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Category: Retail & eCommerce

eCommerce, Online Retail & Retail News

  • Hulu Scoops Up South Park For Subscription Service

    Hulu Scoops Up South Park For Subscription Service

    Hulu announced that it is now the exclusive home for all seasons of South Park. If you’ve grown to love South Park Studios, the show’s website, which has offered every episode for years now, you’re in for some changes.

    Hulu and South Park Studios announced a multi-year licensing agreement that will see all South Park episodes coming to Hulu Plus. The bad news for fans is that Hulu Plus is a paid service, whereas all episodes have always been free on the South Park Studios site.

    All episodes will be free on Hulu before the start of South Park’s 18th season on September 24th, at which point Hulu Plus subscribers will have exclusive access. Once the season premieres, Hulu Plus users will have access to each new episode the day after it airs. Also at that point, both Hulu and the South Park Studios site will have a revolving selection of free episodes available – a major step down from the entire catalog as historically offered on the South Park site.

    Here’s what Matt Parker and Trey Stone had to say about it (yep, that’s how they’re named on the new Hulu-powered South Park blog – not sure if it’s just a mistake or if they’re trolling us):

    “This is a natural partnership for us. We are excited that the entire library will be available on Hulu and that the best technology around will power South Park Digital Studios.”

    That does indeed sound like something Matt Parker and Trey Stone might say.

    Hulu’s SVP and Head of Content Craig Erwich writes in a blog post:

    This show has revolutionized TV and it has consistently remained a top 10 most-watched show on Hulu.

    Here’s a look at some more recent additions to Hulu.

    Image via YouTube

  • Amazon Charges a Penny for Shipping to Get Around French Law

    In an attempt to help brick-and-mortar bookstores unable to offer the deep discounts and free shipping that has made Amazon so successful, France enacted a law last year disallowing the online retailer from offering a five percent discount and free shipping on books.

    That law recently went into effect, and Amazon, professional trolls, have come up with a pretty ingenious screw you solution to the problem.

    No free shipping huh? Ok, we’ll ship for a penny.

    The announcement via Amazon.fr (translated) explains that they will stop offering the five percent discount and free shipping, as the law requires, but instead “set the shipping costs to the minimum permitted by law, or just 1 penny per order containing books shipped by Amazon.”

    Amazon Prime members in France will continue to get completely free shipping.

    And this, my friends, is how you render legislation basically pointless.

    Image via Stephen Woods, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Report: Email Marketing Works For Mobile Commerce

    Report: Email Marketing Works For Mobile Commerce

    Custora has released a new report based on its “E-Commerce Pulse” data from over 100 online retailers, 70 million consumers, and $10 billion in transaction revenue. It says that mobile e-commerce has hit an all-time high, which is hardly surprising.

    According to the report, the U.S. mobile e-commerce is a $40 billion market with expected sales of $50 billion this year. It’s seen $12.2 billion in the first quarter alone.

    Custora’s Kyle Shepherd writes, “In the past four years, the mobile e-commerce market grew 19-fold: From $2.2 billion in 2010 to $42.8 billion in 2013. This represents 1875% growth over these four years, and 111% 4-year CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate).”

    The report finds that over a third of visits to online stores now come from mobile devices (including tablets), and that Apple is dominating e-commerce for the time being.

    “Apple’s mobile supremacy remains but continues to be challenged, most notably by Samsung and more recently, Amazon,” writes Shepherd. “Over the last two years, iPhone’s share of e-commerce orders done on mobile phones went down from 75.1% in 2012 to 50.6% in Q1 2014. Samsung phones have more than quadrupled their share of phone orders over the same time period — growing from 6.9% in 2012 to 15.3% in 2014.”

    iPad accounts for the biggest share of tablet e-commerce orders, but Samsung’s share of that pie is on the rise, as is Amazon’s.

    Perhaps the biggest takeaway of all is that email marketing drives mobile purchases much more than social media. People responding to email marketing and people going directly to e-commerce sites saw the highest share of purchases from phones. Email marketing, according to the report, drove 26.7% of sales on phones compared to 20.9% on desktop and 23.1% on tablets. Social media only accounted for 0.6% on phones and 0.2% on tablets.

    The report is available for download here.

    Via MarketingLand

    Images via Custora

  • Google Shopping Express Going Nationwide?

    Google Shopping Express Going Nationwide?

    Google is working on expanding its Google Shopping Express service nationwide, according to a new report.

