Until now.

I am really excited to announce the creation of the Shop.org Think Tank. Over the last several months, I’ve been working with Scott Silverman and the Shop.org Board to find a way to bring some of Shop.org’s best and brightest members together to solve some our industry’s most important issues.  We think this group can be the pre-eminent thought leadership center for e-commerce and cross-channel retail.

Our mission? To harness the vision of industry leaders – both digital retail business operators and the those who develop products and solutions for digital retail – to provide guidance, credibility and innovative ideas to help Shop.org members tackle the most pressing strategic issues facing their organizations and the industry today and, more importantly, over the next ten to fifteen years.

We want you!

We’re now soliciting applications for membership into the inaugural Shop.org Think Tank.  Applications are due by August 13, 2010, to be considered by the selection committee.

We’ll select members by the end of summer in time for our first meeting at the Annual Summit in September.

Potential topics will include:

• What is the future of retail over the next 5, 10 and 15 years, and how should retailers prepare now?
• How do retailers navigate through the new disruptive business models powered by digital such as private sale sites, deal-of-the-day sites, community buying, social shopping, mobile commerce, gaming mechanics, mass customization, GPS-based, etc.
• How should multi-channel retail organizations organize around cross-channel strategies? What types of employee incentives would best drive the cross-channel strategies?
• What types of metrics should drive the industry? Which metrics in use today work well and which do not?
• How does online retail’s relative immaturity contrast with traditional retail’s maturity? What are the pros and cons of these stages of development? How can the pros be leveraged and the cons mitigated?
• How should retailers use and benefit from social media?
• What cultural and logistical issues trip up retailers today as they expand internationally and how are these issues best addressed?
• What types of freemium models are realistically viable in retail today? Does the possibility change in five or ten years?
• What are the pros and cons of an OPEN brand strategy? How can believers sell this concept to non-believers? What are the best metrics to prove success?

Check out the group charter for more details about qualification and member requirements.

I hope you’ll consider applying to the group. We’re looking forward to some excellent conversations that lead to lots of value for the entire community.