Introducing the RMW Commerce Community: Your Trusted Destination for eCommerce Discussion and Advice

With great pleasure, I introduce you to The RMW Commerce Community: Your Trusted eCommerce Industry Community.

The RMW Commerce Community is the trusted place for eCommerce professionals to discuss the industry, software, applications, supply chain, and more. The community will have the following attributes:

• Trusted. Because the site only contains eCommerce professionals, you can trust the answers you get here. My job is to ensure the community is helpful to its members whether you are looking to discuss the industry, find the answer to a question or problem, or connect with your peers.

• Independent. The site is not tied to any specific vendor, agency, platform, or approach to eCommerce.

• Helpful. The goal is for members to learn and help each other with their eCommerce questions and problems.

• Focused. We are 100% about eCommerce all the time. Retail & brand discussion, Amazon, eCommerce platforms and applications, supply chain, technology advice, digital marketing, investment news, and jobs.

• Moderated. A trusted group of friends of RMW Commerce will be helping me moderate the discussions. This means no trolls or self-promotion, and a high signal-to-noise ratio.

Who is this for?

I envision this as a place for all seasoned eCommerce professionals, Watsonians (fans of Rick Watson’s LinkedIn presence and The Watson Weekly podcast), and eCommerce newbies. Retailers, brands, software providers, agencies, marketplace sellers, and investors can all derive value from the community.

Why should I join?

There are four reasons you should join:

1. Discuss the latest happenings in our industry with other professionals without the clutter of social media.

2. Get answers to your current eCommerce challenges and issues from other professionals.

3. Learning about eCommerce in the RMW Commerce Community is easier than on LinkedIn. Why should you have to figure out who to follow? Just show up and participate.

4. Get a more personal audience with Rick Watson! Seriously, ask me anything! I’ll be hanging around.

Why did you create it?

I believe that any modern marketer who is not incorporating community into their approach is missing something. There are three reasons I created this community:

1. There are almost no independent, trusted sources of eCommerce discussion online.

2. Social media and chat rooms like Discord and Slack are ephemeral. A message board serves as an archive, and the value of the forum increases over time because of the powerful search engine available.

3. LinkedIn and my podcast are great ways to connect with industry professionals, but each is limiting. With LinkedIn, ultimately, you accept their rules, and I often find myself sifting through too much noise to stay focused on eCommerce. I love producing the podcast, but it’s a broadcast channel, not a conversation.

This community will allow us to engage more deeply on a narrow set of topics than other places onlne.

What are the features of the site?

The RMW Commerce Community is based on Discourse, an open-source discussion forum. I have created several forums on various eCommerce topics. These will expand over time as the community grows.

• eCommerce and Retail Talk

• Supply Chain and Logistics

• eCommerce Software and Apps

• Digital Marketing

• Amazon 3P and Marketplaces

• Jobs

• Watson Weekly Podcast

• Events

What’s the future of this community?

There are so many directions I could take this community in the future. But in the beginning, my goal is to take it slow. Let the community evolve, grow, be useful, and gain the trust of its members. Without that, there is nothing.

Here are just a few of the ways.

1. Exclusive online events and webinars.

2. Trusted “market maps” of various eCommerce software sectors.

3. Webinars and online courses provided by the community and me.

4. Local events and meetups.

5. Jobs: Post a job or find one.

6. Hosted “Ask me Anything” chats with Rick Watson.

What’s the cost?

The forum is currently free, but it will not be forever. I aim for this Community to become an essential resource for your learning and connections within the industry.

I devote so much time to content and community that it needs to be sustainable to continue investing in the product that I provide.

Great news, though, if you signup before the end of 2022, you will receive Founding Member status. All Founding Members will be completely free for the first year!

Welcome to the RMW Commerce Community

And with that, I’d love to welcome you to the RMW Commerce Community! I can’t wait to see you inside!