    Google Shopping Express is Google’s Amazon Prime competitor, which provides same-day delivery service for products ordered online. It began with a small pilot in San Francisco early last year before being expanded to more people in that area later in the year. It eventually launched in the San Jose area, and in May, it expanded into two new areas – Manhattan and West Los Angeles. Last month, Google added an overnight delivery option in some areas.

    Jason Del Rey at Re/code reports:

    A source familiar with the company’s plans says senior Google execs have set aside as much as $500 million to expand the service nationwide. Google declined to comment on the size of the investment but made no secret of its ambition.

    “You can very much expect that we are putting a lot of money into this and we’re excited and willing to sustain that investment over time as this gets going,” said Tom Fallows, head of Google Shopping Express.

    Of course Google would want to expand the service across the country, but this would seem to suggest that its early locations have done well, making it worth Google’s money to do so.

    No word yet on whether or not Google intends to use drones to compete with Amazon on deliveries, but it did buy a bunch of robot companies. It also, of course, has driverless cars.

    Image via Google

  • ‘Buy Now’ Button Spotted In Tweets

    ‘Buy Now’ Button Spotted In Tweets

    It looks like Twitter users may soon be able to purchase items directly from tweets. And after the launch of mobile app-install ads, why not?

    A “Buy Now” has been spotted within the Twitter mobile app. Re/code shows tweets with the button apparently coming from a shopping app called Fancy. The same tweets are not displaying the button on the desktop.

    As Jason Del Ray reports, “It would be difficult, if not impossible, for Fancy to include “Buy now” buttons in a tweet without Twitter’s approval. So it’s likely that in-tweet shopping is here, or coming soon.”

    This would open up the door for all kinds of ecommerce businesses to facilitate transactions from tweets, making for some major impulse buying.

    Amazon recently started letting customers add items to their carts using Twitter hashtags, but an actual “buy now” button would take things up a significant notch.

    Neither Twitter nor Fancy are commenting on the buttons, which apparently only worked for a short time. If anything it appears to be a test at this point, but it’s looking like Twitter may soon offer businesses a real new opportunity to sell products directly.

    This could be big news for mobile shopping.

    Image via Twitter

  • Is The Amazon Fire Phone A Game Changer For E-Commerce?

    Is The Amazon Fire Phone A Game Changer For E-Commerce?

    Leave it to the world’s leader in e-commerce to develop a mobile device that you can simply point at an object and push a button to buy it.

    Do you expect the Amazon Fire to have a significant impact on how people buy products online? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    After months, or even years of anticipation, Amazon unveiled its first smartphone on Wednesday. Keeping in line with its Kindle Fire and Fire TV brands, it’s simply called Fire or Fire Phone.

    The device comes with some surprises including two completely new features called Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, both of which Amazon is offering developers software development kits for. It also comes with Mayday support, as was made famous on the Kindle Fire. This lets users get live customer support at the click of a button.

    Amazon explains, “Fire is the only smartphone with Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, two new breakthrough technologies that allow you to see and interact with the world through a whole new lens. Dynamic Perspective uses a new sensor system to respond to the way you hold, view, and move Fire, enabling experiences not possible on other smartphones. Firefly quickly recognizes things in the real world—web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, movies, music, and millions of products, and lets you take action in seconds—all with the simple press of the Firefly button.” Emphasis ours.

    Yes, millions of products at the click of an actual hardware button on the device. Just point your phone at a product in person, and quickly buy it on Amazon. Brick and mortars already concerned about showrooming are going to just love this. A couple years ago, Target stopped selling Amazon’s Kindle in retaliation for for showrooming. What will retailers do now that Amazon is offering consumers a device that removes just about any friction from the process?

    Here are features Amazon lists for Firefly:

    • Printed phone numbers, email, web addresses, QR, and bar codes: Firefly identifies printed text on signs, posters, magazines and business cards—make a call, send an email, save as a contact, or go to the website without typing out long URLs or email addresses.
    • 245,000 movies and TV episodes, and 160 live TV channels: Firefly recognizes movies and TV episodes, and uses IMDb for X-Ray to show actors, plot synopses, and related content—add titles to Watch List or download and start watching immediately.
    • 35 million songs: Firefly recognizes music and uses Amazon Music’s rich catalog to show information about the artist—play more songs, add them to your Wish List, or download instantly to your Fire. Developers, such as iHeartRadio and StubHub, used the SDK to build Firefly-enabled apps, so customers can create a new radio station based on the song or find concert tickets for the artist.
    • 70 million products, including household items, books, DVDs, CDs, video games, and more: Access product details, add items to your Wish List, or order on Amazon.com.
    • The Firefly SDK is available starting today so developers can invent new ways to use this advanced technology. Later this year, Firefly will include artwork recognition, foreign language translation, and wine label recognition powered by Vivino.

