Each week, we publish a mishmash of ecommerce related, insight infused articles for you to smash through. Just as we collect business information across all of a merchant’s channels in a single place, we’re doing the same for ecommerce related content from a variety of top tier content creators.
If you find the material filling your appetite for knowledge, feel free to share this post, as well as any article you see here. This week it’s just a buffet of relevant, timely ecommerce articles featuring tastes of the holidays, aromas of link building, the smell of what’s in store for ecommerce in 2016, and the bitter flavor of fraud. There’s a slice of everything here, so let’s chow down (clearly, our stomachs are already anticipating the feast to come in a couple of weeks).
Dishing Out Timely Orders
We’ve got a little self-centered plug first – with the primetime holiday selling season kicking off, it’s important to know the final dates for shipping. Go and checkout our page covering the holiday shipping cut-offs for carriers like UPS, FedEx, USPS, Canada Post, and FBA. If a useful, printable calendar isn’t enough to convince you to check it out, there are also pretty snowflakes (you can even make it blizzard if you look hard enough)!
Salt in the Sales Wound
The holidays may be happy times for most of us, but that doesn’t mean your traffic is 100% on the nice list. It’s a given that traffic will jump throughout the next couple months, and there’s a chance that such an influx will bring in some nasty fraudsters attempting to pull a fast one while you pump out orders. Fortunately, Bigcommerce has 5 best practices for minimizing fraud and gives you a heads up on the most common tactics. Just as you develop strategies for content, conversions, or socials, you should do the same for fraud.
After Our 2015 Meal…
Once you’ve gotten through the delicious, hopefully-revenue-filled dessert of the holidays, you face another year of ecommerce that promises to continue changing, and Practical Ecommerce has 5 problems any small ecommerce retailer may face in 2016. You’ve probably heard it many times; ecommerce is only growing, and where there’s change, there’s risk. As consumers begin incorporating online shopping into their purchasing habits, manufacturers are getting the message – they’re beginning to sell directly to customers. Plus, with a good chunk of traffic arriving via social, merchants must realize the importance of turning social channels into sales channels.
M-Commerce Matters
The importance of mobile selling channels is at an all time high this year, with many sales forecasters, like the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Adobe, predicting that they’ll be major players. But a distinction needs to be made – are smartphones mostly for buying or shopping? eMarketer reports on some of the NRF’s own research which suggests that consumers are still using phones and other mobile devices for shopping or researching products, as opposed to buying. Screen size may be a factor in the decision to buy vs browse, since tablets have a slightly higher rate of purchase plans, at 34.5% vs 21.4%. In any case, mobile is a scrumptious channel that drives traffic and interest, if not sales.
Dishing Out Links
On the more hands on, marketing side of things, Moz has a fantastic article elaborating on the importance of building links, and how to go about reaching out for them. Link building naturally cooks up some SEO goodness, and it can act as a funnel directing traffic between two sites. But getting those links can be a pain – Moz says, at the end of the day, it’s about the value of each link, and the value of what you can provide to get them. Know how you benefit from whatever link you’re interested in locking down, and be sure that whatever you’re providing in return is irresistible for the site you’re working with.
If You’re Really Pressed for Links…
What Moz says is applicable to both B2B and B2C businesses, but another area to dig into for links is the press. We’ve got our own series of articles on how to use press releases, HAROs, and proactive pitching to secure your small business some PR (and the backlinks that come with it). Getting your name out there and differentiating yourself is important, especially in a crowded and competitive area like ecommerce where products are a search away. PR can help hone your brand, audience, and SEO, so it’s always worth a shot!
