The hype for this year’s Internet Retailer conference in Chicago, starting this week, suggests there’s an “urgent need for e-retailers to reinvest and reinvent their online retail businesses in the wake of the recession in order to capitalize on the industry’s certain return to double-digit growth”.  No mention of a “double dip” here; the “Great Recession” has been firmly consigned to the history books, and ecommerce has evidently emerged unscathed as the shining knight of retail recovery.

Pre-registrations for the event, the largest of its kind in the world, seem to validate the sanguine rallying cry of the organisers.  With pre-registrations up one third on last year’s event, it’s interesting to note that the biggest percentage increase in registrations comes from catalogers – a sure sign that these direct commerce pioneers are starting to feel the squeeze as  traditional retailers, manufacturers, and pure play etailers continue to pour resources into their ecommerce efforts.

It’s predicted that about 4,500 online retailers across all sectors will attend this year’s event in Chicago.  But what about the rest of them?  How do all the other niche online retailers – the vast majority – keep up with the advances in technology, and the latest, most effective marketing tactics?

The answer is – it’s not easy.  Time is a big problem, and so is budget.  But the biggest challenge of all is sifting through the superabundance of online advice to find what’s relevant to your particular kind of business.

Solving this problem is our primary objective for Frankly eCommerce.  Using our own personal experience as online retailer and ecommerce software provider, we’ve packaged up a series of ecommerce lessons that are designed specifically for the niche online retailer – and made them available online for your whole team to work through at a time and place that suits their busy schedule.

So if you can’t make it to this year’s Internet Retailer, but would still like to learn directly from the experience of leading industry experts well now’s your chance.  Tim Ash, CEO at SiteTuners.com, is an in-demand speaker on the subject of SEO and his bestselling book Landing Page Optimization is a highly readable handbook for anyone serious about crafting conversion-focussed landing pages.  This year, his session at Internet Retailer is called “Creating landing pages that turn searchers into buyers“.  If you can’t make it to Chicago, why not check out Tim Ash’s lesson on Frankly eCommerce: “Home page design: a tested approach to jump start conversion“.  It’s just one in a series of connected lessons designed to build in-house expertise and drive your online business forward as the retail recovery begins in earnest.

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