    The device also includes functionality that even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos admitted was a little creepy. It knows the position of your head pretty much all the time because of four cameras and infrared sensors that work together to track it. That’s how it’s able to offer the Dynamic Perspective feature, which lets you “tilt, auto-scroll, swivel, and peek to navigate menus and access shortcuts with one hand” and “peek to see detailed views of clothing, shoes, and more in the new Amazon Shopping app.”

    Yes, the company that unveiled its drone project last fall will now know the exact position of your head. Creepy indeed.

    Perhaps one day Amazon will deliver your order before you’ve even left its brick and mortar competitor where you’ve been showrooming. Just walk out the door and pick it up. How convenient.

    Beyond features like Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, the phone is really about keeping you in the Amazon world, just as Apple is moving more and more towards keeping iPhone users in its world, and Google is doing so with Android. Where there is certainly still a lot of overlap, we appear to be moving closer to a world where the device will dictate the services we use. Just as Apple seems to be trying to wean users off of Google, Amazon may be trying to do something similar, and ironically, while using its own version of Android (which is about to be extended to a whole other platform in BlackBerry).

    The Fire of course comes with Amazon’s Silk browser. You’ll notice from this image that Amazon is not pointing users to anything Google-related.

    They’re reportedly using Bing for Search and Nokia for maps.

    There are a lot more features on the Fire. You can get a nice rundown right here.

    The device is only going to be on AT&T, but we’ll see how long that lasts. It’s $199 with a two-year contract, but Amazon is sweetening the deal with a free year of Prime, which gives users unlimited streaming and downloads of tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, over a million songs, over 500,000 books from the Kindle Lending Library, and free two-day shipping on millions of items.

    Last year, Amazon Marketplace Sellers sold over a billion units with sales in the tens of billions of dollars. Third-party merchants selling on Amazon hit a new record. These businesses can potentially benefit from Amazon’s new device and future generations of it, not to mention the competitive implications of it. The Firefly SDK means third-parties can also take advantage of the technology through other apps.

    It’s going to be quite interesting to see what kind of impact the Fire has on online shopping. It can only be good for Amazon itself.

    What do you think? Is this a game changer? Meh? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Image via Amazon

  • Bitcoin Bowl Is Here to Confuse the Hell out of Your Dad

    Bitcoin Bowl Is Here to Confuse the Hell out of Your Dad

    On December 26th, 2014, men, women, and children – food drunk from the previous night’s Christmas feast – will gather in the living room to enjoy the world’s first Bitcoin Bowl.

    Hello pops, you say as your elderly father picks up the telephone. How’s it goin? You watching the Bitcoin Bowl tonight?

    The what?

    The Bitcoin Bowl – I hear it’s gonna be a real doozy.

    *Click*

    Bitcoin solutions company BitPay is behind whatever this is, which will be existing for whatever reason until the contract is up in 2017. The Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl replaces the old name for the American vs. ACC conference showdown, the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl.

    “Our goal is to continue to move bitcoin into the mainstream and sponsoring the St. Petersburg Bowl offers us that opportunity,” said Tony Gallippi, Executive Chairman for BitPay. “College football fans and the bitcoin community represent a similar target demographic – tech-savvy men between the ages of 18 and 40.”

    Tickets will go on sale later this year, and yes, you will be able to pay with bitcoin. From now until then, you can figure out how to explain what the f*ck bitcoin is to your dad.

    Image via Bitcoin Bowl, Twitter

  • eBay Has A New App To Get Others To Sell Your Stuff For You

    eBay Has A New App To Get Others To Sell Your Stuff For You

    eBay launched a new iPhone app called eBay Valet, which provides sellers with another way to sell on the site. It finds what items are worth, then sends them in for valets to sell them for you.

    Take pictures of your items, and the app gives you an estimated price. They’ll send you a free prepaid box, and you can send items to valets for now charge. Valets will then list your items for sale on eBay, and ship them to buyers. You get 70% of the sale price.

    That’s about the size of it.

    “This is going to be the fastest, most frictionless way in eBay history that someone is able to sell an item and collect money,” said Steve Yankovich, eBay’s vice president of Innovation and New Ventures.

