9 Digital Marketing Must-Reads for You This Weekend: E-commerce Link Digest

I don’t know about you, but we’ve been battening down the hatches here in the Northeast. Hope you’re safe, warm, and dry wherever you may be. If you’re stuck inside, here’s a look at 9 digital marketing must-reads for you this weekend. Enjoy:

1. Leading off, our friends at The Future of Commerce suggest it’s time to get digitally native. Absolutely.
2. Mobile Marketer says the heyday for hashtags has passed for marketers. I’m inclined to agree, with a couple caveats. Hashtags have their place in certain cases, but, more often than not, they’re increasingly difficult to make work. Better to focus on content that your customers care to share organically — and on your brand itself — than a forced “social” discussion.
3. Continuing with social news, Amazon dominates social, but Nordstrom and Costco excel at it, according to the fine folks at Mobile Marketer.
4. Mobile Commerce Daily reports how Starbucks steams up sales with its national Mobile Order and Pay expansion. Just one more example that illustrates why mobile payments will rule.
5. Quartz highlights how Facebook is bringing immersive, 360-degree VR videos to your newsfeed. I’m not sure where this is headed for marketers yet, but definitely think it’s worth watching (no pun intended). And while we’re talking about wearables, PSFK says these smart clothes will track your every move. The real key for businesses here is the data these new technologies will make available about customers. And that’s worth watching too.
6. A recent episode of Thinks Out Loud, our weekly e-commerce and digital marketing podcast asks, “Is This The Death of Google?” Be sure to listen to the whole thing to see what “this” is.
7. Another key question, this one from Mobile Commerce Daily, asks “Do ride-sharing app partnerships drive revenue, awareness for brands?” Good stuff.
8. The Nieman Journalism Lab says that Google’s grab of Oyster suggests ebooks, like news, are becoming “content” read on big platforms, which signals a significant shift in customer behavior. Keep that in mind as you develop your content initiatives, too.
9. And, in closing, don’t miss this Thinks Out Loud episode that considers “Mobile Websites: Responsive, Adaptive, and RESS, Oh My!” Good stuff.

If you’re interested in learning more, make sure to check out these “9 Digital Trends You’ll Want to See,” these “7 Spectacular Digital Marketing Trends,” this set “10 E-Commerce Trends Worth Watching” and other entries from our E-commerce Link Digest series, plus these 8 Awesome August E-commerce Insights: The Top Posts of August, 2015

And if you want learn even more about how your customers’ changing behavior shapes e-commerce and marketing, be sure and 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.

You can also check out these slides and video from my recent webinar, “Digital Marketing Directions: Three Key Trends Driving Your Marketing Next Year”:

And, finally, you might want to take a look at some of our past coverage of the e-commerce, mobile commerce, and digital marketing overall, including:

• 10 Key Posts about Millennials and Mobile: E-commerce Link Digest
• The Secrets Behind “It’s All E-commerce” for 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