Best Books To Level Up Your E-Commerce Skills
The year 2016 brings new concerns to your business, no matter how small or large it is. A huge bunch of new startups is going to enter the global market this year, and if you are among them then you will probably seek the guidance of the most experienced ones in order to develop into a stable and successful company. If you are already in the game, you are likely to get pressed by new challenges and potential competitors even more than ever before. Although your current marketing strategy may have proved to be perfect last year, you can no longer rely on it without considering up-to-date trends of the E-Commerce world. In order to help you figure things out right, we offer an exhaustive list of the best E-Commerce books that will meet the needs of both novice and experienced entrepreneurs from any specialized niche.
We sorted all the books into well-defined categories so that you can easily pick up the book (or books) that will suit you best:
- Launching your startup
- Smart branding
- Pushing forward with the best marketing solutions
- Handling metrics
- E-Commerce optimization guides
- Lifetime of your business
- For your inspiration
Other best books at Firebear:
- The best Magento books
- The best Magento 2 books
- The best PHP books
- The best PHP 7 books
- The best Node.js books
- More books soon
Books by the Firebear team:
Both books explain what to do with the Magento platform and how to launch a successful e-commerce store on the basis of Magento. There are a lot of useful tips on performance improvements, SEO, and marketing in both books. If you are looking for the most reliable way to enhance default capabilities of Magento 1 or Magento 2, check Magento DIY and Magento 2 DIY.
Table of contents
- 1 Launching your startup
- 1.1 The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
- 1.2 The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
- 1.3 The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- 1.4 Launch by Jeff Walker
- 1.5 Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
- 1.6 #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness by Gary Vaynerchuk
- 1.7 The Startup Equation by Steve Fisher and Ja-Nae Duane
- 1.8 Business Plan Basics by Scott L. Girard, Jr., Michael F. O’Keefe, and Marc A. Price
- 1.9 Be Your Best Boss by William R. Seagraves
- 1.10 Mad Genius by Randy Gage
- 1.11 Anyone Can Do It by Sahar and Bobby Hashemi
- 1.12 The Complete E-Commerce Book by Janice Reynolds
- 1.13 Get Rich Click! By Marc Ostrofsky
- 2 Smart branding
- 3 Pushing forward with the best marketing solutions
- 3.1 Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
- 3.2 The Ultimate Marketing Plan by Dan S. Kennedy
- 3.3 Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
- 3.4 Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt
- 3.5 99 Ways to Flood Your Website with Traffic by Mick Macro
- 3.6 Boost E-Commerce Sales and Make More Money by Alex Harris
- 3.7 Ask. by Ryan Levesque
- 3.8 Official Shopify Guides to Successful Marketing
- 3.9 Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen, Carrie Kerpen, Mallorie Rosenbluth, and Meg Riedinger
- 3.10 Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman
- 3.11 Mastering the New Media Landscape by Barbara Cave Henricks and Rusty Shelton
- 3.12 Hacking Marketing by Scott Brinker
- 3.13 Creating Competitive Advantage by Kevin Uphill
- 3.14 Designpedia by Rafael Zaragoza and Juan Gasca
- 3.15 Txt Me by B. Bonin Bough
- 3.16 Content Marketing Strategies for Dummies by Stephanie Diamond
- 3.17 Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday
- 3.18 The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
- 3.19 The Referral Engine by John Jantsch
- 4 Handling metrics
- 5 E-Commerce optimization guides
- 6 Lifetime of your business
- 7 For your inspiration
Launching your startup
For those of you who feel uncertain about launching their own business or do not know the basic principles of E-Commerce, this category is a starting point from which you are to gain all the necessary knowledge and confidence for building a successful startup.
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
The easy-to-read and highly motivating e-commerce book by Timothy Ferriss will totally change your views on being an entrepreneur by proving that money can be made faster, easier, and without any fear of tomorrow. The author himself has gained the status of a successful entrepreneur who largely invested into such now famous companies as Facebook, Uber, Twitter, and many others. Sharing his own life experience, Ferriss will tell you how to double your income by working less hours and using a set of simple tips and tricks that will work regardless of the economic situation outside.
The Startup Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
These two guys are going to share their experience-driven ideas on smart launch of a startup but also its smart maintenance. You will acquire the priceless knowledge of the most innovative marketing solutions that will help you build a successful and profitable startup. The authors have developed a so-called Customer Development methodology that allows beginning entrepreneurs to use a much shorter way towards building a small but efficient business. Throughout the book, you will encounter more than 100 helpful charts, graphs and diagrams as well as a great number of convenient checklists to make your step-by-step business development process as smooth and consistent as possible.