    “This is a chance to pull in people who have never sold on eBay, period, and who maybe are not even eBayers,” he added. “It’s for people who think selling currently has too much friction. Why wouldn’t you do this?”

    Well, that other 30% I guess, but point taken.

    Images via Apple

  • Google Helps You Get More Conversions From iOS Users

    Google Helps You Get More Conversions From iOS Users

    97% of mobile shoppers abandon their shopping carts. That’s a stat Google has been tossing around for about two years (hopefully it’s gotten a little better since then).

    Either way, Google is expanding a feature it launched on Android over a year ago, which it hopes will solve this problem, to iOS. It’s also available for the web. The Google Wallet Instant Buy API lets developers in the U.S. make the checkout process in their apps easier. Here’s a look:

    According to Google, RueLaLa saw a 4X increase in purchase conversion for Google Wallet users on Android after integrating the API. Eat24 saw an 11% higher average order value compared to credit card purchases. Fancy saw a 20% conversion increase on mobile and desktop sites as well as Android.

    Google has been working with partners B&H, Eat24, Fancy, Newegg, Sionic Mobile and Wish to integrate the API into their iOS apps, but access is now open to other developers.

    Image via Google

  • Alibaba Announces New U.S. Main Street-Inspired Marketplace 11 Main

    Alibaba Announces New U.S. Main Street-Inspired Marketplace 11 Main

    Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, ahead of its United State-based IPO (said to be the largest ever for a tech company), announced a new U.S. online shopping marketplace called 11 Main. The site aims to emulate the Main Street shopping experience that takes place in towns across the country.

    11 Main combines specialty shops and boutiques, which are hand-selected by the site. The company says it “carefully selects” merchants, who make “some of the best and most differentiated boutiques available to shoppers.”

    The media is positioning 11 Main as a competitor to Amazon and eBay (which Alibaba itself already is), but this seems like more of an Etsy vibe, even if it’s not necessarily focused on handmade items. The above video gives us that impression at least.

    “At 11 Main, we’re passionate about the shops we invite and helping them grow,” said Mike Effle, president and general manager of 11 Main. “We’re constantly introducing new shop owners who represent the diversity of Main Street and featuring their new, amazing products in a beautifully designed experience.”

    “Alibaba believes in 11 Main’s vision and its commitment to helping small businesses grow,” said Michael Zeisser, chairman of U.S. Investments, Alibaba Group. “11 Main brings something incredibly unique to the U.S. market, and we’re very excited to support the 11 Main team as they begin to realize this vision.”

    The site is in beta for now, the company says, though if you visit it, it says it’s opening soon. You can request an invite. The site will feature the following categories: Fashion & Style, Home & Outdoor, Jewelry & Watches, Baby & Kids, Collecting & Art, and Crafts, Hobbies & Toys.

    If you think you might be interested in selling at 11 Main, here’s a seller’s guide. It’s starting with about 1,000 merchants.

    Image via YouTube

  • Groupon Adds Freebies To iOS App, Android Coming Later This Summer

    Groupon Adds Freebies To iOS App, Android Coming Later This Summer

    Groupon launched the Freebies category in its ecommerce marketplace back in November. This gave users a way to get digital coupons, promotion codes, sales, giveaways and samples from participating brands like American Eagle, Best Buy, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Sephora. Groupon added in-store coupons to Freebies in April.

    The company announced on Wednesday that the feature is now part of its iOS app. This, according to the company, makes it the “most widely distributed mobile coupon destination in the United States.”

    “This is an important announcement for our customers because it means they have even more ways to save money while shopping through Groupon––whether it’s online, in a mobile app or inside their favorite stores,” a Groupon spokesperson tells WebProNews. “In addition, they can now have less apps and clutter on their iOS devices because Groupon is their one-stop resource to save money.”

    “This is also an important announcement for retailers because it means they can now promote their offerings and drive traffic to their online store, branded mobile app or physical location(s) through one of the top 25 most downloaded free apps of all time,” the spokesperson adds.

    The company’s mobile apps have been downloaded over 80 million times. To put that in perspective, Groupon says competitors like RetailMeNot and Coupons.com have only 15 million and 7 million downloads respectively.

    Freebies now includes over 30,000 digital coupons, codes, sales, giveaways, and samples from over 6,000 brands spanning 245,000 physical locations. In other words, there’s a good chance there are some good deals from stores you shop in.

    Currently featured deals include: 20% off regular-priced small appliances at Best Buy; 20% off any in-store purchase from Aeropostale; $10 off select Father’s Day gifts of $30 or more at Kohl’s; additional 15% off any purchase at Banana Republic Factory Store; and $25 off first ride for new customers with Uber.

