Ecommerce Conversations, By Practical Ecommerce

Given the ease with which brands and manufacturers can sell their products directly to consumers, many observers believe the future of resellers is limited. Ori Greenburg, an ecommerce veteran and now the CEO of Algopix, a market analysis platform, does not necessarily agree. He joins us today to discuss it all.

In the United States, ecommerce is mature and sophisticated. That's not the case in Saudi Arabia, where it's new and challenging. Hamza el Bayed is co-founder of Ora La Moda, a Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ecommerce apparel company.

Product reviews can play an important role in ecommerce. Something like 9 out of 10 shoppers read product reviews, and many studies over many years have shown that reviews help shoppers to make online buying decisions. To talk about ecommerce reviews, we have with us Paul Kirwin, the CEO and founder of Channel Signal, a product review monitoring analytics firm. You might know a few other companies that Mr. Kirwin has founded like 3Point5 or Experticity.

The Amazon marketplace contains nearly 500 million products, from about 2 million sellers. That's a lot of competition. In fact, being competitive on Amazon is exactly what we're going to discuss in this interview. It's with Casey Gauss, co-founder and C.E.O. of Viral Launch, a software and services platform helping brands to source, launch, and succeed on the Amazon marketplace.

Fast loading web pages are critical for conversions and general worldwide usability. Optimized images can greatly increase page speed. No one is more qualified to address optimized images than Chris Zacharias. He is the founder and C.E.O. of imgix, a real-time image-optimization platform. As an early-day YouTube developer, he created YouTube's HTML5 video player and Feather, an ultra-light version of YouTube that loads quickly in parts of the world with slow Internet connections

By some estimates, more than half of the visitors to an online store will use that store's site search to find products, and hopefully make a purchase. This fact alone makes ecommerce site search important. Since, something less than an effective site search, frankly means that you're failing to meet your customer's expectations. Today we're going to speak to Dr. Amir Konigsberg, the cofounder and CEO of Twiggle, a search engine that helps ecommerce sites, or an ecommerce site search think the way that customers think.

If you want satisfied customers, your business needs to provide a level of perceived service that's greater than your customers' expectations. For ecommerce shipping is customer satisfaction's frontline, and online sellers should aim to meet shoppers' expectations for fast and free shipping.Today we're going to speak to Nathan Jones, the president and CEO of Ship Station, a web-based software solution designed to help ecommerce retailers process, fulfill, and ship their orders.

Many small-to-midsize ecommerce merchants view Amazon as a competitor, albeit one they are force to sell on. Brent Bellm, CEO of BigCommerce, disagrees. He believes Amazon can complement an ecommerce business.

The dominance of Amazon and its marketplace is apparent. What's not so apparent are the counterfeit items that are also sold there. Rob Dunkel, is the founder of a company that uses sophisticated data analysis to identify counter-fit and trademark violators on Amazon and other leading marketplaces.

The increasing dominance of Amazon has many merchants scratching their heads, wondering how exactly to work with that company, and how that company will impact their own businesses.We recently spoke with James Thomson, a former Amazon executive, to discuss the Amazon marketplace, the FBA program, and the Prosper Show, a conference founded by Thomson to help Amazon sellers sort through it all.

Without U.S. Robotics, the early-day modem manufacturer, there arguably would not be a World Wide Web. The co-founder of U.S. Robotics, Casey Cowell, joins us to discuss that company, the early-day Internet, and his current entrepreneurial and civic interests.

Selling on Amazon’s marketplace can be challenging. There are, to be sure, millions of prospective customers. But there are also many competitors selling there, often at prices that are difficult to match or compete with. Our guest today, James Thomson, is a former senior Amazon executive who now counsels merchants on how best to use that platform.

Practical Ecommerce's Ignite 2015 conference contains 39 sessions on topics critical to small and midsize ecommerce merchants, to accelerate revenue growth and compete against larger companies.In addition, we'll feature two visionary keynote speakers. The first one, on opening day, is John Lawson. He's an ecommerce entrepreneur and a social-selling guru. His address, "The Beyonce Principal: Social Selling Funnel for Massive Results," will emphatically answer the question of how smaller ecommerce merchants can harness social media.

The rise of ecommerce has reduced local brick-and-mortar retail sales and the corresponding sales taxes from those transactions — putting states and localities in a revenue bind. A hodgepodge of efforts from the states and, now, the federal government to address the shortfall, and to tax ecommerce sales, is firmly underway. To explain the status of Internet sales taxes, and the U.S. Congressional efforts at a nationwide solution, we’re joined by Jonathan Barsade. He’s a sales tax expert, and the founder and CEO of Exactor, a sales-tax management platform.

Steve Case, the co-founder of America Online, is by any measure an Internet visionary and pioneer. His private equity firm, Revolution, invested, in 2013, $40 million in Bigcommerce, a leading ecommerce platform for smaller companies. He recently spoke with Practical Ecommerce about that investment, as well as SMB ecommerce generally.

Miva is both a pioneering early day ecommerce shopping cart and a cutting-edge progressive platform. Its President, Rick Wilson, joins us today to discuss, among other topics, how an ecommerce provider remains fresh and relevant over the years.

The co-founder of Retention Science, Jerry Jao, is an expert on using data, lots of data, to grow ecommerce revenues. Beyond that, he’s a gifted Taiwanese-born entrepreneur who proves what intelligence, hard work, and perseverance can accomplish. He recently spoke with Practical Ecommerce's Kerry Murdock on the merits of data-driven ecommerce business, among other topics.

Selling products on third-party websites is not new. What is new is the so-called Facebook Buy button, which allows ecommerce merchants to sell their products potentially on that platform. There is no better expert on third-party selling than Scot Wingo, the long-time CEO of ChannelAdvisor. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce on the Facebook Buy button, among other multi-channel selling topics.

Every day, it seems, we read of an Internet-based company acquiring another one, or raising capital, or expanding into a new segment. Evan Klein, managing director of Berkery Noyes, a leading mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, recently spoke with Practical Ecommerce's Kerry Murdock on the booming M&A market for ecommerce and Internet companies.

Starting a new ecommerce business can be frustrating, complicated, and risky. LemonStand is a popular ecommerce platform that often caters to startups and new entrepreneurs. LemonStand's CEO, Danny Halarewich, spoke with Practical Ecommerce's Kerry Murdock on how to launch a new ecommerce business.