The Best Sources for Ecommerce News and Information

Staying on top of what’s going on in the ecommerce industry, as well as learning about new business models, strategies, and tactics, is important to success.

Depending on your particular role and interests, you may be interested in the latest news about eBay, Amazon, Alibaba, or other ecommerce marketplaces. Or maybe you run your own ecommerce store and want to improve your Google ads, your social media strategy, or your conversion rates to increase online sales.

And then there’s the 40,000-foot view: what are the coming trends and topics from industry thought leaders that will impact online shopping in the future?

With the myriad of news sources available today, it’s not difficult to find information. The challenge is separating the signal from the noise and finding all the information you need — without spending all day reading.

Where to Read the Latest Ecommerce News and Insights

There are hundreds of great sources to get news and insights on retail, ecommerce, and all the topics that touch them. Whatever topics you’re looking for, the publications below can help.

1. Practical Ecommerce.

Practical Ecommerce provides actionable information and insight to anyone doing the business of ecommerce — from marketing, design, and conversion optimization to shipping, analytics, management, and more. It’s also one of the best places to get news related to selling on Amazon and other marketplaces.

Check out: 15 Outstanding Digital Media Campaigns from 2019

2. National Retail Federation.

As the largest retail trade association, NRF offers a unique look into the industry at large, including original research and exec-level insights from some of the biggest industry players. NRF’s blog will also be a great spot to find data and insights from Black Friday and Cyber Monday and across the holiday season.

Check out: Building ‘the department store of the future’

3. Econsultancy.

Econsultancy’s analysts and experts provide unique insights and actionable information on ecommerce, digital marketing trends, and technology. Blog articles are bite-sized and free to access, while briefings go a bit more in-depth and require a paid membership to access.

Check out: Defining UX best practice for shared customer experiences

4. Retail Dive.

Retail Dive features daily news around brand launches and store closings to reporting on trends and offering expert opinions and insights. It’s a great first-stop shop for news about major retailers like Walmart, Amazon, Lululemon, etc.

Check out: ‘Tis the season to return things. But it doesn’t have to be.

Industry Dive also runs a number of other “dives” that may be of interest, depending on your vertical and job category, including Banking, CIO, Marketing, and Supply Chain.

5. Digital Commerce 360.

Visit Digital Commerce 360 for news and analysis, trending topics, and other educational resources like webinars and whitepapers.

Check out: Site satisfaction amid heightened shopper expectations should inform platform selection

6. Forbes Retail.

As you most likely already know, Forbes is one of the most prominent business magazines in the U.S. What you might not know is that the Retail section is a great resource for anyone in the ecommerce business.

Check out: Retail Tech Trends From 2011 Still Relevant Today

7. Modern Retail.

Modern Retail covers startups, retailers, platforms, events, and more, featuring the latest in news, trends, and insights. It also provides collections of content around top-of-mind industry topics like DTC trends and the Amazon effect — making it a great source for all things omnichannel.

Check out: In effort to boost retention, e-commerce startups are selling access to events and content

8. The Goods, by Vox.

Vox launched The Goods in late 2018 to cover consumer culture, or — as Vox words it — ”the things we buy and why we buy them.” While not specifically related to commerce, the insights into consumer psychology and behavior can be helpful to anyone working to sell a product to another human.

Check out: 2019’s most important clothes, from Mueller T-shirts to Lil Nas X’s cowboy hat

9. Glossy.

Glossy centers around technology’s impact on the fashion and beauty industries — but the insights span verticals, making it useful even if you don’t work with a fashion or beauty brand. Like others mentioned here, Glossy provides a ton of free content but also offers paid memberships for exclusive reports.

Check out: Why esports are emerging as fashion’s go-to cultural reference

Where to Keep Up With the Latest in Marketing and Advertising

If there are a lot of ecommerce news sources to sift through, there are even more around marketing and advertising. Here are some of the best sources if you’re looking for the latest trends, tips, and fresh ideas.

1. Media Post 

Media Post offers diverse and comprehensive coverage on online advertising, digital marketing, and media, with high editorial standards.

Check out: How Brands can Help Millennials and Gen Z Combat Burnout

2. eMarketer 

eMarketer focuses on all things digital as they intersect with marketing, media, and commerce. In addition to plenty of free content and a “Behind the Numbers” podcast, there is a paid subscription option that offers more in-depth reporting and other valuable resources.

Check out: Do Most Searches Really Start on Amazon?

3. Social Media Today

Social Media Today reports and provides original analysis on the latest events in the social media industry.

Check out: Who’s Complaining, and What Are the Most Common Reasons for Calling Out Businesses on Social?

5. Buffer

Buffer offers a great mix of insight into the social media industry, inspiration, and actionable tips for improving your social media game.

