Of the many barriers the the International E-commerce Expansion Benchmark Study highlighted, the one that requires the most urgent attention is the generally poor online experience that most international shoppers encounter, an ironic similarity to the early days of e-commerce in the U.S. the study points out.

Another key finding was that an expanded range of strategic options has replaced the “all or nothing” mindset that until recently prevailed among international strategists. Each option has its own different risk/reward profile and collectively, they provide online retailers and consumer brands greater strategic flexibility, which is critical in today’s challenging retail environment.

A “middle” stage of international e-commerce expansion is emerging, which the study calls the “Participatory” stage. Aided in part by the emergence of “sell-and-ship” solutions providers, this stage offers online retailers a low-cost, low-risk way to dramatically improve the international customer experience while also ramping up global sales.

For those of you with children under 12, it’s likely that you’ve seen at least one of the 14 Shrek movies since 2001.  If so, you probably recall the celebration scenes at the end of the movies where orges, dragons, gingerbread men, donkeys, princes, kings, etc. dance, feast and celebrate with one another.  In the aftermath of the [...]

This week, I attended the “Cutting Edge” track at the Shop.org Annual Summit. Stellar speakers, great conversations, excellent audience questions – in other words, the perfect venue for sparking a lot of really interesting ideas, balanced with very practical advice from the speakers. The first session specifically explored the role of mobile in retail, with [...]

Now that the Shop.org Summit is over, how much do you remember from this year’s event? Take this short quiz to find out. (You don’t need to have been at the event to do well on this quiz, but of course it helps…)
1. Who was the very first person to speak from the main stage [...]

I was able to chat with Kelly after her keynote where I drilled-down on her suggestion that retailers can and should engage their customers to conduct research.  Apologies for the very rough and quick edits done on the show floor. The first clip has a noticeable jump at the end (to remove a loud boom [...]