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EnterpriseeCommerce

  • Amazon Makes a Serious Bid for Regional Sports Networks

    Amazon Makes a Serious Bid for Regional Sports Networks

    Despite Jeff Bezos’ recent admission that Amazon will eventually fail, the company plans to stave off its demise by investing in as many markets as possible. Aside from being the world’s largest eCommerce enterprise, Amazon also has its tentacles in sectors like on-demand cloud computing, pharmaceuticals, and even more recently, banking. Now it wants to venture into sports broadcasting. The retail giant has reportedly filed a bid to acquire the 22 sports television networks that Disney is offloading. The move is seen as Amazon’s attempt to further develop its live video offerings.

    CNBC reported several companies have placed bids for those sports networks, which were once under 21st Century Fox. Aside from Amazon, Apollo Global Management, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, KKR, Tegna, and The Blackstone Group also made offers.

    Surprisingly, New Fox was not among the first-round bidders. The company was founded after Disney shelled out $71.3 billion to acquire 21st Century Fox’s assets this year. The sports networks were initially among the assets Disney paid for. These assets included the YES Network, which shows games of the New York Yankees, as well as other channels that broadcast regional games from different professional leagues like the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball.

    According to reports, the House of Mouse allegedly wanted to partner these networks with their just launched ESPN+. However, the Justice Department ruling required the company to sell the networks before the Fox deal could be completed to avoid antitrust issues.

    New Fox was a strong contender to buy back the channels. Lachlan Murdoch, Fox’s CEO, had previously confirmed that he was keen on getting back the networks, which made the company’s absence in the bidding glaringly conspicuous. However, Fox might submit a bid in the next round, which is scheduled before the end of the year.

    Media companies will be keeping a close eye on Amazon though. The prospect of an additional 22 networks in Amazon’s Prime Video service will boost its live-streaming power and could potentially change the television landscape.

    More importantly, sports programming still has a strong viewership and brings in massive revenue. In fact, it generates the most revenue for the $70 billion television ad industry. The popularity of live sports also means that having major sports leagues like the MLB and NBA on the roster will enhance the value of the Amazon Prime Video service and could compel more people to subscribe.

    Jeff Bezos’ company hasn’t exactly been hiding its interest in incorporating live sports in its streaming offer. Amazon has already closed deals to broadcast Thursday Night Football and 20 of the United Kingdom’s Premier League soccer matches in 2019.

    If Amazon does go into sports broadcasting, tech companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google might also make a move on sporting rights just to remain competitive.

    Acquiring Disney’s sports channels also provides a number of opportunities for Amazon. The eCommerce giant can phase out these cable networks and offer the live games either exclusively to Prime subscribers or as an add-on to the Amazon Channel. It also gives Amazon a larger advertising playground. Moreover, they will have a wider market to showcase all their products and services.

    Amazon has not made any official comments regarding its foray into sports broadcasting. But it’s guaranteed that the traditional media companies and Amazon Prime subscribers will be watching closely to see if the company will emerge victorious.

    [Featured image via Amazon]

  • Ebay’s Scott Cutler: We’ll Sell More Online Than Walmart, Macy’s and Best Buy Combined

    Ebay’s Scott Cutler: We’ll Sell More Online Than Walmart, Macy’s and Best Buy Combined

    The Head of Americas for eBay, Scott Cutler, says that they will sell more online than Walmart, Macy’s and Best Buy combined. Ebay is the number two ecommerce player in the United States behind Amazon. Cutler noted that branded items are extremely hot on the platform with Adidas Yeezy Boost being eBay’s top searched item over the weekend.

    Scott Cutler, Head of Americas for eBay, discussed the Black Friday sales weekend on CNBC:

    Branded Items Are Hot on eBay

    Yesterday was actually a surprising day, $3.5 billion dollars of online sales, most of that was happening on a mobile device. Everybody is searching for the best deals today and things like a Samsung TV, Apple-branded products, a Nintendo Switch, are things that people and consumers are searching to find and the best deal available is actually on eBay… guaranteed.

    Branded items are hot. The top searched item on eBay was an Adidas Yeezy Boost. We’re selling a pair of shoes every couple of seconds. Monopoly for Millennials in the toy category has been very popular. Toys, in general, this holiday season is something that’s really exciting. For the first time, we launched our own toy book in Toytopia and we’re trying to highlight those things that are rare, that are retro, and that are right now. You can buy a Magic the Gathering card for $100,000 or an original 1987 Transformer set, but you can also find those things that today like a Funko Pop Doll that is really difficult to find.

    We’ll Sell More Online Than Walmart, Macy’s and Best Buy Combined

    We’re really just trying to show up for the consumers the best deals. It’s a highly competitive environment and we’re competing incredibly against all the retailers. You have to remember that eBay is the number two ecommerce player. We’ll sell more in online sales than Walmart, Macy’s, and Best Buy combined. It’s an extremely competitive environment and for the consumers, they want to come to a site and know that they’re getting the best deal. Getting it very quickly and free are the themes that we have to play through the holiday season.

    We’ve got an amazing array of price points from the low ASP items to the high ASP items. Our differentiation against other retailers is to be able to find those things that you can’t find anywhere else that are uniquely eBay. Some of those things are very expensive but some are that must-have item at a low price point. Giving that selection of opportunity and choice for consumers is really the balance that we’re trying to strike.

  • Former Walmart CEO says Amazon is “Predatory” Almost by Definition

    Former Walmart CEO says Amazon is “Predatory” Almost by Definition

    Former Walmart CEO Bill Simon says that Amazon has been “predatory” by selling goods below cost subsidized by profits from their cloud and advertising businesses. Simon says that this strategy put major competitors like Circuit City and Toys R Us out of business allowing Walmart to then raise the price of Prime without losing their customers.

    Bill Simon, a former Walmart CEO, discussed Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba in an interview on Fox Business which can be watched below:

    Amazon Behavior Has Been Predatory by Definition

    I’ve not been an advocate of breaking Amazon up. I’ve been an advocate of really looking at them hard and maybe having them report more details in segment reporting. They just sort of smush everything up into one number and report and I don’t think that gives clarity to the investor. If you really think about it their behavior has been predatory almost by definition. In 2014 they took the price of Prime up right after Circuit City and some others went out of business. They took another price increase to $129 for Prime and Toys R Us is gone.

    The consumer loves them, it’s awesome, I use them all the time, it’s really great to have the stuff delivered. But you see them putting people out of business and raising their price, and then again putting people out of business and raising their price, and that’s just not right.

    Didn’t Walmart Put Competitors Out of Business? Walmart did it for years and years by being a good retailer, not by selling below cost and subsidizing it from income from the cloud and from advertising. Walmart just bought well, moved it well, shipped it well, sold it well, and did it better than anybody else. That’s a different play. It’s sort of like if Exxon decided to get into the restaurant business and used oil revenue to drive restaurant companies out of business.

    How Does Alibaba Compare to Amazon? I love Alibaba. I’ve been in their stock for a while and it is just a terrific business. They’ve got a little bit of a different business model than Amazon. They built it differently because they have much more population density across their key markets than Amazon does other than the main metro’s in the US. I think they have a better opportunity to move the product and eventually, one day make money. I don’t think Amazon has that.

