E-Commerce Blog

What our friends and relations think matters to us. I care about what my wife thinks of my new shirt, and when I got a 12-inch table saw this summer, I was sure to discuss the tool’s finer points my friend Steve. I am not alone. Shoppers like and trust recommendations and opinions from friends and family. We all talk about the great deal we got from one store or about the horrible shipping experience we had with another store, and our friends are listening.

Simply put, our peers influence us and we them. They help us make many buying decisions, and savvy online merchants can use this rather natural tendency to increase sales and make happy customers this holiday season. Specifically, I am going to describe three ways to use coupon code…

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Sharable Coupons Can Boost Sales

While marketing has become more measurable, the focus has been on results, not costs. When costs are discussed, standards vary from channel to channel, making comparisons impossible. In a struggling economy, all costs must be included in your analysis for sound decisions. This is the only honest approach to measurement, budgeting and goal-setting. Here are five questions that get to the heart of measuring multi-channel marketing return on investment.

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Does Your Marketing Measure Up?

Practical eCommerce counts over 300 different shopping cart platforms. In this, our “Cart Of The Week” feature, we’ll profile—but not evaluate—a specific shopping cart and ask its management about its strengths and weaknesses. We’ll then ask a customer about the cart, too.

In this installment, we’ve featured Actinic, a U.K.-based licensed shopping cart that is distributed in North America by Sure Solutions. Actinic is a Windows PC application for small and mid-size business owners who want control over their online store, but don’t want to keep a full-time designer or developer. We spoke with Brian Johnson, President of Sure Solutions. We also spoke with a customer of Actinic, Fred Riehl, of Surfeyes.com.

PeC: How long have you been …

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Microsoft sought to bring a quick end Thursday to the lawsuit that has produced a steady flow of sometimes embarrassing internal e-mails about Windows Vista, a product whose reputation in the marketplace was already tarnished before it launched nearly two years ago. The company asked a federal judge in Seattle to dismiss the remaining claims in the class-action suit brought by PC buyers challenging its “Vista Capable” marketing program as deceptive, and to decertify the class.

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Did Microsoft Lie? Depends on the Meaning of ‘Vista’

Having even one credit card number stolen from your site can tarnish your reputation and impact sales for years. It is important to be aware of potential security flaws and how to mitigate them to protect yourself.

“A breach of cardholder data can be big money in fines and remediation efforts. If there isn’t a need to keep this data, it’s suggested that it’s not kept at all,” suggests John Carr, owner of Bluebird Consulting, a Detroit based security firm. “For many ecommerce sites, the best option is simply to work with a third-party processor that will not only process credit cards, but also be the payment site [to store the data] as well.”

Improper Storage

Many ecommerce sites store customer data and credit card numbers well after…

Excerpted from:
Credit Card Theft: Steps to Protect You and Your Customers