Ecommerce Conversations, By Practical Ecommerce

The range of possible domain names is about to greatly increase. That’s because ICANN, the authoritative body over Internet domain names, is about to add new top-level domains — the portion to the right of the period — to include brand names and other customized names. To explain these new top level domains to us, we are joined by Gretchen Olive. She’s director of policy and industry affairs for Corporation Service Company, which consults with companies on domain name and trademark matters. She speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Ecommerce merchants strive to increase the number of visitors to their sites that actually purchase products. Increasing those conversions frequently requires experimenting with new approaches. Merchants can test which of these experiments increase sales, and which do not. The testing can be automated, sophisticated — and it produces results. To explain multi-variable ecommerce testing to us, we are joined by Mark Simpson, the founder and president of Maxymiser, a testing, personalization and conversion-optimization firm. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Many merchants dream of building a successful ecommerce business, and then selling it. Our guest for this interview has done just that. She’s here to describe the process — and the post-sale emotions of it all. She is Shirley Tan, the founder and former owner of AmericanBridal.com, which is now owned by TheKnot.com. She speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Yahoo! Small Business remains a leading, hosted platform for ecommerce businesses. But the company itself has experienced turmoil — the CEO was recently fired — and critics of the shopping cart platform say it’s dated. The man in charge of that platform is Tom Byun. He is vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Small Business, and he speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock on the state of Yahoo! and its hosted shopping cart.

The rush to sell products across multiple ecommerce channels is fine until a merchant starts to manage the back office complexities of updating inventory, prices, product descriptions, and then sales and shipments. Without automation that entire process can be a nightmare. Our guest today runs a company whose goal is to eliminate the complexities of selling across multiple channels. He is Fred Lizza, CEO of Dydacomp, makers of Multichannel Order Manager. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock on how merchants should best utilize third-party selling channels.

Sophisticated site search helps consumers find products on an ecommerce site, and therefore increases sales. But site search can also work with faceted category navigation to help consumers. The blending of site search with faceted category navigation is our topic, and to explain it we are joined by Scott Zielinski, co-founder of SearchSpring, a leading search solution provider. He speaks with Kerry Murdock of Practical Ecommerce.

The notion of combining an online marketplace with a payment platform, a shopping cart and a robust backend is not new. But when the marketplace is eBay, the payment platform is PayPal, the cart is Magento and the backend is GSI Commerce, that is news. eBay calls this new collaboration x.commerce. Its general manager is Matthew Mengerink. He speaks here with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Networking and exchanging ideas can help many online retailers. One organization that promotes this type of activity is Shop.org, the trade association for online merchants. Our guest today is the CEO of a leading ecommerce services firm, and he’s just been elected to the Shop.org board of directors. He is Scot Wingo. His firm is ChannelAdvisor. And he’s here to discuss Shop.org and its role in helping ecommerce merchants. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The need for sophisticated site search is becoming increasingly important for ecommerce merchants, who are all serving increasingly sophisticated consumers. By almost any measure, high-level site search increases sales. To discuss trends in site search, and new developments in that industry, we are joined by Shaun Ryan. He’s the CEO of SLI Systems, a pioneering site search provider. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

There are innovators and trendsetters in the ecommerce business. Our guest, Harley Finkelstein, looks for these innovations, and trends, and then shares some of them with us. In this month’s installment of “Innovators and Trendsetters,” Finkelstein — who is chief platform officer with Shopify, the hosted shopping cart — discusses three interesting ecommerce sites with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock

The Durbin Amendment to the U.S. Dodd-Frank legislative package affects ecommerce merchants. That’s because the Amendment greatly lowers the rate — called interchange — that Visa and MasterCard charge for the processing of debit cards. But, importantly, it does not automatically lower the fees that merchants actually pay to their merchant account providers. Our guest today is a longtime veteran of the credit and debit card industry. He’s Sloane Bouchever, the founder of Interchange Plus Solutions, a merchant account provider, and he’s here to suggest ways for merchants to make certain they receive the lower debit card rates. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The migration to online retailing is putting U.S. states in a bind. Their reliance on sales tax from local brick and mortar retailers means that as local sales lessen, so does the sales tax revenue from those transactions. Some of these states are now attempting to expand who is liable for sales taxes, and some states now say this includes companies with local Internet affiliates. Our guest today, Oliver Roup, is the CEO of VigLink.com, an affiliate marketing company. He says targeting affiliates is wrong. He suggests another solution, and he’s here today to discuss it with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The ecommerce industry in the U.S. is robust. It’s also robust in other industrialized countries, while other regions lag in ecommerce activity. The state of worldwide, online retailing is our topic today. And to help us understand it, we welcome Joanne Bethlamy. She’s with Cisco, the worldwide technology

Physical, brick-and-mortar retailers market products with end-caps and special placements in an aisle, where retailers are typically paid for those promotions by wholesale suppliers. Ecommerce merchants can now do similar merchandising, and receive similar payments, from a new ad platform. The platform is from Dijipop, and its founder and CEO, Ji Kim, speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The efforts by state governments to collect online sales taxes is impacting affiliate marketers. That’s because a group of states is attempting to expand the nexus definition to include affiliates in those states, and thereby force retailers with those affiliates to pay sales taxes. Our guest is an affiliate marketer, and he’s here to discuss how all of this is impacting his business. He’s Oliver Roup, founder and CEO of VigLink, an affiliate marketing management company. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Most ecommerce merchants own several domain names, perhaps buying and selling them as opportunities occur. One merchant in Missouri just purchased a domain name. He paid $700,000 for it. The domain is RunningShoes.com, the merchant is Chad Weinman of Cat5 Commerce — owners of MilitaryGear.com, TacticalGear.com, HikingBoots.com, among other sites — and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss it all.

Cloud computing is a term that’s frequently discussed, and also frequently misunderstood. Google Docs would be an example of cloud computing, whereas Microsoft Office — locally installed on a computer — is not. In the ecommerce industry, there are many hosted, cloud platforms. One of the leading ones is Shopify. Its chief platform officer is Harley Finkelstein, and he joins us to discuss cloud computing and hosted platforms. He speaks with Kerry Murdock of Practical Ecommerce.

The balancing of copyright law with the dissemination of information on the Internet can sometimes get tangled. And nowhere is that more evident than in the recent, so-called “orphaned books” case, which involves Google’s attempt to scan and distribute the content of out-of-print books. To help us understand that federal case, and the broader implications of applying U.S. copyright law to the Internet, we are joined by Ed Green. He’s an attorney with the firm of Coats and Bennett, and he’s an expert on intellectual property law. He speaks with Kerry Murdock of Practical Ecommerce.

Attempts to simplify the administration and collection of Internet sales taxes might be the most daunting task in the ecommerce industry. There are thousands of state, county and city taxation districts in the U.S., and they all have different tax rates, and rules. But the Streamlined Sales Tax organization is attempting to make it easier for ecommerce merchants and its executive director, Scott Peterson, is here to update us on that organization’s progress. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

There is nothing more confusing to ecommerce merchants than credit card processing. The rates wildly fluctuate and the monthly statements are hard to follow. But yet, credit card processing is key to virtually every ecommerce business. To help us understand how merchants can save money on their processing costs, we are joined by Sloane Bouchever. He’s a credit-card ecommerce pioneer, having left Authorize.Net in 2003 — as a senior vice president — to launch what would become a leading ecommerce credit card provider. His new company is Interchange Plus Solutions, and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.