets could perform the analysis
manually. First, put all transactions, with all product combinations, into a spreadsheet. Next, run a pivot
table to list the most popular combinations for all transactions.

ANNA K AYFITZ
FOUNDER AND CEO, STR ATEGICDB CORPOR ATION

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Don’t Rely on Amazon, eBay for Sales
Relying on one or two marketplaces for ecommerce revenue is risky. It is relatively easy to build a
business on Amazon and eBay. Both can present your merchandise to millions of potential customers. But
the tradeoff is becoming vulnerable to their foibles. One or both could suspend you for any reason. That’s
why sellers should not rely entirely on third parties for sales. It is good practice to have sales outside of
Amazon, eBay, or any other channel. It’s also a good practice to have a range of goods and suppliers so there
is no single point of failure that could significantly damage your business.

RICHARD STUBBINGS
FOUNDER, KULTURE SHOCK

Effective Content Is Engaging

Content marketing is supposed to entice loyal customers to your business. It is supposed to be useful,
informative, and entertaining. It should hit key principles of persuasion. But how can content do any of these
things if no one reads it, watches it, or listens to it? Thus the key requirement of content marketing is to be
engaging. Without engagement, content cannot fulfill its potential as a marketing tool.

ARMANDO ROGGIO
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, PR ACTIC AL ECOMMERCE

Prioritize SEO Tasks

I can’t calculate clear-cut return-on-investment from search engine optimization. But I can address the
activities that, in my experience, typically lead to higher rankings for ecommerce merchants. It’s not a stretch
to suggest that 80 percent of your daily SEO activities should be connected to four items: (i) crawl budget
optimization, (ii) title tags and meta descriptions, (iii) speed and usability, and (iv) inbound links.

BILL SEBALD
MANAGING PARTNER, GREENL ANE

Re-engage Dormant Email Subscribers

Email subscribers come and go. Many eventually become dormant and no longer respond. Consider these
five tips to re-engage dormant subscribers: (i) A/B test subject lines, (ii) try a new ‘From’ line, (iii) offer an
incentive, (iv) confirm addresses with an email verification service, and (v) ensure emails are optimized for
smartphones.

CAROLYN NYE
DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL INTER ACTIVE GROUP, ACXIOM

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Encourage Mobile Sales
There are plenty of ways to encourage mobile sales conversions. My top six methods are (i) decrease mobile
load times, (ii) improve mobile design and navigation, (iii) eliminate jargon from product descriptions, (iv) use
clear calls-to-action, (v) simplify checkout, and (vi) instill trust with SSL logos, affiliations, and payment icons.

PAMEL A HA ZELTON
ECOMMERCE AND BUSINESS CONSULTANT

Consider a DPO Instead of an IPO

The initial public offering — the traditional method of taking a company public — has a challenger: a direct
public offering or direct listing. This technique avoids involvement from investment bank underwriters that
buy shares at a set price in an IPO and then sell them to their clients and institutional investors. Direct list-
ings work best for private companies that have been around for some time, earn substantial revenue, have
capital reserves, and do not need to raise funds from a public offering. Notable, recent DPOs include Spotify
and Slack.

MARCIA K APL AN
WRITER, RESEARCHER, BUSINESS CONSULTANT

Track Key Content Metrics on Social Media

Social media sites can be powerful tools for distributing content and driving engagement. But, like much
of marketing, long-term social media success requires constant improvement. The primary social media
metrics to track as part of your company’s content marketing efforts are (i) referral traffic to your site, (ii)
engagements on social media, such as likes, shares, and follows, (iii) reach, as in how many folks see your
content, and (iv) audience growth.

ARMANDO ROGGIO
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, PR ACTIC AL ECOMMERCE

For Accurate Data, Install Google Analytics Correctly

Google Analytics provides impactful data that can help ecommerce merchants. But installed incorrectly,
Google Analytics can produce inaccurate reporting. Common mistakes from setting up Google Analytics
include (i) missing or incorrect tags, (ii) traffic referrals from hosted payment platforms, such as PayPal,
(iii) counting internal traffic such as from employees, and (iv) not importing cost data from paid revenue
channels.

