Fraudulent activity for card-not-present (CNP) transactions has been sharply increasing. According to research from ACI Worldwide, online retail fraud attempts have increased 30 percent year over year. While part of this is due to the increasing success of the ecommerce industry, the enhanced security of chip-and-PIN cards utilized by brick-and-mortar retail have influenced fraudsters to focus on “easier” CNP transactions. More...

As an ecommerce business, your website serves as a primary resource for users to learn about you and your products. Your branding represents the way you communicate this information, distinguish yourself from other businesses, and make an impression on your audience. Consistency is key for effective branding, but at some point, you may need to rethink your brand identity to better connect with your audience. If you’re considering rebranding your business, keep these principles in mind.

Analysis: Before rebranding, a thorough analysis of your customers and marketplace is necessary. Evaluate industry trends, competitors, and audience demographics and think about how your current branding fits that picture. This will give you an idea of how much your brand needs to be altered and in which direction. This type of analysis can be extremely complex, so an outside consultant may be necessary. More...

One of the best ways to make the jump from ecommerce to Mcommerce is to build an ecommerce site that uses Responsive Design – meaning that the site interface can automatically scale itself to fit any screen, from desktop, to tablet, to smartphone. Responsive websites remove the duplicate efforts that come with managing a combination of standard and mobile websites, plus it standardizes the user experience across all types of devices. However, a good Responsive Design requires you to think about your website a little differently.

For example, you may be tempted to start your new Responsive Design using the big beautiful canvas of a desktop screen. However, designing for desktop first, then trying to squeeze all the crucial elements of your site down to a mobile friendly layout is quite difficult. Instead, start with an efficient mobile design that you can build out when scaling to larger screens.

You should take note of how progressive enhancement affects your site content. “Progressive enhancement” refers to when website features are layered, and designed to appear only when a browser can support them. This includes elements that appear or disappear depending on screen size. Be aware of what each element of your site is designed to do when the screen size is changed to ensure that the content flows smoothly and functions correctly.

Responsive Design is more complex than basic HTML, so don’t be afraid to seek out a team that is experienced in Responsive Design principles to point your ecommerce site in the right direction. That way, you can make the best possible impression on your customers at launch.

The holiday season is fast approaching, and mcommerce is growing rapidly. According to IBM Digital Analytics, about 23% of ecommerce sales came from a mobile device – and this number is expected to rise. With this in mind, it may be wise to focus on your mobile strategy this holiday season. In order to provide users with an easy and enjoyable mobile experience, your first priority should be improving your “site search” functionality. More...

Understanding the big data collected by your ecommerce site is important for growing your audience and sales numbers. But, the industry uses the term “big” data for a reason. Which areas should you focus on for the best ROI? In today’s industry, you need to focus on data that helps you better understand your customers and enables you to create a strategy of improvement. The following areas should do just that. More...