eCommerce

One of the key features that every database must have is scalability. This is particularly true for eCommerce websites where thousands of transactions take place every day. As such, for eCommerce websites to run smoothly you need to increase the storage as well as memory as your customer base expands. Which is why you need to know about scaling your MySQL databases. Scaling is important for merchants that are looking to add commodity servers as well as improve their read and write performance without migrating databases to bigger servers.

Generally, businesses can scale MySQL databases on cloud effectively, increasing their capacity to handle growth without having to invest in hardware. Even then, MySQL presents limitations, hence it is not surprising for your database to exhibit latency and performance issues that translate to missed revenue. To counter this, you may opt for a database that has the capability of scaling out horizontally, effectively being able to handle an unlimited number of users.

Part of the reason for the success of online retailers is the ability to gather information on customers so that they can be targeted with appropriate offers.

Retail analytics and engagement specialist Euclid Analytics is launching a new platform that aims to give brick and mortar retailers some of the same advantages.

Although they account for only two percent of all emails sent, triggered marketing messages -- those sent to mark birthdays and other events -- generate 10.2 percent of email-driven revenue and 9.7 percent of email-driven orders.

This is among the findings of a study by Yes Lifecycle Marketing, the company behind marketing and analytics platform Yesmail360, which shows that people are twice as likely to open triggered messages as they are general marketing emails.

Companies selling IT solutions via channel partners can easily find that they spend all their time dealing with resellers and distributors, and consequently lose touch with their end users.

Channel management company Zyme is launching a new cloud platform that helps global B2B and B2C enterprises monitor and optimize the performance of their distribution channels through timely, actionable intelligence.

Marketers are constantly trying to find new ways of engaging with consumers with their message. But although technology is important there still needs to be a human angle.

Content creation specialists Ceros and Column Five have taken a look at the ways in which brands are experimenting with their content and using technology to help drive home their message.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) has done much to cut credit card fraud by ensuring that businesses comply with the rules.

But Charles White founder and chief executive of UK-based risk consultancy Information Risk Management (IRM) argues that it has now become little more than a tick box activity which enterprises go through to gain accreditation.

It’s a jungle out there in the big, bad world of ecommerce. You’re having a hard enough time bringing potential customers to your website in the first place, what with your competitors striving to undercut your prices and outrank you in Google searches. That means when people do visit your site, you want to do everything you can to encourage them to stay there -- and ultimately, to convert.

Fortunately, there are a few techniques -- some tried and trusted, others a little more advanced -- that you can adopt to boost your conversion rate. Read on for our top five tips to transform your website into a deadly selling tool…

Amazon is preparing to expand its business with the addition of several new lines of private label brands that it will begin selling in the coming weeks.

The company’s private brands will initially be available to Amazon Prime subscribers and will include perishable foods, tea and coffee, vitamins and baby food as well as other household items such as laundry detergent and diapers.

New research shows that a majority of brands are unprepared when it comes to implementing a mobile strategy and aren't allocating enough resources to improve the mobile experience to meet consumer expectations.

The study by experience management software company Sitecore shows that although 97 percent of brands believe a good mobile experience impacts customer loyalty, 41 percent of respondents have either no mobile strategy in place at all, or have a mobile strategy that has yet to be implemented. In addition, 70 percent of these brands believe that their organization will not deliver on a mobile experience strategy for at least another six months.

Digital wallets make payments easier, but you still need a separate app or card to take advantage of loyalty schemes or coupon offers.

London-based mobile consultancy and messaging provider Veoo is launching a new mobile wallet that brings everything together by harnessing current Apple Wallet and Android Pay functionality, but also letting marketers engage with their customers.

In order to get a competitive advantage, retailers are increasingly looking to deliver a rich, interactive eCommerce experience for their customers. The problem with this is that it can lead to platforms being loaded down with extra functions that result in a drop in performance.

Application delivery specialist InstartLogic has announced that it's partnering with IBM to help retail clients accelerate the performance of their eCommerce platforms.

Spending on social media advertising has increased by 86 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2015. It's also up eight percent when compared to last year's final holiday shopping quarter.

These findings come from agile marketing specialist Kenshoo based on data managed by its platform for over 3,000 advertiser and agency accounts. It attributes the growth to the appeal of new ad types like Facebook Dynamic Product Ads and increased inventory through Instagram.

More than a third (38.5 percent) of merchants don’t even know what type of risks new technologies such as mCommerce bring. They most likely wouldn’t recognize a fraud threat even if they were right in the middle of it.

Those are the conclusions written in the new 2016 Mobile Payments & Fraud Survey, released by Kount. The figures are quite a surprise, knowing that mobile fraud increased by 81 percent between 2011 and 2015.

New research by business organization the CBI in conjunction with IBM shows that a digital divide is opening up across the British economy, with just over half (55 percent) of 'pioneer' firms adopting digital technologies and processes, while the remaining 45 percent are falling behind.

Despite the UK taking top place globally for e-commerce and fifth place for the availability of technology, it ranks only fourteenth in the world for company-level adoption of digital technology, with many companies struggling to digitize their businesses at the rate of peers in other countries.

Cyber crime is an increasingly serious business and a new report released today by Trustwave looks at the top trends from the past year based on real-world data from data breach investigations.

Key findings from the report include that 97 percent of applications tested by Trustwave in 2015 had at least one vulnerability. In addition 10 percent of the vulnerabilities discovered were rated as critical or high risk.