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" A surprising group of retailers are dominating social media conversations and engagement so far this holiday season, led by Nordstrom, Macy’s and Sephora, according to Shareablee Social Scorecard. Kohl’s came in at a much more distant fourth place, followed by Amazon.
The rankings, which are based on combined analysis of total actions —shares, comments, retweets, and reblogs — on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and You Tube, show an overall 26% increase in engagement and 170% jump in actions this year. This is despite a sharp decrease in posts featuring Black Friday deals, which fell 32% on Facebook and 27% on Twitter.
"What really stood out to us this year is the rise of the specialty store, and not so much the mass marketers,” says Shareablee's founder and CEO, Tania Yuki. “I was expecting to see Walmart and Target ranked much higher, and instead we saw exceptional strength in brands like Nordstrom, Sephora, Barney’s and Neiman Marcus.”...
The holidays are here and that means one thing for a majority of users, shopping. For a web designer working on a retail website, that means a variety of things.
One of the most important is design, eRetailers invest in making an online shopping experience a similar if not a better experience than that of a brick and mortar location. With online retail, there is a unique opportunity to not only design the best was to present the product and providing a great user experience.
Below are a couple of great examples online retail merchandising from around the web.
A new video made by Shopify, an e-commerce software company, delves into this bit of Internet history to track down the first official e-commerce transaction. The trail begins on the ARPANET, with a 1971 deal between computer science students at Stanford and MIT to buy some pot. But, explains the narrator, that technically didn’t count because money wasn’t exchanged online: they only used the network to arrange a meeting place.
Next, the trail leads to 1984, when a 74-year-old British grandmother named Jane Snowball used a Videotex—essentially a TV connected to telephone lines—to order provisions from her local grocery store: margarine, eggs, cornflakes. However, the groceries were delivered by hand, and Snowball paid for them in cash. That’s not exactly e-commerce.
The first true e-commerce transaction didn’t happen until 1994 with the advent of the Internet as we more or less know it today. Though Pizza Hut often gets credit for the first e-commerce transaction (they started selling pizzas online in late August 1994) the actual credit goes to Dan Kohn, a 21-year-old entrepreneur who ran a website based in New Hampshire called NetMarket....
eCommerce is about making sales. Period. That means if you own an eCommerce website, maximizing conversions should always be one of the top items on your to-do list. Today let’s look at a few ways you can improve the conversion rate on your eCommerce site.
Search the web, and you’ll find all kinds of advice about how to “improve conversions.” Let’s focus on the ones that are important in eCommerce....
In terms of online spending there are many differences in Europe. A new infographic shows the average online spending in Europe. The infographic was made by Expert Market, using data from Statistica’s Digital Market Outlook. The British company ranked the countries that spend the most money online per average customer. To make it easier for comparison they put all the amounts in US dollars.
The global ranking shows Europe is doing pretty well, considering Norway is the number two with $2,448 spent online per average customer in 2015. Only the average revenue per user in Hong Kong was higher, with $2,868. In total, seven European countries ended in the global top 10, which consists of: Hong Kong, Norway, Israel, the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Ireland....
The global ranking shows Europe is doing pretty well, considering Norway is the number two with $2,448 spent online per average customer in 2015. Only the average revenue per user in Hong Kong was higher, with $2,868. In total, seven European countries ended in the global top 10, which consists of: Hong Kong, Norway, Israel, the United States, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and Ireland....
This holiday is poised to be the first mobile-dominant season for retailers and marketers need to be ready.
A growing number of Americans are turning to their smartphones and tablets as their primary device for accessing the Internet. In fact, one-third of all U.S. adults (33.7 percent) say they access the Internet more often through a mobile device than through a computer, up from 24 percent in 2013. Furthermore, Millennials are the first generation to be mobile dominant, with 53 percent of consumers aged 18 to 34 reporting that they use their phone more often than a computer to go online.
Considering that trend, it’s no surprise that when pulling data for our Holiday Hot Sheet series, we found that 35 percent of all Website visits came from smartphones or digital tablets during the week ending October 17, 2015. Shopping and Classified Websites, however, received an even greater share of visits from mobile devices that week, 44 percent to be exact. And some shopping sub-industries got a majority of traffic from mobile. Those included: Intimate Apparel and Accessories, which currently gets 55 percent of visits from mobile, Baby Products (55 percent), Health and Beauty (54 percent) and Ticketing (51 percent)....
With more than 17.6 billion in-store shopping visits in November and December of 2013, retailers and malls alike have a vast opportunity to influence and target a captive audience’s purchasing choices every day, and even more so during the holiday shopping months when they are gift shopping.
