Ecommerce Conversations

Many small-to-midsize ecommerce merchants view Amazon as a competitor, albeit one they are force to sell on. Brent Bellm, CEO of BigCommerce, disagrees. He believes Amazon can complement an ecommerce business.

The dominance of Amazon and its marketplace is apparent. What's not so apparent are the counterfeit items that are also sold there. Rob Dunkel, is the founder of a company that uses sophisticated data analysis to identify counter-fit and trademark violators on Amazon and other leading marketplaces.

The increasing dominance of Amazon has many merchants scratching their heads, wondering how exactly to work with that company, and how that company will impact their own businesses.We recently spoke with James Thomson, a former Amazon executive, to discuss the Amazon marketplace, the FBA program, and the Prosper Show, a conference founded by Thomson to help Amazon sellers sort through it all.

Without U.S. Robotics, the early-day modem manufacturer, there arguably would not be a World Wide Web. The co-founder of U.S. Robotics, Casey Cowell, joins us to discuss that company, the early-day Internet, and his current entrepreneurial and civic interests.

Selling on Amazon’s marketplace can be challenging. There are, to be sure, millions of prospective customers. But there are also many competitors selling there, often at prices that are difficult to match or compete with. Our guest today, James Thomson, is a former senior Amazon executive who now counsels merchants on how best to use that platform.

Practical Ecommerce's Ignite 2015 conference contains 39 sessions on topics critical to small and midsize ecommerce merchants, to accelerate revenue growth and compete against larger companies.In addition, we'll feature two visionary keynote speakers. The first one, on opening day, is John Lawson. He's an ecommerce entrepreneur and a social-selling guru. His address, "The Beyonce Principal: Social Selling Funnel for Massive Results," will emphatically answer the question of how smaller ecommerce merchants can harness social media.

The rise of ecommerce has reduced local brick-and-mortar retail sales and the corresponding sales taxes from those transactions — putting states and localities in a revenue bind. A hodgepodge of efforts from the states and, now, the federal government to address the shortfall, and to tax ecommerce sales, is firmly underway. To explain the status of Internet sales taxes, and the U.S. Congressional efforts at a nationwide solution, we’re joined by Jonathan Barsade. He’s a sales tax expert, and the founder and CEO of Exactor, a sales-tax management platform.

Steve Case, the co-founder of America Online, is by any measure an Internet visionary and pioneer. His private equity firm, Revolution, invested, in 2013, $40 million in Bigcommerce, a leading ecommerce platform for smaller companies. He recently spoke with Practical Ecommerce about that investment, as well as SMB ecommerce generally.

Miva is both a pioneering early day ecommerce shopping cart and a cutting-edge progressive platform. Its President, Rick Wilson, joins us today to discuss, among other topics, how an ecommerce provider remains fresh and relevant over the years.

The co-founder of Retention Science, Jerry Jao, is an expert on using data, lots of data, to grow ecommerce revenues. Beyond that, he’s a gifted Taiwanese-born entrepreneur who proves what intelligence, hard work, and perseverance can accomplish. He recently spoke with Practical Ecommerce's Kerry Murdock on the merits of data-driven ecommerce business, among other topics.