Ecommerce Conversations

There are many countries with fast-growing economies — and fast-growing Internet audiences — that are not natively English speaking. How do ecommerce merchants reach those countries, and those audiences? Through translation and localization, mainly. We’re joined by an expert on those topics. He’s Christian Arno, founder of Lingo24, a global translation and localization firm. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Most merchants like the idea of the credit card industry policing itself, versus lawmakers getting involved. PCI Security Standards Council is the industry’s attempt to do just that. But how ecommerce merchants meet the PCI’s standards is confusing to many, and the penalty for not being compliant is hard to understand, too. Bob Russo, general manager of the PCI Security Standards Council, is with us today to help sort out these and other questions. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The holiday selling season is important for many online merchants. This includes David Sasson, the founder and CEO of OverstockArt.com, a retailer of reproduced oil paintings that experienced a 25 percent increase in 2010 holiday sales, from 2009. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss what worked — and what didn’t work — for OverstockArt this past holiday season.

Many ecommerce merchants want to sell products to consumers in other countries. But the process is not as easy as selling domestically. The complexities can include tariffs, customs and export laws. But for United States’ based merchants, the U.S. Department of Commerce can help. That department has just published a free PDF guide to help merchants with export sales. And the official responsible for the guide is with us in this interview. He’s Ken Walsh, International Trade Specialist with the U.S. Commercial Service, an agency of the Department of Commerce. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Many ecommerce merchants sell products from large manufacturers and suppliers. Increasingly, those manufacturers and suppliers also sell the same products. There’s a company, Shopatron, that refers sales from manufacturers’ ecommerce sites to retailers, who then fulfill orders to customers and profit from the sales. The CEO and founder of Shopatron is Ed Stevens, and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The adoption of product videos on ecommerce sites continues. Most every merchant, seemingly, can benefit from product videos and we are joined here by a product video expert. He’s Craig Wax, CEO of Invodo, a video company for ecommerce merchants, and he’s here to discuss product videos that convert with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Merchants contemplating mobile optimized ecommerce sites should also consider specialized mobile site search. SLI Systems is a leading provider of ecommerce site search solutions, and that company has just launched a mobile search option. Shaun Ryan is the CEO of SLI Systems, and he’s here to discuss specialized mobile site search with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Mobile commerce is coming. Many merchants, both large and small, are contemplating their mobile commerce strategies, and one merchant that has just launched a mobile version of its ecommerce site is ThePopcornFactory.com. The person responsible for marketing that company and that site is Tom Russell. He’s senior vice president for the parent company of ThePopcornFactory.com, and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The notion of adding additional revenue to an ecommerce business presumably appeals to merchants. And, increasingly, one way to do that is with the use of subscriptions. Amazon Prime may be the best example of a merchant selling subscriptions, but there are many ways smaller merchants can do it, too. To discuss the possibilities of subscription revenue, we welcome Massimo Arrigoni, the CEO of Early Impact, which has just launched a new hosted subscription management platform. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The lack of capital can prevent an ecommerce business from growing. But many merchants are unsure as to how to obtain capital, or how the funding process works. Our guest today has raised many millions of funding dollars over his career, most recently with RatePoint, the reputation management firm. He’s Neal Creighton, RatePoint’s co-founder and CEO, and he joins us to explain the funding and venture capital process. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.