Leading service providers in the eCommerce industry descended on sunny San Diego recently at the annual customer engagement conference hosted by IBM called Amplify. Blue skies, excellent food and an outstanding list of guest speakers helped to produce a great vibe at the popular conference (previously known as Smarter Commerce). Speakers included best-selling author Dr. Jonah Berger, Facebook executive Blake Chandlee and Citi’s global head of emerging platforms, Andres Wolberg-Stok.Held May 11-13, 2015, Amplify focused on four main topics: eCommerce, customer...

The Internet Retailer Conference Exhibition (IRCE) is fast approaching. The largest eCommerce event of its kind brings the most innovative minds in the industry together for lively discussions June 3-4 at Chicago’s McCormick Place West. There are many, many events and presentations to look forward to, but here are the top 10 on our list:1) Access to workshops: Attendees have the opportunity to join workshops where they will get deep into the topics that drive better business practices. Full-day workshops are...

Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research company, released an eCommerce report showing that online retail sales this year are expected to reach $334 billion, which will be around 10 percent of all retail sales in the United States. Forrester reports generate plenty of interest and conversation, which will likely be the case in a few weeks when the eCommerce industry gathers in Chicago at the Internet Retailer Conference Exhibition (IRCE) at the Windy City’s McCormick Place convention center June...

Rarely a day goes by that we don’t see news of a company, often a major company, getting hacked and their sensitive company data compromised. It serves as a reminder to everyone that security measures deserve constant evaluation. And it makes business leaders ask, “What are we doing to ensure our company and client information isn’t compromised?”Despite that fact that Fortune 500 companies can afford top-notch IT staff who work on security issues – they still get hacked. However, it’s equally...

How well do you think you know your customers? According to a recent study, probably not as well as you think. IBM’s study, developed by Econsultancy, a firm that specializes in helping clients with digital business, marketing and eCommerce, surveyed marketers, 90 percent of whom said that in order to be successful, they need to personalize customer experiences in their marketing campaigns. It appears that only 10 percent of these marketers are doing it right because 80 percent of consumers...

We’ve all heard the quote, “good artists copy; great artists steal.” While this is not something to be taken literally, it’s an idea that has some credence in the world of marketing. There is nothing wrong with mirroring the efforts of those who have found success. A recent report from Digital IQ titled “Sportswear 2015” offers an intriguing look into how activewear, which did not suffer the same slump in sales as the apparel industry saw in 2014, is marketed on...

Online retailers that have historically underplayed the value of reviews are beginning to change their tune. Perhaps they’ve been more concerned about site design, improving conversions and providing an excellent customer experience – all of these are important aspects of eCommerce, but they don’t negate the need for product reviews. There is a reason Amazon and eBay have used customer reviews since the late 1990s – reviews often improve the average order value. Reviews are especially important where electronics are concerned:...

Binging and purging: it’s not just a food-related problem. In fact, shoppers are far more likely to buy more than they intend to keep than people with eating disorders who eat more than they intend to hold down. It might seem to be a disturbing and/or unsettling analogy, but for eCommerce companies, serial returners are creating a problem that is both disturbing and unsettling to their profits.Clear Returns, a U.K.-based company dealing in return intelligence platforms, has a constantly moving ticker...

The U.S. Supreme Court is asked to take on 5,000 or more cases every year. The number they actually hear is between 100 and 150, so whenever a decision is made, these highly prioritized cases are bound to generate interest. That was certainly the case with the eCommerce community in early March when the highest court in the land made a decision on Direct Marketing Association v. Brohl, which is more popularly known as the Colorado “Amazon tax” case. The case...

When the winter weather breaks and spring comes into view, many eCommerce companies start looking for big projects to put them in a better position for the busy months ahead. Replatforming and redesigning are two popular springtime projects, but are they always necessary? Too often, business owners start looking around for improvements and latch on to features in a solution that they don’t even need. Before you get stuck in this rut and potentially waste time and money, ask yourself a...