ecommerce

SVOD Users See Plenty to Like About Streaming Services via e-marketer (source: TiVo)

• Posted: December 5, 2016

 

What’s drawing internet users to subscription video-on-demand services like Netflix and Amazon Prime? Pretty much everything the services offer, it turns out—selection, convenience, lack of ads, searchability, flexibility of screens and even the original programming.

TiVo surveyed 3,140 internet users ages 18 and older in Canada and the US during Q3 2016. More than half said convenience was one of the main reasons they use rental or SVOD services. Nearly four out of ten said they use them because they can watch certain TV shows or stream entire seasons of their favorite shows. In addition, more than a quarter said it’s easier for them to find what they’re looking for.

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Chart of the Week – How Social Media Affects Online Shopping

• Posted: December 5, 2016

The rise of social media over the past decade has not only changed the way people communicate, it has undoubtedly also had an impact on how they shop, be it online or at a boutique around the corner.

Before making a purchase, consumers now have the chance to scroll through thousands of product photos on Instagram or Pinterest, look for promotions on a retailer’s Facebook page or scroll through comments in a brand’s Twitter feed.

According to PwC’s Total Retail 2016, a global survey of nearly 23,000 people, 78% of consumers are influenced by social media when shopping online. The following chart sums up in which ways social media affects online shopping behavior.

2016 Predictions and Trends

• Posted: January 4, 2016

For the First Time, Advertising To Surpass $500 Billion In 2016

IHS analyst Eleni Marouli predicts 2016 ad spending in this Media Post article by Laurie Sullivan.  “Advertising to Surpass $500 Billion in 2016” includes the prediction that advertising will rise 5.7% and video will become the new mobile. Initiatives around measurement in the advertising industry are also discussed by Sullivan.
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Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/265493/advertising-to-surpass-500-billion-in-2016.html

IoT Will Become Omnipresent in Our Lives

Chuck Martin’s 2016 IoT predictions for Media Post include an extensive list from a variety of cited sources.  Beacons, wearables, encryption technology, smart machines, and more are presented in, “2016 IoT Predictions: Big Data, Beacons, Wearables, Security.” 
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Source: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/265353/2016-iot-predictions-big-data-beacons-wearables.html

Fewer but More Creative Ads in 2016

Matt Sweeney, CEO of Xaxis North America, presents six of the top trends that will impact advertising in the year ahead.  In this article for Campaign Live, “Better Creative, Fewer Ads: 6 Trends That Will Define 2016,” Sweeney predicts that ads will be more relevant and less intrusive.
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Source: http://www.campaignlive.com/article/better-creative-fewer-ads-6-trends-will-define-2016/1377923

Native Advertising: FTC Guidance and IAB Concerns

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) plans to seek additional clarification from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concerning the Commission’s recent Guidance on Native Advertising.  Brad Weltman, Vice President, Public Policy at the IAB, discusses his concerns in this IAB press release, “IAB Concerned About FTC Guidance on Native Advertising.”  While both organizations agree on the importance of clear disclosure to consumers, they disagree about other points in the Guidance. 
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Source: http://www.iab.com/news/iab-concerned-about-ftc-guidance-on-native-advertising/

Multichannel Online Behavior Can Predict Online Consumer Purchasing

This December 2015 article from the Journal of Advertising Research examines how consumer behavior across multiple online advertising channels can be used to predict conversions. The authors, Sebastian Klapdor, McKinsey & Company, Munich; Eva Anderl, FELD M, Munich; Jan H. Schumann, Universitat Passau, Germany, and Florian Von Wangenheim, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, suggest strategies for advertisers to target individual consumers based on this research in this article, “How to Use Multichannel Behavior To Predict Online Conversions-Behavior Patterns Across Online Channels Inform Strategies For Turning Users Into Paying Customers.”
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Source: http://www.thearf.org/journal-of-advertising-research-online-access/

Retailers Lag Consumers by Two Years

• Posted: October 26, 2015

A recent Warc news release discusses MarketLive’s 7th Annual Holiday Research Study.  Ken Burke, founder and CEO of MarketLive, commented that, “Consumers are adopting new technologies that seemed futuristic just a year ago.”  He also stated, “There’s no question now that consumers are asking for much more than retailers can give, like coupons with local discounts through mobile devices.”

Among the other findings from this survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers who have shopped online at least four times within the past year, own a smartphone, and typically spend $250 or more online annually:

-78% are likely to visit a store as a result of text promotions or alerts sent via mobile prior to store visits.

-69% want in-store text messages with coupons or want be alerted of promotions while they are in the store.

-62% will make a purchase as a result of a notification or offer sent to their mobile device while in the store.

Burke also observed that retailers are struggling to promote their deals in search ads or via search marketing.  As a result, retailers are turning to social media.

At the present time, few consumers are buying via social media, but the majority use social media to search for gift ideas and to share information.  Social media is especially important for millennials, a key target for retailers.