MORGAN JONES
PRESIDENT OF ECOMIQ AND POWER MY ANALY TICS

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CONTRIBUTORS
SHAWN ARNOLD is ecommerce and marketing manager of Turner Supply, one of the largest independently
owned industrial distributors in North America. He is an ecommerce and marketing pro with nearly 10 years of
experience. Shawn launched his digital marketing career at a local web agency. He then went to Red Diamond,
one of the oldest coffee and tea manufacturers in North America, where he built a social media program with
a quarter of a million followers and developed a large-scale ecommerce program, which continues to serve
customers nationwide. [email protected]

ERIC BANDHOLZ is co-founder of Beardbrand, a men’s grooming company that focuses on beard care. With
the help of his partners, he’s bootstrapped Beardbrand from zero sales to a multi-million dollar business.
[email protected]

HAMLET BATISTA is founder and CEO of RankSense, Inc., an SEO revenue reclamation platform for retailers.
He is the inventor and U.S. patent holder of “SEO Suite” and its components. He is also technical review editor of
“The Art of SEO” and “Search Engine Marketing Inc.,” both leading instructional books. He was previously owner
of Hamlet Batista Group LLC, a marketing consultancy. [email protected]

ALEX BERG is CEO of Fell Swoop, a user experience design agency in Seattle that focuses on ecommerce and
lead generation businesses. He has over 20 years of experience in large-scale online companies such as Blue
Nile, Expedia, and Ritani. [email protected]

ROBERT BRADY is founder of Righteous Marketing, a digital marketing agency. He started in pay-per-click
marketing during a class project in college and hasn’t stopped learning. He has worked with a variety of compa-
nies, ranging from a small grass-fed beef grower in Idaho to a large B2B data storage provider. @robert_brady

JILL KOCHER BROWN is director of SEO at JumpFly, a marketing agency. She has been living and breathing
search engine optimization since 2005, and has been in digital marketing since 1996. Jill cut her digital teeth
at Intel, managing the home page and corporate sections of Intel.com. After that, Jill managed and developed
ecommerce SEO consulting practices at Netconcepts and Covario, served as Groupon’s first in-house SEO direc-
tor, and pioneered IBM’s SEO consulting practice. [email protected]

MANISH CHOWDHARY is founder and CEO of Pulse Commerce, a leading inventory and order manage-
ment system for omnichannel commerce, empowering merchants to improve order turnaround, and reduce
inventory and fulfillment costs by over 20 percent. In January 2017, Manish was recognized as one of “30 Most
Innovative Business Leaders” by Insights Success magazine. [email protected]

JOSEPH C. DOLSON is a WordPress developer and accessibility consultant at JoeDolson.com. He’s the author
of several popular WordPress plugins, including WP to Twitter and My Calendar, and works to promote acces-
sible development with WordPress. He teaches a course at Lynda.com on accessibility for WordPress and works
with the WordPress accessibility team. Joe has been in marketing and web development since 2001, providing
consulting and development services to clients in the U.S. and in Europe. @joedolson

PAMELA HAZELTON is an ecommerce and business consultant at PamelaHazelton.com, as well as a trainer

and speaker. She is the author of “The Official Guide to Miva Merchant” books and additional ebooks on
the topics of shopability and security, and speaks at ecommerce conferences and meetups regularly.
[email protected]

Practical Ecommerce | 52 Great Ecommerce Ideas | 16

CONTRIBUTORS
ELIZABETH HOLLINGSWORTH is an experienced ecommerce merchant, having founded three online busi-
nesses. Her latest is My Event Décor, a provider of event decorations. [email protected]

MORGAN JONES is president of eComIQ, a web analytics consulting agency, and Power My Analytics, a Google
Analytics apps company. eComIQ has, in the past 10 years, advised more than 400 companies, from Fortune
500 enterprises to internet startups, including 1-800-Flowers, Canon, Vonage, and Wyndham. eComIQ is a
Google Analytics Certified Partner, a Google Analytics Premium Authorized Reseller, and Google Tag Manager
Certified Partner. [email protected]

VIKTORIA KANEVSKY is an ecommerce and digital marketing consultant from Los Angeles who specializes in
fashion, lifestyle (beauty, pets, and restaurants), and fitness businesses. Her primary focus is how to build, run,
and profit from an online presence with a tight budget. Viktoria is the former head of digital at LAShowroom,
the largest online fashion marketplace in the U.S., as well as Ed Hardy, the multimillion dollar fashion retailer.
[email protected]

MARCIA KAPLAN is a longtime contributor for Practical Ecommerce. She’s also a researcher and freelance finan-
cial journalist, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has written for trade magazines, newspapers, and technology
companies. [email protected]

