Small Business Ecommerce Link Digest – May 30, 2008

It’s been a light week here at thinks. But, never fear, we won’t leave you without a set of great reads to get you through the weekend lull. Without further ado, here’s what’s been happening this week on the InterTubes…

• Leading off, Borders Books relaunched its website, taking control of its online presence for the first time in 7 years. Border’s change here highlights one of our favorite topics here on thinks: how to set the right channel strategy for your business. Where Borders previously relied on Amazon to run its ecommerce channel, the company now has a more integrated strategy, leveraging both its online and offline presence to generate sales.
• Great. So why do you care about Border’s? Because, as Marketing Diva Toby Bloomberg talks about this week, “…sales generated by small businesses via e-commerce accounts for as much as one-fourth of all consumer e-commerce in the United States, although surveys, including the U.S. Census, tend to greatly underestimate that number.” Those numbers come from Amazon exec Paul Misener. Crazy, huh? The question is, are you doing everything you should to get your fair share?
• Need help in getting your fair share? Linda Bustos and the fine folks at Elastic Path have created a new whitepaper, “How to Write an E-commerce Request for Proposal”. Very useful in helping you focus on growing your online – and online-to-offline – business. And since we all like to have a little fun on Fridays, check out Elastic Path’s tips for 404 pages. Useful and entertaining.
• Finally, Social Times has an interesting analysis of how to turn social networks into money. As social networks continue to seek revenue opportunities, don’t be surprised if they start looking into your backyard. That’s not a bad thing. And you could turn it to your advantage by focusing on how you’re using these tools, too.

Cheers, everybody. See you next week.

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