Fun writing this post for @ janlgordon new Editors of Chaos http://www.curatti.com. Conclusion after our first Ecommie Awards for Holiday 2013 is YES e-commerce is stuck in mud of its own making.

Online retailers seem stuck fighting battles that are all but over such as the adoption of free shipping out and back, deal-of-the-day and Buy More, Save More. The ocean runs red as competitors face off with each other with little regard to the unique characteristics of selling online.

There were bright spots in the more than 30 top e-retailers reviewed including REI.com and Williams-Sonoma, but even well established brands such as L. L. Bean seem to struggle this holiday selling season.

Not hard to see WHY ecom is in a rut. Mobile is changing everything though few seem to realize the magnititude or sweep of the change. In addition to the Ecommies Report card we created a Social Media Analysis showing most e-retailers follow less than 1% of their followers.

Clearly the conversational nature of the new web is as perplexing to retailers as mobile. The combination of these two big misses, mobile and social, made holiday 2013 lackluster and stuck in the mud. This Curatti.com post shares ideas for how to fix not least of which would be embracing social media marketing and joining a mobile marketing revolution that has little to do with phones.

Traffic's Drug
Here is the thing about TRAFFIC. A lot of peple will tell you nonconvertig traffic hurts more than it helps. I'm not so judgementa and it depends on how we GOT the traffic and how expensive it was.

Traffic, by itelf, is a metric of nothing.

Traffic plus conversion (money) plus source, plus content = cool let's do it again realizations. Each of these experts have great ideas, ideas where I like some more than others. Will try to remember to circle back around and pick my favorite 10 GET TRAFFIC IDEAS and why I like them over others.

Marty