16 New Ecommerce Books for Fall 2014

Fall is here. The students are back in school, and the new ecommerce books are on the shelves. Here is a list of new ecommerce books for fall 2014. There are new titles on branding, digital advertising, crypto-currencies, social media law, marketing trends, and funding, from writers like Peter Thiel and Gene Simmons.

I compiled this list using Amazon.com. From Amazon’s “Books” category, I selected “Business & Money.” From there I chose the “Industries & Professions” sub-category and selected “E-commerce.” Then I handpicked titles from that group, based on customer ratings and relation to ecommerce. In addition, I selected a few titles from the “Small Business & Entrepreneurship” sub-category.

New Ecommerce Books

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters

Zero to One, by legendary entrepreneur and general maverick Peter Thiel, promises to be one of the season’s must-reads. The book begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique. Author Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur, investor and outspoken personality. He started PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002. In 2004 he made the first outside investment in Facebook. He is a partner at Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded companies like SpaceX and Airbnb. Kindle $11.99; Hardcover $17.01.

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Hello, My Name Is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick by Alexandra Watkins

Did you know that Zappos.com originally started out as ShoeSite.com? A company’s name can be vital to its success. Ace naming consultant Alexandra Watkins explains how anyone can create memorable and buzz-worthy brand names. The heart of the book is Watkins’s proven SMILE and SCRATCH Test—two acronyms for what makes or breaks a name. She also provides up-to-date advice, like how to make sure that Siri spells your name correctly.Kindle $9.99; Paperback $13.14.

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Targeted: How Technology Is Revolutionizing Advertising and the Way Companies Reach Consumers by Mike Smith

Targeted examines the growth of digital advertising, its enormous potential, and the technologies that are changing the game forever. Get information that will make or break your efforts with using real-time auctions, developing optimal bidding strategies, accessing real-time analytics and social media to collect customer data, and handling tracking difficulties and click fraud. Mike Smith is a vice president at Hearst Magazines Digital Media and a former president of Forbes.com. Hardcover $18.71.

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Me, Inc.: Build an Army of One, Unleash Your Inner Rock God, Win in Life and Business by Gene Simmons

In Me, Inc., self-made man and master of brand identity KISS’s Gene Simmons shares his manifesto for business success. Simmons discusses how to build a solid business strategy, harness tools of the digital age, educate yourself, and be the architect for the business entity that is you. Kindle $14.44; Hardcover $19.88.

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Online Marketing For Your Craft Business: How to Get Your Handmade Products Discovered, Shared and Sold on the Internet by Hilary Pullen

This is a guidebook on how to actively grow a craft business, using online marketing tools such as social media and blogging to measurably impact your sales and brand presence. With relevant case studies, develop a complete strategy for online networking. Identify who you want to connect with, where you will connect with them and what type of things you want to share and say. Paperback $17.01.

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Social Media Law for Business: A Practical Guide for Using Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and Blogs Without Stepping on Legal Landmines by Glen Gilmore

Social Media Law for Business offers best practices covering legal rights and responsibilities when using social networks, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, corporate and personal blogs, and Google+. Each chapter contains essential legal advice, real-world case studies, and useful takeaways. Glen Gilmore teaches social media law and digital marketing at Rutgers University. Kindle $19.25; Hardcover $22.14.

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Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Crypto-Currencies by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

If you’re interested in learning more about the technical operation of Bitcoin, or if you have an idea for a Bitcoin app or business, this book will tell you what you need to know about digital money. From the basic use of a Bitcoin wallet to buy a cup of coffee, to running a Bitcoin marketplace or building financial tools to transform credit, this book will help you engineer money. Paperback $28.13.

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Twitter is Not a Strategy: Rediscovering the Art of Brand Marketing by Tom Doctoroff

Companies often abandon the tried and true aspects of marketing for the flash of “digital” branding. In Twitter Is Not a Strategy, Tom Doctoroff explains why a strategy that truly integrates the two ideas is the best way for a brand to move into the future. Examining big brands, such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and Apple, he breaks down the framework of marketing to explain how digital marketing can’t stand without the traditional approach. Hardcover $24.00.