    Walmart Successfully Went After Digital Business

    Walmart stated a couple of years ago that they were really going to go after the digital business and they’ve done that. They have done it really well. They bought Jet, they just invested in Flipkart, they bought Bonobos, and they’ve bought a lot of other things. It sort of puts some juice back in the business.

    On the other hand, three years ago they delivered $29 billion in operating income, last year they delivered $20 billion, and they have already sort of warned that they are going to be below that this year. It’s come at a really steep price but they are doing exactly what they said they are going to do and if you are an investor who likes that strategy you’re buying.

    People Don’t Want Their Groceries Delivered

    Grocery is hard, it’s really hard. It took Walmart 20-25 years to get average at it, nevermind good. When Amazon bought Whole Foods, they not only bought a grocer, they bought a premium fresh grocer. That’s really hard to deliver and to deliver consistently and I think they are finding that out. Part of the problem is that people generally don’t want to have their groceries delivered.

    Most cities, other than New York and San Francisco and older cities, were built in and around the time and grew with the interstate highway system. So people in Dallas commute to and from work and they pass 20 grocery stores. They don’t need it delivered to them. They don’t want it sitting on their doorstep but it would be really nice if they could pick it up on their way home and not have to shop for it. That’s the theory behind Click and Collect and I think that’s a winner.

  • UNCS CEO: It’s an Amazing Time To Be a Consumer… Every Day is Black Friday

    UNCS CEO: It’s an Amazing Time To Be a Consumer… Every Day is Black Friday

    The CEO of United National Consumer Suppliers, Brett Rose, says that it’s an amazing time to be a consumer because every day is Black Friday. Rose predicts that this is going to possibly be the biggest Q4 in our history.

    Brett Rose, CEO of United National Consumer Suppliers, discussed Amazon and ecommerce in an interview on Fox Business:

    Amazon Has Huge Competitive Advantage

    All things considered, consumers want free shipping, not quick shipping. However, if all levels are equal with Amazon, Target, and Walmart, the one competitive advantage that Amazon has, that Target and Walmart can’t, is that Amazon has millions of these third-party resellers constantly filling their coffers with products. Target and Walmart are limited to what they have in stock that’s ready to go.

    There is no denying that Walmart has made some massive strides. But to come after Amazon is hefty. Like I said Amazon has a constant supply of products where their not just limited to what they’re curating on their own. They’re limitless in regards to what everybody is sending to them to go right to the consumer.

    Every Day is Black Friday

    Interesting times with tariffs. If you read everything that came out Chinese imports are up 15 percent over the same time last year. They’ve all front-loaded in preparations for the President’s tariffs which are now in full effect. All of these retailers pushed up orders in what might have otherwise taken months. It’s yet to be determined, but consumers still need goods. There’s always going to be a need, the price is just going to fluctuate.

    If numbers are indicative, everything these retailers are curating and everything the street is saying, it’s going to be one of if not the biggest Q4 in our history. Even if you look at Black Friday announcements, Black Friday is out already. Amazon has released their Black Friday items. BlackFriday.com, Macy’s, went live the other day with their sales. Retailers are vamping up to stay competitive. You go online now and you can figure out what retailers are selling for Black Friday.

    It’s an amazing time to be a consumer. Every day is Black Friday. Right now it really is. They’ve already released what the doorbusters are going to be.

    Still a Major Value in Having a Physical Presence

    There’s always going to be the consumer that likes to go to the store, likes to feel it, touch it, get the treasure hunt, but now with real-time shipping, free shipping, real-time inventory, it’s a great time to be a consumer. It’s certainly competitive. While Amazon is making strides they are still going after brick & mortar. Buying Whole Foods and some of the other retailers they are looking at, says there is still a major value in having that physical presence.

  • RingCentral CEO: All of the Legacy Providers Are in Secular Decline

    RingCentral CEO: All of the Legacy Providers Are in Secular Decline

    RingCentral founder and CEO Vlad Shmunis spoke with Jim Cramer on CNBC about how they are competing and leading in cloud communications, winning business from huge legacy companies such as Cisco and Avaya:

    What RingCentral does is we change ways in which companies communicate, communicate internally with their employees as well as their customers. We have the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and two other NFL teams as customers which we can’t announce yet. They’re franchises and they are also companies. They have employees, they have customers who want to reach out to them and communicate with them. What we do at RingCentral is we make all of that very easy and very modern.

    What do we do that is different? We enable companies and people to communicate the way that they want to. What does this mean? They can communicate via any mode, any device, whether it be voice, video, texting, or messaging. We have an open platform which means that people can enable our communications within their workflows. None of this was ever available before the cloud came in and we happened to be leading in the cloud.

    We’re winning business from Cisco all the time. The number one provider or company that we replace happens to be Cisco followed by Avaya. These would be the two, what we call, legacy ventures. It is a huge field, it’s a hundred-billion-dollar market and we are in the lead. All of the legacy providers are in secular decline.

  • Western Union CEO on Amazon Partnership: Buy Globally and Pay Locally

    Western Union CEO on Amazon Partnership: Buy Globally and Pay Locally

    Western Union has partnered with Amazon to white label their cross-border money transfer platform. “Amazon engaged us to use our platform to service their customers in a better way in order to give access to the millions of customers who don’t have an access today to buy online and pay,” said Hikmet Ersek, the CEO of Western Union. “In the future, they will have the capability to buy globally and pay locally.”

    Hikmet Ersek, President, CEO, Western Union, recently discussed the new partnership with Amazon, competition with Zelle and Vinmo, and the overall health of the business:

    Western Union Digital Business is Growing Very Well

    Our digital business is growing very well year over year. We are now in 50 countries with our digital business sending money to over 200 countries. We pretty much cover the world with digital. Our digital growth is very strong. Our retail money transfer business has been stable. In some countries, we have been a little bit slower like in the Middle East, but we had very strong growth in Europe and US outbound business. Our US domestic business has been a little bit slower than we thought. Generally, I would say that we had a very stable solid quarter and we are very excited about the future.

    You Can’t Send Money From Your Mobile

    US to Domestic there has been some competitive environment. Nothing changed like last quarter. We have certain customers that like to pick up cash immediately. Nobody can beat that. You can’t send (cash) money from your mobile. We pay out in cash immediately. There are also competitors like Zelle and Vinmo who have been capturing some market share there with their zero fee environment. That has definitely been US dominated but is only a small part of our business, seven percent of our revenues. We are more focused on the outbound business, global cross-border business. That has been growing very well.

    Western Union is White Labeling Platform to Amazon

    Amazon has engaged us, over the years we have been building a cross-border platform, which is unique. We are moving transactions in 132 currencies globally and we do about 32 transactions every second. We have a network of 550,000 locations. We are reaching out to about 4 billion accounts globally. This is a unique platform where today we serve our customers with this platform.

    Companies like Amazon engaged us to use our platform to service their customers in a better way in order to give access to the millions of customers who don’t have an access today to buy online and pay. In the future, they will have the capability to buy globally and pay locally.

