Online Retail Is Ambivalent About BlogsOnly 2.6% of US shoppers use blogs when researching purchases, according to a recent JupiterResearch survey cited in a March 2008 Internet Retailer article.

That has some online retailers questioning blogs’ marketing value.

“It’s just not that big a deal at this point. Your resources are better spent elsewhere,” said Tom Cox, CEO of Golfballs.com. “We have affiliate marketing, e-mail marketing, pay-per-click, organic search—I know if I commit resources to these it will get me a return on investment. Blogs are like the newsgroups of a decade ago—they were there, but did they ever move the needle? No.”

Other Web merchants are making strategic use of influential blogs.

Vintner Icon Estates used Andiamo Systems to locate a highly trafficked and commented-upon blog called VinDivine. The winery then set up a promotion.

“We shared a coupon with the blogger and he shared it with his readers,” said Matt Wood, vice president of retail operations at Icon. “It was 70% off an expensive wine we were very long on and that we had a margin to play with. It boosted sales the next day significantly.”

Source: eMarketer.com

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