    If you’re an Android user, Groupon will have you covered soon. The company says to expect the feature in its Android app later this summer.

    Image via BusinessWire

  • Newegg Launches B2B Marketplace

    Newegg Launches B2B Marketplace

    Online electronics retailer Newegg announced the launch of a new B2B marketplace called NeweggBusiness. It serves as a third-party channel to connect B2B buyers and sellers, focusing on product selection and competitive pricing.

    Newegg Business, which is a subsidiary of Newegg North America, was founded in 2010, and the marketplace has been in pilot phase.

    The marketplace offers is aimed at businesses both large and small. Newegg Business provides store categories for computer hardware and peripherals, PCs and laptops, networking, software, data storage, servers and workstations, point of sale, electronics, office products, industrial and commercial, and refurbished.

    “We’re very excited to officially announce the launch of NeweggBusiness Marketplace,” said Soren Mills, Chief Marketing Officer for Newegg North America. “With NeweggBusiness Marketplace, we’re providing an attractive online destination for businesses to buy and sell a multitude of products. It’s also a great way for businesses to magnify their brand awareness.”

    “The launch of NeweggBusiness Marketplace expands our assortment of complementary business products for our customers,” said Merle McIntosh, Newegg’s Head of B2B for North America. “With one of the lowest commission rates of any major online marketplace, NeweggBusiness Marketplace is an attractive proposition for sellers seeking access to over 150,000 registered business customers at NeweggBusiness.”

    The company says the marketplace fits the needs of government sectors, educational institutions and nonprofits, in addition to businesses.

    Image via NeweggBusiness

  • Amazon Reportedly Launching Subscription Payment Service

    Amazon Reportedly Launching Subscription Payment Service

    Amazon is reportedly launching a new service to let users pay for third-party subscriptions (like phone bills, digital music subscriptions, etc.) as early as today.

    According to Reuters, the service would let members use credit card details stored on Amazon to pay for services, with Amazon charging a fee per transaction. It has reportedly been in testing with Ting and other start-ups. The report has some quotes from Amazon VP of Seller Services Tom Taylor:

    “You should see it as one of many things that we’ll do to expand where people might think about Amazon helping them.”

    …But Taylor said the only details collected by Amazon as part of the new service is the dollar amount of each transaction and not any “item-level information.” He added that the service would encourage Amazon users who might otherwise be leery of handing over their credit card details to a fledgling companies to try out them out.

    Amazon appears to be inching further and further into PayPal territory. Earlier this year, we heard about a Kindle-based checkout system for physical retailers and a PayPal-like P2P payments service.

    In October, the company launched Login and Pay with Amazon for ecommerce sites.

    As others have pointed out, Amazon is hosting an event later this month, where it is widely expected to unveil its own smartphone. It seems fair to expect the company to further play up its payment offerings with regards to that.

    Image via Amazon

  • Fab Shutting Down? CEO Calls Report ‘Bullsh*t Hate’

    Though e-commerce and “everyday design” website Fab has in fact gone through multiple layoff periods over the last year or so, the company’s CEO is saying that the report of its death was an exaggeration– in so many words.

    Valleywag’s Sam Biddle recently declared, based on confirmation from multiple sources, that “Fab.com is probably dead this year.” He says that last month’s layoffs were actually the beginning of the end, not a restructuring and refocusing effort (as some struggling companies often do).

    From Valleywag’s article:

    Last month’s bloodletting, multiple sources say, was the beginning of the end of Fab, a company once considered one of the most promising new internet retail outfits in the world. The layoffs were not part of some last-ditch effort to stabilize the company, but the start of a longer process that will see the company slowly unscrew and disassemble itself, like so many overpriced designer sofas.

    Insiders tell me that even the Fab.com survivors—down to between 10 and 15 in the New York HQ—have all been given ending dates for their remaining jobs. These stragglers who weren’t immediately fired will be gradually let go over the course of six months, with the latest remnants of Fab departing by January 2015 (a Fab spokesperson denied these are end dates, instead saying employees “have minimum guarantees of employment”).

    He adds:

    “None of the Fab insiders who’ve spoken to me seem surprised by what appears to be the company’s imminent and final implosion. Those still at the office spend their time on Facebook. There’s little real work left to do, except maybe job hunt..”

    Now, Fab CEO Jason Goldberg has taken to Twitter to denounce the report, calling it nothing but “bullshit hate.”