To be clear, there are two separate but inextricably linked topics being discussed here: the use of mobile engagement strategies to get consumers into brick-and-mortar stores and mobile sales/transactions in general.
According to a recent study by Forrester Research for RetailMeNot, 84 percent of consumers use their smartphones while shopping in stores, but a lot fewer complete their purchase on a mobile device....
If you are in the eCommerce market industry, you'll be smiling by the time you finish reading this article.
Technology now touches nearly every retail transaction, creating a vastly different shopping experience for retailers and consumers alike, according to a research report published by MasterCard.
The study found that 8 out of 10 global shoppers' purchase decisions are now informed by a digital device, with consumers saying they are smarter shoppers and getting more value than before. However, though in-store sales still account for more than 90% of all retail spending, the result is a more focused in-store shopper buying from a narrower list of unique stores than in years past. 64.180.55.243 This article is copyright 2015 TheWiseMarketer.com.
"Getting smart about smart shoppers is paramount to a retailer's success, yet shoppers consistently report they're frustrated that retailers don't get it," explained Mathieu Loury, senior vice president of Merchant Solutions for MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard. "The good news is that the solutions exist to both analyse and answer these expectations-meeting your omnishoppers every step of their empowered journey, and creating an ecosystem that propels them forward."...
In this article, I’m going to show you how you can use the power of psychology, to become an outlier when it comes to cart abandonment statistics.
Once you know how to fix your website’s checkout issues, you will be able to massively improve the amount of online revenue your business generates.
Let’s take a look at what can be done....
E-commerce sales in the US shot up 14.1 percent to $83.9 billion in the second quarter compared to Q2 2014 when adjusted for seasonality, the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce reported Monday. That compares to an overall increase in US retail sales of just 1.0 percent year-over-year.
In all, 7.2 percent of the estimated $1,1771.5 billion in US retail sales transactions occurred online in the second quarter, up from 7.0 percent in the first quarter of 2015 and 6.3 percent a year ago....
Kohl’s is bullish on mobile’s role for the upcoming holiday season, with 30 percent of its mobile traffic being driven by a new wallet feature in its application and plans to bring a new click-and-collect service to mobile.
During a conference call with analysts last week to discuss the retailer’s second quarter results, Kohl’s executives talked up the success of its new app, which has had more than 2 million downloads this year for a total of more than 8 million users. The wallet feature in the app is focused on offers and promotions, enabling users able to scan and save Kohl’s Cash and offers to the wallet and then redeem them at checkout.
Via Douglas G Hall
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Not every retailer had a great 2015. Some brands seriously struggled.
These are some brands that did not fare too well — many suffered from low sales and misguided sartorial choices. Some companies filed for bankruptcy.
Here's hoping 2016 will be better for them....
So the question that comes to mind is “What has caused this unremitting demand for online commerce? So, what really drives the customers to visit a particular online marketplace and choose the same for purchase? What are the factors that make shopping both a comfortable and pleasurable experience for them? And, on what basis do they decide to revisit the portal or repeat purchase?
Irrespective of how utilitarian the concept of online buying sounds, shopping either from a real or virtual platform does entail a splash of hedonism as also grants the whole affair a distinctive upmarket feel.
That’s precisely why there are as many customers who shop purely to elevate their moods (and trigger the release of dopamine) as those who shop to meet their immediate needs without the pressure of wants influencing the purchase. At the same time, given the rapidly transforming global marketplace led by technological innovation and a furious digitization spree, online buying has to a large extent become inevitable....
Luxury in the form of premium experiences are seeing the most action in terms of spending, while high-end goods are lagging in comparison, according to new findings from a study by Boston Consulting Group.
The key finding of BCG’s Luxe Redux report is that there has been a shift in spending habits, where 55 percent of spending comes from luxury experiences rather physical goods. In addition, experiential luxury purchases grew 50 percent faster worldwide year over year than sales of luxury goods.
It was yet another great quarter in the world of US retail e-commerce. Revenue was up by 11.8 percent year over year, and transactions increased nearly the same amount (11.6 percent) over Q3 2014.
As the leaves begin to change color and the sun begins to set on 2015, let’s take a look at some of the trends leading the way into Q4 and this year’s holiday shopping season.
These finding below are based on the Custora E-Commerce Pulse, a free online dashboard tracking online transactions from more than 500 million shoppers, $100 billion in e-commerce revenue, and 200+ online retailers....
In a market as saturated as the ecommerce platform market, it can be very difficult to figure out which shopping cart software best meets your needs. If you are considering starting your own store, then chances are you have already run into this struggle at some point.
So far I have reviewed most popular platforms as individual offers, and created this comparison chart, then ranked all platforms after their SEO effectiveness, but now it is time to see how the different platforms compare to each other: Shopify, Bigcommerce, 3dcart, Volusion and Big Cartel.