ANNA KAYFITZ is founder and CEO of StrategicDB Corporation, an analytics and data firm. StrategicDB helps
businesses get more from their data. The company offers data cleansing services, segmentation modeling,
dashboard building, and much more. Anna has more than 10 years of marketing and analytics experience with
leading brands, such as Oracle Marketing Cloud (formerly Eloqua), Harlequin Enterprises, and Sunwing Travel
Group, as well as numerous startups. [email protected]

PETER KELLER is founder and CEO of FringeSport, a strength and conditioning equipment company. Peter has
grown FringeSport from his garage, in 2010, to millions in annual revenue. [email protected]

PHIL MASIELLO is the founder and CEO of CrunchGrowth Revenue Acceleration Agency and the author of
“Think-Engage-Thrive: Marketing Actions to Skyrocket Your Brand in the Digital Age.” Phil was previously the
founder and CEO of (i) 800razors.com, (ii) Raw Beauty, Inc., which developed and marketed skin care prod-
ucts through ecommerce; and (iii) Metro Marketing, an agency focused on natural and organic brands.
[email protected]

LORI MCDONALD is president and CEO of Brilliance Business Solutions, which implements results-oriented
digital commerce solutions for manufacturers and distributors. With a background in computer and electrical
engineering, Lori is passionate about helping companies achieve big things by realizing the untapped potential
of the web. @lorimcd

GAGAN MEHRA is managing director of Deloitte Digital, an international consulting firm. He is an expert in
ecommerce and data. He has worked in multiple industries, across four continents, deploying various ecommerce
solutions and in the process has solved many ecommerce and Big Data challenges. [email protected]

Practical Ecommerce | 52 Great Ecommerce Ideas | 17

CONTRIBUTORS
CHARLES NICHOLLS is senior vice president at SAP Upscale Commerce. His mission is to reinvent commerce
for the mid-market. He is a proven innovator, researcher, speaker, and author — with a background in ecom-
merce, marketing, machine learning, and buyer behavior. Before joining SAP, Charles founded SeeWhy, which
focused on applying machine learning to personalization. It was acquired by SAP. [email protected]

CAROLYN NYE is director, digital interactive group for Acxiom, which provides businesses with consulting,
data, and technology solutions. She has developed many successful marketing campaigns — including trig-
gered and transactional email campaigns — designed to engage customers, drive sales, improve service,
and provide overall customer satisfaction. Carolyn is a speaker and contributor at industry conferences.
[email protected]

ARMANDO ROGGIO is the longtime senior contributing editor for Practical Ecommerce. He is an inde-
pendent ecommerce merchant, a seasoned web developer, and the director of marketing and ecommerce
for a multichannel brick-and-click retail chain — 17 years of internet and marketing experience in total. His
hundreds of articles for Practical Ecommerce cover virtually all facets of running a successful online store.
[email protected]

CHAD RUBIN is president of Think Crucial, a direct-to-consumer home appliance parts and accessories com-
pany. He is also co-founder and CEO of Skubana, an ecommerce operations platform. [email protected]

BILL SEBALD is a managing partner of Greenlane, a digital marketing agency near Philadelphia. He has
worked in SEO and online retail since 1996. In 2006, he started the SEO channel at GSI Commerce (later
acquired by eBay). Bill is a speaker and blogger and an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson University.
[email protected]

MICHAEL STANCIL is growth product manager at Zappos Family of Companies. Michael was one of the most
recognizable men on Pinterest, with over 1.8 million followers. Huffington Post ranked him as one of the top
menswear pinners, alongside such media brands as Esquire, GQ, and Details. [email protected]

RICHARD STUBBINGS has more than 20 years IT experience designing and building major computer applica-
tions. He set up an online bookshop in 2000, Kulture Shock, concentrating on science fiction, crime, and horror.
He soon started selling horror and movie-related figures alongside the books. Over the years, he used numer-
ous shopping carts and the ecommerce site grew to be successful. [email protected]

DALE TRAXLER is is an ecommerce veteran with hands-on experience — since 2002 — as co-founder and CEO
of an online jewelry supply distributor that was successfully sold in 2012. Dale is now VP Commerce Solutions
for Rightpoint, a digital agency, where he focuses on delivering digital commerce solutions for enterprise com-
panies in manufacturing, distribution, healthcare, and retail. [email protected]

SIG UELAND is a longtime contributing editor for Practical Ecommerce. He has written for In These Times,
Third Word Magazine, and Utne Reader. He is also an accomplished screenwriter and an alumnus of The Second
City Conservatory in Chicago. [email protected]

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