    He also took a swipe at Business Insider for reporting Valleywag’s original report.

    It is important to note that the Goldberg-Biddle back-and-forth isn’t a new phenomenon.

    Image via screenshot, Fab.com

  • eBay Touts Enterprise Omnichannel Commerce Momentum

    eBay Touts Enterprise Omnichannel Commerce Momentum

    eBay announced increased adoption of omnichannel commerce technologies globally for eBay Enterprise. It has secured 451 clients and 862 extension and renewals in the first half of the year. These stretch across its various services. Alex and Ani, BOXPARK, Destination XL, Karmaloop, MailPix and StubHub are listed as brands using eBay Enterprise.

    “We are leading local commerce with close to 4,000 stores enabled with store-based fulfillment globally,” said Tobias Hartmann, interim president of eBay Enterprise. “We continue to help merchants compete in a global marketplace having recently launched our ship-from-store solution for a leading retailer in North America, Europe, and China, which is an industry first.”

    The company lists the following achievements for the year to date:

    • In January, eBay Enterprise announced the ability to implement ship-from-store technologies for retailers in 99 days and offer clients who have implemented this solution with additional freight discounts of up to 50% off published rates.
    • In March, eBay Enterprise announced its expanded operations in Canada with a new fulfillment center.
    • In April, Advertising Age ranked eBay Enterprise within the top 15 in its “50 Largest U.S. Digital-Agency Networks” report for the fifth year in a row.
    • eBay Enterprise was recently recognized as the #1 commerce provider to the mid-market according to the 2014 Internet Retailer Top 500. For the fourth consecutive year, Magento remains the most popular platform, with a 34 percent increase in online retail sites since last year, according to a recent study by Tom Robertshaw.
    • In May, eBay Enterprise announced the availability of two new extensions for Magento merchants now available in the Magento Connect Marketplace: the eBay Enterprise Display Extension, enabling retailers to deliver personalized product-specific ads to retarget lost customers; and the eBay Enterprise Affiliate Extension, offering best-in-class reporting tools to analyze, track and launch affiliate programs and easy integration with eBay Enterprise’s network of more than 200,000 affiliates.
    • Magento Enterprise 1.14 and Community Edition 1.9 were launched in May, drastically reducing the barrier for merchants to get a tablet and smart phone friendly responsive site. The new editions also integrate Bill Me Later and PayPal Express Checkout empowering merchants to further streamline checkout. Initial customers on the Magento Enterprise Edition 1.14 include Shop3M and Hallhuber.

    “Our strategy of enabling commerce innovation for fast-growing companies through our eBay Enterprise and Magento solutions is clearly proving successful with initial synergies between Magento customers and our marketing solutions,” said Hartmann.

    The company will be showcasing its technologies at the Internet Retailer Conference next week, with CEO John Donahoe delivering a keynote session.

    Image via eBay

  • Google Shopping Express Launches Overnight Delivery

    Google announced on Tuesday that Google Shopping Express is bringing overnight delivery to Northern California (from Fresno and Porterville in the south to Eureka and Crescent City in the north).

    The new overnight service is available immediately in East Bay cities including Berkeley, Concord, Danville, Dublin, Fremont, Oakland, Pleasanton, Richmond, Walnut Creek, etc. It will be rolling it out to “most” of Northern California over the next few months (from the California-Oregon border to cities like Fresno and Visalia in the south).

    Google says on its commerce blog:

    With overnight delivery from Google Shopping Express, customers are able to shop from some of their favorite retailers on one site (google.com/express) – from well-known brands like Target, Walgreens and Whole Foods Market, to San Franciso-based favorites they might not have convenient access to, like Blue Bottle Coffee, Dodo Case, PhotoJojo and Timbuk2, among others.

    Simply place your order by 7:00 PM and you’ll receive your delivery the next day. You can also easily shop while you’re on the go through our Android and iOS apps. Once you’ve ordered your items, we’ll work with major shipping carriers to deliver them from the store to your doorstep.

    Partner stores include: Blue Bottle Coffee, Cole Hardware, Costco, DodoCase, Fry’s Electronics, Google Play, Guitar Center, Hassett Hardware, L’Occitane, Nob Hill Foods, Office Depot, Palo Alto Sport Shop & Toy World, PhotoJoJo, REI, Smart & Final, Staples, Toys”R”Us and Babies”R”Us, Target, Timbuk2, Walgreens, and Whole Foods Market.

