6+ Digital Marketing Posts You Must Read This Week: E-commerce Link Digest

A couple of days ago, I went ahead and ordered Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus. And since I’m getting a 6 Plus, this week, you get 6 plus digital marketing posts you must read this week (you see what I did there). Anyway, enough (corny) jokes. Here’s the list:

1. eMarketer has research that suggests mobile users will pass on retail purchases via apps. Color me skeptical. I seem to remember similar complaints about e-commerce on desktop computers back when that all started 15-20 years ago and look where we are now.
2. Interesting round-up of mobile payments stories, particularly following the launch of Apple’s new Apple Pay offering (which got somewhat buried during their launch of the new iPhones/Watches, and which I think will be a game changer for mobile commerce). The Washington Post highlights why Wal-Mart is rejecting Apple Pay (its pursuing a competing mobile payment system) while Mobile Commerce Daily uncovers evidence of Apple Pay’s halo effect in Subway’s Softcard partnership. This also underscores my skepticism about the eMarketer study mentioned earlier. And given the increasingly outsized role mobile plays in e-commerce discovery compared with desktop.
3. Fascinating analysis over on Quartz that details how Amazon is now aggressively going after Google’s core business. The whole AGFAM group bears continued watching, and Amazon’s moves in this area, in particular, ought to keep Google on their toes in the coming years.
4. Moving on, Luxury Daily highlights recent comments by Brian Shaw at Christie’s, who talked about how brands can humanize e-commerce through passion and education. Using emotion and storytelling in digital marketing can provide you a clear way to differentiate your brand and communicate your brand story more effectively. Great stuff and well worth your time.
5. Speaking of story-telling to grow your brand, this week’s episode of my Thinks Out Loud podcast explored how word of mouth and digital work together. Check it out if you get a chance.
6. Finally, you might want to check out the video from my recent webinar, “Digital Marketing Directions: Three Key Trends Driving Your Marketing Next Year,” which talks about brand storytelling now that we’re all publishers; the rise of Internet, everywhere behavior among your customers; and how you can use increasing opportunities for data collection to gain deep customer insights. And, as a bonus, I’ve embedded the slides below.

Want more Link Digest goodness? You can check out last week’s list of 10 Must-Read E-commerce/Digital Marketing Posts and the entire E-commerce Link Digest series as well.

As mentioned earlier, you might enjoy the slides from my webinar earlier this week:

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.

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
• 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