Review: E-Consultancy’s Online Retail 2006

I haven’t much enjoyed my subscription to e-consultancy thus far. Most of the documents I’ve reviewed were not quite what I was expecting or useless (at least to me). The Online Retail 2006 guide is a clear exception. (To be fair, I’ve only read a small handful of the documents available, and I do plan on reading more.) Unfortunately I can’t find a link to this document on their website, which means my glowing review will lead to disappointment for anyone trying to find it. They do also offer a 2007 Checkout Special but I haven’t looked at it to see if it’s an updated version of the 2006.

This 85 page download first takes you through the mind of the customer, how they make their purchase decisions and then provides example after example of both good and bad implementation of shopper usability issues. More than any other book or PDF I’ve read this year, I found myself taking a considerable amount of notes, both for me, our team and for updates on our SEM processes.

One of the things that I most enjoyed was that it confirmed something that I had read in Mike Moran’s Do It Wrong Quickly regarding the search/buy process. It’s great when you read something new to you and it quickly gets confirmed from other sources.

Even though Online Retail is almost two years old, the information contained within is timeless. Lots of fantastic insights were gained that can be put to use immediately. I would consider this to be one of my top 10 most important reads of 2007. Anyone who owns an e-commerce website or runs PPC campaign should find it useful.