
Ecommerce Conversations
Ecommerce Conversations is the long-running weekly podcast from Practical Ecommerce, hosted by ecommerce entrepreneur Eric Bandholz. •• Listen in as Eric interviews in-the-trenches founders and executives who address the essentials of launching, growing, and sustaining an online business. Hear their successes, mistakes, and plans — addressing customer acquisition, web traffic, marketing tactics, on-site conversion, shipping, favorite tools, funding, obstacles, and much more. •• New episodes every Friday. Subscribe to the podcast here, and then read a condensed transcript at https://www.PracticalEcommerce.com/tag/podcasts.
Latest episodes

May 22, 2014 • 15min
SLI Systems CEO On Mobile Site Search
Merchants contemplating mobile optimized ecommerce sites should also consider specialized mobile site search. SLI Systems is a leading provider of ecommerce site search solutions, and that company has just launched a mobile search option. Shaun Ryan is the CEO of SLI Systems, and he’s here to discuss specialized mobile site search with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 21min
ThePopcornFactory.com Goes Mobile
Mobile commerce is coming. Many merchants, both large and small, are contemplating their mobile commerce strategies, and one merchant that has just launched a mobile version of its ecommerce site is ThePopcornFactory.com. The person responsible for marketing that company and that site is Tom Russell. He’s senior vice president for the parent company of ThePopcornFactory.com, and he joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 19min
Early Impact CEO On Subscription Revenue Opportunities
The notion of adding additional revenue to an ecommerce business presumably appeals to merchants. And, increasingly, one way to do that is with the use of subscriptions. Amazon Prime may be the best example of a merchant selling subscriptions, but there are many ways smaller merchants can do it, too. To discuss the possibilities of subscription revenue, we welcome Massimo Arrigoni, the CEO of Early Impact, which has just launched a new hosted subscription management platform. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 18min
Venture Capital Tips For Ecommerce Firms
The lack of capital can prevent an ecommerce business from growing. But many merchants are unsure as to how to obtain capital, or how the funding process works. Our guest today has raised many millions of funding dollars over his career, most recently with RatePoint, the reputation management firm. He’s Neal Creighton, RatePoint’s co-founder and CEO, and he joins us to explain the funding and venture capital process. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 17min
Cloud Hosting Tips From An Ecommerce Merchant
Every ecommerce site has a web host. Some are hosted by shopping cart providers; others are hosted by third-party companies. And increasingly, many are hosted by cloud providers, where bandwidth and usage can adjust with the seasonal needs of a site. Our guest today has recently switched the hosting of her ecommerce site to the cloud environment. She’s Theresa Fox, managing director with SoundsTrue.com, a publisher of products and services that encourage spiritual development. She joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 18min
'Spotlight Visualizer' Allows Consumers To See Products Locally
Ecommerce merchants are innovators. And many in that industry continually find new and better ways to sell products online. One of those companies is Spotlight Retail, an ecommerce firm with 30 niche websites. Its new “Spotlight Visualizer” enables consumers to see how an item will look, in consumers’ own environments, prior to purchasing it. John Montague, the founder and owner of Spotlight Retail, is here to discuss it with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 17min
NetSuite Exec On Financial Management For Ecommerce Firms
Financial management is critical to ecommerce companies. But the tools to manage financial matters vary, and many of them don’t automatically integrate with a merchant’s ecommerce site, making the financial tracking and reporting process even more burdensome. To help us understand financial management for ecommerce firms, we are joined by Jim McGeever, chief operating officer for NetSuite, the hosted, all-in-one ecommerce and management platform. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 23min
ChannelAdvisor Ceo On Comparison Shopping Engines
Comparison shopping engines can drive traffic to an ecommerce site. But there are over 120 such engines, and how to decide which of them to use–and whether to use them at all–is our topic today. We are joined by an expert in comparison shopping engines and a pioneer in ecommerce generally. He’s Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor, an ecommerce software and service provider. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 19min
OverstockArt.com CEO On Selling Handpainted Art
You could argue that a center of the online, retail art world is in Kansas. That’s where OverstockArt.com is located, and in nine years it has grown to be a leading, online retailer of original art reproductions. The founder and CEO, David Sasson, has grown the business from inception to where it is today, and he’s with us to discuss it all. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

May 22, 2014 • 18min
TheFind.com CEO on Shopping-Only Search Engines
Specialized shopping search engines are becoming increasingly important for consumers. And among the largest of these shopping engines is TheFind.com. The site receives over 25 million visits per month, and, for ecommerce merchants listening to this, most every ecommerce product is already on that site, as the company uses patented search-engine type spiders to index virtually all products for sale online. Siva Kumar is co-founder and CEO and TheFind, and he speaks here with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.