For an ecommerce merchant, publishing a blog can present various opportunities such as building a community for your customers to publishing new product information. Ecommerce merchants that do operate blogs, do so for many different reasons. However, while doing research for this article, it quickly became clear the large amount of ecommerce merchants that don't publish blogs, but do operate Facebook pages and Twitter profiles. It appears some have bypassed blogging altogether and moved to the social networking arena.
Despite those who have decided blogging wasn't for them, there are still some big names in the industry with active blogs. Website Magazine looked at five ecommerce merchants that do blog and what they are doing with their blogs.
Amazon
Amazon's blog does a good job of addressing news and relating it to their products without hard selling the reader. For example, a recent post about DJ AM addresses his history and talent with links throughout the post to DJ AM products that Amazon sells. Amazon never misses an opportunity to link to a product they sell that relates to the content.
Walmart
Walmart approaches its blog slightly differently than Amazon. While the company pushes product as Amazon does, Walmart is very direct about its promotions, sales and discounts of certain products. For example, its most recent post talks all about a new deal for the Toshiba L355 17 in. screen size laptop for $348. In addition, Walmart uses its blog to promote corporate strategies and goals.
Dell
Dell addresses products in its blog, but spends a good amount of content on its philanthropy, community outreach and the company. It also takes every opportunity to use images and screen shots to make each post more aesthetically pleasing and interesting.
Sears
Sears focuses on the community of its customers with its blog. Found in the MySears section of its website, the blog talks about customer suggestions, community polls, club cards, promotions and deals. In addition, the blog includes images of coupons that customers can print out.
eBags
eBags blog addresses problems and solutions on its blog. For example, the football season just kicked off so you might be in need of a bag that has your favorite team on it. That's exactly what the most recent post is about. Other posts help moms find diaper bags that aren't boring, or those in need of a hydration pack. Every post includes product images and links to products.
If you're an ecommerce merchant, comment below on how you operate your blog. Or if you know of other ecommerce merchant blogs that operate differently, please add your thoughts on those below.