Author Archives: alankent
Memorial Day Musings: How to move the ecommerce industry forwards?
Karen Baker posted on LinkedIn about what ecommerce platforms need to succeed. Here are my Memorial Day musings for your entertainment. Support not Kill Let’s start with a controversial topic! One comment left on LinkedIn was the solution should support, not kill, existing products in the market. A fine principle. I disagree however. I think […]
What does a “decentralized web” mean anyway?
I have been hearing for a while comments such as “web 3.0 is going to be a decentralized web”, and I must admit to not paying a lot of attention. After all, the web is already “decentralized”, right? People host web sites all around the world! Recently I have been digging a bit deeper, to […]
Google Cloud for Ecommerce?
Google Next, the Google Cloud conference, just finished up. (Videos of most sessions are available online.) It left me asking a question – is Google Cloud getting better for commerce? Yes! Well, what did you expect me to say? I work at Google! But more seriously, here are my reasons why. If you are running […]
Performance Benchmarking meets Core Web Vitals
Google has announced that Core Web Vitals (CWV), a set of 3 core metrics to measure page experience for users, is a ranking signal. (There are *many* ranking signals.) Why three? Well, you don’t want hundreds of metrics, but the experience of users on a site (as distinct from the quality of the content itself) […]
Gartner at Modern Commerce Day on Composable Commerce
I attended some of the sessions this week at Modern Commerce Day (presented by CommerceTools). There were interesting sessions from companies such as how Lego has modernized their ecommerce site using serverless patterns, Express.com on migrating to a new architecture during COVID (online sales were their sole revenue stream due to physical stores being closed), […]
Next Generation Digital Commerce Architecture Daydreaming
Every so often I day dream of what a next generation ecommerce platform would look like. (Yes, this is one of those pie in the sky blogs.) First, I think SaaS platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Volusion, and so on do a great job for many ecommerce merchants. What I wanted to focus on in this […]
Storyboarding Web Stories with Adobe Illustrator
In filmmaking, storyboarding is often used to plan out a film. You hand draw pictures for various key moments in the film as a way to get an early feel for how the final film will feel. This helps with making corrections earlier, reducing overall development costs. While web stories are typically much simpler than […]
Using Web Stories to promote products
A recent project I saw was a brand trying to improve the profile of one of their products. They had created a video ad, but were interested in other ways to get increased engagement. One approach they tried, with positive results, was to create a web story. Web stories are a visually engaging format that […]
Alternative online shopping experiences
Shopping as entertainment comes up frequently as a trend. For example, 10 Consumer Trends Shaping the Future of Retail mentions it including 51% miss “going shopping” as a way to socialize; and 25% regularly tune into video shopping channels like QVC or HSN. But how to create an enjoyable online social shopping experience? In this […]
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