Yesterday, I received the most recent registration report for Shop.org’s flagship event, our Annual Summit, Sept. 21-23 in Las Vegas.  Remarkably and despite the recession, it looks like it’s going to be our biggest Summit ever.
This says two things to me.  First, it reinforces the idea that online retail is resilient in the face of [...]

Think Global. Act Local. Localization Easier Said Than Done.

When it comes to discussing their global e-commerce expansion plans, a lot of retailers talk about localization, localization, localization.
Given that many online retailers are still passively pursuing international opportunities, we’d like to draw from some of our initial international e-commerce research findings to offer one helpful way to think about localization. We’ll also share three insights about how to make sure localization initiatives are successful.

One of the intriguing initial findings of the J.C. Williams Group/Shop.org international e-commerce study is that medium-sized retailers and mid market consumer brands are expanding into international markets ahead of larger retailers.
We discussed this finding at the June Internet Retailer show with executives from a number of commerce platforms that primarily work with mid market [...]

What is the best country – or region – for international e-commerce expansion? Close to home –Canada and/or Mexico? Established e-commerce markets like the UK? Or emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific? If you’re not exploring where to go, what your market opportunity may be, and what challenges you may encounter along the way, your competitor is. In many cases, you don’t even know this competitor today.

What do you think? We want to know which global markets are of most interest to your firm.

Sam Taylor, the CEO of Oriental Trading Company, made a strong case at the last session today about the value of customer reviews. While he sang the praises of positive reviews, and said that using testimonials in catalogs and featuring top-rated product pages have boosted sales, what he had to say about the value of [...]