By Tony Ventrice, Badgeville The future of the workplace has been re-imagined in the image of Facebook. More software for the workplace is becoming “social” and, if your job involves a computer, you’ve probably already experienced this new breed of…
By Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji, Databricks The explosion of data across the enterprise has led to an increased focus on how to get value out of that data. The first step for most enterprises is to establish the Big Data platform itself.…
The pace of change in business today is rapid, making an enterprise’s relationships with its customers ever more important, said Thad Kahlow, CEO of BusinessOnline, an enterprise digital marketing agency, at the recent Online Marketing Summit. Big Data can give…
Can Big Data help enterprises make sense of their social media efforts in order to create more business value? Does the mashup of Big Data and social media enable organizations to understand their customers better and establish a higher level…
George Mathew, COO and president of Alteryx, earlier this year predicted that one of the top business intelligence trends for 2013 would be the emergence of the data analyst, a role he defined as “specialists who can bridge the gap…
Many companies spend pots of money on analytics for their websites and social media channels. Yet too often they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for in the data, they don’t fully understand the analytics software tools, or they haven’t…
You shot a clever video, edited it, and added titles and transitions. You uploaded it to YouTube and watched the number of viewings climb. But for some reason, your YouTube epic hasn’t delivered any new business. What’s up with that?…
Many small e-tailers worry bad reviews posted online by unhappy customers will seriously hurt their business. The truth is, negative reviews don’t happen that often. And even when they do, they can actually be a good thing for e-tailers —…
A Web analytics program is like an airplane pilot’s navigation system. As pilots look to their dials and scopes to steer the plane, site owners monitor the data from their Web analytics software to help them run their site. An…
Courtesy of ECommerce-Guide.com When it comes to shopping online, teenage users are a contradiction: Most teens don’t have their own credit card, yet they love to shop online. (Which simply proves they have access to their parents’ card). About 80…
As detailed in Part 1 of this series, merchants are now focused more than ever on their site’s all-important sales conversion rate. An extensive recent research study, “Merchant Secrets for Driving Conversion,” detailed the many tactics that e-tailers are using…
The concept of “conversion” is one that online merchants live and die by. An online store’s conversion rate, which is the percentage of site visitors who make a purchase, is the figure that determines that store’s bottom line. But for…
In the mid ’90s, entrepreneur Anne Kelly saw that larger women were having a hard time finding attractive and well-made sports clothing. To meet their needs, Kelly founded Junonia, a company that describes its apparel line as “exclusively devoted to…
When the Trek Bikes Web site switched its software platform, it made an unusual change. The well-known seller of bikes and related gear moved from a custom-built platform — usually considered the most desirable solution — to a platform made…
As a leading supplier of school uniforms, French Toast sells to a nearly innumerable array of customers. The New Jersey-based company ships to parents and schools across the country, as well as to both small and large clothing retailers. But…
When Jeff Binder chose his e-commerce platform, his chief concern was finding an integrated application with all the bells and whistles in one piece. In his view, this was important for one key reason: to enable better data tracking. “We…
It’s a challenge that confronts most online merchants sooner or later: the dreaded site redesign. This massive undertaking is usually put off for as long as possible. But for sites built several years back, it’s often necessary to keep up…
The Sport Supply Group’s e-commerce operation has enough bells and whistles to require an exceptionally robust software platform. Founded in 1972 as a catalog-based business, SSG now runs both a B2B site and a direct-to-consumer site, each of which offers…
Buying keyword search terms on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo has become an important part — perhaps the most critical part — of the marketing strategy of today’s e-tailers. This common practice, in which merchants pay search engines…
You could call Lauren Freedman a site doctor. As president of the E-Tailing Group, a Chicago-based e-commerce consultancy, a wide array of online merchants seek her advice. E-commerce executives from companies like Crate and Barrel, Circuit City, the Discovery Channel…
At this point in the evolution of e-commerce, virtually all online businesses have some form of Web analytics package. These applications, which allow you to track your shoppers’ on-site behavior, are used by mom-and-pop e-commerce operations as well as Fortune…
In Part One, we focused on a slew of basic tips to help you convert browsers into buyers on your Web site. Now, in the tightly competitive world of e-commerce, this begs the question: How am I doing? If you’re…
In Part One, we focused on a slew of basic tips to help you convert browsers into buyers on your Web site. Now, in the tightly competitive world of e-commerce, this begs the question: How am I doing? If you’re…
Yes, GiftTree sells gifts online, but no, its goal is not to be an Internet gift shop. Instead, explains company CEO Craig Bowen, the site is a gift services company. The difference may be slight to an outsider, but it…
At first glance, Guild.com.com is a pretty standard e-commerce business. The Madison, Wisconsin-based site is a fine arts and home dicor retailer, selling original works by about 650 artists across the country. The site’s shoppers browse among its collection of…
At first glance, it appears that Drugstore.com faces a couple of major challenges in its efforts to attract customers. First, its products aren’t unique. Although it sells about 25,000 items, from toothpaste to aspirin to shampoo, most of them can…
If there’s a single factor responsible for making eDiets the leading weight loss/fitness site, it’s the company’s aggressive marketing. “We are very routinely, in any given month, one of the top 10 Internet advertisers,” says eDiets chief strategist Alison Tanner.…
Company In an approach that Buy.com chief operating officer Brent Rusick describes as “more efficient than any other out there,” the e-tailer’s orders are filled directly from its distribution partners. Unlike some of its competitors, the site has no warehouses…
The security threats facing the technical infrastructure of today’s businesses seem to grow more complex with time, ranging from cloud security to mobile device management to the rise of the Internet of Things. To address these concerns, four technology journalists…