In any industry, it is crucial to keep up with the latest trends, buzz and how successful companies are, well, successful. In the
ever-changing landscape of
e-commerce, it’s even more
important to stay current.
There are many ways
to gain more knowledge:
• E-commerce Magazines & Ezines
• Marketing Research Reports & Whitepapers
• Conferences & Summits
• Forums & Communities
• Trade Publications based on your specific area
We recommend tapping the following resources to stay schooled in e-commerce.
Internet Retailer
The Internet Retailer show in Chicago in June is king at educating those in E-commerce about industry trends. Their monthly, glossy print magazine is free and all content is available online as well. IR also offers various newsletters that blast out daily, usually a grouping for top stories based on a certain theme, such as SEO or news from IR500 etailers.
In addition to daily updates and a monthly print magazine, IR also publishes the annual Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide– the 2008 copy was just released last month. This report highlights the Top 500 E-commerce sites and provides a detailed analysis of average order size, search engine rankings and conversion rates. There is a reason these 500 sites are raking in the most dough from online shoppers. Learn from them. The IR Top 500 Guide is $65.
The 2009 IR show will be in Boston, so mark your calendars.
Website Magazine
Website Magazine is a free print and web magazine aimed at helping people run successful online businesses, increasing traffic and in general keeping people updated on the latest industry trends. The magazine is divided into basic areas and offers forums, a daily blog and an archive of past articles.
E-commerce Times
The E-commerce Times network of news sites keeps readers informed on the latest news in E-commerce and technology. Updated daily, it offers news on big players in the industry, as well as e-commerce trends. Its main page offers the headlines on its sister newsletters, too. E-commerce Times also features various white papers that pertain to e-commerce, as well as an archive of past news stories. The online resource also can be delivered via e-mail. Visit ecommercetimes.com to read up.
Search Marketing Standard Magazine
Searchmarketingstandard.com focuses solely on online marketing and in fact, is the leading publication in search marketing. Search Marketing Standard, which also has a print version, has a very clean and well-organized website with resources divided into a dozen important categories.
Marketing Sherpa -
Have you ever heard of Marketing Sherpa? If you haven’t, you are missing out on one of the best e-commerce resources available. Marketing Sherpa provides numerous research and reports for a variety of industries, but pertaining to e-commerce, they really excel. Its annual report, The E-commerce Benchmark Guide is considered by many to be the e-commerce bible. If your developer has never heard of Marketing Sherpa, run away.
In the 2007 report, there is data from over 1900 e-commerce sites, survey results from over 2400 online shoppers, heat map studies which show how the eye looks at a website and in the mix of lots of content, there are hundreds of charts and graphs. This guide shows why people buy online and most importantly, why they don’t buy online. No etailer should be without this annual guide. For that data contained in Marketing Sherpa’s report, the $279 investment pays for itself.
Industry Events
E-commerce folks can really rack up the flyer miles by attending the many events happening each year. Solid Cactus just spent most of June at these shows, including IR and Ebay Live.
Remember to look outside e-commerce for conferences. Many shows are specific to your vertical industry you sell, for example, pets, gifts or electronics. Attending an annual pet product show can show you what others in your vertical are doing.
Forums
Reaching out to your peers in the industry is a great way to keep up with trends. There are dozens of forums out there and our favorite, the forum at ebizInsider.com has been getting quite a bit of buzz lately.
What Are You Reading?
Share your ideas and suggestions at the Ebiz Insider Forums.
