Over the past few weeks, the Shop.org Blog Poll posed a few new questions, so herewith a snapshot on two key areas of interest to e-commerce companies right now: international expansion, and marketing initiatives focus for 2009.

To give a little background on the poll itself – the Shop.org Blog Poll is not “research” per se in the traditional sense, but rather provides a snapshot in time on a given topic. Anyone – whether retailer, vendor / supplier, consultant, or myriad other entities involved in e-commerce – can participate in the poll. For each of these two questions specifically, we encouraged poll takers to cast multiple votes (“top three” or “check all that apply”). With those caveats in mind, here’s what Shop.org Blog Poll participants had to say of late:

International Expansion. An ongoing development consideration within our industry, we asked “Where are you most likely to expand your e-commerce reach in the next few years? Please pick your top three.” Of a total 36 votes, just three indicated that they plan to focus only on the US market for the foreseeable future. By contrast, Western Europe (10 votes) and Canada (8 votes) each hold considerable appeal, perhaps partly bolstered of late by improved exchange rates for US retailers.

Where else might e-commerce players be heading in the next few years? Asia (excluding China) and Australia / New Zealand both hold appeal (four votes each), followed by China, Eastern Europe and/or Russia, and the Middle East (two votes each). Latin America, which Forrester analyst Zia Daniell Wigder recently opined “…is one region that remains largely untapped by US-based online retailers”, appears on the drawing board for just one poll taker so far.

Current economic circumstances notwithstanding, it looks like e-commerce is poised to become increasingly globally oriented in coming years.

Marketing Initiative Resources in 2009. As the annual Shop.org Marketing Workshop gets underway next week, we asked Shop.org Blog readers “Which of the following marketing initiatives are you devoting more resources to in 2009, compared to 2008? Please check all that apply.” Much like the broad Shop.org Blog audience itself, the 20 total votes were widespread. Keeping in mind the snapshot nature of this poll, it appears that video and mobile advertising are not getting more resources this year than last (and last year those resources might have been small to begin with, at least for some). On the other hand, social networking sites (3 votes) and blogs (4 votes) look like they may benefit. More “traditional” online marketing tactics and tools, however, could also be getting additional resources this year, including affiliate programs and organic search.

On May 5, we’re releasing the 2009 State of Retailing Online (SORO) Marketing Report to Shop.org members and other retailers who participated in the 2009 SORO Survey 1. Conducted with our partner, Forrester Research, and now in its 12^th year, this research will lend perspective and benchmarking on how the online retailer community specifically is tackling online marketing this year.

This week’s blog poll:  tell us which topics you would like Shop.org to tackle in an upcoming Webinar this year!

As always, I welcome your feedback, as well as ideas for future blog poll questions.

Best – Fiona