Each week, we publish a mishmash of ecommerce related, insight infused articles for your 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, we’re covering taxes, content, some fellow e-retailers’ perspectives, as well as some holiday tips regarding how consumers research products.
A taxing ordeal
As a business grows, you can guarantee one thing – its taxes will likely do the same. For most of us, tax compliance is considered a labyrinth of “buts” and “ifs,” but Bigcommerce has your back. Take a look at their article on best practices for tax compliance as you scale. There are quite a few tools to help you out, and, if you want the latest scoop on tax legislation effecting ecommerce, look no further than our own post on MFA and RTPA.
You will only read 20% of this
Content marketing is (or at least should be) a chief part of an online store’s marketing strategy, but a heart-breaking 80% of your content is likely scanned over. Econsultancy gets into the insides of why we browse web pages and only read 20% of content, as well as how our minds and eyes work as we read online. There is a clear difference in how we react to reading a newspaper or magazine versus viewing a blog post, so be sure to give their post a look.
Free advice on free shipping
But if you aren’t a fan of reading in general, take a listen instead. Free shipping is a major shipping and marketing strategy for many entrepreneurs, but the question of how to compete with giants like Amazon is ever present. eCommerceFuel’s podcast cuts the issue down to size and covers useful ways to implement free shipping and raise your bottom line while satisfying your customer.
Straight from the merchant’s mouth
When you’re running (or thinking of starting) an online store, it’s always interesting to hear from people that went through the same thing. Shopify asked 40 of their successful merchants for their best piece of advice for some inspirational insights. It’s very interesting to see their perspectives on what catapulted their businesses forward, as well as how to to avoid the same mistakes they made, so check it out.
For a new fulfillment strategy
Along the same line, if you’re considering a transition from in-house to any other form of outsourced fulfillment, Practical Ecommerce provides a useful, first-person account on the fulfillment migration. There’s also a previous post on finding and selecting a third-party fulfillment company to boot. Any experience in changing to a different strategy is always appreciated.
In search of holiday shopping research
Labor Day marked the unofficial start of the holiday selling season, which signals merchants to begin ramping up their stores. But how do customers begin their holiday shopping? Obviously, we’re jumping the gun here, but, according to a survey by G/O Digital, more than 60% of customers use search engines to research products prior to visiting any store. Interestingly, Amazon placed in second at nearly 20%.