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
Eric Ries is an establisher of the famous Lean Startup movement that reshaped the whole view on building startups and being an entrepreneur in general. Since then, the entire E-Commerce world approved of Ries’s philosophy and adopted it for small but also large businesses. At the core of this philosophy lies the notion of iterative product release and validated learning both of which relate to satisfying the needs of early customers in order to minimize the risks of losing potential profit. Eventually, this e-commerce book will provide you with a scientific method as a means to understand customer’s needs and be adaptive in the volatile conditions of the market.
Launch by Jeff Walker
Launch is a detailed startup guide that aims to accelerate your movement towards building a successful business. Its author, Jeff Walker, is exactly the person whose experience deserves to be followed. Having started as an underground entrepreneur at the end of the 90’s, he soon figured out the most efficient way for launching online businesses and products and finally grew into a successful E-Commerce owner. With this e-commerce book at hand, you will realize that, with the right strategy, selling anything online can be equally easy and profitable.
Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters
Following the name of the book, you are going to find out how to literally create something out of nothing. For instance, the majority of successful companies, such as Microsoft, Google, or Facebook, are widely known for having created something that differed from the rest of existing things. In fact, what they created were the new and pretty much unique products and services that had no competitors in the entire market. That is basically the core idea of this e-commerce book: if you want to build a strong and successful business, you will need innovative ideas, and you will also have to be the first to incorporate these ideas into a well-defined business in order to escape potential competition.
#AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness by Gary Vaynerchuk
Being a well-known host at The #AskGaryVee Show but also a successful entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk is going to share his knowledge and wisdom with those seeking to launch their own startups. His e-commerce book contains the answers to the most vital and useful questions from the viewers of his show, starting from a detailed explanation about marketing, social media, and internet sales, and ending with particular recommendations on how to properly promote your business on Twitter or Facebook, collaborate with famous bloggers, and launch your products.
The Startup Equation by Steve Fisher and Ja-Nae Duane
If you already decided on the best idea for your business but still do not know how to go about it, this e-commerce book will give you enough confidence to finally start off. The main advantage of this guide lies in its visual tools used to provide a clearer view on the topics being discussed – mainly graphs, tables, and comic images. Little by little, the reader is going to crack the startup equation by deciding on the type of entrepreneurship he or she belongs to, creating an innovative product, building an effective team, finding the rights investors, and many more.
Business Plan Basics by Scott L. Girard, Jr., Michael F. O’Keefe, and Marc A. Price
You might have known about the need for having a well-defined elaborated business plan to ensure the stability and integrity of your marketing strategy. However, many startups still tend to fail at the early stage of their development due to the lack of knowledge in the field, which brings us to the importance of studying this e-commerce book. This is basically the core guide towards making your business plan as sustainable and successful as possible. You’ll be presented with various plan samples depending on whether you want to deal with retail, service, digital or any other types of business, and given all the necessary tips on managing each of them.
Be Your Best Boss by William R. Seagraves
Be Your Best Boss aims specifically at people who got to become entrepreneurs halfway through their career after realizing the nonsense of being an employee who always depends upon the authority of the boss. While many mid-aged entrepreneurs are less confident in their abilities to handle some risky affair, this book will reassure them that building a successful startup is possible anytime, anywhere. With this e-commerce book at hand, you will get to know the importance of finding the most appropriate niche for your future business as well as suitable funding sources that will bring your innovative ideas into life. Moreover, the book is full of real life stories told by the same mid-career entrepreneurs from the height of their practical experience.
Mad Genius by Randy Gage
Randy Gage tries to persuade the reader that in order to be an entrepreneur you have to think like an entrepreneur. In fact, the success of your future business depends on the very first idea that comes to your mind – the idea that will be later embodied in a real fast-growing business. Mad Genius will guide you into the world of commercial creativity and revolutionary thinking, both of which construct the mind of a successful entrepreneur.
Anyone Can Do It by Sahar and Bobby Hashemi
This is another true story of ups and downs in the life of two people who once decided to take a risk and go into the sea of uncertainty called business. The authors, now successful owners of the most famous coffee franchise chain in the UK, provide a useful insight into how they managed to found, maintain, and further develop their business. By following their story, you will gradually gain certainty that won’t let you lose your entrepreneurial potential and will help you get started.
