Surviving in online business is serious stuff - so much to absorb, some of it quite dry and boring at times. There’s nothing like a bit of in-house humor to put a smile on your dial.. and perhaps to still learn something too.

When we’ve been immersed in this world for a while, it can become easy to forget what it’s like to be Joe Surfer looking to make a online purchase.

I was contacted by a fellow blogger and marketer, Darren Barefoot, who’s been working with ecommerce solutions provider Elastic Path in creating some short videos recognizing the challenges of online shopping; with the theme:

“What if real-world shopping was as cruel and difficult as buying online”

3 videos have been released so far - I believe there will be 6-8 all told; but perhaps it will be extended as there’s so many topics that can be poked at!

For your viewing pleasure, I’m proud to present…

Search engines vs. humans. I think we’ve all encountered this, sometimes dozens of times a day!

The next one is about peer group pressure in online shopping - the “people who bought this also purchased..” feature. Personally, I don’t care about what other people bought from a retailer, but it seems many do - this shopper is one of my breed :)

Next is Premature Redirection. An online shopping phenomenon certainly not confined to males :).

All tongue in cheek for sure, but there’s some good messages in there for all of us and I look forward to the rest of the series. I think I’ve already bored the socks off Darren with a suggestion for an episode - but that’s what you get when you become one of them fillum directors - everyone has a movie idea :).

By the way, Darren has a cameo in the search engine episode, playing the search engine. Brilliant performance, should get an Oscar for authentic representation; Bravo Darren!

On a more serious note - are shoppers leaving your online store empty handed? Pick up some tips on minimizing shopping cart abandonment.

Looking for ecommerce software? Shopping cart reviews.