On June 11, 2014, the 10th annual Internet Retail Conference & Exhibition kicked off in expected style. As in years past, the eCommerce industry’s biggest event delivered in the department of big names and hot topics. John Donahoe, CEO and president of eBay Inc., discussed the wisdom of crowds and the commerce revolution in his keynote speech, titled Connected Commerce: The New Opportunity for Retailers in an Evolving Retail Environment. With 16 years of experience under its belt and a revenue growth... NetSphere
Abbe Miller is the marketing manager at NetSphere Strategies, located just outside Chicago. NetSphere Strategies is a boutique eCommerce company positioned to help businesses transform their online presence by providing a full complement of services that starts with our strategic consulting and creative design teams, then continues with building innovative solutions and providing ongoing post-project support.
On June 11, 2014, the 10th annual Internet Retail Conference & Exhibition kicked off in expected style. As in years past, the eCommerce industry’s biggest event delivered in the department of big names and hot topics. John Donahoe, CEO and president of eBay Inc., discussed the wisdom of crowds and the commerce revolution in his keynote speech, titled Connected Commerce: The New Opportunity for Retailers in an Evolving Retail Environment. With 16 years of experience under its belt and a revenue growth... 
Creating an exemplary product page that instills consumer confidence should be top of mind for eCommerce business owners. To shed some light on the task, the following five best practices should be adhered to when producing a product page. Although it’s not an exhaustive list, the following product page elements should get the wheels turning. 1. Ratings and reviews: Giving customers their two cents According to a survey conducted by Dimensional Research, a whopping 90 percent of respondents who read... 
When Jeff Bezos told Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes that drones might one day be able to deliver packages the same day Amazon shoppers ordered a product, the rumor mill was set on fire. How would it work? When would it start? What about the regulations? What about the cost? Regardless of the oodles of questions and comments coming from said rumor mill, Amazon’s drones were nothing more than a vision for the future. But as it turned out, Amazon’s same-day... 
Taking the idea of the “whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” an eCommerce website finds its strength from a collection of multiple elements that work together in harmony. Although an eCommerce solution can be powerful standing on its own, it finds greater effectiveness when paired with complementary systems. One complementary system, the Smart Merchandiser from Zobrist, is giving a boost to websites powered by IBM’s WebSphere Commerce. Created to help merchandisers keep up with the pace of today’s... 
In a recent study conducted by Forrester, 100 B2B companies in the United States were surveyed to evaluate best practices in implementing B2B eCommerce systems and the metrics that go hand in hand with those systems. In addition to revealing the competitive advantages that come from B2B eCommerce implementation, researchers identified SaaS and PaaS as popular for businesses looking to save time and money when deploying eCommerce solutions. In fact, “get going now and produce results quickly,” was one of... As the retail and eCommerce trade show circuit continues – with the Internet Retail Conference and Exhibition less than two weeks away – folks in the industry are abuzz with the insight that comes with attendance. Just recently, IBM hosted its annual Smarter Commerce event in Tampa, Fla., where attendees learned about the latest trends emerging in the industry. Likewise, shows like eTail East and West are also educating retail business leaders how to go to market more effectively. No...
Last year, the Oxford English Dictionary dubbed ‘selfie’ as the word of the year. If it were up to the retail industry, however, 'omni-channel' should have been the word to define 2013. As a new way of thinking about multi-channel retailing, omni-channel dominated conversations in 2013 and will continue to rule the day in 2014 and beyond. Although consumers might not be privy to the term, merchants can't seem to escape it. The thing is, however, that merchants shouldn’t want to... 
On May 20, 2014, Crain’s hosted its annual manufacturing summit in downtown Chicago. The full-day event focused on the state of manufacturing in the Midwest and the challenges that the industry is faced with. With more than 240 area executives in attendance, a lot of ground was covered during the event. So much so that our coverage was divided into two parts, beginning with the morning sessions, which were driven by Louis Schorsch, the CEO of ArcelorMittal Americas, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.... 
Now that the days of Polar vortexes are but a chilly memory, the team at NetSphere Strategies is ready to get out and enjoy our favorite city: Chicago. And considering that thousands of folks from our industry will be heading to the Windy City for IRCE, we’re on a mission to make their experiences fantastic. To do so, we’ve already posted a few blogs that offer up great recommendations for what to do and eat in our hometown. Continuing with that... 
On May 20, 2014, Crain’s hosted its annual manufacturing summit in downtown Chicago. With more than 240 area executives in attendance, the event focused on the state of manufacturing in the Midwest and the challenges that the industry is faced with. To set the tone for the event, Louis Schorsch, the CEO of ArcelorMittal Americas, discussed three principal topics: why manufacturing matters to the entire economy and society as a whole, how the United States is improving its relevant position in...