    The Amazon partnership is for us very exciting because now suddenly we are opening our platform to new customer segments, white labeling to other organizations like Amazon. Today, we are serving our existing customers with our branded transactions. In the future, we will be able to serve huge organizations like Amazon, or Amazon will engage us with other organizations, to engage our platform and to use our platform to serve their customers.

    Paying Amazon Has Been a Real Obstacle for Some

    “There are people in the world who want greater access to Amazon’s huge product selection but paying for those purchases has been a real obstacle for many customers,” said Hikmet Ersek, president and CEO of Western Union. “We’re leveraging our money movement platform to make it easier to shop global and pay local. By facilitating the complex foreign exchange and settlement process, we’re opening up more consumer choices and access to online shopping for tens of millions of potential new Amazon customers.”

    Forrester Research estimates that cross-border shopping will make up 20% of e-commerce by 2022, with sales reaching $630 billion. Choice, quality and cost are the main motivations for consumers to shop online from overseas, but there are challenges and concerns about the lack of payment options for consumers who prefer to pay in person or consumers who are not comfortable using online payment methods.

  • Chipotle CEO Going Digital to Create a ‘Frictionless Experience’

    Chipotle CEO Going Digital to Create a ‘Frictionless Experience’

    Chipotle is moving in a digital direction, with their digital business up 48 percent over last year. The company has introduced a new app, digital lines, digital pickup shelves, and a mobile pickup window in an effort to create a “frictionless experience” for its customers, according to Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol.

    Brian Niccol, Chipotle Mexican Grill CEO, discussed their digital strategy this morning on CNBC:

    Chipotle App Creating a Frictionless Digital Experience

    What we’re trying to do is remove any friction and get people more access and we’re having a lot of success with that. Our digital business is now up to 11 percent, which is up 48 percent over last year. What’s really exciting is we’re seeing people continue to adopt the utilization of the app and then all the new access channels that we’re creating, whether it’s these digital pick-up-shelves or delivery, we’re just getting a tremendous response from our customers.

    Introducing Digital Lines and Shelves

    One of the things that are really powerful for our company is we’ve got what we call a Digital Make Line and it is completely separate from the Customer Facing Line. When you come into the restaurant and you go down that Customer Facing Line if you’ve placed a digital order it doesn’t get in the way of that experience. We’re also putting in place these Digital Pickup Shelves so that when you order ahead, you literally can walk in grab your food and go, a completely frictionless experience.

    Our digital line requires fewer people to run it versus the front line. The thing that’s great is what we’ve seen is this digital business is highly incremental, so the additional labor necessary to support the incremental sales it works really well for us.

    Testing a New Mobile Pickup Window

    We’ve got the new mobile pickup window in four restaurants right now. The way it works is you order ahead and you pick your time and then you know you literally come right by the restaurant, we’ve got a window, your food comes out the window and off you go. We’re seeing tremendous response to that and it’s in a market in Ohio and a market in Texas. We’re gonna start adding more restaurants in 2019, so you’re gonna see us building more restaurants that have the ability for that mobile pickup.

    Second Lines in All 2,500 Stores in 2019

    The thing that is happening right now on a broad scale basis are these second lines. We’ve digitized them, we’re in about 750 restaurants we’ll have all 2,500 restaurants done by the end of 2019. To accompany that we’re putting in these digital shelves so that literally you can skip the whole process.

  • Trade Expert says Amazon Uses a Loophole to Import Almost Everything Duty-Free

    Trade Expert says Amazon Uses a Loophole to Import Almost Everything Duty-Free

    Amazon is using creative tactics that enable it to avoid import taxes on almost everything it sells by making every item sold a single sale that is under $800, according to trade expert and former Trump advisor Curtis Ellis.

    Curtis Ellis, a former Trump trade advisor, explains the details of this tactic below:

    Amazon Importing Almost Everything Duty-Free

    The U.S. government, U.S. Customs, imposes a tax on imports, a tariff or a duty. However, there is an exception. If you go to Scottland and buy a sweater that is less than $800 you can bring it back into the country duty-free. Just put it in your suitcase or have it shipped back and you don’t pay anything. Amazon uses this loophole to import virtually everything worth less than $800 duty-free.

    This Amazon Tactic is Helping China Avoid Tariffs

    They will buy 100,000 sweaters from Scottland, Ireland, or probably China and park them in a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico. Then when people press purchase now to place their order they break up those 100,000 sweaters into one package, one package, one package and ship them into the country as if they were bought by one person on one day and Amazon had nothing to do with it. They bring it all in duty-free. China does not suffer the impact of tariffs on some imports to America thanks to Amazon.

    Outdated Law Subsidizing Chinese Shipping

    A couple of weeks ago President Trump announced that we are withdrawing from the International Postal Union. This is another example. We entered into this treaty ages ago and it subsidizes packages and shipping so that it is cheaper to send a package from Bejing to New York than it is to ship from Los Angeles to New York. We were giving China this break as if it’s a developing country like Haiti or something. It’s now like the second largest economy in the world and they’re still getting that same break.

    These rules, called The De Minimis Exception, were written before there was an Internet and has never been updated. It’s just another example of how Washington just sleepwalks through everything.

  • Kynetic CEO Michael Rubin: We Owe All of Our Success to Amazon

    Kynetic CEO Michael Rubin: We Owe All of Our Success to Amazon

    Kynetic CEO Michael Rubin says that they owe all of their success to Amazon. “I owe all of our success to Amazon because we are such a big believer in what they were doing, a completely differentiative business model,” Rubin said. “What we’re doing is really all about vertical commerce.”

    Michael Rubin, CEO of Kynetic which also owns Fanatics, Rue Gilt Groupe, and ShopRunner and is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States, recently discussed how his companies have become so successful in an interview with Jim Cramer of Mad Money:

    What I See is How Much Opportunity There is In China

    What I see as an entrepreneur is how much opportunity there is in China. When I went there it’s one of those things you had to see to believe it. We had 45 million people watch our preseason basketball game. Think about that, 45 million people watching a preseason basketball game! That’s like half of a Super Bowl rating. That’s home rabid the basketball fans are in China.

    So for me, I think we have nothing but growth opportunity in China. We’re just launching Fanatics there. It’s a massive opportunity and we think we could build a multi-billion dollar business there. I couldn’t be more bullish on the opportunity.

    I Owe All of Our Success to Amazon

    Fanatics is a really exciting business. I’ll break this down really simply for you. I had a core belief that Amazon and Alibaba we’re going to control ecommerce everywhere in the world. So if you have that belief, you’ve got two options, completely differentiate yourself or go out of business. I’m not a guy who wants to go out of business so you’ve got to completely differentiate yourself.

    People say all the time, “How do you feel about Amazon?” I owe all of our success to Amazon because we are such a big believer in what they were doing, a completely differentiative business model. What we’re doing is really all about vertical commerce. We design, develop, and sell directly to the consumer most of the products that we have, so it’s a completely different business. Think about it like an H&M or a Zara, but in the sports license business and mostly online.

    Kynetic is All About Verticality

    We’re designing the jersey, well actually in the case of the jersey, Nike designs the jersey, but going forward we’re actually gonna manufacture the jersey and sell directly to the consumer. But I’ll tell you, just over the Super Bowl specifically, we sold two and a half million units of Eagles merchandise. Two and a half millions units of Eagles merchandise within a few weeks after the Super Bowl and we design those products, we manufacture those products, we ship them directly to the consumer.

