It feels like yesterday, that the change to Google Product Search was announced. Yet, the story continues to make it into my RSS reading (it will most probably continue). I have been deliberately not speaking about in depth as I want to properly write about it. Anyway, this week was dominated by eCommerce in the Middle East and Africa, Google Product Search and Russian eCommerce. Also IRCE 2012, has been added to events that I would like to attend as content coming from the conference is of excellent quality.

Pinterest is obviously the flavor of the month at the moment but I still think there are larger questions surrounding their product which needs to be addressed.

So, the 10 stories that got my attention this week are:

1. I believe that the Middle East is one of the regions which all the big eCommerce players are looking at either entering or investing in. However there are some challenges that might scare away investors. It seems very similar in terms of market conditions to early China or more recently Brazil in terms of how speedily the market is growing (300% in 2011). Read more at Wamda.

2. When Mary Meeker mentions something, expect the press to start researching and writing about the content found in her presentation. Nigeria got a mention as being a fast growing Internet region and then the Wall Street Journal has a very interesting article over an entrepreneur and his dream for web commerce (paywall). Personally, I think the solution will be something specific to the Nigerian market and not some “code and resource drop” normally seen when foreign companies enter a new territory.

3. Get Elastic has a very interesting post on product finding. I must admit, Vodafone does an excellent job in helping the user find the most relevant product. Filters and tables full of product needs careful thought in order for it to work. If you don’t have Get Elastic in your RSS feeds then subscribe to it now or subscribe to their updates via email. It is a very good resource on all things eCommerce.

4. E-Commerce Accelerating Due to Personalization, Pinterest and iPad is a great article written by Sergio Monsalve for AllThingsD. It is one of those that you bookmark and put into the memory bank for future strategy sessions.

5. IKEA TV will provide users the ability to purchase items via their remote control. The TV, which will be available in select European Ikea stores next month, will offer a built-in shopping and payment solution, GigaOM has learned. Needless to say, tele-commerce is something that is not groundbreaking but the fact that that a retailer is investing in the space is interesting. I wonder whether video on tablets in some way or another will be the evolution of this idea?

6. Story telling and commerce is consistently in my mind. Editorial content with product links  is something that I believe we will see a lot more of.  Mr Porter has taken this a step further with a nicely designed magazine that looks like something from the 1950’s. Power Retail provides more detail on this concept. I believe that any ecommerce executive should spend some time looking at the ideas that fashion startups have. They are innovating…

7. Looking to get in on a business-to-consumer e-commerce market that according to some estimates is growing by as much as 25% annually, big international retail companies continue to set up shop in Brazil. Internet Retailer has all the details on 1-800-Flowers and Otto and their involvement in Brazil. If you are an ecommerce company (especially a large corporate) then you need to have a presence in Brazil..

8. Another week and some more stories regarding Rocket Internet and them spreading their tentacles. They move into Nigeria with an Amazon Clone called Kasuwa and then later on in the week with a fashion based offering called Sabunta. I would love to know how they determine the names of their businesses and how much money Rocket Internet spends on domain names.

9. Fab.com launches in Canada. I must admit I love their newsletters and how they curate their offering. Now how long does the rest of the world need to wait for them entering other markets. Shipping and the size of their catalog will most probably determine how successful Fab is in Canada.

10. Nextag and Google battle it out in the press. Danny Sullivan asks some interesting questions at Search Engine Land. Two observations over this story. Google did not wait long to address the issues Jeffery Katz mentions in his Wall Street Article. This seems to have become the norm, if you raise issues it might lead to a blog post from a senior Googler. Also, the response was carefully written and actually never refutes anything directly mentioned. Mr Katz, you should have provided evidence as your general tone lead to Google being able to go on the offense easily. Until solid evidence is provided (I am thinking in the line of what Stefan Magdalinski did with Mocality and their issues with Google) all of the issues will remain issues.

As a bonus, also have a look at some of the reports from IRCE 2012 featured on Internet Retailer. There are plenty of good articles.

Onwards.