It’s a shame that CompUSA will not be with us much longer, because it gives us a great example of the potential for RSS feeds for ecommerce sites. Check it out while you can: http://www.compusa.com/help/rss_feeds.asp

This is a close-up:

This is how a sample feed appears in my Google Reader:

Online retailers that use RSS syndication for product content are few and far between, the ones that do usually are electronics and computer related (more tech savvy audience, I assume). It’s likely that the general public still doesn’t understand what RSS is or how it can help them, so CompUSA provides a nice little introduction to what RSS is with links to resources and popular RSS readers.

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How Online Retailers Can Benefit From RSS Marketing »

Nielsen Online recently released some data from the top 1,000 influential blogs (determined by inbound link popularity) and discovered that gift recommendations, reviews and gift buying guides were all the buzz in the blogosphere.

As you would expect, gadgets, gaming gifts and other techie stuff was most discussed according to the press release. Which makes this leaderboard a bit of a head-scratcher:

Top Online Retailers Ranked by Buzz Growth for Week Ending December 2nd

Source: Nielsen Online

Are these really the top discussed retailers for product reviews and recommendations? Hallmark? Last time I checked, Hallmark wasn’t sellin’ no iPhones or Wiis. So I looked under the hood at Google Blog Search, and found that there were a lot of results for Hallmark on deals/coupon sharing sites, Hallmark buildings, the Hallmark Channel, and Paris Hilton suing Hallmark for cards like this:

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Most Blogged About Online Retailers - Are They Really? »

Amazon is often touted as the usability darling of e-commerce. Number one on Internet Retailer’s Top 500 List last year, the mega-store is usually way ahead of other retailers in so many ways. That’s why my experience on Amazon this weekend was so surprising. Shopping on Amazon.ca, I experienced search failure more than once — and also discovered that my problems wouldn’t have happened on Amazon.com.

Exhibit A - Can’t Handle A Typo

This is what happened when I made a spelling error for “Web Analytics: An Hour A Day” on Amazon.ca:

And this is the same search on Amazon.com:

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Amazon.ca Fails at Basic Usability - Amazon.com Passes »

Naw, you’ve got plenty of time to do your Christmas shopping. Stay in this weekend, curl up with your notebook computer and a cup of ‘nog and enjoy some good ecommerce and marketing reading!

Here’s this week’s Bloggers Digest:

Ecommerce News

• Big announcement for Elastic Path this week - we’ve launched the online store for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games which are being hosted right here in Vancouver. You can check out the mascots and find great gift ideas for that someone on your list who has everything — because I bet you $1,000,000 Linden dollars they don’t have this bottle opener-slash-fridge magnet.

Reputation Management

• Thanks again to our special guest blogger Ayat Shukairy for sharing her wisdom of conversion rates with us. I bet you think I took the day off to watch every single episode of Ask A Ninja, but you’re wrong. I was busy blogging about reputation management - what to do when your brand is trashed on forums and blogs, and some tips and tricks for nudging those search engine results off the first few pages. (I did ask a ninja about it, but he couldn’t offer even one solution that didn’t end up with someone dying).

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Bloggers Digest - 12/07/07 »

Wishlists are becoming more and more popular with online stores. They help customers bookmark items they like but just aren’t ready to buy, (which can reduce shopping cart abandonment) and when they are shared, they can help gift givers know what their loved ones really want.

This year, online retailers are getting aggressive and creative with wishlist sharing. Designer apparel retailer Net-a-Porter provides a woman with Santa’s Little Helper to give her significant other a not-so-subtle hint on what she wants to find under the tree.

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Creative Wish List E-Mailing to Boost Holiday Sales »