The Complete E-Commerce Book by Janice Reynolds
Building E-Commerce business largely differs from building real-life business, and Janice Reynolds is going to prove it in her comprehensive guide The Complete E-Commerce Book. Not only will you have to reconsider the whole process of creating and selling your products, but you will also need to get deep into online marketing in general. This e-commerce book covers in detail such topics as:
- building a successful online marketing strategy;
- choosing proper hardware, software, and hosting services;
- striking a happy medium between making you website trendy and at the same time customer-friendly;
- learning customer experience and boosting your traffic;
- acquiring necessary programming and analytical skills to constantly improve your online store and be able to adjust to unforeseen circumstances;
- and many more.
Get Rich Click! By Marc Ostrofsky
This step-by-step guide to the world of E-Commerce written by a successful online entrepreneur Marc Ostrofsky will teach you the variety of ways of achieving your commercial aims by following simple and time-approved rules. For instance, you will find out how to develop your E-Commerce business by using well-known social media sources such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or by simply creating the right domain name for your website.
Smart branding
The next step in building your E-Commerce project is to make both your company and your products noticeable to the target audience. It concerns primarily visual markers of your firm, including name, logo, motto, and product design. Defining the right branding strategy is likely to bring you more profit and recognition from your future customers, so make sure you have read at least one of the books from the following category.
What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn
It took a long time before such names as Apple, Burger King, and Nike, became a necessary part of our culture. Denise Lee Yohn and her tremendously useful e-commerce book will prove to you that smart branding is not simply a way to bring your company to a success, but a perfect opportunity to become a unique cultural phenomenon. According to the book, smart branding revolves around seven major principles that have been used by the giants of the global market for decades. The author, however, indicates that it was not always the case, thus showing the necessity to learn from their mistakes in order not to make those of our own. Apart from providing real-world examples of successful branding strategies, Yohn will introduce her own exclusive tips and recommendations on how to properly integrate the main branding principles to guarantee a stable growth and prosperity to your company.
Lead with a Story by Paul Smith
There is something else you did not know about branding. For instance, dragging attention of a potential customer is an ultimate aim pursued by the majority of businesses. However, not everyone is concerned with being actually interesting to a customer. Paul Smith uncovers the secret of a high-end business-customer interaction by introducing an innovative approach to branding – storytelling. By motivating your products or services with a fascinating real-life story, you will gain more trust and inspiration from consumers but also create a unique corporate spirit, thus contributing to the exceptional status of your company on the global market.
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
This book provides a certain transition from the general topic of getting close with your potential customers towards specific ways of improving their shopping experience. With this regard, one of the most notable strategies is that of improving your website design. The author provides quite persuasive arguments to support the idea that usability of your E-Commerce website largely depends on how user-friendly and visually appealing it is in terms of its design. So if you want your customer to feel comfortable while searching through your website, this e-commerce book is a must-read.
Pushing forward with the best marketing solutions
Launching a startup and creating a good brand is only a small part of what you will have to do on your way to success. A lot will depend on whether you manage to make your E-Commerce website appealing to your internet audience. This brings us to a marketing strategy which, if considered wisely, will provide you with a great deal of self-promotion and attract many loyal customers. This category has accumulated a list of proven marketing books that will help you develop an effective marketing strategy of your own.
Traction by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
The authors of Traction are experienced enough to claim that keeping your business going is a tough task. However, this task can be more easily accomplished if you realize the importance of a persistent attraction of new customers to your website. Providing a steady customer growth will secure you from the risk of getting collapsed at the early stage of development, which is even more crucial for novice businesses. The book will introduce you to the total of nineteen potential customer channels which you can use to build and grow your E-Commerce audience. Social media, e-mail marketing campaigns, offline ads, and SEO strategies comprise the top of this channel list.
The Ultimate Marketing Plan by Dan S. Kennedy
A successful marketing professional Dan S. Kennedy shares his experience in the field to help you keep up with the ever-changing trends on the market. For the last decades, the latter has proved to be largely dependent on the Internet and its fast-growing products – social media. The author uses these trends to reinforce both offline and online entrepreneurship thus offering companies to actively interact with the online environment but at the same time reminding everyone that online marketing is based on the same fundamental principles as traditional marketing has always been.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk
Another book by Gary Vaynerchuk focuses specifically on social media and how they can be integrated into your E-Commerce business. According to the author, a good social media strategy should take into account which audience is supposed to be the target one but also which social media website suits best for reaching that particular audience. Moreover, it is also important to adjust your marketing campaign to suit various social networks thus providing you with more potential customers. By learning from the experience of many successful companies, you will better understand how to bring more traffic to your website and convert them to sales.
Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt
Platform is a key word used by Michael Hyatt to deliver the main idea of a successful marketing strategy. Building a platform is considered to be an ultimate aim of any entrepreneur willing to provide a stable growth to his or her business. Everything starts from the point of reading this e-commerce book and following simple steps that will help you come to grips with social media and find ways to use them for influencing your target users by anticipating their needs.
99 Ways to Flood Your Website with Traffic by Mick Macro
While you may be struggling to figure out one perfectly suitable marketing strategy for your E-Commerce website, someone can help you out by offering 99 already existing ones. Mick Macro claims in his e-commerce book that any of these proven tactics can be equally effective for driving more traffic to your website. The best results, however, can be achieved if combining a set of several online strategies to secure your eventual success. You will also learn from this book how to:
- effectively manage your keywords;
- create attractive advertising;
- apply easy-to-use scripts to take control over your daily online visits.
Boost E-Commerce Sales and Make More Money by Alex Harris
Alex Harris is a very experienced web designer who knows exactly how a good E-Commerce website should look like. He also knows a tone of useful tactics which could be useful for small businesses willing to grow and keep stable. Throughout the book, you will be guided through the very concept of driving traffic towards understanding the necessity of acquiring and retaining loyal customers on your website. You will also learn how to organize your marketing strategy by making a so-called marketing calendar that will help you know exactly when to implement the following updates and promotions to your campaign.
Ask. by Ryan Levesque
Ask. provides a completely fresh view on understanding your customers’ needs. The author has developed a unique way for determining what people really want to buy – namely, by using the theory of sales funnels and customizable surveys. With this information at hand, you will manage to further adapt your products and services list for the best customer experience on your website.
Official Shopify Guides to Successful Marketing
Shopify is considered one of the largest E-Commerce platforms that hosts a great number of businesses from small startups to well-established companies. It is no surprise that such a successful online marketing platform wants to retain and support its clients by offering the whole set of useful articles and comprehensive guides for improving their E-Commerce projects. On Shopify’s official guides page you will find all the information you might need in the process of starting and maintaining your business, including crowdfunding tips, making your first sale, managing effective product shipping, insights into legal issues accompanying any business-related procedures, and many more.
Likeable Social Media by Dave Kerpen, Carrie Kerpen, Mallorie Rosenbluth, and Meg Riedinger
This is a profound step-by-step guide to the most successful social media integration. The authors applied the recent outcomes of the studies conducted by professional analytics websites in order to create an up-to-date image of social media users and their needs. As a result, you get the opportunity to engage numbers of potential customers from the largest social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Vine, Instagram, and others.
Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman
Content rules fosters the concept of content marketing as a primary means of achieving strategic goals of any E-Commerce business. Not only is it important for promoting your brand, but it is also pretty much valuable in terms of building and sustaining the loyalty of your customers. Basically, the key to success lies in reinforcing your commercial presence with effective customer-related content which is likely to encourage people to share it with others and finally purchase your products and services. You can address your customers through various kinds of content, including text, images, videos, or even combinations of all three. With this e-commerce book, you will also learn how to adapt your content to specific environments of various social media.
Mastering the New Media Landscape by Barbara Cave Henricks and Rusty Shelton
It is certainly a hard time for entrepreneurs to deal with numerous competing businesses trying to win their personal place on the map of the global market. However, knowing exactly where to put your efforts is what makes you several steps ahead of your competitors. The authors of Mastering the New Media Landscape claim that being able to distinguish between various kinds of media can help establish the right understanding of how to use them for the maximum profit to your business.
Hacking Marketing by Scott Brinker
In this e-commerce book, your attention will be caught by numerous insights into the marketing industry of the last decade. In fact, you are going to be surprised with how much it has been influenced by technology and particularly the Internet. Each year, newer and more sophisticated ways of connecting brands and customers occur which requires a better awareness and ability to catch up with the fast-moving marketing trends. The best way to do that, surprisingly, is to look at how software development niche works. Scott Brinker is an experienced marketer who is convinced that all the processes in the E-Commerce world follow the exact same patterns as those included in software management.