Check out: The Science Behind the Best Instagram Bios

4. The Moz Blog

The Moz Blog publishes some of the industry’s leading experts on search engine optimization (SEO), from keyword research to link building, local SEO, and technical. You can expect new content about three or four times a week.

Check out: What Do High Performing Ecommerce Websites Do Differently?

5. Content Marketing Institute

The CMI blog covers just about everything you can think of relating to content marketing, strategy, operations, and management. In addition to its frequently refreshed blog articles, CMI offers a series of free how-to guides that are a great resource for getting started.

Check out: How to Plan for 12 Full Months of Customer-Focused Blogging

6. The Daily Egg

The Daily Egg is dedicated to conversion optimization, covering topics around website design, UX, a/b testing, and all the other things that make an ecommerce site a good customer experience.

Check out: A Step-by-Step Guide to Increasing Revenue at Every Stage in Your Buyer Journey

The Best Ecommerce News and Marketing Newsletters

While newsletters can be a good way to make sure you don’t miss anything from your favorite news sites, our inboxes are usually so full already. For me, the best newsletters feature a deliberate mix of original content and curation that I can’t find anywhere else.

Lean Luxe.

The Lean Luxe tagline reads, “Rigorously defining what luxury now means today, and covering the businesses at the forefront.” Each newsletter combines original reporting and interesting, relevant content from across the web.

2PM.

2PM offers a weekly Monday Letter that covers the latest developments in media, brand, data science, and ecommerce, and includes a wide breadth of news, original insight, and links to other interesting content. It also offers a paid Executive Membership, which consists of three briefs per week and a weekly report.

Chips + Dips.

Emily Singer’s Chips + Dips covers the “intersection between ecommerce, tech, and branding,” with a new issue every few weeks that includes a roundup of interesting stories from across the web (the chips) and an in-depth dive into current topical content.

Full Court Press.

Full Court Press comes from Marco Marandiz, who currently heads marketing for Eliott. His newsletter is full of insights into DTC marketing, branding, and the ecommerce industry. The first issue dropped at the end of December.

Retail Brew.

Retail Brew is great for short, snappy industry updates and hits your inbox twice a week. Also check out their Morning Brew for general news and Emerging Tech Brew to stay up on all the innovative technologies.

Digiday.

Focused on intersections of media, retail, culture, brand, and marketing, Digiday’s daily newsletter comes with a synthesis of recent industry trends with links to relevant articles for more. Many of the stories are free, but there is also a membership opportunity for more.

The Hustle.

The Hustle is not ecommerce- or retail-specific, but it is one of the best general daily newsletters for keeping up with the biggest stories of the day. Bonus points: the copywriting is fantastic.

Vogue Business.

This one is focused on the fashion industry (surprise, surprise) but it’s worth considering even if that’s not your niche. It provides a global perspective on business and technology in fashion, and so touches a lot of areas of interest across ecommerce. The newsletter includes original reporting and curated content from across the web.

The Best Podcasts for Ecommerce and Marketing Insights

I love podcasts, but I mostly listen to them for entertainment value. Business-related podcasts tend to be a bit more hit-or-miss for me. But there are a few that I think are really great for ecommerce (and probably many more that I haven’t heard yet).

1. Retail Gets Real.

We already recommended NRF as a news source; if you want to go a step farther, check out their Retail Gets Real podcast, featuring “unfiltered, insightful conversations with … retail executives, industry experts, entrepreneurs and influencers.” Recent topics have spanned the impact of new tariffs on retailers, store design for digital-first consumers, and how retailers should be preparing for the workforce of the future.

2. Future Commerce.

Future Commerce hosts discussions around modern brand strategy and aims to provide insights into the future of the industry. Some recent topics have ranged from corporate responsibility in today’s retail landscape to how subscription services drive repeat business, and they’ve also begun a new series, Step by Step, on how to launch and fund a successful retail business.

3. ModernRetail.

Modern Retail is a podcast from Digiday focused on retailers and entrepreneurs in the DTC space. Episodes are released weekly and have featured guests like Haus co-founder Helena Price Hambrecht, Rebecca Taylor president Janice Sullivan, and the chief marketing officer of Audible.

4. GoalTalk.

GoalTalk is a podcast from Wordstream that helps small businesses successfully reach their online marketing goals and aspirations. Wordstream sits down with industry experts to provide straightforward insights that businesses need to set goals. 

Executive Summary

To say that we live in a world of information overload would, at this point, be like reminding you that water is wet. But the drive to know is ever-present, particularly if that knowing can, over time, take your business from idea to first sale, or from good performance to great.

But it is important to stay on top of developments related to the ecommerce industry and shifting consumer trends — especially because they move so fast. Among the resources listed here, you’re sure to find some go-to publications that will provide all the insight and information you’re looking for.