Christianna Cannon

While shipping is a crucial part of running an online store, you may not realize how much potential it has for advancement of your brand. When a customer receives and opens your package, you're presented with a chance to make a memorable impression on them — an opportunity most retailers don't take advantage of.

Some eCommerce business owners may resent or balk at the idea of offering free shipping. The sentiment is understandable: it is only free for customers, and the business eats the cost. With that said, savvier minds may see many potential benefits in offering a perk beloved by customers of every demographic. For evidence of its potential effectiveness, look no further than the annual holiday-season event known as Free Shipping Day.

Green Monday is the last Monday with at least 10 days until Christmas, which usually the second Monday in December.

The name was first used by eBay in 2007 to describe it as their best online sales day during that month, and since then it's become known as the third-best day for online shopping, right behind Cyber Monday and Black Friday. 

Green Monday is also called Cyber Monday 2 as it's seen as technically a second Cyber Monday, and consumers are drawn to the "second chance," especially[...]

Let's face it — returns are no fun, but there's always a chance they'll happen.

No matter how informative your product descriptions, how high-quality your images, and how great overall your products are, you'll still need to deal with customers who want to return their purchase.

In fact, some customers deliberately buy multiple variants of a product — usually clothing — intending to keep only one and return the rest!

The use of an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) system to handle returns[...]

When running an online store, the selection of what shipping methods to offer your customers is going to be one of the most important decisions to make.

The effect of this decision goes beyond the prices you and your customers pay for shipping — it can have an overall effect on the way you run your business.

Customers love free shipping, but it's not always possible for an online store to make it available.

Besides, there are other ways to make shipping relatively painless for your customers,[...]

Customers love to save time and effort, especially on tasks they often find frustrating.

For this reason, gift wrapping has been a popular service offered by retailers for over a hundred years.

Some people feel that wrapping is part of the fun of giving, but a large portion of gift shoppers can't stand wrapping gifts themselves. They find it too time-consuming and too difficult to do well, and also cite running out of materials and having no room at home as reasons they don't like to wrap gifts[...]

Retailers worldwide look forward to the holiday season with intense anticipation. Every recent year, holiday eCommerce shopping numbers have steadily climbed. People are showing a greater preference for shopping online than ever before, and it's time you got in on the action.

It's never too early to start preparing your online store for the holiday season. Even months ahead, you can get a few tasks out of the way to give yourself an easier time later on, when you'll likely be much busier.

We're not saying to cover your homepage in gifs of snowflakes and holly in mid-October — rather, to start early with the behind-the-scenes preparations so you can seize the moment as soon as holiday shopping begins.

These 10 action items will help you get ready for the busiest[...]

Understanding your customer is one of the most important goals for any business, whether eCommerce or brick-and-mortar. The knowledge of what motivates your customers will help you build a solid strategy for forming good relationships with them. Among other things, you need to know what they like and dislike, why they prefer certain products over others, and why they sometimes return their purchases.

Everyone wants to make more sales. Conversion strategies for eCommerce are endless, but some of the best are easily overlooked. For instance, did you know the way you handle shipping can affect your conversion rate? In some ways it's obvious — a store with overpriced or slow shipping will most likely make fewer sales, but shipping isn't just a potential source of issues. In fact, shipping policies can boost your conversions as well. But how?

These 3 proven methods will help you automatically [...]

If you run an online store, you're familiar with the fact that customers have varying needs. To provide the best shopping experience possible, it's important to anticipate these needs and have systems in place to support them. If your customers begin requesting a feature you don't have, you should look into it right away and determine what it would cost for you to implement it— if anything— and weigh that against the potential cost of getting a new customer. Remember, customers who feel they're[...]

Store credits are more than just a substitute for a cash refund. They're a powerful customer service tool that can open up new ways for you to process returns. The way you implement store credits as a customer service strategy should depend on what you sell and what your customer base is like, but if you've been thinking of store credits as a "weak" version of a refund, it's time to reevaluate what they can do for your business. In fact, store credits should be considered a vital component of[...]

Shopping cart abandonment is one of the biggest challenges for an online retailer to overcome. Almost 70% of all online shopping carts are abandoned — the customer places items in their cart, but never completes the order. There are tons of reasons a customer might abandon their cart, but one particular factor stands out above the others: shipping!

Customers love wish lists. They're a license to window-shop, without the restraints of budget or time. Online shoppers build millions of wish lists every day, across countless eCommerce websites, and nothing beats the satisfaction of coming back to finally buy something added to a wish list long ago.

At first, you may underestimate the power wish lists actually have. But did you know that wish lists are very helpful to merchants, too? If you run an online store, you can use customer wish lists[...]

During hurricane season, many storms cross the Caribbean, that requires us to keep close watch on its possible impact to South Florida and 3dcart's offices. With this in mind, we want to ensure all our users that our team is prepared for this situations and even in the case we're affected by a storm, our service wouldn't be interrupted. 

Anyone into internet advertising has come across conflicting information about the effectiveness of Facebook ads. The great news for marketers everywhere is that Facebook advertising is alive and well, and has vastly improved in its targeting capabilities. Plus, the highly-anticipated 3dcart Version 8 release has a built-in integration for the powerful Facebook Dynamic Ads.

SEO is such an important factor in online marketing today that good SEO features are an absolutely crucial part of any website. When building an online store, you need to be sure that your eCommerce platform supports all the features that will let you implement SEO best practices.

But what makes an eCommerce platform great for SEO? We reached out to several SEO professionals for their input.

Put yourself in the following scenario: you're shopping online for a new shirt. You find one you really like, and check the product information. It doesn't say much, but you know your size and the pictures look good, so you go ahead and order. A few days later, your new shirt arrives and you remove it from the packaging to try it on. It's a little larger than you expected, but maybe it will shrink in the wash. Actually, it doesn't seem to be cotton— it's a little itchy. What blend of fabrics is[...]

You may have heard of Houzz, a platform and community for homeowners, home remodeling, and design. Founded as a means of bringing homeowners and professionals together, Houzz is also a successful platform for merchants selling home décor, furniture, supplies, and more— everything needed for a home.

We at 3dcart are very pleased to announce that in Version 8 we have added Apple Pay to our ever-growing list of integrated payment processors. Now, 3dcart merchants and their customers alike can benefit from the convenience of a safe, secure, one-touch checkout process.