Creating Competitive Advantage by Kevin Uphill
One of the most significant skills required from a successful entrepreneur is to be capable of analyzing current E-Commerce trends and predicting the upcoming changes in the most accurate way. Creating Competitive Advantage is a guide to the most comprehensive understanding of the modern E-Commerce world, which includes detailed examples, case studies, and visual tools to provide you with the most efficient learning experience.
Designpedia by Rafael Zaragoza and Juan Gasca
Designpedia is a book that clearly demonstrates the importance of creative thinking in the process of maintaining a business of any kind. Creativity is proved to be the one and only skill that allows you to stand out from the rest of your competitors and support a further growth of your project. Moreover, it is the skill that can turn out to be helpful at any stage of your development – making your marketing strategy better would not be possible without a constant embedding of innovative ideas that can be tested, improved, and integrated.
Txt Me by B. Bonin Bough
This is a profound book on mobile marketing that is gradually taking over traditional brick-and-mortar marketing. The author will provide you with irrefutable evidence that mobile devices have significantly changed the way people live, work, and consume, thus influencing almost all aspects of their everyday routine. That’s when you need to realize a potential implication of digital advances for your own business. By simply looking at the opportunities mobile marketing gives you in terms of speed, accessibility, business-customer interaction, data gathering, and insights into modern consumers behavior, you will manage to build a solid base for boosting your sales and leaving others behind.
Content Marketing Strategies for Dummies by Stephanie Diamond
Stephanie Diamond is a reliable marketing expert with over 20 years of experience who really cares about content. She claims that an E-Commerce owner can be sure in loyalty of his or her customers only by having provided them with high-end, innovative, and carefully selected content that will motivate, inspire, and lead to sales. You will learn how to build an effective content marketing strategy of your own by going through a so-called Five C Cycle comprising the following stages:
- Defining your Company’s Focus;
- Gathering data to better understand your Customers’ Experience;
- Creating Content on the basis of retrieved data;
- Further Channel Promotion across search media platforms possessing the highest rate of potential customers;
- Conducting a final Closed-loop Analysis for determining the strongest points of your strategy thus allowing to further expand your success.
Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday
It has been more than five years since the term growth hacking was introduced to a wide audience. It accumulates in itself a great variety of marketing strategies which are aimed specifically at online startups and emphasizing the necessity for growth rather than profit.
Such techniques as social metrics analysis, search engine optimization and viral marketing are just a few examples of the overall potential growth hackers posses to build and stimulate their businesses. The e-commerce book of Ryan Holiday offers a unique insight into the main principles of growth hacker marketing and the ways to adapt it to the needs of a particular E-Commerce project.
The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott
This book will provide you with additional information on hacking marketing with the subsequent examples of successful companies that grew up by implementing its major techniques. You will be also introduced to up-to-date tools that can help you handle big data, find proper media sources and address your target audience.
The Referral Engine by John Jantsch
Here is the book dedicated to another type of online marketing which works perfectly for driving more traffic to your website, namely, referral marketing. The author sets off by stating that modern marketing should rely on customer as the only real promotional source for entrepreneurship. Providing people with the products and services they like and value will inevitably make them want to share their positive experience with their friends and family. Thus, by improving customer shopping experience you can easily get people to appreciate your company and recommend it to others thus boosting your traffic and sales.
Handling metrics
This category of E-Commerce books contains a few valuable sources for acquiring practical skills in data analytics. Analytics is an important part of the E-Commerce world, as it plays a major role in helping you manage and improve your current marketing strategy at any stage of your progress. So, regardless of the type of your business, you need to know how to use the power of analytics for an adequate evaluation of your traffic, sales, profits, and expenses.
Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll and Benjamin Yoskovitz
Lean analytics was built specifically for Lean Startup businesses to help them avoid problems at early stages of their development. However, it is also proved to be effective with large-scale businesses that may want to change their course for the sake of creativity or innovation. This e-commerce book has everything you need to know about how to evaluate your success by measuring specific metrics and decide upon what should be improved and how much you should spend to keep away from potential risks.
Social Media Analytics by Matthew Ganis and Avinash Kohirkar
Social media is a powerful means of finding out what people think about your product and which demographic categories tend to like it most. This book is written by two professional IBM specialists who know exactly how to use social media data to improve your marketing performance. You will learn, for instance, that not every metrics are useful for analytical purposes; some of them may even become distracting when it comes to determining the key sales-driving factors. You will be also introduced to the most effective techniques of filtering and organizing your data so you could easily and correctly predict potential success or failure.
Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik
If you have never heard about Avinash Kaushik, you should probably read his previous book which introduces the reader to the very concept of E-Commerce analytics. Following the structure of the first book, Web Analytics 2.0 extends the boundaries of digital data analysis by providing actual templates and recommendations on how to build an effective analytical strategy for handling data from various sources, such as search engines, pay-per-click accounts, and social media.
Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics by Brian Clifton
Google Analytics is one of the most reliable free online tools for measuring the performance of E-Commerce websites used by millions of online entrepreneurs worldwide. This e-commerce book includes all the information you need to know about the service, including:
- a basic overview and description of its primary features;
- an introduction of innovative analytical techniques for a more accurate data tracking;
- a step-by-step guide to a proper GA setup with advanced tracking features enabled;
- useful tips on creating the most efficient customer segmentation and multi-dashboard management board.
E-Commerce optimization guides
While looking for tones of ways to drive more traffic to their website, entrepreneurs often neglect the idea that the positive outcome of a marketing strategy may lie in the ability to drive sales from existing customers rather than desperately trying to attract more new customers who, however, would not be in a hurry of purchasing anything in your store at all. The main purpose of E-Commerce optimization is to use your current progress for turning existing traffic into valuable conversions, which is the source of your actual profit. The following e-commerce SEO books and e-commerce optimization guides are a must-read for those who look forward to making the most of their business.
SEO 2016 by Adam Clarke
Everything you have ever needed to know about Search Engine Optimization can be found in this comprehensive guide written by a Google approved marketing specialist Adam Clarke. Search engines are the primary points of interest to any E-Commerce business who aims at being the first among its competitors in getting noticed by the target internet audience. The book will introduce you to the fundamentals of SEO as well as major techniques that you can adapt to make your website more visible to internet users, such as implementing the most actively used keywords in the content of your landing page and useful tricks to gain the highest ranks at the top of search engine results.
Optimize by Lee Odden
This e-commerce book will prove to you that any website optimization is primarily about improving your inner content, which, again, brings us to content marketing. The difference, however, is that in case with SEO, not only the overall quality but also search engine visibility is an important factor for providing sufficient engagement with your customers. In fact, SEO should be implemented on the regular basis so that your rankings could stay high regardless of who your competitors are. In addition to theoretical information about SEO principles, you will also learn how to adjust your content to various social media platforms to reach your target audience.
You Should Test That by Chris Goward
This book concerns a different type of optimization, namely conversion optimization. Unlike SEO, conversion optimization is traditionally implemented through repetitive testing and constant experimentation with both structure and content of your E-Commerce website. Depending on your strategic aims, you will need to try out new stuff which is likely to appeal to your customers and further get them to purchase your products or services. For this, you will need to perform social data analysis that can reveal who your customers are and what they want. The book contains a set of practical tips and examples that will reinforce your confidence and boost your conversion rate.
Convert! by Ben Hunt
An experienced web design professional, Ben Hunt claims that increasing conversion starts from the realization of aims, audience expectations, and methods of reaching those aims without contradicting audience expectations. The main aim for any E-Commerce website owner will be to get visitors to buy your product by motivating them for a corresponding action. The latter will be possible only through a thorough testing and the following analysis of its results.
Lifetime of your business
The point of building a successful company is not merely about prosperity. It is also about being recognized and respected by millions of people for years to come. Here you will find some unique books that explain what it means to build and develop a company that would live for decades.
Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
This book is based on the six-year study at Stanford dedicated to the analysis of the eighteen oldest and most prospering corporations of our time. The authors put all their effort to understand what makes those corporations the giants of the modern market. With the average age of hundred years, they eventually managed to outperform all major competitors in their niche and take the leading position in sustaining the world economy. The study covered the development of the companies starting from their birth up to present day time thus helping to analyze the factors that could influence their eventual success. Filled with tons of useful examples and practical advice, this book can become your proven guide towards building a long-standing business.
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Here Jim Collins puts an emphasis on the fate of small and average businesses that keep on struggling with a constant instability and unawareness of the future. He claims that, although it seems hard to imagine a mediocre company having become a large-scale corporation dominating the market, basically everyone has a potential to achieve that. If you define the main characteristics of a company that allow it to convert from a small-scale into a large-scale business, you might be halfway through establishing your own path to success.