    Because of the verticality, the consumer gets a wider assortment of merchandise, they get anything they want, they get it more quickly, and the leagues and teams make more money. We are also using that data to better communicate with the fans, so it’s a win-win for everyone.

    If you really think about the sports license business and if you think about the sports leagues, what a league wants and what a team wants is to have the best marketing brand in the world. Nike is this incredible brand, but they don’t wake up every day and go to bed every night thinking about how do I maximize every sale in the licensed sports business. So what the leagues did was smart, they said let’s split this from one set of rights to two sets of rights. Let’s work with Nike to be this incredible marketing partner and then really use it to drive the Nike brand and the NFL brand. At the same time let’s work with Fanatics to drive transactions. Now you’ve got two companies instead of one really growing the business as much as possible.

    We Made the Businesses What They Are Today

    For us, the truth be told and people ask this all the time, “Was eBay smart for selling the businesses? First, eBay was very focused, they didn’t want to be in the owned inventory business. Number two, these were teeny companies. When I bought Fanatics back from eBay it was a 250 million dollar company. It’s going to do $2.3 billion dollars this year. It has a completely different strategy. When we bought back Rue la la from eBay it was a $200 million business, then we bought Gilt and now it’s close to a billion-dollar business. ShopRunner didn’t have $100 million in transactions and next year it’s going to do three or four billion dollars in transactions.

    We took these businesses, we’ve developed the strategies, we’ve evolved them, and we’ve made them into what they are today. And Here’s the most exciting thing, we’re just getting going.

    My Loyalty is All About Who Makes Us the Most Money

    Other than the Sixers my loyalty is all about who makes us the most money, so I’m very easy to swap teams. If I own the Panthers I would be rooting to destroy the Eagles. I mean I love Jeffrey, he’s my buddy, but business is business and sports is sports. You’re there for one reason which is to win. I actually always laugh when people come up to me before a game and say, “Hey good luck.” I wish I could tell them good luck, but I’m like for the next three hours I hope you die. I love you before the game and I love you after the game, but there’s no love during the game.

  • Apple Search Advertising: Their Next Multi-Billion Dollar Business?

    Apple Search Advertising: Their Next Multi-Billion Dollar Business?

    Senior Analyst at Berstein, Toni Sacconaghi, released a note today predicting that Apple’s advertising business will be worth billions by 2020. Similar to Amazon, Apple is incrementally focusing on expanding adverting opportunities, especially within the App Store.

    Toni Sacconaghi, Analyst at Bernstein, recently predicted that Apple would increasingly focus on and expand its advertising business:

    Obviously, advertising is a very attractive business because it has 80 percent gross margins. If you think about Amazon, the conversation around Amazon has increasingly moved towards advertising which is now a four to five billion dollar business, very high margins. That’s all just happened in the last two years and now we’re starting to see Apple do very analogous things to what Amazon does.

    Apple’s Ad Business is at $1 Billion Today With Big Potential

    Apple’s principal advertising foray today is in the App Store when you search for an app, ads pop up based on what you search for. This is very analogous to what Amazon is doing with Amazon sponsored product ads where an ad will pop up when you search for an item. We think this business today is maybe a $500 million to $1 billion dollars, but it’s only in 13 countries.

    Apple Ads Are Not in China Yet

    They’ve just actually rolled it out to six more,  that’s including six recently rolled out to. It’s not in China yet. We’re not seeing very high ad load, so you only get one ad when you do a search, whereas on Google or Amazon you might get four or five. The potential for this business to really inflect is significant and again it’s a very high margin business.

    Apple Has Big Potential for Increased Ad Load

    If you go to Amazon or Google you literally have to scroll down an entire page before you get non-advertised based hits and Apple today is only one, so it’s certainly possible that you could do more ads. Moreover, what Apple doesn’t do is once you’ve once you’ve done your search and you go to the next page there’s no advertising and that also occurs at Amazon and Google.

    There certainly may not be the potential for the same ad load going forward but Apple’s is so low relative to what we’re seeing elsewhere that we think there’s a potential for increased ad load.

    Apple’s Privacy Stance is a Limitation in Its Efforts to Advertise

    I think Apple’s privacy stance has really been a limitation in its efforts to advertise. Obviously, targeted advertising is worth much much more than general advertising, so Apple will continue to try and do both while preserving privacy. The ads are really based on very limited data. They’re based on whether you’re on an iPhone or an iPad, they’re based on your geographic location, age, and gender, and that’s it.

  • Uber is Planning to Start an On-Demand Staffing Agency for Businesses

    Uber is Planning to Start an On-Demand Staffing Agency for Businesses

    Uber is preparing to launch a new on-demand staffing business ahead of its first initial public offering. Called Uber Works, the new business could show prospective investors that the company can be a strong and lucrative platform for on-demand services.

    Uber is banking on the fact that their “on-demand” transportation model was a huge success. The company is also betting that its massive database of contractors can be utilized to serve as temporary staff, like security personnel, waiters, or cooks, for corporate functions and various events.

    While Uber Works is targeting people who are not Uber drivers, there’s no denying that the program could also help the company retain its drivers, or “partners,” by providing them with an alternative means of making money.

    Some of the ride-hailing company’s drivers are already moonlighting at Uber Eats, the company’s food delivery platform. Aside from the additional income, opting for a staffing job can also break the monotony of driving the whole day.

    Sources have reported that the Uber Works project had an initial trial run in Los Angeles before being developed further in Chicago.

    There’s no word yet on when Uber Works would be formally launched. However, the company is said to have already started its recruitment drive. Job ads stating that a Chicago-based special projects team is looking for applicants that have a “strong interest in the on-demand labor space” have already been posted.

    Uber Works will reportedly operate in the same vein as Freight and Uber Eats. The former connects shippers with the appropriate truckers. The latest “internal start-up” will fall under the office of Rachel Holt, the present head of Uber’s “new modalities” department. Holt’s division is in charge of the company’s multi-modal transportation drive. Aside from ride-sharing, the department is also expanding into scooters and bike sharing.

    On-demand staffing is said to be among the numerous initiatives Holt’s division is studying. However, there’s no guarantee that Uber Works or any of these other projects will become the main business line.

    [Featured image via YouTube]

  • Why Would I Want My Underpants Connected to the Internet?

    Why Would I Want My Underpants Connected to the Internet?

    There was a session at the recent GeekWire Summit on how the IoT explosion will impact retail stores where underpants were discussed. It’s humous but very illustrative of how every item in every store, electronic or not, will be tracked in order to provide personalized shopping experiences and to bring massive efficiencies to the supply chain.

    Below is a conversation with Hointer CEO Nadia Shouraboura and Impinj CEO Chris Diorio on the importance of all items, even underpants, being eventually connected to the internet:

    Hointer CEO Nadia Shouraboura – What is the Internet of Things?

    The Internet of Things is just one part of the puzzle and many things need to come together to make this puzzle happen. For example, in the retail space, product is very important, price is very important, but experience is very important too, so IOT is just one part of that puzzle.

