These are the sites I actually read, grouped by what they’re good for. Most have a free newsletter, and for the trade press that’s usually the best way to consume them. Where something is paid, I say so. Nobody on this list paid to be here.
Retail and Commerce News
- Modern Retail. The best reporting on how digital retail actually works, from DTC brands to Amazon to retail media. Paid subscription for the full thing, but a lot is free.
- Retail Dive. Straight business journalism on retail and e-commerce. The free daily email is the fastest way to keep up with earnings, bankruptcies, and executive moves.
- RetailWire. Retail news with a twist: every story gets debated by a panel of industry people (disclosure: I’m on the BrainTrust). Free newsletter.
- NRF SmartBrief. The National Retail Federation’s free daily roundup. If you only subscribe to one retail newsletter, this is the safe choice.
- Retail TouchPoints. Content for retail executives on customer experience and operations across channels. Free.
- Total Retail. News, analysis, and events for retail executives. Free newsletter.
- The Robin Report. Sharp, opinionated analysis with an apparel and department store focus. Free newsletter.
- PYMNTS. Payments and the commerce that runs on them. Free.
Marketplaces and Sellers
- Marketplace Pulse. Data and analysis on Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, Temu, and every other marketplace that matters. Free newsletter, and one of the best sources of original marketplace data in the industry.
- eCommerceFuel. A private community for seven-figure independent sellers. Invite only, and worth it if you qualify.
- What’s Next. Rick Watson goes deep on one commerce topic a month. Free.
Research and Data
- eMarketer. Forecasts and research on digital commerce, retail, and advertising. Paid, but the free newsletters and charts are useful on their own, and eMarketer is the source I cite most after the Census Bureau.
- Forrester. Paid research and advisory with strong retail and commerce coverage. Home of the digitally influenced sales research I cite constantly.
- Gartner. Paid research with marketing and retail technology coverage, including the vendor Magic Quadrants everyone argues about.
- Euromonitor International. Paid market research with a global consumer and retail segment. The place to go for country-level retail data outside the U.S.
- ECDB. E-commerce market sizing by country, category, and company, worldwide. It’s my favorite source for digital sales data, and the other place besides Euromonitor to get global e-commerce numbers. Paid, with a good amount free.
- Placer.ai. Foot traffic data for physical stores, from anonymized mobile location data. The closest thing we have to a public comp-store-traffic index, and the source behind most of the “visits to Retailer X are up” headlines you see. Paid, with a lot of free analysis on their blog.
- Similarweb. Website and app traffic estimates for any retailer or brand. Treat the absolute numbers as directional and the trends as real. Paid, with a useful free tier.
- Path to Purchase Institute. Shopper marketing and retail media community, research, and events. Paid membership (disclosure: I’m on the faculty).
UX and Design
- Baymard Institute. E-commerce UX research, based on thousands of hours of usability testing. If you run a site, their checkout and product page benchmarks are the standard. Paid for the full library, with a lot published free.
- LukeW. Luke Wroblewski’s articles on interface design, mobile first, and now AI interfaces. He coined “mobile first,” and he’s still one of the clearest thinkers on how people use screens.
- Smashing Magazine. Articles, books, and events on UX and front-end design. Not commerce-specific, but the checkout and form design pieces are excellent.