    Google Shopping Express has offered safe-day delivery in the Bay Area and Peninsula & San Jose area for some time. Last month, it expanded into Manhattan and Los Angeles. It said it would be adding Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, West Hollywood, Queens and Brooklyn in the coming months.

    Image via Google

  • Google Gives Ecommerce Analytics A Revamp

    Google Gives Ecommerce Analytics A Revamp

    Google announced the beta release of a “complete revamp” of its ecommerce analytics, which it says will provide richer insights into pre-purchase shopping behavior and product performance.

    It will let you analyze how far shoppers get into the shopping funnel, and where you lose them, and help you understand what products are viewed the most, which are frequently abandoned in cart, and of course, those that convert well. Users can upload rich metadata and create rich user segments.

    “Enhanced Ecommerce is designed to keep pace with the remarkable rise of online retail, which grew another 30% year over year in 2013,” says product manager Marcia Jung. “Digital data has played an essential role in that growth, offering deep insights into shopper behavior and letting retailers make smarter decisions. But needs are rapidly increasing and retailers are requiring more sophisticated and comprehensive analysis tools to understand shoppers and product-level performance. With the launch of Enhanced Ecommerce, we’re providing these tools.”

    “Enhanced Ecommerce is built on top of the powerful Universal Analytics foundation,” says Jung. “It includes tracking code updates (including full support for Google Tag Manager), data model changes, and new end-user reports that address ecommerce-specific use cases. Together they help online retailers see farther and understand customers better than ever before. ”

    The product will let you create product lists for onsite merchandising rules and product landing pages so you can see lists and products that are performing best. It will let you analyze how internal promotions impact sales, and import user segments based on ecommerce activity for targeting in remarketing campaigns. It also has refund support.

    Image via Google

  • eBay Stores Sellers Get New Selling Tools, Discounts

    eBay Stores Sellers Get New Selling Tools, Discounts

    eBay told eBay Stores sellers on Thursday that they now have access to new subscriber-exclusive selling tools and discounts on items and services. Sellers can now create and manage promotions like order size offers, free shipping offers, related items offers, targeted coupons, and sale events.

    With order size offers, sellers will be able to promote the purchase of more than on item or spending over a certain amount per transaction by offering a specific dollar amount off or percentage off, or a free item per multiple item purchase.

    Sellers will be able to promote free shipping offers by automatically merchandising all qualifying items (like free shipping on orders over $100), and encourage buyers to purchase multiple items by bundling related items and offering a percentage discount.

    Sellers will also be able to offer digital coupons to select buyers only and merchandise items together for “easier buyer access”. For example, you can promote a sale for customers to “Save up to 30% on all women’s shoes.”

    eBay is also giving sellers their own discounts, including 25% off of packing and shipping supplies, 15% off design services, special offers from PayPal, etc. The company says it will offer more exclusive discounts as the months go on.

    More on all of this here.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Census Bureau: Online Shopping, Mail Order Businesses Up 27%

    Census Bureau: Online Shopping, Mail Order Businesses Up 27%

    The U.S. Census Bureau released some new stats on Thursday, including that online shopping establishments were up 27.4% between 2011 and 2012. It says the number of electronic shopping and mail-order houses establishments grew from 23,697 to 30,185 in that time period.

    Employment climbed 13.7 percent to 365,508, the bureau said, but the retail trade sector as a whole (including brick and mortars) only rose 0.1 percent, with employment climbing 0.7 percent.

    “Unlike traditional stores, which are located throughout the country, online shopping establishments and jobs are in concentrated areas,” said William Bostic Jr., the Census Bureau’s associate director for economic programs.

    The bureau offers a “Census Explorer: Retail Edition” interactive map that lets you browse neighborhood statistics and geographic concentration of electronic shopping and mail-order houses.

    “Reversing a four-year decline, the data show that the total number of U.S. businesses with paid employees grew by more than 77,000 establishments to 7.4 million in 2012, an increase of 1.1 percent from 2011,” the bureau said.

    Counties in Southern California, the New York metro area, the Chicago metro area, and other metro areas including Memphis, Las Vegas, Grand Rapids, Columbus (OH), and Minneapolis saw the biggest employment increases in electronic shopping and mail-order houses.

