Preparing for the holidays
Consumers always seem to stress about the holiday season. They think about all they have to do in order to have a “good showing.” They ...
View ArticleFocusing on the top 20 percent of your customers
By segmenting customer lifetime value and identifying the top 20 percent, an ecommerce company can develop a focused marketing effort to increase revenues with limited ...
View ArticleWhat can online retailers learn from the Black Friday frenzy?
Every year I make a trip to at least one store during the crazy first hours of Black Friday. I consider this a pilgrimage of ...
View ArticleTrials and tribulations of inventory management
Holding inventory can be an advantage and a disadvantage. It can be both a competitive edge and an incredible headache. Some retailers choose to only ...
View ArticleDoes Facebook’s WhatsApp purchase affect ecommerce?
This post does not address whether Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp is a good one, though my opinion will be evident to the reader. There have ...
View ArticleGrowing an ecommerce company starts with ‘why’
Business leaders speak about programs to improve customer satisfaction. However, we all deal with companies that leave us mostly dissatisfied. It’s rare that we have ...
View ArticleDigging for gold: supply chain made simple
During the gold rush of the 1800s, prospectors chased each other to find gold nuggets in rivers and mines all over the west. They were ...
View ArticleHow to evaluate offers from ecommerce vendors
Online retailers receive offers each day from marketing and technology companies promising great improvements and returns by implementing their products and services. The majority of ...
View ArticlePreparing for the 2014 holiday season
Many retailers, both online and brick-and-mortar, make most of their profits in the fourth quarter. Consumers in the U.S. typically think about the holiday season ...
View ArticleTheory of Constraints, for ecommerce companies
Two or three years ago, in October, I left the office in the middle of the day and went to Starbucks to have a cup ...
View ArticleApplying Theory of Constraints to our packaging process
In “Theory of Constraints, for ecommerce companies,” my previous post, I discussed the basics of Theory of Constraints, a system of continuous improvement developed by ...
View Article5 tips for more holiday ecommerce sales
There is a saying I’ve heard since moving to Kansas: “You make hay when the sun shines.” Well, for virtually all retailers in the U.S., ...
View ArticleThe value of focus, within Theory of Constraints
By pulling together ideas from a few different management paradigms, I’ve developed a methodology to drive growth for my ecommerce company by setting up a ...
View Article‘Thinking time’ improves an ecommerce business
“Thinking time” is underrated by leaders and managers of ecommerce companies. We operate in a fast-changing environment — competing both in technology and commerce. In ...
View ArticleChina-based merchants ship to U.S. for free
As ecommerce leaders and professionals, it is our responsibility to occasionally look at the landscape of the ecommerce industry as well as our specific space ...
View ArticleSecret sauce for an ecommerce supply chain
I recently spoke at a conference regarding supply chain collaboration. As I was preparing my presentation, it occurred to me that ecommerce companies can greatly ...
View ArticleWhat drives ecommerce sales?
Presumably all online retailers want to increase sales. I know we do at overstockArt.com. I came to the office on a recent Monday and, as usual, ...
View ArticleHow I implement new ecommerce ideas
I often take time during the workweek to think about new ideas and to look for new trends that can affect our company — positively ...
View ArticleThe beauty of compound revenue growth
When my company had sales of just $66,000 a year, I thought, “How will we ever get to a million dollars?” When we got to ...
View ArticleLessons from changing ecommerce platforms
My company, overstockArt, recently changed ecommerce platforms. It was a complete change of our website, not just look and navigation, but the entire underlying technology. We ...
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