    Impinj CEO Chris Diorio – Connect Every Item in the World

    Impinj builds products around a certain type of RFID technology called Rain for radio identification. Our vision is to connect every item in your everyday world to the Internet, everything. Every apparel item, every food item, just literally have connectivity for every item in the world. Impinj has connected more than 25 billion items to date and more than seven billion last year alone.

    We connect those items wirelessly and what we’re focused on delivering is for each item is its unique identity, its location, and its authenticity, and in so doing extending the reach of the Internet to everybody and to everyday items. For us, the Internet of Things truly means things, not just connectivity for powered electronic devices, but for everything, and in so doing bring benefits to industries and consumers.

    Impinj CEO Chris Diorio –   Connecting Underpants?

    When you go into the store and you want to find the ones that you want to buy in the right size and the right type if you’re like me you know exactly what you want to buy and when you go in the store you want it to be there. If it’s not there because the supply chain inefficiencies you’re probably not going to buy anything.

    Hointer CEO Nadia Shouraboura – IoT and Underpants

    The importance of IoT to underpants is to measure results and what IoT delivers in terms of results. One thing which is important when you think about Underpants is sex. To me, sex is defined by two metrics which is quantity and quality. What I discovered personally is, for example, IoT lights, beautiful lights.

    The experience is you come in and you’re tired and you don’t want to think about sex and suddenly the whole room turns to your mood in soft blue and it genuinely works. If you measure IoT devices and lights and its correlation with quantity and quality of sex in underpants there is a very strong correlation. That’s an example of the impact of IoT to your underpants.

    Impinj CEO Chris Diorio – Even Your Underpants

    There’s a retailer that we work within France that if you are a consumer and you walk into the store, there’s a kiosk you basically where you decide what you want and when you click the item within 90 seconds the item comes down in a little tube like they used to have in the banks. A little tube comes down with your little capsule with exactly what you want to buy. Just check it out right there just walk out of the store, even if it’s your underpants.

  • Thinking About Using AI to Recruit New Staff? Amazon’s Failed Experiment Might Have You Thinking Twice

    Thinking About Using AI to Recruit New Staff? Amazon’s Failed Experiment Might Have You Thinking Twice

    Companies that are planning to use artificial intelligence for recruitment should think twice before doing that. A new report revealed that Amazon’s AI machine learned gender bias and weeded out women as potential job candidates. The machine even downgraded applicants based on the school they attended.

    A growing number of employers are using AI to boost the efficiency of their hiring process. The machine can be utilized to evaluate resumes, narrow down a list of applicants, and recommend candidates for the right post within a company. It can then pass on its findings to its live counterpart for human assessment. While AI is an effective tool for screening resumes, it has been shown to develop bias, as proven by Amazon’s experiment.

    Reuters reported that the retail giant spent several years developing an AI that would vet job applicants. The machine was trained to look at the resumes that the company received for the past ten years. But as most of these applications were from male applicants, the patterns the AI identified were strongly oriented to that sex. In short, Amazon’s AI learned gender bias.

    For instance, the AI developed a preference for terms like “captured” or “executed,” which were words commonly used by male engineers. The machine also began to penalize applications that included the word “women” or “women’s.” So describing yourself as the head of the “women’s physics club” was a strike against you.

    A source familiar with Amazon’s AI program also admitted that the machine even downgraded applicants who graduated from two all-women’s universities. The names of the universities were not specified in the report.

    The bias shown by the AI’s algorithm became noticeable a year after the project started, and Amazon admittedly tried to correct its AI. The company’s engineers initially edited the system to make it neutral to these specific words. However, there was no way of proving that the machine would not learn another way to sort candidates in a discriminatory manner.

    The project was eventually shelved in 2017 because company executives lost confidence in it. The AI also reportedly failed at providing choices for strong and effective job candidates.

    Fortunately for Amazon, the AI hiring experiment was just a trial run. The machine was never utilized by a larger group and was never used as the main recruiting agent. Nevertheless, the possibility is high that a qualified applicant was weeded out simply because she was a woman and did not think to use a masculine term like “capture.”

    [Featured image via Pexels]

  • NYU Stern Professor Scott Galloway: Amazon is a Monopoly that Should be Broken Up

    NYU Stern Professor Scott Galloway: Amazon is a Monopoly that Should be Broken Up

    NYU Stern Professor Scott Galloway says that Amazon is a monopoly that should be broken up. “When one company can take down the price of any other consumer company, almost by a third, just with press releases, I would argue that the markets are no longer competitive. The key to this great system we call capitalism is that no one player has too much power,” stated Stern.

    Scott Gallowy, NYU Stern Professor, recommended that Amazon should be broken up in an interview on Fox Business:

    Jeff Bezos Lost the Value of Nordstrom Yesterday

    I believe that Amazon from an investors perspective is probably a buy. Essentially, you had a company whose valuation may have gotten a little bit over its skis. Rising interest rates, the threat of a slowdown, and also the specter of regulation took this stock down. I think Jeff Bezos actually lost the value of Nordstrom just personally yesterday, his net worth declined $9 billion. I would argue from a strictly economic, business, and shareholder standpoint, Amazon has never been stronger. Whenever they bump up against any big tech companies they’re winning.

    Amazon is Effectively a Monopoly

    My issue is that when you have one company that controls 50 percent of all ecommerce, that small companies never get out of the crib and large companies are prematurely euthanized, who tend to be better taxpayers and employers. While it’s great for shareholders to have shares in a company that is effectively a monopoly, in a growing economy I would argue that we have a proud history of moving in on companies in terms of antitrust regulation and we’re at that point in the economy with Amazon.

    Won’t the Markets Take Care of This?

    Walmart was hauled before Congress when they were at 11 percent of retail and Amazon was only at 6 percent. However, I think a more apt analogy would be railroads or Ma Bell or even Standard Oil, where we decided that effectively the markets were no longer competitive. You now have a company where if it just puts out a press release saying that it will address health care costs, and we don’t even know if that means they are giving employees gym memberships or that meant that they are starting an HMO, on opening bell the healthcare industry sheds $31 billion in value.

    Good for Shareholder, Good for the Company, Good For the Planet

    When one company can take down the price of any other consumer company, almost by a third, just with press releases, I would argue that the markets are no longer competitive. The key to this great system we call capitalism is that no one player has too much power. In addition, I think if you broke up Amazon shareholders might benefit. If you spun AWS, soon after the spin the two companies in aggregate might be worth more than the two companies combined. So good for the shareholders, good for the company, good for the planet.

  • Adobe CEO: “Adobe Has Really Been on a Tear”

    Adobe CEO: “Adobe Has Really Been on a Tear”

    Digital marketing pioneer Adobe has really been on a tear says Adobe President and CEO, Shantanu Narayen. In May Adobe acquired commerce cloud platform Magento for $1.68 billion and in September of this year, they acquired Marketo, a leading B2B marketing automation company, for $4.75 billion.

    Previous to these acquisitions Adobe has primarily been a B2C focused company, but now Adobe is excited by the opportunity to help enterprises around the world engage digitally with their customers.

