One Dozen Long-Weekend Digital Marketing Links You’ll Love: E-commerce Link Digest

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Hey, Big Thinkers! Hope you’re off to enjoy a fantastic long holiday weekend. I won’t bother you with any fancy setup and instead will just offer you this list of one dozen long-weekend digital marketing links you’ll love. Enjoy:

1. We asked “Is It Time for Your Website to Die?” in a recent episode of Thinks Out Loud, our weekly e-commerce and digital marketing podcast. The answer’s worth checking out.
2. Brand Quarterly took a good look at how you can “Achieve World Domination: Develop Your Cross-Border E-Commerce Strategy” that you won’t want to miss.
3. Another recent post from here on the blog uncovered “How Can You Succeed at Digital Marketing Next Year? 17 Great Posts Offer Answers.”
4. eMarketer reports that “Smartphone Usage Among Millennials Varies Globally.” That’s true: It varies from a big percentage to a huge percentage. In any case, most millennials around the globe use smartphones.
5. Marketing Charts notes that “The Typical Millennial Age Range is Fairly Wide. Within It Are Varying Social Media Preferences.” This one’s a little bit different than smartphone adoption and bears looking at more closely, depending on the makeup of your customer groups.
6. The massive adoption of smartphones among millennials represents just one of the reasons “Why I’m Bullish on Mobile Payments and Messaging.”
7. While we’re on the topic of payments, you might want to check out “A Quick Snapshot of the State of Mobile Payments” that we put together for you.
8. In either case, it’s important to remember, “Don’t Get Hung Up On Smartphones: Put Your Customer First.”
9. On that front, Business2Community explores the “Digital Retail and eCommerce Marketing Trends That Are Changing the Game in 2016 and Beyond.”
10. And Forbes takes a fairly long look at how “One Year On, Westfield Bespoke, The Retail Tech Space Piloted In San Francisco, Is Winning.” Pardon the interstitial when you head over there. But trust me, the article is really worth your time.
11. Putting all these trends together matters, because as eMarketer data shows, “Consumers Demand More Multichannel Customer Service.” The point is, “customer experience” isn’t mobile or retail or digital or e-commerce alone. It’s all of these things, every touchpoint, combined. And that’s why, when people ask me, “Will E-commerce Kill Retail?” I always answer, “No. At least not if you do it right. ”
12. And so we’ll close out this list of one dozen long-weekend digital marketing links you’ll love with MIT Sloan’s look at “Aligning the Organization for Its Digital Future.” Because, ultimately, that’s something we’re all going to have to do to move forward and succeed.

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”:

Finally, you might enjoy some of these past posts from Thinks to help you build your e-commerce strategy and your digital success:

• 6 Mobile Commerce and Strategy Insights: E-commerce Link Digest
• Content is Still the King
• The Digital Strategy Myth
• Why Mobile Payments Will Rule
• Driving Seamless Experiences in 2016 (Thinks Out Loud Episode 149)
• Mobile is So Much Bigger Than You Think (Thinks Out Loud Episode 140)
• It’s Not “Mobile First.” It’s “Customer First.”
• 8 Killer Entries About Improving E-commerce Experience: E-commerce Link Digest