Happy New Year From Basics Of E-Commerce!

I just want to wish everyone a Happy And Safe New Year! 2009 has been an exciting new year as we started rolling out this site over the 4th quarter of 2009. We have so much planned and under development for 2010 including more free tools and applications to help you with your online business and research. We can’t wait!  Read more... (139 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

Open Source E-Commerce Shopping Carts: Winners and Losers in 2009

I came across the following article on ecommerce-guide.com that covers the popularity of several Open Source ecommerce shopping carts. For those not familiar with the term ‘Open Source’,  it is software provided by a community of volunteers who team together to build software.   Shopping carts are one example of the type of Open Source software you can find.  But Open Source is not limited to just ecommerce.  Many of the most popular software applications (even most sold commercially) is often built on Open Source code or frameworks.  Read more... (521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Are You Offering Free Shipping? Latest Trends On One Of Your Greatest Promotion Opportunities

If you are not offering some level of free shipping to your customers, chances are you are losing sales to your competitors that do.   During Q3 2009, 42 percent of all e-commerce transactions completed in the U.S. included free shipping, up from 31 percent in Q1 2008. This was according to ComScore and can be seen in the following graph:

Free Shipping Transactions

ComScore recently surveyed customers and asked them “When making a purchase online this holiday season, which of the following statements best describes how important free shipping is to you?” :  Read more... (468 words, 2 images, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Social Media And Online Shoppers: Why You Should Consider Adding Social Media To Your Online Store

Thinking of integrating social media tools into your website? Here is some more reasons why you should according to ComScore. They found that 28 percent of those who shopped online this season said social media has influenced their purchases.

7% said they followed a Facebook fan page to find special offers and deals.
6% said they have been influenced by a friend’s Facebook status update referring to a particular product.
5% said they had followed a company on Twitter to take advantage of special offers and deals.
3% said that a friend’s Twitter tweet helped trigger their product purchases.  Read more... (191 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)