I’ve been talking to a lot of SMB ecommerce players lately, especially in areas such as lifestyle, fashion and homeware. Most of them have tried online advertising, but backed off. They looked at the conversions, decided the numbers did not add up, and instead focused energies on customer service, email lists and social media. I’ve also been talking to a …
Advertising & eCommerce: Respecting the Consumer
A few entrepreneurs have written lately about the blurring of ecommerce and advertising (albeit advertising that is about driving a sale rather than building brand affinity). I agree; Aprizi’s attempt to build a “Pandora for online shopping” shares some traits with ad targeting efforts because in the end we’re all trying to improve relevance. I want to highlight a key …
Socnet Advertising, where art thou?
A few months ago, I listened to a panel organized by Battery Ventures called “Monetizing Social Media”. Perhaps not surprisingly for a New York-based event, the panel spent 99% of the time talking about advertising. Still, I was surprised to see both the Facebook and MySpace representatives brush off microtransaction business models as niche and not worth discussing. The total …