Practical Ecommerce

1 day ago | practicalecommerce.com | Eric Bandholz

Shakil Prasla once owned 12 ecommerce consumer brands generating $50 million in combined annual revenue with 50 employees. But he grew wary of the fluctuating revenue and non-stop marketing, so he pivoted during Covid to wholesale personal protective equipment. That’s when he and I last spoke. The PPE business, Gloves.com, had misgauged demand and lost, initially, a whopping $6 million. He has since recovered and pivoted again, this time to real estate and convenience-store gas stations.

5 days ago | practicalecommerce.com | Ann Smarty

Large language models such as ChatGPT generate answers to prompts by querying massive, publicly available training data. The queries address the initial prompt plus additional info likely relevant to users’ needs and then consolidate the findings into a single, comprehensive response. The additional queries extend beyond the literal text of the prompt. Hence Google coined the term “fan-out queries” earlier this year to describe the tactic.

1 week ago | practicalecommerce.com | Eric Bandholz

Michael Simpson is a New Mexico-based father of seven and a National Guard veteran. Returning from a 2021 deployment, he sought a business to acquire, hoping to avoid his previous job. A listing from Quiet Light, the business brokerage, caught his attention. Discount Catholic Products had launched in 2003 and was for sale. The company’s mission appealed to Michael. Plus it was not reliant on Amazon or a single product or imports from China — all key requirements. He purchased the business.

1 week ago | practicalecommerce.com | Ann Smarty

Answer engine optimization is not new. Google has answered queries directly on search results pages since 2014 when it launched featured snippets, and a year later with “People also ask.”Now, with the rise of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and other generative AI platforms, optimizing content to appear in those answers as sources or citations is crucial. Here’s how. Start with understanding the questions of your target audience. Use keyword research tools that filter shoppers’ questions.

2 weeks ago | practicalecommerce.com | Eric Bandholz

We often frame selling a business as “exiting.” But it’s a decision to walk away, to quit. That’s not negative, but it’s important to examine your reasons. Some are valid, others less so, and many fall into a gray area that deserves deeper thought. Ideally, founders build a business they love, one that enhances their life. Business is, to me, one of life’s greatest gifts. It offers freedom, wealth, connection, and the ability to serve, create, and leave a mark on the world.