Whether you are just starting your ecommerce journey, or have already become an established ecommerce store owner, the need for acquiring further knowledge will never end. It is ultimately the ‘knowledge’ that will take you further on the horizon of success.
While podcasts, videos, blogs, and webinars are a great way to learn new tricks of the trade, but they don’t offer the whole pie. For that you need books. Not just any books but the best ecommerce books. Because they help you go in-depth and learn more about the topic at hand.
As ecommerce industry is already blossoming and experts predict that it will touch $4 trillion in next two years, this is the right time to start learning more about how you can start an ecommerce store if you are just a beginner, or how to scale your business further if you have already started your first store. Here is a list of the best ecommerce books that you MUST read to enhance your knowledge about ecommerce, entrepreneurship, and growth.
One-Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com
Author: Richard Brandt
Amazon is the most influential ecommerce enterprise in the world today. Since its inception in 1995, Amazon evolved tremendously, while increasing in size, services and revenues. There is something wizardry about Amazon that makes it the most sought-after successful company by every ecommerce savvy person. This book looks into the formation of Amazon and how it evolved into the full-fledged business that it is today. It is a must-read for anyone looking to make a mark in the ecommerce world.
In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
Author: Steven Levy
Let’s admit it. It is impossible to imagine internet without Google. Google has had a profound influence on our lives. This is one of the best ecommerce books shedding light on how Google is changing the way the internet works by constantly filling the silos with innovative services and products.
One great aspect of this book is that it gives comprehensive details about the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and the skills that helped them develop such an organization. This book also looks at the controversies Google has been surrounded with and how it has dealt with those, especially the challenges of conquering the Chinese market.
Anyone Can Do It: Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table 57- Real Life Laws on Entrepreneurship
Author: Sahar Hashemi & Bobby Hashemi
One of the best books for aspiring entrepreneurs that I have come across is ‘Anyone Can Do it’. This book takes you through the journey of entrepreneurship, from idea formulation to hiring and firing of employees. These siblings currently own Coffee Republic, a successful UK based company worth 50m Pounds! This book covers the journey of a business (from ideation to formulation) while describing each aspect of entrepreneurship.
Launch: An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula to Sell Almost Anything Online
Author: Jeff Walker
Launch – An Internet Millionaire’s Secret Formula provides the recipe to create highly successful businesses from scratch. It is the masterwork of Jeff, who developed successful businesses from his basement and then sold them for thousands of dollars. Today, Jeff is a trainer and a digital maestro. He teaches his formula to others, helping them to make millions of dollars in sales. It is perfect for all, whether a want to-be ecommerce store owner, or a well-established ecommerce mastermind.
Don’t Make Me Think Revisited
Author: Steve Krug
Don’t Make Me Think Revisited is one of the best ecommerce books as it will change your mindset completely. It makes you think from the perspective of a usability expert. The main goal this book aims to establish is that when people come to your site, they should not be thinking at all – only then your design and navigation will be seen as successful. It’s a short book, succinctly written, easy to understand, and is suitable for both: start-ups and experienced entrepreneurs.
The Complete E-Commerce Book: Design, Build & Maintain a Successful Web-Based Business
Author: Janice Reynolds
If you are looking for a complete guide on how to start your ecommerce business, then this is a must have! This book is a complete ecommerce guide that takes you from the most basic concepts of building your own ecommerce store to making it the most successful web-based business. Consider this as your step-by-step information guide to support your daily ecommerce management activities. No doubt it is considered as one of the best entrepreneur books of all times.
Return on Relationship
Author: Ted Rubin & Katheryn Rose
Consider this book as your quick guide on how to create loyal social media followers, how to connect with content creators and improve your customer service.
This book comes with online tools that help you maximize the potential of your business. This read will help you focus your marketing efforts on building strong relationships with your customers by analysing metrics such as the Return on Relationships (Hence, the name!).
This book will also help you move your strategy towards a more personalized and relationship-based marketing. Unfortunately, that is one area this book also struggles to deal with differentiating between relationship marketing and social media marketing.
SEO 2018 Learn Search Engine Optimization with Smart Internet Marketing Strategy
Author: Adam Clarke
Search engine optimization is a hard task because Google is constantly changing its algorithm making it harder for SEO experts to optimize websites. This year alone, it has made several major changes including adding page speed as a ranking factor and launching mobile-first indexing.
Adam Clarke has done extensive research on this topic and has written many entrepreneur books for beginners. In this eBook he writes how ecommerce experts can get better at ranking their websites in search engines using a simple SEO checklist, tips on finding ‘money’ keywords, and using social media to multiply results.