Indispensable by Joe Calloway
This e-commerce book will show you how to achieve your marketing aims by utilizing The Five Drivers principle which has been adopted by numerous outstanding companies of the century. The given principle can get your business out of the vicious circle of uncertainty and distrust between you and your customers. Based on developing long-standing customer loyalty, The Five Drivers Principle includes:
- gaining commercial confidence needed for moving forward to a success;
- developing consistency in the quality of your performance;
- never ceasing to seek connection with your customers;
- making small steps while seeing the big picture;
- finding ways to surprise and please your target audience.
For your inspiration
Finally, making the first step is much easier when you know that there were many people before you who were not afraid to take risks, who never ceased to believe in what they were doing, and who finally managed to make their business grow and prosper. These e-commerce books will inspire you and give faith in a better future for your business.
The Alibaba Way by Ying Lowrey
This is an amusing story behind the establishment of the China’s most successful online marketing platform that was born at a small apartment in 1999. Having almost no money, Jack Ma and his small staff grew into a fast-growing company involving millions of participants worldwide. It is now the most frequent starting point for startups and small businesses who want to reach a stable growth by adopting Alibaba’s marketing model. The book is a strong proof that even with a small budget you can grow your business into an E-Commerce giant. The main point is to choose the right strategy.
One-Click by Richard D. Brandt
Everything you wanted to know about Amazon and its secrets of success can be found in this insightful book by Richard D. Brandt. Jeff Bezos knew full well what he was doing back in 1995 when he decided to start his own E-Commerce project. Now it is one of the most popular shopping platforms on the Internet, bringing millions of dollars of revenue a year. The idea Jeff Bezos came with to the global market was pretty much simple: reducing the whole shopping process to a single click is a key to the heart of a customer.
The Everything Store by Brad Stone
This is another comprehensive book on the history of Amazon’s success. The author starts off by introducing the first days of the company’s life filled with selling and delivering books all over the US. While Jeff Bezos was not contented with the perspective of remaining a book seller, he developed a unique strategy that allowed him to create an online store which sells literally everything for small prices and with an attractive simplicity. This venturesome decision brought him to the state of being the second Henry Ford in retail, and it surely brought us to a completely different level of shopping.
In the Plex by Steven Levy
Steven Levy was lucky to get inside one of the biggest Google headquarters to witness the everyday routine of the company and its numerous staff. His book explains in detail how Google’s founders – Larry Page and Sergey Brin – revolutionized the Internet with their innovative search engine which is now used by billions of users all over the world. With the introduction of online advertising features, the company soon grew into a huge corporation covering a wide number of accessory projects, such as advertising services (Google AdWords, DoubleClick), development tools (AngularJS, Google Swiffy), communication tools (Google Hangouts, Google+, Youtube) and many more. According to Levy, the key to the company’s success lies in its ability to combine speed, experimentation, risk, and accessibility in one universal approach that guarantees longstanding leadership on the global market.
Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton and John Huey
This is a legendary story told by the main character himself – a story about the establishment of the worldwide famous retail company Wal-Mart. In his book, Sam Walton shares his personal views on entrepreneurship, taking risks, and the role of optimism in the life of a devoted businessman. This is a perfect inspirational source for those who want to start their own retail business or simply get some advice from a veteran of the commercial world.
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
A result of a thorough biographical investigation conducted by a bestselling author Walter Isaacson, this book lets us dive deep into the thoughts and aspirations of Steve Jobs – the most influential entrepreneur of the twentieth century. Steve Jobs appeared to be the first person to have successfully combined creativity and technology into a powerful weapon helping reach perfection in all spheres of modern human life. His character was tightly bound to his company’s products, which made them even more unique to a customer. This book will allow the reader to see Steve Jobs and his Apple from the point of view of many different people, ranging from Jobs’ relatives and friends to employees and competitors thus creating a true and vivid image of a legendary person.
Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance
Vance’s book sheds light on Elon Musk’s career of a legendary entrepreneur who made an exceptional contribution to the world’s economy and reshaped American industry with his outstanding projects, such as SpaceX, PayPal, Tesla Motors, and SolarCity. Accompanied with numerous comments from Musk’s friends and family, the book will guide you through the earliest days of his life towards the very peak of his marketing success.
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