Articles by Lou Hirsh

Small-business entrepreneurs looking to make a splash on the Web need not drown in massive site construction costs. According to experts, there are many ways to keep the tab low. And if site builders are willing to start out with a no-frills approach, they can keep costs below US$1,000 "If you're looking to build a site for under $1,000, you're not...

In its infancy, e-commerce disappointed merchants and investors who staked millions on the notion that it would somehow change the world forever. But e-commerce has grown up, and experts say it is making solid contributions to society even if the hype has faded Instead of eliciting wows -- mostly on the part of its promoters -- analysts told the E-...

Many lessons can be learned from the merchants that hawk the best-selling products in e-commerce. Among other things, experts said, top sellers offer goods with few surprises that are easy to ship; they successfully separate the product from the buying process; and they offer extensive resources that allow comparison shopping across multiple channels...

As e-commerce companies continue to hone methods for reaching the masses, they are continuing to focus on personal service. After all, their business hinges on keeping customers happy and loyal. Toward this goal, companies are employing "page pushing," live chat and other interactive methods to give their sites a human touch Meta Group e-services d...

As brick-and-mortar retail chains and long-established catalog players grab a growing share of e-commerce sales, operators of smaller online stores are finding themselves hard-pressed to stake and hold their claim to shoppers' dollars But small stores still have a role to play. Experts said they can stay in the game if, like the big-time players, t...

Search engine sites are continually on a quest to find the right formula for generating revenue. Since experience has shown that such companies cannot live by banner ads alone, they must employ a variety of techniques to make money and stand apart from competitors, according to experts To ensure long-term viability, site operators need to offer a f...

E-commerce has notched some notable successes when it comes to selling books(Amazon), auctioning items (EBay) and helping customers make travel plans (Travelocity and others). But numerous dot-com implosions also shone a spotlighton e-commerce ideas that did not go over quite as well With online commerce maturing and its highlights and lowlights we...

Despite frequent server upgrades, e-commerce sites remain as open to hacking as ever -- as witnessed by the continuous stream of headline-making viruses hitting the Internet. Online merchants often use marketing strategies to ease consumer fears, but it is ultimately technology that beats security threats Experts told the E-Commerce Times that hack...

Web users do not get loaded down with packages when they go from site to site, but they do lug some baggage in the form of passwords. Commerce and content sites increasingly ask visitors to log in with a password, taxing the memories of those who frequent multiple sites Unless they use the same password at all sites -- which is not always possible ...

While there is no single "gold standard" for online design, experts say there are a number of high-quality Web sites that manage to approach that ideal by excelling in the areas of functionality, style and ease of use There are few sites that manage to succeed in all three areas, analysts told the E-Commerce Times, but plenty that make their mark i...

Industry analysts say retailers can generate increased revenues from their Web operations without cannibalizing sales that would have been made in their offline stores and without having to make huge new investments. To accomplish this goal, experts tell the E-Commerce Times, e-tailers must do a better job of integrating all of their sales channel...

Speaking strictly hypothetically -- it is, after all, one of the few consistently profitable pure e-commerce companies around -- if EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY)were to disappear tomorrow, there would be plenty of competitors to grab up the online auction giant's customers Had it never existed, however, life on the Web could be drastically different. Experts...

While the digital divide -- the rift between those with access to computers and the Internet and without -- continues to crumble in the United States, analysts generally agree that e-commerce is not seeing a major share of the benefits On the other hand, researchers are finding evidence that e-commerce services do play a significant role in allevia...

With global tensions and economic insecurity shadowing what is typically a season of generosity and cheer, the retail industry had reason to fear that this year's holiday shoppers would shy away from offline retailers, online retailers -- or both. However, e-commerce's difficult shift from a pure-play focus to a multichannel strategy appears to be...

Experts say that strategic and operational preparations by an e-commerce company for 2002 should have been set in motion well before today In the waning weeks of 2001, companies that have not already done so must prepare themselves for the possibility of more economic pain ahead, as most experts believe current fiancial conditions could last well i...

In Part 2 of this special report, the E-Commerce Times continues to examine why an increase in taxation of online sales is all but inevitable To return to Part 1, click here....

Death and taxes. The former is not inevitable in e-commerce, although many online retail sites have met that fate in the past year or two. However, many experts say that taxes on e-commerce are indeed inevitable, as Internet shopping continues to gain in popularity and cash-strapped states look to recoup lost revenue Despite concerns from federal o...

It's one of the oldest forms of communication, but word-of-mouth remains a potent marketing force in the digital age. E-commerce experts say that pass-it-along marketing -- also known as viral marketing -- is a highly effective way to create online buzz for new products and services Analysts told the E-Commerce Times that businesses are using a num...

Whatever the future holds for online prescription drug sales, Drugstore.com (Nasdaq: DSCM) is standing by its predictions of profitability by the year 2004, even after another quarter of reported losses In fact, president and chief executive officer Kal Raman told the E-Commerce Times this week that his company refuses to accept the financial medic...