Five Ecomerce Trends to Watch

In the current issue of etailer, Sherry Chiger reports on a speech given by Jay Herratti, the SVP of Strategic Planning for IAC/InterActiveCorp at the 2006 eTail Converence.  His picks for the top five e-commerce trends to watch are:  1) Video that sells; 2)Convergence (digital television with 2-way interactivity); 3) User-generated content; 4) Shopping intermediaries and comparison sites; 5) Online marketing science—analyzing metrics for everything online.

Obviously video is now exploding with the interest in YouTube.  Yet, I am most interested in his comments about user-generated content.  Specifically, he talks about customer product reviews.  He says many etailers are afraid that negative comments  will discourage sales.  But the key to effectively managing that content is not to DELETE IT!  It is to use it to TAKE ACTION.  Feeback like that is priceless.  If your customers tell you what they don't like and you act on that information, you are getting feedback that even focus groups and surveys often miss. 

Make sure your blogs allow for comments and a useful dialogue.  The only way to succeed is to give the customer what they want!  Using Web 2.0 tools makes that easy.