Dumping WooCommerce
The DIY don't need to know code to build a great and scaleable online store may be mostly myth. Like all bell curves there may be one or two highly profitable Shopify, Volusion or Big Commerce sites but those few "rich getting richer" sites stand on the shoulders of many little guys just scaping by.

If that sound like a rigged game we agree. We shared all the reasons we dumped WooCommerce including our own idiocy in this mythbusting Curagami post:

 

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5 TIps To Cross Ecom's Rubicon
Smart merchants are beginning to cross the ecommerce rubicon between content and commerce. Discover 5 Tips to cross your online store's ecommerce rubicon.

5 TIps

* “Magazine” your content
* Curate from brands
* Curate from customers
* Lean & Visual Win
* Tie In Email, Social & Mobile

Going to incorporate @Guillaume Decugis and Scoop.it's ideas on Lean Content on this not very lean post too. I set aside some content to keep the post pinging with fresh content.

Evergreen means our team will refresh the content (or ask for help from our Ambassadors to do so) regularly. Not all content is equal. Places in our "evergreen" regularly scheduled updates category must be earned (lol).

So help 5 Tips to Cross the Ecom Rubicon earn evergreen status, or better yet contribute your thoughts and we will curate in.

Crossing the Rubicon between content and commerce is the BIG ISSUE in online retailing today. Discover our tips to cross and add yorus.  

Yesterday at the Digital Summit in Charlotte, NC we ran into a familiar problem. "Marty we don't have any content," an growing ecommerce website shared.

I shared the good and bad news. The bad news is developing an effective content strategy takes time, focus and money. The good news is there are things to do in parallel that bring all pieces together such as:

* Create an Ask.

* Begin to CURATE content.

* Curate 90%, Create about 10%.
* Listen and set up Key Performance Indicators to LISTEN better.
* Develop a testing culture.
* Begin the journey to sustainable online community.

Added video notes to explain all of this to our Ecommerce Questions Haiku Deck: http://shar.es/1guIF1

Find video notes on platforms, content curation and community on Curagami's YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/tSHeIxtrs4g

$50,000 New Ecommerce Web Design Contest
FOMs (Friends of Martin's) are working on a cool event to support my +FedEx keynote talk in Maryland at the end of February. We have 3 partners willing to contribute time into a "prize" to help online merchants pivot to the NEW Ecommerce.

If you would like to contribute email Martin(at)Curagami.com (not on our site yet as we may fill our partner roster from friends and social. Read more about the contest on G+
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/M3n5Ds4Tk9p

Ecommerce Revolution In 2015
Yesterday we planted a flag stating our intention to create an ecommerce revolution in 2015. Today first objections were heard. Learn why Can't is music to a marketing geeks ears and how you can join the ecommerce revolution so you can say, "Yeah, I helped with that," when others say they wish they could have been there.

Join The Ecom Revolution Today
http://bit.ly/ecom_revolution_google  

ShopLocket is the easiest way to sell something online. No store to setup, no risk to get started. With ShopLocket selling something is just as easy as embedding a Youtube video. Simply create your product, embed it in your website, Facebook page, or blog post, and start selling!

Creating a distributed content network with widgets is a vast blue ocean of low cost, high reward Internet marketing today. Won't be that way for long.

Marty Note - Rethinking Ecommerce & CrowdFunde
I love it when we find supporting data for CrowdFunde our content marketing meets crowdfunding and social media startup. Here is Don Bradford from eBay making our point for us:

Problem: People are likelier to purchase something if their friends weigh in--but that's not easy to do on massive e-commerce sites.

Solution: EBay's new browser plug-in, Help Me Shop, lets users shop anywhere on the web and drag items into a separate window. Through Facebook, the user invites friends to give advice on the items they like best.

"As we spoke with our customers and really started analyzing their activity, we discovered that what they were doing was shopping in a social product life cycle:

Things start out around inspiration and research--something that a friend shared with them, or something that an influencer had shared with them, whether it was on Twitter, Polyvore, Pinterest, or Svpply.

They continue to connect with friends all the way to the point of purchase. And after the purchase, they can be a resource for other people shopping for the product. What makes Help Me Shop really powerful is that it goes beyond eBay's inventory. It's really about a social shopping experience that goes wherever I am and allows me to engage my friends in the shopping experience whenever I think it's useful."
Emphasis mine
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Our goals for http://www.crowdfunde.com is to make it easier for friends to weigh in (helps shoppers and retailers) and to own the social conversation. Own the conversation, own the traffic.