Susan Wu says, “B2B eCommerce is growing, and it’s growing quickly. In fact, at Forrester we estimate that it will reach more than $1 trillion in the US by 2020, double the size of B2C eCommerce. B2B buyers are rapidly gearing their researching and purchasing activities toward true digital platforms. B2B sellers are similarly shifting their resources toward providing an eCommerce portal to better reach and engage with their customers. Forrester’s ForecastView team recently conducted a pioneering study on the B2B eCommerce market where we explored nine product categories and their... [...]

Seth Rand says, “Creating an online store is an exciting step forward for any business. It can sound like a daunting task. According to the State of Small Business in America Report, “only 25% of small businesses said they have websites with ecommerce functionality – in fact, 58% earn less than 10% of their sales from online purchases.” The good news is that a ton of tools exist to help you create an ecommerce site without major technical skill. If you do have luxury of a strong software platform, an experienced design and development team, and a little bit of elbow grease,... [...]

Greg Wise says, “Marketing your ecommerce site takes money — sometimes money you don’t have. Fortunately, there are plenty of free and cheap tools out there to help you get the job done. Some are as simple as hashtag use in social media, while others may take a little more research and practice. In the end, if it helps you market your ecommerce business for a fraction of the cost, why wouldn’t you go for it? The tools listed here range from promotion assistance to ad design and everything in between. Even if one of the tools wasn’t specifically designed for ecommerce, it could... [...]

Brett Ingram sells software online to businesses and individuals who need to improve their business results. He’s gotten good at it, and now he is sharing, not just his knowledge, but also his software that builds the online software stores, too, in his new product, Software Store Creator. You just use this software to create a software store in minutes. It even comes preloaded with a collection of software products you can sell for quick profits. And you can add more whenever you want. Look at how easy it is to use this in your business: • Move, add, or change menu items with simple drag-n-drop... [...]

Tracey Wallace says, “Choosing what to sell online is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as an entrepreneur. To be successful, you need to pick products that you’re passionate about andfind an ecommerce model that resonates with your personality. With that in mind, let’s look to popular TV show Shark Tank to help you get started on the right foot –– because no one embodies passion and personality like the stars of the Tank“. The Tale of Two Ecommerce Companies That Turned Down Shark Tank Deals HubSpot  [...]

Tamara Barber says, “In a post last month, Rethinking search in the mobile age, I discussed how search has consistently been one of the top drivers of website traffic over the past decade. However, as important as search is, the share of search-driven visits to the top retail sites is falling as shoppers become increasingly mobile. In fact, our research found that consumers are increasingly drawn to retail websites through avenues other than search. Email and social media sites, for instance, are already major drivers of traffic to retail sites, and they’re getting even bigger“. E-commerce... [...]

Zia Daniell Wigder says, “Last week there were a couple of great events related to global eCommerce here in New York — Borderfree had its annual Global eCommerce Forum and Adyen held alocal merchant event. A few themes emerged: Omnichannel is now a must-have. At both events, omnichannel retail was front and center. Adyen underscored the opportunities inherent in integrating online and offline payments. At the Borderfree event, Stephen Sadove, the former chairman and CEO of Saks, kicked off the event with 10 disruptive trends. He declared that #1 and #10 were most important: #1 was the shift... [...]

Owen Thomas says, “PayPal is making some of the advances it’s pushed in mobile-app payments available on the Web, the company announced Tuesday. Its in-app checkout experience, which it calls One Touch, is now rolling out to websites which already use PayPal’s payment technology. Consumers will notice a new option to stay logged into PayPal, which will remember their payment options. In a marked change, PayPal will no longer force shoppers to change their payment method from a default bank-account withdrawal; instead, the service will remember the credit or debit card or bank account... [...]

Matt Asay says, “Mobile commerce is booming. Indeed, according to Forrester’s estimates, by 2018, mobile commerce (excluding travel/food services) will exceed 53% of US online sales. But in a striking reversal to the norm, wherein the rich get access to the future first, mobile commerce is thriving first with the comparatively poor. This suggests that to truly see the future of mobile, you might first want to take a look at India or other emerging economies. The Money Is In Commerce While the history of mobile has been consumed with peddling 9-cent apps, and now in-app purchases, the... [...]

Tracey Wallace says, “In July 2014, a study analyzing the SEO of the top 500 retailers for Internet Retailer’s Mobile 500 guide found that the mobile adoption rates across those top 500 retailers were as follows: 59% use dedicated mobile sites, 15% use dynamic serving, 14% had no mobile presence, just 9% were responsive. In all, that’s less than 50 of the top 500 retailers using responsive, and that is still about a 3x increase from 2013 adoption rates. Of course, if that study were to be run again this summer, responsive is likely to take up a larger chunk of that mobile-friendly... [...]