These are interesting times to be sure. While some are claiming that there is little relation between what is happening on Wall Street to what is happening on Main Street, there is little doubt that retailers have a lot to worry about. Want an example of how things trickle down through the economy? Consider my children's lemonade stand they used to set up in our business park. Last year, they minted money. This year, they never opened. Why? On most days,

There were a few presentations from Internet Retailer about video that peaked my interest. Dave Witzig from ShopNBC discussed the impact of video on their highly successful ecommerce site and made some very strong statements that should be of interest to everyone. 1( Product videos should be your focus. ShopNBC has 6,000 1-3 minute product videos )representing half of their total SKUs(. Focus on these videos primarily before going into other areas.

Even though I am home, I will continue to write about the Internet Retailer conference over the next few days. Today, here are some thoughts about social marketing trends. It is clear that internet retail is currently in love with the concept of marketing socially. If I heard one presentation about social marketing, I heard thirty. Of course, most of them were almost useless because here is a little secret.

Today, Internet Retailer released their annual Top 500 Guide that chronicles the online retail industry in general and the top 500 online retailers in particular. As I am listening to their presentation of the report, I am typing these highlights. Total E-Retail revenue hit $166 billion in the US in 2007, representing 6.3% of total revenue. The top 500 online retailers accounted for 61% of the total E-Retail revenue. Total retail growth was at 3.

I am at the Internet Retailer conference in Chicago this week. You do not hear much about this conference in the blog world for some reason. That is strange considering that there are 5,000 attendees and practically every major company in internet retail is represented here. There is always a lot to learn from this conference, though you have to look for the nuggets. The keynote and major presentations are from leaders of major retailers. In my opinion,

After yesterday's firestorm, I feel the need to clarify a few things and then explain what I mean by branding. 1( Was I linkbaiting? No. Telling the truth as I see it even when it is unpopular is not necessarily linkbaiting. I do have a small gift for provocative titles though. 2( Do I really believe what I said? Yes, every word. Some people seem to find it stunning that I would actually believe what I wrote. Trust me when I say I do believe it.

According to Shoemoney, SEO has no future. I do not always agree with him, but in this case, he is dead right. Let me pull on my flame retardant suit before I explain why. First, understand that the only reason SEO has ever worked is because search engines were not advanced enough to always show relevant information. I remember when I started selling online. At the time, I had only a few competitors in my industry and it was easy to beat them in the SEO game.

InternetRetailer.com reports that the highest conversion rates among major online retailers during March were the following: Office Depot - 20.9% QVC - 19% VistaPrint - 18.3% Roamans - 18.1% Lands' End - 16.2% eBay - 15.7% 1-800-Flowers.com - 15.5% eBags.com - 15.3% L.L. Bean - 14.6% Pottery Barn Kids - 14.2% These conversion rates are through the roof when compared with industry averages. In fact,

I confess I am feeling a bit uneasy these days. These are interesting times to be in retail. Having been in business back in 2001, I know what a recession is like, but I also know that it is possible to survive and even flourish during bad times. I remember sitting at my desk one morning going about business as usual. I happened to check Drudge and saw headlines that the World Trade Towers had been hit. At the time,

According to the National Retail Organization, online retail should grow to $204 billion this year , which represents a 17% increase over last year. )Many experts predicted a 20% increase in 2008.( Considering the economy is in a slump, this is very welcome news to online retailers. I personally am not surprised. At Vitabase, our first quarter was up very dramatically over the same period last year. As is normally the case, the top categories for online retail include apparel,

According to Jupiter Research, only 2.6% of online shoppers use blogs for research before making purchases. Of course, that makes some internet retailers wonder if blogs should be part of their marketing strategy. In my opinion, this study does not provide the answer to that question. It merely indicates that people do not research products on blogs. I have no doubt that this is true. It seems obvious that if shoppers want to research,

Zappos has decided that it wants to be known more for customer service than discount pricing. It is eliminating its free overnight shipping guarantee as well as a guarantee to refund 110% of the difference between its price and a lower competitor's price. If you are not familiar with Zappos, they sell shoes and other clothing and are one of the largest online retailers )#31 according to Internet Retailer (. They also own a few other sites such as 6pm.