Allison Enright says, “Amazon.com Inc., the largest online retailer in North America and Europe, has released its 2016 annual report. Data in the report shows where and how Amazon generates revenue, and the contributions of each business segment. By key geographic market Amazon generates two-thirds of its total revenue from its business interests in the United States, including its retail business, marketplace, seller services and its computing business, Amazon Web Services. Amazon’s next-largest markets for sales are Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. By business segment Retail products... [...]

Emma Koehn says, “Online purchases of less than $1000 made from overseas suppliers will be subject to the goods and services tax (GST) from July 1, but overseas retail giants are now fighting it out over how and when the policy should be implemented. Global shopping marketplace eBay has said the policy could force it to prevent Australians from buying its foreign sellers, while Amazon is arguing that logistics providers should be responsible for collecting and processing the tax. But some smaller local operators say the specifics of the collection processes don’t matter as much as the... [...]

David Mercer says, “Amazon is a truly gargantuan marketplace with millions of products and hundreds of thousands of sellers all competing to make sales and capture market share. According to the Seattle Times there are more than 2 million sellers registered on Amazon’s marketplace. It’s a vibrant, living ecommerce ecosystem that is full of opportunity. Being one of the biggest and baddest marketplaces around comes with great advantages for Amazon, which often enjoys pride of place in Google’s organic search results, regularly capturing multiple results on the first page. With Amazon... [...]

Nikki Gilliland says, “It’s a hard thing for a writer to admit, but sometimes, it can be downright tricky to find the right words. When it comes to searching for products online, it’s usually much easier to imagine what you want than describe it. Luckily, visual search is helping to change this, making it much easier for consumers to find exactly what it is they’re looking for. I attended Brighton SEO last week, where Purma Virji from Microsoft gave a talk all about this topic. So, what exactly is visual search, and more specifically, how is it changing the way we buy online? With... [...]

William Johnson says, “After you get your eCommerce website live, it’s time to run into the serious business of selling your products. The two primary challenges which the website faces initially are: 1. How will people get to know about your website? 2. How to attract people to come to your website and make a final go with purchasing products from there? Digital marketing is the all round solution for the issues stated above. Right from optimizing your website according to the basic rules of Google to stretching  promotional activities across various online channels, digital marketing... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Dark patterns are deceptive parts of a digital user interface, designed to trick the user into making a decision that benefits the business involved. Darkpatterns.org is a terrific website conceived by Harry Brignul as part of a campaign to raise awareness of dark patterns. The site includes a roundup of the most common categories of dark patterns, as well as a hall of shame with examples submitted by the UX community. I thought I would select some examples of dark patterns found in ecommerce checkouts to highlight the issue. Most of the examples are taken from the #darkpatterns... [...]

Laura Forer says, “Consumers’ use of mobile and digital devices while shopping in-store has increased significantly in the past few years, an infographic by CUBE, a company that specializes in providing digital customer experiences, points out. For example, 5% of retail sales were influenced by mobile devices in 2013, but by 2016 that figure had jumped to 37%, and 22% of consumers spend more as a result of using digital devices in-store, according to data the infographic cites. But incorporating effective omnichannel strategies can be challenging: The strategies of 93% of brands and... [...]

Barry Feldman says, “Star ratings are simple, but they have an immense effect. They increase social proof, boost word-of-mouth marketing, and improve the results of paid ads. And, most important, they influence purchases. So… What’s social proof? Social proof is “a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation.” That’s the answer you get by Googling “social proof,” courtesy of Wikipedia. Stay tuned. The rest of this article is 99% jargon-free. If you’re hip... [...]

Marsha Hunt says, “Shopify is used by tens of thousands of entrepreneurs to sell products online. The Shopify app store never falls short of hosting thousands of intuitive apps that are simplifying lives and boosting productivity every day. The sheer number of apps in the store may find you confused and overwhelmed to find the perfect app, as the search results can leave people scratching their heads. Some high quality while others happen to be quite efficacious…and yes, free! The free apps elicit a great deal of interest from store owners at Shopify because it gives them an opportunity... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “By one estimate, nearly 40 cents of every dollar spent in the US on online purchases is spent on Amazon. Some 65 million Prime members spend an average $1,200 a year on Amazon. This eclipse of one marketplace over the orb of e-commerce has forced brands big and small to reevaluate where to put their energies and invest their resources. Amazon’s scale, coupled with consumer trust and one-click shopping, has proven a potent combination. The sales volume can be intoxicating, outweighing margin hits from seller fees and advertiser costs paid to Amazon. Amazon’s dominance... [...]