Facebook and Google, both going for the online retail business

A few weeks ago, Google has announced a new feature called Purchases on Google. With this change mobile ads will have a “buy” button, which will redirect the user to a page where he can buy the product.

This week, the social network leader has also announced a new feature, Shopping and Services, to be released in the coming weeks. With this enhancement, retailers  and service providers will be able to show and sell their products from their Facebook page.

But, are Facebook and Google targeting the exact same segment? Facebook’s new feature, which also includes other engagement functionalities such as: “Call Now,” “Send Message” and “Contact Us.”, seems to be more like a branded front solution for small business, perhaps with the ability to fully replace the, frequently outdated, web pages that many of these small businesses own.  

Google, however, looks to be a pure shopping functionality targeting retailers at different size, based on search.The company, using GPS data to understand the shopping journey, will also provide retailers information on how to optimize their AdWord.

http://mashable.com/2015/09/08/facebook-shopping-and-services/#iqHB.amokgkV

http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/15/purchases-on-google/#.sjsih3:8hoC

Making Cyber Monday More Than a One-Day Deal

Making Cyber Monday More Than a One-Day Deal

Cyber Monday presents a great opportunity for marketers to turn customers into an engaged audience and even more ambitiously, turn them into marketers. With millions of  customers converting to online sales during the holidays, there is an opportunity to build a loyal social following by leveraging on this channel. The author of the article suggest five ways for marketers to make sure that new customers that come flooding into online stores have an even bigger long term impact on their business:

1. Focus on an exceptional customer experience: This first point include two main recommendations. First, make consumer experience as smooth as possible and keep in mind the tradeoffs between gathering consumer data and maximizing the customer experience.
2. Offer incentives: Reward the customers who provide personal information and survey with incentives.
3. Collect data carefully: Don't lose a customer in the attempt to gather too much information.
4. Deliver value on social media: Once you have turned your customer into a social media connection on an email newsletter subscriber give them content that is interesting, engaging and useful.
5. Be authentic: By being authentic in social media your quality content will travel further, your brand will attract more likes and your social media strategy will achieve a higher ROI.

Read the complete article: Marketers: Make Cyber Monday More Than a One-Day Deal
Source: Cooper, M. (November 26, 2014). Make Cyber Monday More Than a One-Day Deal. Ad Age

How Adore Me, a Lingerie Company, uses A/B Testing to Maximize Sales

Adore Me, a lingerie company, uses A/B testing to determine which photos generate the most clicks and the most buys.  For reach product, Adore Me photographs multiple versions of models to run on the websites.  Each characteristic is photographed  – from different models, poses, angles, colors, hand positions – and the photos are tested on the website to see which one sells better.

“We see the impact of each picture in some sort of parallel process,” Adore Me Founder and CEO  and Harvard Business School grad Morgan Hermand-Waiche comments.  For every thousand people who visit the website, 500 will be shown Picture A and 500 will be shown Picture B, and whichever group buys the most will conclude which picture was more successful.  This exercise, known as A/B testing, is used throughout the technology space.  Netflix A/B tests its queue design to maximize binge-watching; Google A/B tests the color of its links to maximize clicks; the Obama campaign A/B tests its website to maximize campaign donations.  Although these websites use big data to optimize human behavior and maximize conversion, Adore Me uses beautiful human beings to generate sales on its website.

Adore Me is not the only online clothing retailer that uses A/B testing to optimize product display. “I would say a large majority of online retailers are doing some level of A/B testing for campaign optimization,” says Matt Helmke, the PR rep for Monetate, which provides “multichannel personalization” through A/B testing for over 300 top retail brands. If the website determines that you are female, it will provide a different e-commerce experience by showing you a picture of the product on real women, because "that's what women like". 

It is interesting to see how A/B testing has evolved from the simple subject-line, timing of day, content e-mail and website layout testing to more personalized shopping experience on the website.  In the old glorious advertising days, print ads were tested to see which ad would resonate better with the consumer.  Now, photography testing is done online in real-time to see which photo sells most.

Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/3038740/most-creative-people/this-lingerie-company-a-b-tests-the-worlds-hottest-women-to-see-who-mak

How consumers still believe retailers are dual pricing

How consumers still believe retailers are dual pricing

In the early days of e-commerce having price differentials between online and physical stores was a common practice. However, in today's omnichannel world, it can be extremely harmful for a brand to charge different prices across different channels and therefore many retailers have abandoned this strategy.

A report from Displaydata suggests that more than 76% of the shoppers research online before buying in a physical store. The report also showed that 48% of shoppers perceived that promotions offered online were not available instore. In an effort to build a seamless approach to omnichannel, retailers need to aligned  the consumer experience through all the available shopping channels. Particularly, two factors have to be revisited:

1. Pricing strategy in offline and online channels
2. Product information: 28% of shoppers want more information about the product and stock availability in physical stores.

In a fast-paced retail industry, players have to quickly adapt to costumer's needs or face the risk to loose market share.  Due to e-commerce growth and the industry's competitive context, creating a differentiated, valuable and coherent shopping experience in all channels must be retailers' priority.

Read complete article: How consumers still believe retailers are dual pricing
Source: Morrell, L. (Nov, 7 2014).  "How consumers still believe retailers are dual pricing". Marketing Tech

Five Takeaways From Alibaba's Record-Busting $9.3 Billion Shopping Fest

Five Takeaways From Alibaba's Record-Busting $9.3 Billion Shopping Fest

Alibaba set a new record selling $9.3 billion in merchandise during the annual e-commerce holiday. The sales on Nov.11 exceeded the 2013 record of $5.8 billion. Approximately, 43% of sales came from the mobile channel. Alibaba's ambitions are growing bigger, more mobile and more global.

So what are the big takeaways?

1. Size Matters: Everything the company does is larger than life! The company invited more than 600 reporters to its headquarters in Hangzhou, offers more than 1 billion product listings on its platforms and had the record for the biggest initial public offering.
2. Jack Ma is the Steve Jobs of China: The big buzz of the night was whether Mr. Ma would appear.
3. Mobile has momentum: Every year Alibaba growths its mobile sales, the figure was 5% in 2012, 21% last year and nearly 43% this year. In China, many people are going online for the first time on a smartphone, not a desktop which gives mobile  a  big room for growth.
4. Chinese brands win: Even with many big western brands available, the top sellers were local brands.  
5. Alibaba has global ambitions but is laying low in the U.S--for now: Joe Tsai, Alibaba's executive vice chairman, said the focus now is bringing goods from U.S. merchants to Chinese consumers, though targeting U.S. shoppers could be interesting later on.

Read the complete article: Five Takeaways From Alibaba's Record-Busting $9.3 Billion Shopping Fest
Source: A.Doland. (2014, November 11). Five Takeaways From Alibaba's Record-Busting $9.3 Billion Shopping Fest. Ad Age

An Opportunity Missed?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/business/with-no-amazon-as-a-rival-flipkart-moves-fast-in-india.html?_r=1

It was interesting that Amazon missed such a colossal opportunity—to capitalize the growing online retail market in India. The key would have been to alter their business model to adjust for consumer preferences and understand how consumers purchase online. A doppelgänger, Flipkart, has managed to do just that and created a system where customers could purchase online and yet pay only on delivery, either by cash or by card. Low labor costs, of course, have been immensely invaluable in setting up such a system of collection and delivery. Flipkart also doesn’t rely on the traditional courier services—instead they have their own delivery department, making it easier and more comfortable for the customer to interact with the company, especially in cases where they are not familiar with online retail.

The key will be to keep up with competition—everyone seems to be joining the “e-commerce” platform and creating products and services that are similar to already successful and established ones. Currently, Flipkart’s biggest threat still remains Amazon—but the key to success will lie in which is able to understand and cater to the Indian consumer in particular.