E-Commerce Blog

Barron Designs Inc. owns and operates Fauxpanels.com. The site sells imitation wood, stone and brick paneling. FauxPanels asked Practical eCommerce to review its Google AdWords advertising campaign. Average monthly ad spend on this campaign is $11,000 – $13,500. No conversion data is available in Google AdWords. However, keyword conversion data is available through a third party tracking application.

Account Structure

The account is nicely broken down by specific products, categories, and material types. Each main product type is set up as a separate campaign allowing for maximum flexibility with geo-targeting, budget controls, and other account settings.

In an optimal account structure, you always want to make sure that all keywor…

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Pay-per-click Report Card: Fauxpanels.com

In the United States there will be 590,349 pilots collectively flying some 28 million hours in 228,000 different aircraft this year alone, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). To navigate, those pilots use altimeters, global positioning, and good old-fashioned maps, creating an opportunity for one ecommerce merchant.

Aviation maps or charts are typically four-foot-by-six-foot rectangles that take up a lot room, are hard to manipulate in a tight cockpit, and wear out easily as pilots fold and refold them flight after flight.

Eric Boles, a private pilot and the founder of Skysectionals.com, saw a need and believed that pilots would for pay for smaller, easier to use maps. But bringing a product to market isn’t eas…

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Quick Query: Pilot Identifies Niche With PDF Aviation Maps

Sales tax is a confusing concept for ecommerce merchants, and many consider Internet sales to be a sales tax-free domain. However, this is not the case, and ignoring sales tax can have severe consequences for merchants from whom it is due.

Unfortunately, many states have confusing and contradictory sales tax laws and collection methods. It can be easy for merchants to get lost in the over 11,000 sales tax jurisdictions in the United States. To deal with this, a committee made up of officials from several states began a project to enact legislation and provide methods to simplify sales tax. One of the ways it has done this is by designating four sales tax software solutions as “Certified Service Providers.”

Enter the SSTGB

Scott Peters…

Source:
Sales Tax: Frequently Asked Questions

Practical eCommerce is dropping its printed magazine to focus exclusively on the digital delivery of its editorial content. The company began in July 2005 with a mission to publish easy-to-follow articles and advice that help businesses succeed online. This editorial content was originally delivered mainly through a monthly, printed magazine.

But now, in 2008, the content is delivered via this interactive website that includes expert articles, blogs, podcasts, a directory and an ecommerce job board, with reader comments and suggestions posted from all of those. It also includes a twice-weekly email newsletter, EcommerceNotes, and soon a second newsletter for the developer community called EcommerceDeveloper.

Shift in reading habits…

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Practical eCommerce Increases Digital Offerings, Drops Printed Magazine

1&1 Internet is among the world’s largest web hosts with 55,000 servers and 7.46 million customer contracts. Recently, the company surveyed 1,025 U.S. consumers about website communication and loyalty. We asked 1&1 CEO Oliver Mauss about the survey and what it means for small to medium-sized ecommerce businesses.

PeC: 1&1 Internet conducted a “Website Communication Survey” to learn more about how consumers feel about being able to contact an online business. What did you find?

Mauss: Customers want to be able to easily communicate with an online business. The ability to contact a business is the most important aspect of using a website for 85 percent of Americans. Approximately 70 percent of consumers have a negative perc…

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Quick Query: 1&1 CEO Oliver Mauss