Ecommerce Conversations

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.

The process of testing different variations on a website can greatly enhance its conversions and performance. A leading A/B split testing platform is Optimizely. Its co-founder and CEO, Dan Siroker, spoke with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.