    The bureau also cites these geographic highlights:

    • Among the top 50 counties in the United States by number of establishments, Travis, Texas (Austin) had the largest percent increase in establishments with a gain of 4.2 percent, or 1,206 establishments. Hennepin County, Minn. (Minneapolis) had the largest employment rate increase (6.6 percent), or 52,844 workers.
    • For the second consecutive year, North Dakota led all states in employment growth, at 8.2 percent, and led in percent increase in establishments, at 5.3 percent. This parallels the Census Bureau’s population estimates, which showed the state led the nation in total population growth over the same period. In North Dakota, employment growth was driven by the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector, as the number of employees rose 34.4 percent and establishments, 23.8 percent. This sector led employment growth nationally as well, with an 11.7 percent increase between 2011 and 2012.
    • Combined, California, Texas and Florida accounted for more than half of the establishments added between 2011 and 2012. In contrast, these three states accounted for one-quarter of all establishments in 2012.
    • The number of paid employees in the U.S. rose by 2.2 percent between 2011 and 2012; this represented an increase of more than 2.5 million employees. Texas, California, Florida, New York and Ohio led all states in number of employees added.
    • The number of paid employees in Puerto Rico rose to 690,597 in 2012, an increase of 2.5 percent over the previous year. Annual payroll totaled $16.9 billion in 2012, an increase of 2.4 percent.

    You can take a look at the bureau’s methodology here if you like.

    Image via Census.gov

  • Forrester Looks At The Hows And Whys Of B2B Ecommerce

    Forrester Looks At The Hows And Whys Of B2B Ecommerce

    Forrester has a new report out looking at B2B ecommerce finding what it describes as “solid evidences on the impressive financial successes achieved by companies that have taken the lead in implementing B2B ecommerce.”

    The report found that 89% of respondents agreed that implementing ecommerce increased annual company revenue by an average of 55%. 98% all of them said their ecommerce solution was important in meeting their goals to grow revenue, and 90% said it was for attracting new customers. 90% also said it was important to improving customer retention/satisfaction. 92% said it was important in lowering costs, and 89% said it helped them gain a competitive market advantage.

    88% of respondents said they agreed that implementing ecommerce drove higher profitability per order, and 84% agreed that it drove lower cost per order. 81% said it increased average order value.

    12% said 50% of their revenue booked by their ecommerce system is incremental revenue for the company. 16% said 40% to 49% of it was. 27% said 20% to 29%, and only 2% said 0% to 9%.

    “While the value of eCommerce solutions for selling to businesses online is undeniable, many B2B companies balk at the thought of a complex and costly implementation process,” the firm says. “B2B companies should carefully define project goals and objectives, involve users throughout the implementation process, and engage with knowledgeable experts, both internally and externally.”

    42% of respondents said they have deployed their current core ecommerce solution as software-as-a-service (SaaS)/platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and hosted off site. 24% said theirs is a hybrid (started SaaS, plan to transition to on-premises). 17% said on-premises. 8% said they started as SaaS and have already transitioned to on-premises. 9% started on premises and have either already transitioned to SaaS or are doing so.

    You can find the study available for download here.

    Image via Forrester

  • Amazon Now Has A Store Just For Collectible Coins

    Amazon Now Has A Store Just For Collectible Coins

    Amazon just launched a new store for Collectible Coins at amazon.com/collectiblecoins. It claims to offer direct access to over 10,000 unique U.S. coins from over 75 dealers.

    According to the company, shoppers will be able to peruse a “wide variety of professionally graded and authenticated coins”.

    “Collectors of rare coins are passionate about the hobby because coins represent the intersection of history, collectibility and wealth,” said Steve Johnson, director for the Amazon Marketplace. “Coins have been one of the most searched for items in our collectibles stores. The introduction of the Collectible Coins store was inspired by customer demand and the need to provide a unique experience for customers to discover graded and rare U.S. coins from reputable dealers. We’re thrilled to bring the excitement and discovery of coin collecting to Amazon.”

    “Collecting rare coins is a unique opportunity to hold history in your hand, along with the knowledge that you own a lasting symbol that has inherent value and importance,” added Brian Kendrella, president for Stack’s Bowers Galleries. “We are excited about the opportunity to showcase our unique numismatic products to Amazon’s customers and reach a broad customer base that may be new to the joys of coin collecting.”

    The site offers quite a few search filters to make it easier to find coins of interest. You can search by individual coins or sets, by mint year, by denomination (quarter, nickel, dollar, etc.), by mint location, by metal, by series, by condition, by grade rating, by period, by price, and by seller.

    The store also has its own mailing list.

    Amazon’s offering should not only provide a great resource for current collectors and dealers, but make coin collecting in general more accessible to a broader range of people.

    Those looking to sell coins can apply here.

    Image via Amazon