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Best of lists are everywhere this month. To join the crowd, we thought it was the perfect time to review the biggest stories from Shop.org SmartBrief and the Shop.org blog to bring you our very own top 25 retail stories in 2012. And as you can imagine, it will have a digital twist. Over 45,000 professionals from across the industry spectrum sign up to read Shop.org SmartBrief on a daily basis. Read on for a synopsis of the most-read stories from 2012, which were right in line with many of the biggest topics in the retail industry: conversion and site design, mobile, social, consumer behavior, the impact of the tech titans on retail, and omnichannel retailing.
Conversion and Site Design: Articles on website design, usability, and site conversion are always must-reads for digital retailers. This year a few of the top online merchandising posts included articles on cart remarketing, landing page design, and more.
- Cart remarketing: The secret behind online conversion
- Are you committing one of the 5 deadly sins of landing page design?
- 7 merchandising buzzwords for online retailers in 2012
- 5 mistakes to avoid on e-commerce sites
Mobile: A 2012 Forbes magazine article touted mobile as “the biggest change to hit retailing in 50 years.” Based on some of our mobile research this year and your interest in mobile we have to say that we agree. So much so that NRF has a single site dedicated to all things mobile in retail.
- 6 lessons from Gap’s mobile journey to date
- Forrester Research forecasts the future of mobile commerce in Europe
- Weighing the pros and cons of responsive web design
- Report ranks top 10 mobile shopping apps
Social: Pinterest and Facebook led the social headlines this year along with stories on what retailers are doing across the board when it comes to social media.
- Retailers: What’s your Pinterest strategy?
- How Under Armour and Warby Parker win with social media
- Retailers reap higher sales with Pinterest
Consumer Behavior and Consumer Trends: The biggest story of 2012 on the Shop.org blog was a recap of a session lead by one a top-rated Shop.org speaker, the phenomenal Amy Africa. Other top reads include articles on types of online buyers, and research on back-to-school shoppers.
- Get inside their heads: 12 factors that impact whether customers click “buy”
- 3 trends driving online back-to-school shopping in 2012
- 10 types of online shoppers
The Retail Tech Titans: Amazon, Google, Facebook, EBay, and Apple were busy in 2012 with IPOs, product launches, acquisitions, and more last year – and the Shop.org community was watching closely.
- What we need to learn from the Retail Tech Titans
- Holiday price matching wars: If you can’t beat ‘em, match ‘em
- Amazon debuts B2B retail site
Omnichannel Retail: Even if you do not agree with the term “omnichannel”, the discussions around the future of seamless customer experiences through any and all available shopping channels were one of the hottest topics for retailers in 2012.
- How digital will impact the next generation of in-store shopping
- How to organize the retail company of the future
- Customer service is changing, and so is Nordstrom
- Omnichannel excellence: You can find it at Guitar Center
- Retailers trade “e-commerce” for “omnichannel”
What’s Next in E-commerce? Globalization, personalization, and all things tablet were just a few of some of the most clicked articles of the year across the board.
- One Kings Lane CEO: 5 current trends within the e-commerce space
- Brazil and China: Emerging online retail powerhouses
- 3 trends driving e-commerce growth
For those that may have missed these articles we hope you can go back to enjoy a few of these posts. The Shop.org team looks forward to reading, writing, and watching for some of the biggest and best digital retail headlines in the year ahead.
