My retail clients often ask me which blogs I follow.  So, I thought it would be helpful to share with everyone the blogs that I find most useful to stay current.  There are a significant number of blogs that are helpful to eBay merchants, and a large number of news repeaters, but a surprisingly few number that provide true insight into the needs of larger retailers.

I will leave you with my list I and welcome you to share your Top Ecommerce Blogs in the comment section below.  I’m hoping that you will help me find a few that may change my top 5.

My Top 5 Ecommerce Blog

#1. StorefrontBacktalk  http://www.storefrontbacktalk.com/

There are a few ecommerce standbys, and one of them is Evan Schuman’s StorefrontBacktalk.  This blog offers coverage of both ecommerce news and current trends.

#2. Shop.Org Blog  http://blog.shop.org/

Shop.Org is a US based member driven trade association.  Their blog provides both their membership and the ecommerce community a great stream of news and trends in ecommerce, as well as interviews and always superb coverage of all NRF (National Retail Federation) and Shop.org events.

#3. Michael S. Levy‘s blog  http://michaelslevy.blogspot.com/

A solid resource for ecommerce, especially social shopping trends.  For example, Michael pointed out the growing adoption of Facebook Connect by retailers which is a trend that is about to really take hold.

#4 Optaros Ecommerce Blog

I have to include this as one of my top 5.   The Optaros Ecommerce Blog offers a global perspective on ecommerce trends.  With fellow blogger Jochen Krish in Germany and me in the United States, we have created our Ecommerce Blog to offer a view into the strategies and trends we are seeing in the market as a result of our experiences working with our ecommerce clients. Also, what you will find is that there seems to be more adoption of live shopping, social shopping, private event retailing and open source in Europe as well. Private event retailing has been in Europe for years and is only just taking off in the US.   Visit and (don’t forget to) subscribe to our blog.  We want to have this conversation with you.

#5 Get Elastic   http://www.getelastic.com/

The Get Elastic blog has been a standby for a while, and is still one of our favorites. Visit this blog for a great view of the best practices seen by Linda Bustos.  We are sad to see Jason Billingsley moving on from Elastic Path, but we make sure to follow him on twitter (http://twitter.com/jbillingsley).

As it turns out, I couldn’t keep this to a Top 5 Ecommerce Blog list.  There are just too many great people and organizations that are covering this space, so here is my list of the blogs that I would qualify as “special mention”.

Special Mention

-  Some retailers really know how to use a blog, these include Koodos (http://www.koodos.com/blog), Polyvore Blog (http://blog.polyvore.com/) and The Storque (http://www.etsy.com/storque/section/etsyNews/). These are examples of merchant blogs who try to stay current and entertaining.

- Comparison Engines (http://www.comparisonengines.com/) offers good ecommerce tidbits.

-  Magento’s blog (http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog) and tweets (http://twitter.com/magento) are good examples of perspectives from an open source solution provider.

-  The ‘Zappos CEO’ on twitter: (http://twitter.com/zappos) is Tony Hsieh’s feed which has become somewhat of a cult following. This has many followers and has set the standard for a retailer’s twitter feed.

-  Nicolas Leroy‘s twitter (http://twitter.com/nicolas_leroy/) is worth following.

News Feeds

The E-Commerce Times, http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/section/ecommerce/ readers are able to tap into an excellent feed on technology trends with a focus on ecommerce.

IMRG, http://www.imrg.org/ a global e-retailing association, offers a view into ecommerce news and trends in Europe.

Lastly, I have to admit that I’m pretty proud of our own ecommerce blog.  My colleague Jochen Kirsh in Germany posts great content that I regularly learn from, and I always try to provide helpful, informative content for you readers as well.  If you like what we have to say, please subscribe to Optaros’ Ecommerce Blog and join the conversation by commenting or following myself and Jochen on Twitter.

So… what do you think?  Did I miss your favorite ecommerce blog?  Share your best ecommerce resources and blogs in the comments.