Reading List: Web Retailer’s Andy Geldman

In”Reading List,” we request ecommerce professionals to name a few of their favourite books and sites, and tell us why they read them. For this setup, we corresponded with U.K.-based Andy Geldman, founder of Web Retailer, an internet community for small businesses selling on marketplaces such as Ebay and Amazon in addition to on their own online shops.

Geldman founded Web Retailer in 2003. Web Retailer has a specific focus on software tools, drawing Geldman’s experience creating software and leading development teams for multinational companies.

Andy Geldman’s Top Books

The Everything Shop by Brad Stone

“While Amazon was viewed for a long time as a dull old merchant, Brad Stone shows Amazon to be an astonishingly innovative technology firm with a long-term eyesight. The Everything Shop will make you think twice before scoffing at Amazon’s next eccentric story.”

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Influence by Robert Cialdini

“People say ‘yes’ for six reasons deeply engrained in their psychology: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. Dr. Cialdini’s seminal work on persuasion remains being drawn upon now.”

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Getting Things Done by David Allen

“Allen’s first’GTD’ personal productivity system is straightforward and has a massive following; it just works. The fundamental message: funnel all of your’inputs’ — thoughts, emails, to-dos, notes — from your head and into one system that you trust.”

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Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

“People are anything but logical, but they are not completely random. By way of instance, Ariely explains why coffee tastes better if the decoration is fancy.”

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The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt

“This is a book which shouldn’t work, and almost did not get printed, but went on to sell five million copies. The Goal is a thrilling business novel about a manager of a mill that’s threatened with closure. Yes, it is actually thrilling. On the way, lean management principles are conveyed better than any company textbook. A book that seems painfully dull is a gripping page-turner.”

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Andy Geldman’s Top Websites

EcommerceBytes

“EcommerceBytes runs a excellent news service for market sellers, but the website is where it gets messy. Pointed questions on the news of this day attract a compelling mixture of fury and insight from the eBay vendors who remark.”

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Tamebay

“Tamebay provides opinions and news for eBay and Amazon sellers in the U.K. Little that is relevant is overlooked, and the generally positive tone of commenters is refreshing.”

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Econsultancy

“Aimed firmly at the top-end of ecommerce, Econsultancy’s website offers great insights to the big players. Small businesses might be unable to apply the advice directly, but could certainly use it as inspiration. The RSS feeds provide the simplest way to filter the site’s output.”

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Startup Lessons Learned

“The Lean Startup by Eric Ries has helped usher in something of a startup revolution. The book is terrific for concept, and the website helps display real-world examples”

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Digg

“Digg was a enormous website before it self-destructed in 2010. A much sought appearance on Digg’s home page could bring in tens of thousands of additional traffic within a moment. I saw that the Digg Effect for myself, more than once. Digg surprised everybody by re-emerging lately with a clean layout and well-edited links to the most interesting content online. It is dangerously compelling.”