Online Retail

Just came back from Nicola and I doing two sessions in two days at the big Online Retail expo at the Convention Centre in Sydney.

Two observations of interest.

Number one - doing rounds of the showroom floor; couldn't help but notice that like 90% of vendors there were talking about 'search' and SEO. Now I totally get that search is important and driving traffic is 'what it's all about'; but to have only two groups there interested in what happens after people actually get there is of concern. We did two sessions over two days on how web 2.0 is going to change marketing; they were a big hit. I'll post a video or something in the days to come on some of the content. It's pretty cool stuff that people need to start thinking about.

The second observation is on just that - content - as we did more on the retail impacts of web 2.0 and as the content evolved I've started to realise just how significant the shift in power from organisation to individual is. With almost 80% of consumers saying that Word of Mouth is the most powerful form of advertising, and with significantly more than 60% of people who shop online visiting social network sites - you can connect the dots yourself. Dialogue is taking the place of monologue, consumer conversation taking the place of corporate dictation.

This is not a case of 'companies can try this if they like'. This is THE trend; figure it out or not! Your choice!