    Shantanu Narayen, Adobe President, and CEO discussed how they are helping businesses to transform in a recent interview (watch below):

    Adobe Has Really Been on a Tear

    Adobe has really been on a tear and we have two big growth initiatives. We are empowering people to create, which has been the heritage and history of the company, and we are enabling businesses to transform.

    The key imperative, whether you are a government, educational institution, or an enterprise is to engage digitally with your customers across every screen and mobile device. Adobe pioneered digital marketing as a category. What we now have is the ability for enterprises to create content, to measure the efficacy of that content, and to acquire customers.

    Digital Experience Opportunity is North of $60 Billion

    With Magento and Marketo we extended in two very significant ways. With Magento, we now make every experience to be shoppable and complete the last mile of actually doing the commerce part of it. With Marketo, we extend from B2C companies, which is where the focus primarily was, to B2B companies. It’s an exciting time for Adobe.

    We think the available opportunity for Adobe just in the digital experience category is well north of $60 billion. When you think about it, whether you are a financial institution that is offering financial services directly digitally, whether you’re a travel or automotive, whether you’re hospitality, the imperative for everybody, including in the media business, is to engage with their customers directly.

    Adobe Enabling Enterprises to Engage with Their Customers

    Adobe always pioneered the aspects of creating that content and now we bring content and data together. It’s a market we pioneered and we are the clear leaders. While there are others looking at that same opportunity we think that we will continue to innovate at a pace that will keep us distant from the competition.

    I think what Amazon has done very effectively is demonstrate the benefits of digital engagement with their particular customers. What we do is we enable that on behalf of every other enterprise who wants to create that engagement with their customers. We give them the tools and the platform. We have a tremendous ecosystem of partners that enables them to do that.

    Whether you are a sports franchise, an airline, or a bank you want to create that digital presence. We don’t view ourselves as competitive with Amazon, we view ourselves as enabling all these other enterprises to create that engagement with their customers.

    Security and Data Privacy are Core Competencies of Adobe

    Security and data privacy are definitely core competencies that Adobe has invested in very heavily. On the data privacy part, we do it in two ways. We have millions of customers that engage with us on the creative cloud and the document cloud and keeping that data and being transparent about how we use that data is something that is front and center for us.

    On the other side, we enable all of these enterprises that are our customers to understand what are the new regulations. Whether that be GDPR in Europe or something else, we help companies understand how they can engage in a transparent way while keeping the data secure.

    It’s one of those areas that we have invested very heavily from a research and development point of view and we have to constantly stay ahead of what’s happening with regulatory environments around the world. We were compliant with GDPR right in time for the May 25th rollout here in Europe.

    We have to be circumspect as to what the rules and regulations are, but I think good sense will prevail in all of these particular cases because when you have boundaries that are down and when you have unfettered access to markets that’s what I think will continue to drive innovation and technology in the global economy.

    Customers and Citizens Have the Imperative to Deal Digitally

    At the macro level, the first thing we all have to remember is that digital is the gale wind in this trend where you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. Customers and citizens, billions all around the world, have the imperative to deal digitally with any business that they are dealing with.

    I think it is incumbent on companies like Adobe to help them to do that. Help the citizens to get the engaging experiences that they want and to help the enterprises to deliver that.

  • ThirdLove Leveraging Data and Tech to Successfully Compete With Victoria’s Secret

    ThirdLove Leveraging Data and Tech to Successfully Compete With Victoria’s Secret

    How does a startup compete with a huge brand like Victoria’s Secret which by some accounts has nearly a 50 percent market share? By being different and utilizing technology and data.

    That’s what Heidi Zak, co-founder, and Co-CEO of ThirdLove, says is key to their growth and success.

    Third Love co-founder and Co-CEO Heidi Zak recently spoke about how her company is competing effectively with Victoria’s Secret.

    ThirdLove Seeks to Be Different Than Victoria’s Secret

    We are a direct-to-consumer ecommerce vertically integrated brand that makes very comfortable bras and underwear. Our differentiation from Victoria’s Secret and others happens in a few different ways.

    One is really focusing on product quality and a range of sizes. We have 70 sizes while Victoria’s Secret offers about 36. We have more than double including half sizes. I always say that shoes have half sizes, so why shouldn’t bras?

    Another differentiator is our marketing where we use real women in our marketing instead of models with a lot of diversity. We also leverage data to help women find their fit online. What we have done is digitized that experience.

    ThirdLove Leveraging Data to Compete With Victoria’s Secret

    We created Fit Finder so that in under 60 seconds you can answer questions about your breast shape, body type, fit issues and we will recommend the size and style. Over ten million women have actually done the Fit Finder. We have a massive amount of data with over 700 million data points.

    We use the data for product development and design, for thinking about sizes and specs, we use it marketing and personalization, and we use it in inventory management. Across every aspect of the business we are using data day in and day out.

    ThirdLove is a Blend of Tech and Beautiful Products

    ThirdLove is a company that is a blend of apparel and tech, for sure. Absolutely, data and tech are at the core of what we do, but we also create really beautiful products.

    At Google, I really learned to push the boundaries and to think about new ways of solving problems and applied that at ThirdLove. Also, I had been in traditional retail in New York at Aeropostale after business school. So it was really that blend of retail and tech coming together in terms of my background that I think made me comfortable to start this company.

    We’ve been growing over 300 percent year-on-year since we were founded in 2012 so we have seen substantial growth. We have 1.5 million customers and we continue to take on more and more market share.

    Victoria Secret’s, depending on the numbers you look at, owns somewhere between a third to 50 percent of the market, so there is a substantial amount of market share to be taken given that they are the worst performing stock on the S&P this year. Our current market share is a few basis points, I would say.

  • How the World’s Largest Online Travel Company Used Acquisitions to Grow

    How the World’s Largest Online Travel Company Used Acquisitions to Grow

    Booking Holdings is the world’s largest online travel company that owns Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Kayak, Rental Cars and Open Table. Glen Fogle, CEO of Booking Holdings says that it is through acquisitions that the company was able to grow as big as it is with revenue now exceeding $12 billion per year.

    Glen Fogle, CEO of Booking Holdings discussed their growth through acquisition strategy in a recent interview:

    Without Acquisitions We’d Probably Have Been Acquired

    We are an internet technology driven company. Without the acquisitions that we’ve done, we’d be nowhere where we are now. In fact, who knows where we’d be, we’d probably be owned by somebody else who would have acquired us.

    I was fortunate that I found these guys at a Cambridge University who started this little company called Active Hotels. We talked and talked and eventually, they said yeah they would join with us. Then we found the guys in Amsterdam at Booking.com and said this would be great, it’d be like music. You can have a great soloist who is wonderful but I think a whole Orchestra can produce better music and that’s kind of like bringing more people together to create that big beautiful Orchestra.

    Asia Could Be Our Largest Travel Market

    Everybody I think will say that Asia is the greatest growth area for almost all industries, and travel even more so. It’s growing faster than most of the areas of the world. As these people age and get going from young adults or teenagers into young adults and earn money and then they want to travel we need to be there now to help develop these brand habits. It could be our largest travel market.

