Ecommerce Conversations

The process of collecting and processing online payments is confusing. There are many parties involved, and the fees are oftentimes difficult to decipher. One company that hopes to clear up the payment process, and to simplify payments from international customers, is Adyen. Its president of North America, Peter Caparso, joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

The American Dream, for many aspiring merchants, is to work at home, own a business, watch after their kids and enjoy it all. Our guest today does all of that. She’s Kara English, the co-founder of Candlesandsuch.com. She taught herself the ecommerce business, launched a site, and prospered. All from her home. She discusses it with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Mobile commerce will likely affect most every ecommerce merchant in one way or the other. NetSuite is a leading ecommerce platform with many ecommerce merchant customers. Its solutions are among the most comprehensive on the market. Malin Huffman is a principal product manager at NetSuite in charge of the company’s mobile efforts, and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss NetSuite’s view of the future of mobile commerce.

There’s site search, and then there’s money-making site search. The former will match words and phrases, and the latter will help consumers find what they are looking for and then suggest items they may not have known they needed. A leader is sophisticated site search is SLI Systems, and its CEO, Shaun Ryan, joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Running a successful ecommerce site takes skill and hard work. But what about running 24 of them? That’s what Brad Likens does. He’s the co-owner of Best Service Stores and, in four years, his company has grown to over $20 million in annual sales with 24 separate ecommerce sites. He does this from his headquarters in suburban Kansas City, and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Entrepreneurs are using ecommerce sites in innovative ways. One of these entrepreneurs is Matt Schenck, who, out of personal frustration, decided there had to be a better way for consumers to purchase original art. That idea is now ArtQuiver.com, a groundbreaking ecommerce site that offers high-quality, original works of art directly to buyers. Schenck joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss the concept, the website and the first year of Art Quiver.

Sounds True is a Colorado-based provider of products and services to enable spiritual development. It was founded in the 1980s, and its business model is both interesting and sophisticated. It sells products via wholesale channels. It offers classes and instruction. It publishes a catalog. And it has an ecommerce site with a custom platform that sells both physical and digital products. The manager of this site is Theresa Fox, Sounds True’s managing director – direct and digital, and she joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

An increasing number of consumers access the Internet via mobile devices. This has looming implications for ecommerce merchants who must decide what platforms their customers will use in the future. Third party services can help owners migrate their sites to mobile devices, and one of those is Mobile Site Optimizer from Covario, the SEO software and services company. Its creator is Stephan Spencer, Practical Ecommerce’s longtime SEO contributor, and he joins Kerry Murdock to discuss Mobile Site Optimizer and mobile strategy generally.

Service-related businesses are finding new customers and new marketing opportunities online. This includes restaurants, which have increasingly embraced the web to promote menu offerings and dinner specials, and to facilitate reservations, provide directions and more. A restaurant that has used its website to do all of this in an innovative way is manna, with a vegan-focused menu located in the heart of London. Its owner is Roger Swallow and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

There are dozens of credit-card-fraud prevention services. Some cost money, some are free, and their approach to fraud prevention can vary. So, what are small merchants to do to prevent fraud, and how much money should they spend in the process? A fraud-prevention expert is here to address that for us. He’s John Hammond, technical account manager with Authorize.Net, the credit-card payment gateway company. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.