Bloggers Digest 11/14/08

If you’re new here, welcome! And thanks for subscribing to Get Elastic. Friday is Blogger Digest day where we highlight posts from other blogs that are of value and interest to online retailers and Internet marketers.

The economy is top-of-mind for everyone involved in online retail, as evidenced as I went over my picks for the week - the majority are related to the tough times consumers and retailers are facing this year:

• I was interviewed last week by Plumber Surplus about my thoughts on how online retailers can ride out the economic swell, check out Preparing Retailers for the Economic Downturn.

• Blue Acorn offers Tips for Boosting Average Order Size, which is very important in troubled economic times…

• Maxim Mironov offers 3 suggestions on how you can cut costs, rather than cutting employees.

• Remember Prisoner’s Dilemma from Microeconomics 101? The Rimm-Kaufman blog relates this to the Promotional Dilemma — how the pressures for retailers to offer free shipping may lead to profit losses for everyone (not to mention solidifying customer expectations for the future). Will free shipping become the standard?

• On a positive note, Bryan Eisenberg has compiled a list of 33 tools to make your website better, including Kampyle’s suggestion-box tool.

• You can be successful this holiday despite the doom and gloom — Justin Palmer presents a checklist for holiday ecommerce success.

• While Valentine’s Day is till many moons away, the Bronto Blog uses a cute dating analogy to explain best practices for welcome emails.