TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:As Web shop owners regroup after the rush, it makes sense to start planning to capitalize on trends that will roll over into the New Year. These include the popularity of luxury items as the market matures, the success of niche sites as search-engine marketing becomes more sophisticated, allowing shoppers to find obscure or highly specialized products, and the influence of social networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube.

In fact, one of the biggest trends to emerge in 2006 was the impact of social computing on online sales, sometimes called social commerce. Let's review: Compete Inc. reported back in October that social site members listen more to peer feedback than to any other source of information. The marketing research company found that, "S-commerce innovators are using one of six strategies to integrate consumers into their sales and marketing efforts: Branded micro-sites, customer reviews and ratings, online customer forums, peer-to-peer transactions, product-focused blogs and community-created products."...