Ecommerce Conversations, By Practical Ecommerce

A merchant who sells physical products has to figure out how to efficiently get those items into the hands of customers. It can become complicated as the business scales and receives international orders. This is episode seven in my series on building an ecommerce business from the ground up.

Without the right people, a new ecommerce business would almost certainly fail. Refining the hiring process can help find the perfect candidate. For this interview, we spoke with Ayman Al-Abdullah, president of AppSumo, a daily deals site for digital goods, about his hiring process and how it has evolved.

Knowing where to advertise can be daunting to new and experienced ecommerce entrepreneurs alike. There are many options, and it's often unclear which will fit your business. Digital marketing agencies can provide some answers. For this interview, I visited with Alex Hart, founder of Good Joo Joo, an Austin, Texas-based digital marketing agency.

Good copy sells. Generic imagery and descriptions might cause shoppers to move on without giving your product a second thought. Spicing up your copy, whether it be emails, social media, or product descriptions will give your online store a personality to stand above competitors.In this fourth installment in my series of conversations about building an ecommerce business, I'm visiting with Neville Medhora, founder of Kopywriting Kourse.

The early days of an ecommerce business are among the most important. Growing a business from infancy is complicated and unforgiving. There are many factors to consider, including platforms, inventory, social media, and more.This is the third installment in my series of conversations about building an ecommerce business. The previous installments were "Part 1: Choosing Partners" and "Part 2: Selecting Platforms."This time I visited with Andrea Nucete-Elliott, co-founder of TIY Life, a new ecommerce business offering premium hair ties for active women.

Selecting an ecommerce platform is among the most critical decisions of a new entrepreneur. There are hundreds of choices. This is the second installment in my series on launching, growing, and selling an ecommerce business. For this installment on selecting an ecommerce platform, I spoke with Carson McComas. He is the founder and CEO of Fuel Made, a Spokane, Wash.-based ecommerce agency.

This is the first episode of an extended series on launching, growing, and selling an ecommerce business.  The topic of this initial episode is choosing business partners.  My two partners at Beardbrand are supportive and knowledgeable. Our relationship has been critical to the company's growth. I asked one of them, Lindsey Reinders, to offer suggestions and tips for selecting partners.

Rand Fishkin founded Moz in 2001 as a blog, calling it at the time SEOmoz. It became an industry beacon, helping thousands of companies dissect and improve their search engine optimization efforts. He left Moz earlier this year. His new book, "Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World," is a transparent view of running that company and the lessons learned along the way.

Selling across international borders can provide helpful revenue to many merchants. But the complexity of laws, transit times, and delivery cost can be daunting. Eugene Laney is an authority on international shipping. He's the head of international government affairs with DHL, the worldwide logistics firm.

Amazon has made significant investments in its own private label brands, in areas such as diapers, dog food, and paper towels. The company's private label strategy could be indicative of a burgeoning trend in retail, one that mid-market ecommerce companies could try.To help us understand, we recently spoke with Ojastro Todd, marketing analyst at One Click Retail, an ecommerce data measurement, sales analytics, and search optimization firm for brand manufacturers in North America and Europe.

The recent South Dakota v. Wayfair decision by the U.S. Supreme Court changed online sales tax. To discuss the details of the decision, and its impact on ecommerce merchants, there's no better observer than Shane Ratigan. He is senior manager, state and local tax for Clark Nuber, and a longtime nationwide authority on online sales tax matters.

In an ecommerce world that is seemingly dominated by Amazon, Eric Bandholz has just moved his company's products away from that marketplace. The company, Beardbrand, is now focused on selling through its own website and through other retail channels. Revenue has greatly increased.

SMS a Game-changer for Ecommerce Businesses? by Practical Ecommerce

The General Data Protection Regulation from the European Union takes effect on May 25. The law is sweeping, with massive fines for noncompliance. It affects most every company worldwide, large and small. It’s also confusing.There is no better authority in the U.S. to explain the GDPR to ecommerce merchants than John Di Giacomo. He is founding partner of Revision Legal, a leading Michigan-based internet law firm. He is, additionally, a contributor to Practical Ecommerce.

Mobile optimization used to provide a competitive advantage. But as the mobile internet has grown, responsive websites are no longer optional. They are essential to doing business online. In this Ecommerce Conversation, senior contributing editor Armando Roggio speaks with Madison Minor, founder and CEO of WompMobile, a mobile web platform and development firm, about progressive web apps, accelerated mobile pages, and other new mobile internet technologies.

Organic traffic from Google and other search engines remains critical to many merchants. There is no greater authority on search engine optimization than Stephan Spencer. He's the co-author of "The Art of SEO." He founded the pioneering SEO firm of Netconcepts. He's a worldwide speaker, consultant, and host of two popular podcasts, "Marketing Speak" and "The Optimized Geek."

The postage rates among countries for international shipping greatly vary. Merchants in certain countries, such as China, can ship very cheaply to U.S. consumers with rates that are unavailable to U.S. merchants. Paul Steidler, a senior fellow with the Lexington Institute in Washington, D.C., explains it all.

In an era when many ecommerce platforms are migrating to large enterprise clients, Volusion is doing the opposite. It's focused on smaller and mid size companies, even startups. To discuss it all, we're joined by Volusion's founder and longtime C.E.O., Kevin Sproles.

It’s been an eventful year for Miva, the pioneering ecommerce platform. Its longtime president became C.E.O. and the company raised $18 million of private equity, which is the first such investment in Miva’s 20-year history. Rick Wilson is the former president who is now C.E.O. And he joined us to discuss Miva, independent ecommerce, and the impact of Amazon.

Magento, the ecommerce platform, launched in 2007, grew dramatically, and was acquired by eBay. When eBay divested PayPal in 2015, it also sold Magento, to a private equity firm. Magento's C.E.O. is now Mark Lavelle, a seasoned technology executive who co-founded Bill Me Later, the payment service. He joins us to discuss Magento and the state of ecommerce generally.