Ecommerce Conversations

Jill Exler is founder and CEO of Jexbo.com, an online retailer of books that have been self-published by their authors. She founded the business in 2007, after having been frustrated by the options to sell her own self-published book. Exler’s business is based in Michigan, in the U.S., but she divides her time between there and Germany. She joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Doing business on the Internet requires the use sophisticated software and complicated processes. Many of these innovative products have been patented; Google and Amazon, for example, hold many hundreds of patents. But the U. S. Supreme Court may be about to greatly restrict the issuance of patents. To help us understand the case at hand and its relevance to software and Internet developers, we are joined by Lawrence M. Hadley. Mr. Hadley is a seasoned intellectual property attorney and a partner in the firm of Hennigan, Bennett and Dorman, in Los Angeles. He speaks with Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.

Video provides a compelling way for retailers to sell products. But is it for every ecommerce merchant? And, is it being fully utilized?One man who has a strong opinion on the matter is Justin Foster. He’s the founder of The Video Commerce Consortium, a group of ecommerce professionals, online marketers, and technologists dedicated to advancing the use of video in ecommerce. He’s our guest in this “eCommerce Conversation” with Practical Ecommerce Contributing Editor Kevin Patrick Allen.

Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is a complex issue that’s difficult for ecommerce merchants to understand. It’s also a complex issue for vendors. But it cannot be ignored. Massimo Arrigoni is the co-owner of Early Impact, developer of the licensed shopping cart ProductCart. He has thoroughly studied the PCI compliance issue. In this Ecommerce Conversation he gives us a vendor perspective on becoming PCI compliant.

Cynthia Snyder is the founder of Yonder Star Christmas Shop, a Pennsylvania-based online seller of Christmas Nativity scenes. Snyder launched the business in 2000 using a Yahoo! shopping cart. She joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock to discuss the business’s history and its current operations.

Running a business is challenging even when the economy is growing. But during a recession, it can be especially tough. Scott Dunlap, CEO of NearbyNow, understands that.NearbyNow, Inc. was founded in 2005 to simplify shopping for consumers who browse online but buy in stores. The company was showing solid growth until the economic downturn. That’s when NearbyNow management had to rethink their business model. We hear about Dunlap’s experience in this conversation with Practical Ecommerce’s Kevin Patrick Allen.

TransFS is a comparison shopping website for credit card processing providers. Sean Harper is the company’s CEO and co-founder. He joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kevin Allen to discuss the state of credit card processing for smaller online merchants, including PCI compliance rules.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission recently announced changes to its “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”. Those changes address endorsements by bloggers and others who accept payment to review a product. Failure to follow the rules can result in substantial fines.In this “Ecommerce Conversation,” Practical Ecommerce’s Kevin Patrick Allen talks with Julie O’Neill, of the Washington D.C. office of the law firm Morrison & Foerster. She’s a former staff attorney for the FTC in New York and offers guidelines pertaining to your business relationship with bloggers and reviewers.

It has become conventional wisdom that an email list is a vital weapon in your marketing arsenal. And in the world of email marketing there is no bigger name than Constant Contact. Eric Groves is senior vice president, market development for Constant Contact and he’s the author of the new book The Constant Contact Guide to Email Marketing. We hear Groves’ insights for merchants in this conversation with Practical Ecommerce’s Kevin Allen.

Online shoppers are increasingly relying on video to demonstrate a product or explain its use. But for many ecommerce merchants, producing, embedding and playing the video is a complicated, confusing process. There’s a company, however, that provides all of these video services on a self-serve basis, for a low monthly cost. It’s called Faculte.com and its founder is Maher Hakim, who joins Practical Ecommerce’s Kerry Murdock.