11 Must-Read Trends and Tips: E-commerce Link Digest

Another Friday, another e-commerce link digest. Fortunately, I’ve got a good one for you today, featuring these 11 must-read trends and tips. Let’s get on with the list:

1. Mobile Commerce Daily says the use of mobile doubles for researching and completing online purchases.
2. Linda Bustos over at GetElastic says that when designing mobile menus, hold the hamburger. Great look at user experience, design, and the power of testing.
3. Still more mobile: Marketing Charts shares data showing that mobile neared 40% of organic search traffic in Q3. Crazy.
4. Of course, part of that growth is due to the demographic realities driving mobile commerce, a trend I’m going to keep watching for a while.
5. Marketing Charts also reveals how mobile owners respond to difficulties when using apps to shop
6. Mobile’s growth fueled this week’s Thinks Out Loud podcast episode (#95, if you’re counting along), asks, “What the Hell Just Happened to Google?” And more importantly, it looks at how you can prevent it from happening to you.
7. Luxury Daily said that 90% of Audi consumers begin research process online. I suspect they’re not the only luxury or auto brand for whom that’s true.
8. In this week’s Travel Tuesday post, I took a look at why attribution modeling matters in 2015. Good stuff, if I do say so myself.
9. Search Engine Land details 3 small paid search optimizations with huge impact. Very cool list.
10. In a troubling trend, Marketing Charts notes that 4 in 5 companies report steady or increasing costs-per-lead. At current growth rates, this is unsustainable for most companies and will need to be addressed.
11. Finally, we looked at whether e-commerce will kill retail. Spoiler alert: No, but only if you do the right things now (Something we talked about on last week’s podcast.

You might also want to check out these past posts, “In Case You Missed It: 10 Posts from the Archives,” “8 Potentially Game-Changing Trends: E-commerce Link Digest,” and “8 Crucial Marketing and E-commerce Posts: The Top Posts from September” for more link-worthy goodness.

And, if you’re interested in learning even more about how customers changing behavior shapes e-commerce and marketing, register to receive a special report I’ve produced in conjunction with hotel marketing firm Vizergy, “Digital Hotel Marketing in a Multiscreen World.” While it’s targeted specifically at hotel and resort marketers, the lessons apply to just about any business. You can get your free copy of the report here.

Plus, don’t miss these slides and video from my recent webinar, “Digital Marketing Directions: Three Key Trends Driving Your Marketing Next Year”:

Finally, you might also want to check out some of our past coverage of the mobile, local, social web and how to make it work for your business, including:

• What Your Customers Expect from Mobile and E-commerce in 2014
• 10 Key Posts about Millennials and Mobile: E-commerce Link Digest
• The Secrets Behind “It’s All E-commerce” for 2014
• Should Marketers Really Trust Google in 2014?
• The Zen of Digital Marketing Strategy
• 7 Steps to E-Commerce Heaven
• Today and Tomorrow: Mobile and The Changing Customer Journey
• Mobile Makes E-commerce Even More “Frictionless”
• Your 2014 Internet Marketing New Year’s Resolutions – Thinks Out Loud Episode 56