    One of the reasons we did those investments (top Chinese online travel agency Ctrip and ride sharing platform Didi Chuxing) and one of the reasons both those companies were interested in having us invest and create a relationship is because of our outbound capabilities. Both companies are very interested in making their outbound services more powerful and they recognize that we can bring things to them that will help them. That’s the reason to do that.

    Our Outbound Business is Key In China

    We believe that there are really three things that are so important for our business being successful in China and one of them, without doubt, is that outbound business. We need to make sure that we are providing a great service to every single Chinese customer who wants to explore and experience the world.

    The outbound market is an area where we’re growing nicely. Our job is to make sure that that Chinese customer and they think they need a hotel somewhere around the world, where they need a non-hotel, a home, or an apartment, we want to make sure the first thing they think about is using Booking or Agoda.

  • Hopper CEO Says that their Travel App Predicts Future Prices via Big Data and AI

    Hopper CEO Says that their Travel App Predicts Future Prices via Big Data and AI

    Hopper, an AI-driven prediction travel app that competes with Priceline and Expedia, is somewhat under the radar but actually has been around for over 3 years and has over 30 million users. Hopper founder and CEO Frederic Lalonde says that Hopper is fundamentally different because the app sees into the future.

    “We’re fundamentally different because the Hopper app sees into the future. We were built on the premise of big data so we collect billions, actually 750 billion prices every month, and we track airfare predictively.”

    Frederic Lalonde, CEO of Hopper, talks about Hopper and how it is fundamentally different than Priceline and Expedia in a recent interview.

    New Round of Fundraising For International Growth

    This round of fundraising is all about international growth for us. The Hopper app has been around for about three and a half years and on and off and it’s the number one travel app in the US. We have over 30 million users, but what’s really changed in the course of the last year is our pickup outside of North America.

    There are markets like Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Latin America where we’ve seen extraordinary growth, upwards of 300 percent year-over-year, because we’ve been adding inventory to the app. This latest funding puts us in a position to continue that growth and become the worldwide leader in mobile travel.

    The Hopper App Sees Into the Future and Predicts Prices

    We compete directly against anybody who sells travel online, that’s Priceline and Expedia, and those companies own all the brands that you’re using. We’re fundamentally different because the Hopper app sees into the future. We were built on the premise of big data so we collect billions, actually 750 billion prices every month, and we track airfare predictively. If a user is looking to go from New York to London, Hopper up to a year in advance will tell you the best day in the future to buy your airfare. we also do the same thing for hotels and we’re expanding.

    We’ve been doing this for over a decade and we have proprietary algorithms that also operate. Fundamentally, Hopper is part of a new generation of commerce marketplaces that are deeply built on data and AI. You can see by the success of the platform that it’s different.

    Hopper is Mobile Only

    The other thing that makes us totally different is the fact that we’re only an app. We’re mobile only and the user experience is totally different because you’re letting the app do all of the heavy lifting for you. You’re saying when you want to travel and you can even leave that open and where you want to go and the app continuously tracks and shops all of these prices for you and you receive push notifications. For scale, we’ve sent about 2 billion push notifications to our users over the last two years.

    The other things that we compete against are websites where you have to do all the work yourself. What we’ve seen because we track all the data is when we as human beings do this we end up on average paying 5 percent more than we would have if we bought the first price that we’ve seen.

    Some people will score some deals, but on average we do much worse because we’re being tracked by cookies and the airline companies and the websites know that we’re doing this at predictable hours. The Hopper model does this for you and the outcomes are actually much better.

  • CaaStle CEO: Our Clothing as a Service (CAAS) Technology is not Disruptive

    CaaStle CEO: Our Clothing as a Service (CAAS) Technology is not Disruptive

    The clothing as a service business model is not disruptive for clothing retailers says CaaStle founder and CEO Christine Hunsicker. “It’s completely accretive and one of the big things about this technology is that it’s not disruptive. It’s not a disruptive model that’s threatening their businesses.”

    CaaStle is a fully managed service that allows retailers to offer Clothing as a Service (CaaS) to their consumers. CaaS is an access model that they say has “transformative benefits” for retailers and consumers. CaaStle says it simply provides technology, reverse logistics and managed services to help retailers participate in the new economy.

    CaaStle founder and CEO, Christine Hunsicker, recently discussed her CaaStle and why clothing as a service is not a disruptive model threatening retailers:

    Enables Clothing Retailers to Rent Clothing on a Subscription Basis

    CaaStle is a fully managed service that allows any retailer to offer a rental subscription service to their customers using their inventory. We are completely behind the scenes and nobody knows we exist. We are the people building the front end consumer experience, we’re handling the logistics and were handling the technology and the algorithms. We just take the clothing and the consumer list from the retailer and make it all happen.

    What we found is that fundamentally consumers rent very differently than they buy, so most of the things that you buy, and if you think about your own wardrobe, are gonna be the basic core and the staples, things that you can get a lot of wear out of, and that makes sense from a cost per wear perspective.

    When you rent you tend to go more towards the fashion and the trend. For a company like Express or like Ann Taylor or like New York & Company they’re going to continue to sell just like they always have. What they’re doing now is increasing engagement with their brand and increasing that brand loyalty through renting more of the fashion pieces.

    Our Clothing as a Service (CAAS) Technology is not Disruptive

    It’s completely accretive and one of the big things about this technology is that it’s not disruptive. It’s not a disruptive model that’s threatening their businesses. Right now it’s an opportunity for these retailers to jump on board and increase the number of new consumers they have and increase the spend that consumers have with them. It’s a significantly more profitable business and has very high engagement rates.

    It’s everyday clothing. You can’t be concerned that you may snag it or tear it or spill something on it, there’s going to be some damage that happens. We want the consumers and the retailers want the consumers to be very relaxed and comfortable in the clothing. It’s actually part of the service fee, there’s no nickel and diming for extra insurance. It’s going to happen that occasionally the clothing comes back damaged, very rarely though.

    We get paid on a per consumer basis so we’re completely aligned with the retailer to help them grow their base and maintain their base and have very happy consumers.

    We’re Building this Company to Take it Public

    As far as the Eloquii acquisition ($100 million) by Walmart, they have this strategy with Mark Lore (Walmart CEO) and under Andy Dunn to bring in a bunch of brands and expand their consumer base. As far as straight retail goes you saw it with Bonobos and Eloquii and ModCloth, this is just another step in that in that path.

    I think it’s great for the plus-size consumer. I think it’s great for the Eloquii customer. They’re going to be able to leverage the Walmart supply chain and logistics and deliver a better experience probably at a lower cost point.

    When it comes to, do we want to be acquired? We’re building this company to take it public. We don’t want to be acquired by any single player largely because we believe in fragmentation. If you believe the industry has been fragmented and will remain fragmented and if you want to impact the tremendous part of the economy you need to be a platform underlying all of the brands and the retailers as opposed to being a singular consumer-facing brand.

  • Foursquare CEO: Facebook and Google Are Not Your Friends and Are After Domination

    Foursquare CEO: Facebook and Google Are Not Your Friends and Are After Domination

    Foursquare CEO Jeff Glueck said in an interview that “Facebook and Google are not your friends, they’re unreliable partners and are after domination.” He added in a blog post, “That’s why we’re building a company that stands apart from Google and Facebook as the most trusted, independent platform for understanding location.”

