Ecommerce Links: October 2012

Blogger's Digest is our monthly roundup of great content for ecommerce professionals from around the Web.

• Before we carve into the links, I want to invite you to check out our latest on-demand webinar on Monetizing Digital Content, a replay of my session at BOLO 2012. It covers a wide range of business model innovations and creative use of digital technologies across industries. Even if your business is not digital content, I think you'll find the examples interesting.

• We love infographics here, and it's near impossible to publish all the good ones. I'm sure you'll find Invesp's E-commerce Holiday Shopping Statistics and Trends and The Anatomy of the Perfect PPC Ad

• Google Analytics Custom Alerts is one of the most powerful but underused features. Do you know you can use Custom Alerts to monitor SEO?

• According to its own usability studies, Baymard Institute found "sites with a non-linear checkout process left several of the test subjects confused and intimidated." BI posted an article on its blog that demonstrates the pain of non-linear checkout and offers how to do it better.

• Another checkout faux pas is credit card expiration date formatting. Baymard Institute points out 40% of sites got it wrong, and offers a fix.

• Do you know why password masking can hurt your sign up form?

• In The Truth About Cats and Dogs: Smartphone vs Tablet Usage Differences, the Flurry blog charts its research including this gem:

• What's the secret to Amazon's massive mobile success? Econsultancy offers 12 reasons (that are not impossible to adopt).

• Econsultancy asks the experts What is responsive design and do you really need it?

• Smart Insights tells us why email open rate is as "useful as your appendix," with 5 points why you should be looking at other KPIs when measuring email marketing effectiveness.