The Internet Retailer Top 500 is often considered the “Bible of e-commerce data” – and provides an extensive analysis of the e-commerce landscape. Internet Retailer gathers metrics on web retailers throughout the US and compares them to see just how they stack up against each other. The brand new 2013 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide is hot off the press, and we’ve got some major news to tell you about!

Leading the social shopping revolution means you must remain committed to delivering the best possible experience for your shoppers – and over the course of the past few months we’ve worked hard to make some incredible enhancements to the SHOP.COM e-commerce platform that will make the shopping experience even better!

As you can see in this recent Internet Retailer article, almost 70% of online retailers plan on spending more money to bolster their e-commerce technology and services in the coming year – and we plan on leading the parade! One of the things that sets us apart from other online retailers is the fact that we’ve been able to assemble an incredible team of interactive designers and programmers to build and enhance our e-commerce platform in house.

At Market America and SHOP.COM, we’re continuously developing new technology that will help us lead the parade by delivering a cutting-edge online shopping experience that is second to none. As the leaders of the social shopping revolution, we understand the increasingly important role that Mobile Technology will play in the economy of the future.

We have paid particularly close attention to the m-commerce field, and are committed to delivering the absolute best mobile shopping platform in the world. Our Mobile development team is one of the industry’s best, and they’ve been hard at work refining our incredible SHOP Mobile App to ensure that we deliver an unmatched mobile shopping experience. Their commitment to excellence has yielded a truly remarkable piece of technology and an m-commerce powerhouse!

Last week, I took some time to sit down with Kim Kardashian to discuss what her life was like -- constantly on the go.  She also shared some advice as an entrepreneur for those looking to become one themselves. Take a moment and read 10 Questions with Kim Kardashian.

#1

You have 3.7 million followers on twitter, how has social media changed the way you do business and how has it affected your personal life brand?

I am almost at 4 million! Hoping to get there this week! I really believe I have a brand for my fans and tools like twitter have allowed me to connect and communicate directly with my fans! I get to hear what my fans are asking for an I make sure I can provide them with a product or information.

#2

Over the past few years reality TV has taken over television, practically anyone can become a celebrity without having or needed the experience. Did you ever expect for your show "Keeping up With the Kardashians" to become this successful and what have you learned from it?

We had a fun idea to share our lives on TV and in no way did we ever think it would elevate to this level. We definitely share our craziness and family feuds but there is so much love and heart in our family, I just think people can relate. We have grown closer as a family from this experience and bottom line we love what we do.

Just wanted to point something on we’ve been pushing the fact that we jumped 12 spots to rank 54 on Internet Retailer which is great (as well as #1 most improved website for user experience on the Top 100 of Internet Retailer), but I would say the most impressive statistic is that we have grown 34.76% in just one year! If you look at Amazon.com, they’re only at 27% growth over last year. Walmart is at 19%. Amway had sales decrease –2%! This a great angle to show that we’re gaining on the number one retailer, FAST!

Wanted to take a moment and share this with everyone.  This is an incredibly compelling, but simple piece that explains how social media and social networks work in today’s environment and why they are better than advertising!  I think that anyone who understands our business or the way organizations of UFO’s and customers work should be able to see how this is a powerful tool and perfect fit for the Unfranchise® business system and community. I encourage you to use this throughout your presentations and teachings as well as to virally market it by explaining it on your own social networking profiles or blogs and even emailing it to people with some key points to get light bulbs to go off.

This goes a long way to casting the spotlight on how Market America's Facebook application called ma network works and why it is a valuable tool and platform within our community to be able to reach out to the 400 million Facebook users to fill the bean jar. I think it also helps bring the power of recommendations and reviews into focus. The next step from that is doing 1:1 marketing with it by using the data in each customers profile to serve up different recommendations to each customer, which we are doing. I would be interesting in hearing in what you learned, how you can use this, how we should use it and any results, responses or feedback you receive. I feel this can turn some lightbulbs on for the babay boomers and technologically slow or handicapped. Open this and watch. It is SHORT and in plain English!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIOClX1jPE

Keep growing.

JR

For year's, I've been saying that putting oneself in the right position is crucial to getting ahead in business.  Whether it was that decision to purchase that last ticket, running into a stranger that eventually led you to meet a new prospect that helped jump-start your new business, a new-found relationship, even an idea; one thing is for certain, if you had never taken that chance, you probably wouldn't be in your current position. Sure, we don't have a crystal ball that allows us to see and predict the future (it would be great if we did), but we don't. Instead, we must rely on our own abilities to help us forecast and map out our plans for getting from point A to point B.

One example that I can provide to help best demonstrate this is my position on shopping.  Year's ago, I started to see the shift from brick-and-mortar to click-and-order with online shopping.  My company, Internet retailer, marketamerica.com, was in a good position -- where online shopping was big, but nowhere near as big as it is today.  It was during this time, that I made the decision to head towards my Everest.  Sure, we all wonder if the decisions we make today will impact those of tomorrow. Yes, any decision that we make today will have an effect on tomorrow, but that is where being at the right place at the right time can help us out.

Being an entrepreneur is about taking chances, as we try to get to the top.  It is about riding smaller waves so that we can take on the larger one's. Had I not made the decision to put more stock into internet retailing, we wouldn't have the ma Cashback program, we wouldn't have the IT Dream Team that we've begun assembling and refining -- and we wouldn't have moved up on the Internet retailer's Top 100!

My personal trek, which I set out on year's ago, is coming to fruition. More and more brick-and-mortar stores are going under and online retailing is becoming the place to be.

Through perseverance, marketamerica.com has climbed higher -- 12 places in fact, to #54 on the Internet retailer's Top 100 for 2009, with our sights set clearly on being in the Top 10 next.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Everything in life happens for a reason, so that you're put in situations where you as an entrepreneur are forced to make tough decisions. What situations have you been in which have helped teach you and make you stronger?

Keep growing,

JR