    Glueck also announced the first close of a new round of $33 million of equity funding led by strategic investors Simon Ventures and Naver Corp. and by Union Square Ventures. He says that the first close of $25 million occurred on Friday and that he anticipates a secondary close of at least $8 million by year’s end.

    Jeff Glueck, CEO of Foursquare, spoke about the new funding and how they were going to use it in their quest to “become the location layer of the internet” on CNBC:

    Foursquare is Really the Location Layer of the Internet

    Foursquare is really the location layer of the Internet. This round led by Simon Ventures is really gonna give us the fuel to continue investing. If you think about the location features on your phone, most of the time they’re powered by Foursquare technology. If you get a Snapchat geofilter, if you type a place into Uber,  if you get matched on Tinder to people who like the same places, those are all examples of Foursquare technology at work.

    Foursquare Helping Companies Take on the Amazon’s of the World

    With this round of financing we’re going to take that into the retail world, into the dining world, and into the general media publishing world to bring location technology to bear. Foursquare helps media companies and brands and apps create location features. The examples of our customers are like Apple and Microsoft the like but 90 percent of commerce still happens in the real world.

    For all the attention on Amazon and what Jeff Bezos said, Amazon is just 4 percent of consumer spending. Over 90 percent takes place in the in the real world including grocery, auto, and retail. We want to help those companies prepare to take on the Amazon’s of the world and that’s what we’re doing.

    We help marketers reach people based on where they go in the real world, measure whether it leads people into the stores. We help apps be contextually aware so that when you walk into the store if there’s an offer you’re aware.

    We Started as a Consumer App so 100% of What We Do is Opt-In

    We started as a consumer app, so we think about privacy and enhancing consumer experiences with everything we do, so 100 percent of what we do is consumer opt-in. For instance, a lot of the apps that use us they say would you like to opt into background location to be to be alerted when you’re near a service or a special offer, about 60 or 70 percent of people choose to participate and about 30 to 40 percent don’t.

    Everything we do is anonymized or aggregated. For instance, the data goes into a panel of over 25 million phones that we see always on and that creates a kind of Nielsen panel of the real world foot traffic. We were able to, for instance, predict the Chipotle sales famously we’re going to be down 30 percent before they announced their earnings. At an aggregate level, no one’s worried about privacy.

    Everything We Do is Designed to Create Value for Users

    Everything we do is designed to create value for the users. We’re not helping some flashlight app ask you for your always-on location. What good is that to you? We’re helping pair people in dating based on their favorite places. We’re helping to deliver contextually aware weather alerts for AccuWeather. Hey, you’re at the stadium and rain is about to happen.

    All the cases where we make the experiences better the users opt-in because it makes the experience better. In a world where you don’t want to open a lot of apps, you want the app to tap you on the shoulder at the right time to remind you that you have a chance to get 50% off, or there’s a weather alert, or you’re near a friend. All these things are really valuable. Apple already reminds people that you’re opted into location sharing. It’s actually the part of the ad tech ecosystem that is doing shoddy things that we don’t think are best practice in privacy that I think will be heard over time. Why should a location be on for your flashlight app?

    We are the independent Switzerland. If you think about Facebook and Google, there are only three companies in the world that can understand when a phone moves out of your pocket moves out of 100 million businesses in over 170 countries, that’s Google, Facebook, and Foursquare. We are the independent option.

    Facebook and Google Are Not Your Friends and are After Domination

    Our customers, which include folks like Apple and Microsoft and Tencent and Twitter and Snapchat and on and on. They look to us as an independent company. Facebook and Google are not your friends, they’re unreliable partners and are after domination. We are the Switzerland and I do think the location space needs a public independent company at some point that has the wherewithal to invest in pushing location technology.

  • 5 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Product Description Page for Better Conversions

    5 Ways to Instantly Improve Your Product Description Page for Better Conversions

    A visitor that arrives at your product description page is only a few clicks away from making a purchase. But whether they leave your site or buy your product depends in large part on the page design.

    Despite its importance, a lot of store owners don’t pay enough attention to their product page. Most are happy to just put up a photo and a brief description. This is a travesty since the product page can make or break a sale. If the customer doesn’t find the page appealing and informative, they won’t move on to the checkout.

    There are, however,  a number of fast and easy strategies you can implement right now to improve your product page and boost your sales. Let’s take a look:

    1. Analyze Your Customer’s Behavior

    One of the best ways to improve your conversions is to have a well-designed product description page. You’ll need to have the right balance of images and information, especially since shoppers tend to just scan the page. According to a Nielson report, 79 percent of consumers don’t read word by word. They just scan a page and pick out specific words and phrases.

    A heatmap is a great tool to use when designing a product page. It lets you track where your customers typically look, what they click on when they arrive at your page, and how far down they scroll when reading your content. Knowing where they’re looking gives you the chance to remove any distracting images or irrelevant data.

    [Image source: MockingFish]

    2. Establish Trust

    You want to build trust with your customers from the get-go. Product reviews and security seals are just two ways to go about this. But you can also establish trust by providing clear information on shipping costs, duration, and details like how many items can be ordered, etc. Knowing this key information will give your customers peace of mind and keep them moving toward your checkout page.

    [Image source: Harry’s]

    Summarize these details to save space, but make sure you place them in a strategic part of your page. For instance, customers who visit Harry’s product page will see this information next to a photo of the item on sale. Also, consider adding links in the description that offer more detailed information about the product. 

    3. Enable Chat on Select Pages

    Your prospective customers may get frustrated and exit your store when they have questions about an item and there’s nobody to advise them. And many consumers simply don’t have the time or patience to call customer service or email your company. You can use live chat to solve this problem and improve conversion rates.

    [Image source: ZenDesk]

    This feature also makes life easier for shoppers since they immediately get the answers they need. It also tells them that your company is efficient, always available to listen and willing to resolve their concerns, thus increasing brand trust. 

    4. Use Customer Photos as Social Proof

    People trust recommendations given by friends, family, and their fellow customers. It’s why many brands include customer reviews and feedback. But you can step up your game and enhance product page conversions by using customer-generated photos. Seeing your items showcased by customers helps put them in context. The social proof it provides can also influence a prospective buyer’s decision while giving your customers a realistic look of your product.

    Amazon.com uses this strategy quite well. The website allows customers to upload images of items they purchased via the site and links them to the review on the product page.

    5. Improve Product Titles

    Your product’s name is the first thing that will catch a shopper’s attention on the product page. So it makes it even more important to create a good product title that will entice them to look at what else you have in store. The title is where you can be creative while giving your customer key details about the item and its features.

    Make sure you use a tone that your demographic can relate to. For instance, fun and whimsical titles are good for a young audience while a formal voice is better for connecting with a B2B market. You can use different fonts, colors, or icons for your titles. You can also pick out interesting features of your product and highlight it in the title. For instance, UncommonGoods sells a set of socks with environmental motifs which they named “Protect The Planets Socks,” appealing to the environmentally conscious customer. 

    A well-thought of and designed product page can result in a positive shopping experience that will boost sales. Try to incorporate these five strategies and watch your conversions shoot up.

    [Featured image via Pixabay]