eCommerce Optimization

Feel free to hang me from the rafters. I am a great example of a “fair weather blogger” who shifts the theme of my posts to favor the predominant theme in my life. My oldest readers are most likely in retail and online commerce, the roots of SEO’Brien founded in my eCommerce experience. Over time I shifted into paid search marketing and SEO while more recently I’ve turned to local search and offline retail. (Okay, so my attempt at being witty doesn’t really translate from Fair Weather Fan so, as I always do, I’m asking you to bear with my strange correlations and random stretches)

My point is that I have been lax in my coverage eCommerce in an industry still rife with developments and rapid change. I’ve shared with you the great resource at ComparisonEngines.com, encouraged your attention of TheFind, and waxed poetically about the role of Comparison Shopping in your media portfolio though, in that case, we’re stretching back to January blog posts. I am long overdue. So, it is with consternation that I apologize for doing what I so rarely do: punting you to another blog. eCommerce Optimization is a well written and thorough resource; an entertaining and educational blog that must be on the list of all online commerce professionals. I found most valuable a take on the 10 most important developments in online commerce which, when read between the lines, contains a prioritization of your marketing efforts: Google, eBay, User-Generated Content, and #10 on their list: BlackBerry (read: MOBILE!!). Only missing from the list, though perhaps rightly so as it has yet to prove its value: social networking, a topic well covered in other posts.

(Heck, it has been so long since I’ve covered CSEs, they are doing interviews with people I don’t even know at Yahoo Shopping!!)

If I can just align these pundits of online commerce to simplify online shopping, perhaps to join forces to recreate Amazon in my image, I’ll be happy. No, not MY image, I’m not that egotistical, I’m talking about doing it better, doing it right! Well… here’s my grand plan for the world dominance of online commerce: Shop by feature.
Yep. That’s it. That’s all I want. Is that so hard to ask??? I’m trying to buy a dang portable GPS that supports voice recognition and gets wireless updates on traffic. How does one do a Google search for that? The answer: You don’t (rather, you can but Google sucks when it comes to such a query). Online shopping is based on price comparison, reviews, and general specs like size, color, and weight. Want to search for all green shirts that have brass buttons? Can’t be done. Want to buy a car with in-dash Sirius Satellite TV and heated seats? Good luck finding one. Want a blender that slices AND dices? You have to wade through outdated buyers guides, short sighted consumer reports, and product listings that sort by price or rating.

How did I get off on this tangent??

Oh yeah, shopping by feature. Huh, look at that.

eCommerce Optimization is on their toes so subscribe and stay up to date with them. If you know where I can shop by features, let me know! If you want to send me a GPS device: Paul O’Brien, P.O. Box 231…. darn, I’m out of space