Source: www.allbusiness.com

If you heard a loud crash this weekend, it may have been the sound of 390,393 online stores shutting their doors for the last time.

One of the e-commerce pioneers, Zlio.com, announced that it will cease operations and force its 390,393 member retailers to find new homes for their online ambitions. The reason for the collapse appears to be Google's February search algorithm change that demoted the search-result rankings of many content farms. [Note: ZLIO.com should not be confused with the real estate site ZILO.com]

In a press release sent to me by email on Friday, this former giant of online "pop-up stores" made the following announcement:

Six years after its launch, we regret to announce that we are going out of business.

The service will officially end on September 11!

All Business have published an excellent article on why this has happened with some very poignant advice.  Read the full article here.

This article by the NZ Herald is somewhat disturbing....... if your business is selling online then its worth the read.

Many online shoppers have no idea how search engines work or that some links are paid advertising - and the majority of bargain hunters do not bother looking beyond the first page of search results, a new report has found.

The Australia Institute has released the report, What You Don't Know Can Hurt You, which warns that a small number of internet players could end up enjoying almost complete control of the mainstream market.

The full article is here

When you think about ecommerce, you think about Amazon.

But how did a company that started with online books come to dominate an estimated one third of ecommerce in the U.S.?

In the 72 slides that follow, global consulting boutique faberNovel breaks down Amazon’s business and strategy.

The keys to Amazon’s success are

1. the Internet imposes no limits on how much Amazon can sell;
2. its control of customer accounts and loyalty, and
3. a growing ecosystem that is helping it cement its place in the world of digital goods as well.

Read the full article at TechCrunch