These trends will impact retailers for the 2015 holiday season and in future shopping seasons.

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Online Retailers Are Experimenting With Brick-and-Mortar Stores

• Posted: September 7, 2015

Some ecommerce retailers are investing in the establishment of brick-and-mortar stores. They are executing this strategy in order to differentiate themselves, to establish better brand-customer relationships, and to provide face-to-face interactions according to Susan Warren in her article for MarketingSherpa.

This article discusses an interview with Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief, Retail Touchpoints, on the establishment of physical stores by online retailers. While undertaking this strategy can be expensive and require much time and planning, establishing an omni-channel plan enables the ecommerce retailer the opportunity to achieve a competitive advantage.

Hauss suggests the following steps to online retailers interested in establishing brick-and-mortar stores:

-Experiment with new locations via mobile stores.

-Open pop-up and showroom stores.

-Utilize customer data to create an effective brick-and-mortar location.

This strategy enables ecommerce retailers to provide optimal shopper experiences across multiple shopping channels.

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The Digital Shopper Genome

• Posted: August 17, 2015

In this McKinsey Insights article, Gadi Benmark and Maher Masri analyze how to build a meaningful picture of the online shopper. Cracking what these authors call the shopper genome requires converting the vast amount of data regarding consumer behavior and desires into meaningful insights.

Until recently, technology barriers were the major challenge to combining insights across different elements of the organization. As these barriers start to fall, more e-commerce companies and their technology providers have an opportunity to develop a coherent, comprehensive profile of their digital customers and effectively engage them across the seven primary digital touchpoints: Internet display advertising, email, mobile advertising, search, shopping engines, social media, and video.

The authors report that the rewards of building a comprehensive view of the online shopper are substantial. They have found that companies that are able to build this profile to inform the way they interact with customers can achieve revenue increases of 10 to 20 percent.

Cracking the shopper genome will enable the company to build a comprehensive customer engagement program and to deliver on the customer’s increasingly high expectations of the digital shopping experience.

 

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Creating Personal Digital Experiences For Customers

• Posted: August 17, 2015

Tjeerd Brenninkmeijer, CMO and co-founder of Hippo, analyzes the factors necessary to create a relevant digital experience for each customer in this iMedia Connection’s article.

Factors include:

-Providing responsive design.

-Developing contextual awareness.

-Building a profile of the individual website visitor’s interests, preferences, and intent based on engagement with the online content.

-Delivering relevant content.

Both B2C and B2B companies need to understand the needs of their customers and to provide relevant, contextually appropriate content for their online business. This relevant content  has two goals:

-To support the customers at any stage of their relationship with the brand.

-To expand the reach of the customers’ journey.

The goal of creating a personal digital experience and relevant online content is to develop a customer who is engaged, who will return to the site, and who will advocate for the business and the brand.

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Americans Increasingly Shop Online and Value Free Shipping

• Posted: August 3, 2015

Mintel’s Online Shopping US 2015 report indicates that Americans are increasingly selecting e-tailers rather than brick-and-mortar retailers.

Jack Loechner, writing for the Research Brief From the Center for Media Research, summarizes some of the key points of this study:

-69% of US online adults shop online at least monthly, and 33% have shopped online every week in 2015.

-Free shipping is important to online shoppers.  In fact, 48% of online shoppers admit to occasionally increasing the size of their orders to meet the minimum threshold for free shipping.

-Consumers spend $114 per online order on average.

-Online retail sales have risen from $264.2 billion in 2013 to $304.9 billion in 2014.

-The most frequently purchased products by online shoppers in the past year: books/ebooks, women’s apparel, and footwear.

-Households with larger numbers of children under the age of 18 purchase online more frequently, have higher average online orders, and are more likely to be enrolled in an automatic online reordering service.

 

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Carrefour undertakes first large-scale beacon deployment in Romanian hypermarkets

• Posted: July 27, 2015

Multinational retailer Carrefour has placed iBeacon networks in 28 of its hypermarket stores in Romania, pointing to the inevitable global rollout of personalized shopping experiences on mobile. This project taps 600 Onyx Beacon devices and is able to interact with the public at a commercial network level. Consumers who download the supermarket’s application can receive customized offers and in-store maps, while the app collects valuable data about shopping behavior.

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Digital Tools and Their Impact on Online Shoppers

• Posted: July 20, 2015

The MarketingCharts staff reviews an Epsilon study which analyzes the digital tools with the greatest impact on the behavior of online shoppers.

This report is based on an online survey of more than 2,800 respondents, and the survey determined an impact score for each digital tool.

Among the digital tools with the highest overall impact score were:

-Retailers’ social media activity

-Price comparison sites

-Shopping applications

-Brands’ social media activity

-Product reviews

The study also compares impact vs. penetration for the different digital tools.

The Epsilon report emphasized that the influence of the identified digital tools has greatly increased from the previous year. These tools impact consumer online shopping and decision-making behavior.

 

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