Internet Retailer has an article about the use of RSS among online retailers. Like many other RSS evangelists, Ryan DeLuca, CEO of Bodybuilding.com predicted that next year the growth of RSS feeds is going to be explosive.

“The next version of Microsoft Office will have RSS functionality, and the new Internet Explorer 7 has a built-in RSS reader,” he says. “These kinds of developments will make RSS much easier for the average web user and take the technology to the next level. The whole idea of the Internet is finding things you want, not someone giving you things they think you need. It’s like TiVo: Give me what I want and let me skip over the other stuff.”

Here is a tip or advice for internet retailers from DeLuca. He said that people subscribe to RSS for content, not coupon or specials. Once you develop that relationship, you can weave in occasional coupons and specials.

While I believe some retailers could use coupon and special feeds successfully, the idea is great for the rest. It certainly makes sense. If visitors don’t trust you to buy something from your site/online store, they won’t have the urge to subscribe to your feed, especially if that only contains coupons and special offers.

Building relationship through carefully designed content strategy is important. A separate feed for coupons never hurt though because as people begin to trust you, they would possibly want a more focused feed much more than occasional coupons in content feed.

[Internet Retailer]