I’m thrilled to post for the first time as a new member of the Shop.org team.  I’ve joined Shop.org as the VP of Member Services.  I’m excited about all of the different opportunities to help the digital retail community.

I’ve joined Shop.org from Discovery, where I was focused on the online marketing space, including partnerships, affiliates, search, B2B sales, and direct response television.  As a frequent poster on this blog in the past, there are a number of areas that I’m looking forward to participating in:

Stimulating discussion – One of things that I valued as a retailer was the ability to talk to my friends in the community and get a quick read on situations – things like what were they doing about New York affiliates or how the economy was affecting higher price point goods.  I enjoyed posting to the Shop.org blog, especially with the high quality of feedback I received.  I’d like to see what we can do to increase the frequency of posting, and bring in some new bloggers.  For example, one of our members has recently conducted a survey of fellow retailers on their email usage - if you’d like a copy, let me know.  And, we’ll make sure it’s added to the message boards.

Community – Along the same lines, Shop.org has a built in social community, both online and off. There hasn’t been a great location for privately sharing thoughts and information in the digital retail community.  I’d like to make sure our members are aware of the discussion options available to them, both on the Shop.org message boards and elsewhere.  Also, the regional dinner meetings have been very popular, and I hope to work with the community to expand the opportunities for in-person interaction going forward.

Mentoring program – I’m looking forward to helping relaunch the mentoring program.  If this is something you’d like to participate in, either as a mentor or mentee, let me know.

Friends and Family Discounts – A fun one:) There are a lot of friends and family discounts from online retailers that get circulated this time of year.  Have something you want to share?  Email me and I’ll put it on the password protected message boards for Shop.org members.

Let me know how we can help.

Josh