Ecommerce Marketing Books- The Complete Guide to B2B Marketing
Author: Kim Ann King
In case you have just started your ecommerce venture and are confused as to how you can create a buzz about it? Here is your resource for understanding how to build an effective marketing campaign. From demand creation to sales plan execution, this book tells you how to help your business flourish in the world of B2B.
You will learn how to create an SEO plan, how to divide your customers based on behavioural profiles and how you can learn from your experiences, both negative and positive. This book is an almost perfect mixture of modern age practices combined with traditional marketing philosophies that help you become a complete marketing professional.
50 Shades of Growth
Author: Sid Bharath and Danny Halarewich
The Director of Marketing and author of Growth Hacker Marketing rightly said that “A growth hacker doesn’t see marketing as something one does, but rather as something one builds into the product itself.” This book will teach you how to build the brand using the tools of growth hacking.
The book contains ecommerce growth experiments that you can apply to your ecommerce store to take it to the next level. The book contains all hacks and step-by-step guides by experts like Noah Kagan, Brian Balfour, Neil Patel and Sujan Patel. Also, its free of cost.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR
Author: David Meerman Scott
This book will tell you exactly what you have to do to make it big in the changing marketing dynamics of today. The book gives a step-by-step plan to take advantage of the Marketing 2.0 and apply these dynamics to your ecommerce business.
David Meerman is a known marketing expert. In this memoir, he explains the most relevant tools and strategies that you can apply to your business at half the cost of traditional marketing.
Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got
Author: Jay Abraham
Every marketer knows the importance of reaching out to the customers. Unfortunately, many businesses fail at making the most out of these relationships. The book tells you how you can build a relationship with your customers that will help you stand the test of times.
The book inculcates the philosophy that you should never lower your product/service value so that your customers keep coming back for more. This book is all about how you can create a loyal customer base to make your ecommerce business fruitful for both the consumers and the business. The title of the book is a perfect fit for the content of the book. A MUST READ!
Get Rich Click! The Ultimate Guide to Making Money on the Internet
Author: Marc Ostrofsky
Marc Ostrofsky has written one of the most comprehensive guides on how to make a fortune while being online. You can read stories of people who found happiness over the internet. This book covers small entrepreneurs to major corporations and shows how they made money online with digital products.
The book is a step-by-step process that focuses on how entrepreneurs can achieve their goals from the use of different social media platforms. This makes the book a must-read for ecommerce professionals!
Building a Story Brand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
Author: Donald Miller
We have added Building a Story Brands in our list of best ecommerce books because it features a new process for business leaders struggling with growth challenges.
The book provides a proven solution to get competitive advantage and learn the secrets about why customers make purchases. The best thing? He uses a storytelling approach to simplify the method and help people create an effective messaging campaign through all marketing mediums.
Ecommerce Analytics and Optimization Books- Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
Author: Brian Clifton
It is important to know what kind of customers are coming to your store and from where they are coming and how they are moving across. So, we have added Advanced Web Metrics in our best ecommerce books list. Analytics help you track the whole user journey on your website.
And you cannot talk analytics without mentioning Google Analytics. This book takes you from a basic approach to analytics and moves on to the best practices as well. This book is a must-have for anyone willing to have a hands-on experience with Google Analytics.
You Should Test That
Author: Chris Goward
Founder of WiderFunnel and the mastermind behind the Kaizen Model for conversion rate optimization, Chris Goward, shares his tips on how to optimize your ecommerce store. The book works as a step-by-step guide that can be used to make the website more optimized for conversions. The book also covers data analysis and how you can make business decisions with the help of experimented insights. This is a must-read book for website optimization that will help you convert your visitors into customers!
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Author: Ashlee Vance
I am a huge fan of Tony Stark and all his brilliance. Growing up, I thought it was all real, but people talked otherwise. I guess they never knew about Elon Musk – The Real-Life Tony Stark. Elon is changing the world by thinking about it and for the future of humanity. His thinking process is just par excellence and this book will give you a chance to peek into the mind of one of the most fascinating men with a mission to change the world. A MUST HAVE FOR EVERYONE LOOKING TO GET INSPIRED!
Digital Marketing Analytics: Making Sense of Consumer Data in a Digital World
Author: Chuck Hemann
With a plethora of data and information available through digital campaigns, how should a digital marketing manager filter and make sense of it all?
The book ‘Digital Marketing Analytics: Making Sense of Consumer Data in a Digital World,’ provides answers to all these questions. It can be considered as your go-to guide for finding relevant data and coming up with actionable matter. It helps readers Prioritize, Measure, Track, and Leverage social and organic data and come up with better solutions to market products to potential buyers.
Good books require you to spend some of your bucks. Some are more expensive to own. But they come with the guarantee of lifetime value. There is no such thing as a bad book or a good book. All books teach us different lessons. You just have to pick the right ones to quench your thirst.