In case you’re in a hurry, here are some links to our top ecommerce platforms for you to choose from...
On Wednesday, October 21st the ecommerce UK event titled “The Year Ahead” was held in London. Top retailers spoke about which future trends to focus on and how to secure sales growth in 2016.
Should you offer free delivery or click-and-collect? Online-only ranges? Personalised email marketing? Launch a loyalty app? Run a customer feedback programme?
With the endless options to choose from, leading retailers spoke about what they actually think is worth investing in, and where they expect their growth to come from in the next 12 months. In the panel discussion, Practicology’s CCO Jeremy Wilson posed an interesting question to Jaeger, Selfridges and Baker Ross...
Summary
- 83% of consumers want free shipping for online shopping. - Target, Best Buy, and Amazon all have free shipping programs for the holidays. - Wal-Mart is denying customers the one thing they want.
This holiday season, online shopping will be bigger than ever. FedEx (NYSE:FDX) expects to deliver 317 million boxes between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, an increase of 12.4% over the same period last year. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar sales are expected to grow only by 2.4%.
This article contrasts the Wal-Mart mindset with that of its close competitors Target (NYSE:TGT), Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). The thesis of this article is that Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is under-investing in the online segment for the all-important holiday season by not matching the free shipping policies of its major competitors. This is consistent with the company's misguided mindset of over-investment in stores and under-investment in E-Commerce....
If you have an ecommerce site, you may be struggling with how to implement an effective content strategy. You may have found that product and sales pages don’t easily lend themselves to compelling, share-worthy content. This is why many business owners get stuck: they think a content strategy only works for online publishers; not for ecommerce sites. They know the benefits of having a solid content strategy – increased traffic, organic search rankings, brand awareness, conversion rates, and sales – but don’t know how this works (of even if it can work) on an ecommerce site.
This article will walk you through some strategies for using content to achieve the benefits listed above for an ecommerce website....
Recent online shopping statistics have found that over two-thirds of Americans have made an online purchase. According to ComScore, this equates to approximately 78% of the entire population that’s over the age of 15.Needless to say, ecommerce is big business, and isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. We’ve highlighted this nuance in a recent guide we penned: Bricks vs. Clicks: How the Ecommerce Monster is Slowly Ingesting Brick & Mortar Retail.
Look to it for more insight on how brick and mortar is slowly but surely being overtaken by ecommerce (even though it will never cease to be; ecommerce is catching up fast)....
“95% of data is fluff”
The panel divulged that despite the increasing amounts of data available, only 5% is truly valuable. Tony referred to this as the “95 – 5 rule”, and panelist Ben Jankowski of MasterCard, added, “data ages like fish, not wine.” Therefore, it’s not only important for companies to use the right data, it’s about using it as close to real-time as possible, for maximum success.
Start small, aim big
All panelists agreed big data is great, yet it was clear that it is necessary to start small. It is recommended to take a stepped approach, and find success in each step before continuing to the next. Tony went on to explain that in helping customers use data, the first challenge to overcome is reach. Once you have your hands around that, you can focus and improve upon your creative....
Via Douglas G Hall
Consumers will only pay attention to you when they’re motivated to do so. Interaction and education along the buyer’s journey is the best way to gain their attention and keep it. Obviously, you need to understand your target consumers before you can offer something valuable or helpful to them, but, once you’ve gained their permission to market to them, you can be strategic about guiding them along the buyer’s journey and positioning offers at just the right moment.
What is the Buyer’s Journey?
The buyer’s journey includes the steps that consumers take in the buying process. After buyers become aware of their needs and begin researching solutions, they generally proceed to three additional stages: Consideration, Recommendation and Purchase. These buyer journey stages map closely to the Lifecycle Marketing stages within the Sell phase: Educate, Offer and Close....
Andreessen Horowitz appears to be one of the winners in the $2.4 billion acquisition of online retailer Zulily by the owner of home shopping network QVC that was announced on Monday.
The Menlo Park-based venture firm was the Seattle company's (Nasdaq: ZU) biggest shareholder as recently as April, with about 13 percent of its stock at that time. But its hard to know exactly how well it did as Term Sheet reported on Monday that A16Z had "quietly distributed" most of its shares within the past few months.
Zulily's example may not be terribly comforting, either, to other so-called unicorns — as venture-backed companies that hit $1 billion in valuation are known. It is one of a growing group of VC-backed companies that have strong IPOs and first-day stock gains, only to lose value after their quarterly financials are subjected to Wall Street scrutiny....
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Solid social marketing is getting attention and results for some social savvy retailers.