Last week was IRCE.
We’ve been preparing with a few posts. Here they are:
Part 1 of 4: Define Your IRCE Booth Goal
Part 2 of 4: Leverage Other IRCE Booths
Part 3 of 4: Follow Up Immediately with IRCE Leads
Part 4 of 4: Segment and Remail your IRCE Leads
Now that the conference and exhibition are past us there is much to talk about. There are some big things coming out of this year’s event.
Here are the first three we’ll discuss that affect eTailers and vendors.
The Europe Threat/Opportunity
Europe is seeing huge growth in online retail. Countries throughout the continent are experiencing growth with online sales, but the Eastern European countries are seeing the most growth.
This trend can mean different things to different people.
US eTailers might see a threat in the coming years from European eTailers. There are quite a few challenges for European eTailers including language barriers and growing competition. Those that win out will have skills US-based companies might not.
For eTailer vendors, there is opportunity to expand to Europe.
Business is global today so don’t focus only on the US for your sales.
SEO and Google
SEO is once again on the table for discussing with eTailers. The last few years have been full with discussion surrounding Panda and Penguin updates from Google.
This year Google is once again cracking down on certain SEO tactics.
The ongoing trend appears to be Google placing high importance on three things:
- Strong brand recognition
- Strong authorship
- Strong content
eTailers have an advantage against smaller competition because of strong brand recognition. Vendors that can provide assistance with authorship and content have an opportunity to help brands improve with the SEO area of their business.
Marketplace Fairness Act
The biggest discussion topic in the eTail and eCommerce world today is the Marketplace Fairness Act.
The act requires all businesses to collect taxes in all states where transactions take place. For eTailers it means collection taxes for customers that make online purchases in each state.
You can imagine that it's a cumbersome process especially for small businesses.
Good news is there are tools such as Avalara aimed at helping eTailers with sales tax collection.
There was much discussion and concern at the conference.
Did we leave anything out?
Share your concerns in the comments with other readers.
Darren PierceFounderetailinsights
Image Credit: Flickr
[mc4wp_form id="7900"]