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Trendology: Building an Advantage through Data-Driven Real-Time Marketing by Chris Kerns

In Trendology, Chris Kerns uses a data-driven method to analyze how brands are using social media to finally answer the burning question: How should brands best capitalize on trends? Kerns dives into the data from more than 100 of the top brands on Twitter (including Disney, MTV, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, BMW, J.C. Penney, Nike, Sony, and IKEA) to uncover patterns of real-time marketing performance across huge global events, smaller pop culture moments, breaking news stories, and daily hashtag trends. Kindle $11.04; Hardcover $20.25.

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Search: How the Data Explosion Makes Us Smarter by Stefan Weitz

In Search: How the Data Explosion Makes Us Smarter, author Stefan Weitz explores the idea of access to help readers understand how we are inventing new ways to search and access data through devices in more places and with more capabilities. Stefan Weitz is a senior director of search at Microsoft and charged with working with people and organizations across the industry to promote and improve search technologies. Kindle $11.49; Hardcover $22.33.

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The Six Secrets of Raising Capital: An Insider’s Guide for Entrepreneurs by Bill Fisher

The Six Secrets of Raising Capital offers street smarts for entrepreneurs. As a banker in Silicon Valley in the ‘80s and a businessman who founded a number of companies beginning in the ‘90s, Bill Fisher has seen firsthand the rookie mistakes aspiring entrepreneurs make that end up stopping them before they have a chance to get started. Get capital-raising advice from someone who has raised over a billion dollars for multiple ventures. Kindle $11.08; Paperback $15.45.

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Taking Down Goliath: Digital Marketing Strategies for Beating Competitors with 100 Times Your Spending Power by Kevin M. Ryan and Rob “Spider” Graham

Thanks in part to the digital revolution, there has been a tremendous transition towards a more democratic marketing world, one in which you don’t need a huge budget to get a lot done. Success now goes to those advertisers who understand how to best leverage what they have, investing in smarter strategies rather than just bigger or more expensive campaigns. Taking Down Goliath profiles the tactics needed to optimize the potential of digital marketing and realize its promise of a more level playing field. Hardcover $25.02.

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The Startup Equation: How to Visualize Your Business Dream and Build Your Plan for Success by Steve Fisher and Ja-Nae Duane

The Startup Equation leads you step by step through the decisions and data to find your perfect startup model. You’ll learn how to identify your “entrepreneurial type” and follow the book’s visual roadmap to building your own successful business plan for your unique dream. The book provides the blueprint for not only understanding the startup economy, but also the challenges and opportunities for every type of new business. Kindle $15.12; Paperback $20.52.

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From Passion To Profit: A Step-By-Step Guide to Making Money from Your Hobby by Selling Online by Clare Hughes

This step-by-step guide is for home-based businesses that want to sell online, but have not yet taken the plunge. Featuring a combination of practical advice and encouragement, the book offer guidance from helpful worksheets, checklists, and step-by-step instructions, all presented in a positive and engaging tone. Learn the process of deciding what to sell, how to develop a brand, how to choose the right platform and getting your online shop live and ready to take orders. Paperback $17.01.

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The Funding Is Out There!: Access the Cash You Need to Impact Your Business by Tiffany C. Wright

The Funding Is Out There! provides more than thirty case studies of what actual business owners have done to raise capital to grow their businesses. Not just what’s available, it covers how to obtain funding, as well as what works best and why. Including everything from pursuing business-friendly community banks and forming strategic alliances to tapping supplier financing and using crowdfunding, it shows business owners how to raise the capital they need to grow their businesses. Kindle $7.69; Paperback $12.72; Hardcover $29.40.

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The Digital Economy: Rethinking Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence (Anniversary Edition) by Don Tapscott

Two decades ago, The Digital Economy argued that the Internet would fully transform the nature of business and government. Now, in this new anniversary edition, New York Timesbestselling author Don Tapscott provides topical updates with a new analysis of how the Internet has changed business and society. Preserving all the original text, this new edition includes detailed essays, Tapscott’s reflections on his predictions, along with new forecasts of where the digital world is headed. Hardcover $24.29.