Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition Interviews on Webmaster Radio

Brandy Shapiro-Babin, the co-founder of Webmaster Radio, and Jorge Hermida (aka Brasco), the director of programming and production, asked me to cover the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE) in Boston last month.

Now, I’m more comfortable with a video crew in tow behind me. But, once upon a time, I was a radio reporter and newscaster. So, I figured that I could figure out how to use the digital audio recorder that Brasco shipped me before the event. Wrong!

Nevertheless, with apologies for my tendency to blink at the dawn of the digital media era, the folks at WebmasterRadio.FM just posted my eight interviews from IRCE. You can check them out by clicking on Internet Retailer.

In you scroll to the bottom of the list, you’ll find Keynote Overview Part 1 and Part 2. I interviewed Nacho Hernandez, CEO and Founder of iHispanic Marketing Group, to do color commentary and analysis of the keynote presentations. This included opening remarks by Kurt Peters, Editor in Chief of Internet Retailer, plus keynotes by Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com, Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chairman and co-founder of comScore, as well as Jeff and Bobby Beaver, co-founders of Zazzle.

In Part 2, Nacho and I discuss Fulgoni’s presentation, which included data that showed unemployment-related searches spiked in March 2009 compared to the same month in 2008. He added that consumers feel it will take more than a year before the unemployment rate will begin to show signs of improvement.

Fulgoni also presented data that showed older mid-to-upper income households are showing softness in online spending, presumably reflecting an increased savings rate. However, younger households continue to spend incrementally. This means internet retailers should segment their audience and target those 18-44 years old.

Finally, Fulgoni said search engines remain the most important sites when shopping, but online coupon sites and jumped into second place ahead of comparison shopping sites.

You will also hear my interview with Hernandez about MexGrocer.com at the end in Part 2. MexGrocer.com is the largest online grocery store for authentic Mexican food. Nacho, who is a regular speaker at Search Engine Strategies conferences, talks about the family business founded by his father.

But wait, there’s more!

I interviewed Bizresearch President Laura Thieme, who discusses her new web-based search analytics platform called Bizwatch.

I asked Angela Nguyen of Microsoft to give a verbal demonstration for WebmasterRadio.fm listeners about the four things to “look for” in Bing.

Abe Mezrich, Communications Manager for Didit, discusses display search retargeting, why he recommends you do it, and how it works for considered purchases and/or impulse buys.

Stephan Spencer of NetConcepts, tells us about GravityStream 2.0, search engine optimization software for online retailers.

Matt Pace, managing director of retail and consumer products for Compete discusses the latest retail trends coming out of the IRCE 2009 conference.

And Michael Briggs, VP Search Strategy at @WebsitePublicity, discusses pay-per-click trends, and his background of PPC going back to the sale of Overture.

Now that I’ve listened to it, I did do as bad a job as I had feared. Who knows, maybe I “look good” on radio … in my blue shirt. (Now, that’s a funny story that I’ll save for another time and another place.)