An analyst with Detwiler Fenton said last week that Microsoft’s Surface wasn’t doing so well. The analyst attributed the lack of success to two causes – limited distribution and a high price. Microsoft hasn’t fixed the price yet, but it is fixing its distribution issues as soon as next week.
Microsoft announced today that it plans to make its Surface tablet available at retailers as soon as mid-December. It doesn’t list which retailers the Surface will be making an appearance in, but we can assume that stores that regularly host Microsoft products will host the Surface as well.
“The public reaction to Surface has been exciting to see. We’ve increased production and are expanding the ways in which customers can interact with, experience and purchase Surface,” said Panos Panay, general manager, Microsoft Surface.
Microsoft previously said that it planned to only offer the Surface exclusively via its Web site or retail stores, but that apparently was only just a clever ruse. The company claims that it had always intended to offer the Surface via other retail outlets in 2013, but “interest from retailers” has pushed it to offer the new tablet even earlier.
What about all those special Microsoft stores that opened up for the holidays just to sell the Surface and Windows Phones? Microsoft is going to keep them open beyond the new year, and maybe even convert them to full-on brick-and-mortar retail outlets for all things Microsoft. Those that don’t make the cut will be converted into specialty stores.
It’s good to see Microsoft fixing its first mistake, but I fear the Surface may still only pull “modest” numbers until Microsoft can wrangle in the price. The Surface RT will continue its position in last place until Microsoft can get the price to a more manageable $300.
As previously reported, this year’s Black Friday was a record one for e-commerce, having surpassed a billion dollars in spending, according to comScore.
Experian Hitwise has also released some data, indicating that Black Friday online retail traffic in the U.S. increased 60% in 2012 copmared to last year, as the top 500 retail sites received over 179 million total U.S. visits.
Ahead of Cyber Monday, the holiday week of online traffic to the top retail site was already up 7% on average, according to the firm. Online retail traffic was down 1% on Black Friday compared to Thanksgiving Day 2012 traffic this year, a spokesperson for Experian Hitwise tells WebProNews.
According to their data (confirming that of comScore’s), Amazon.com remained the top visited retail site on Black Friday while Walmart was the second most visited retail site.
Also noteworthy: BestBuy moved up to the 3rd most visited site while Target was the 4th most visited site, and JC Penney moved up from being the 8th most visited retail site on Thanksgiving Day to the 5th most visited on Black Friday. Among the top 5 sites, the spokesperson tells us, JC Penney saw the biggest day-over-day growth at 26%. The Apple Store saw the biggest day-over-day growth at 99%.
“As we noted from our CEI data that consumer optimism is at an all-time this holiday weekend and retailers could see traffic significant gains for 2012 versus 2011,” the spokesperson says. “Last year Cyber Monday claimed the prize as the busiest shopping day of the year, growing from 138 million online visits to 177 million total US visits to the top 500 Retail sites, a 29% growth comparing 2011 to 2010.”
Last year, he notes, Cyber Monday, Black Friday and Thanksgiving were the top 3 Email Transaction days during the holiday season.
Holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 18 days of the November-December 2012 season is $10.1 billion to date, according to new data released by comScore. That’s up 16% compared to the same time period last year.
“The 2012 online holiday shopping season is off to an encouraging start with a 16-percent growth thus far,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. “Recent 5-year highs in consumer confidence and early retailer promotions appear to be serving as wind in the sails for the beginning portion of the holiday season, with consumers opening up their wallets early and often. This spending growth also reflects the continuing channel shift to online as consumers increasingly opt for the attractive pricing, convenience and product selection it offers.”
November 8, a Thursday, has been the heaviest online spending day of the season so far, at $829 million.
comScore believes that online retail spending will hit $43.4 billion for the season, which would be a 17% increase from last year.
Online spending in the U.S. reached an incredible new high on Cyber Monday, hitting $1.46 Billion for the day, according to comScore. This is the heaviest day of online spending in U.S. history, and follows a record Black Friday for e-commerce.
$16.4 billion has been spent online, this holiday season so far (starting from the beginning of November), according to the firm. That’s a 16% increase from last year. Cyber Monday spending itself was up 17%.
“Despite some news reports suggesting that Cyber Monday might be declining in importance, the day has once again set an online spending record at nearly $1.5 billion,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “However, it is also clear that the holiday promotional period has begun even earlier this year, with strong online sales occurring on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Now, we shall see the extent to which continuing and attractive retailer promotions are able to boost sales for the remainder of the week.”
The top product categories for growth on Cyber Monday, compared to last year, were Digital Content & Subscriptions, which grew by 28%, Consumer Electronics, which grew by 25%, Computer Hardware, which grew by 22%, Video Games, Consoles & Accessories, which grew by 18%, and Jewelry & Watches, which grew by 17%.
Interestingly, close to half of dollars spent online at U.S. websites originated from work computers (47.1%), according to comScore. That’s actually down from last year. Buying at U.S. websites from international locations accounted for 5.7% of sales.
“The term ‘Cyber Monday’ was coined by Shop.org in 2005 to refer to the significant jump in e-commerce spending that occurred following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as consumers got back to sitting in front of computer screens at work,” said Fulgoni. “At the time and for several years afterward, Cyber Monday was often misconstrued as the heaviest online spending day of the year, when in fact it barely cracked the top ten days of the season. However, with the passage of time, the day grew in importance as a result of an increasing number of retailers offering very attractive deals on the day and extensive digital media coverage making sure that consumers were aware of them. As a result, Cyber Monday has assumed the mantle of top online spending day for the past two years – a trend we expect to hold once again in 2012.”
Here’s a comparison of online spending for each week of the holiday season, for this year and the previous four:
Experian Hitwise has put out some data on online retail traffic for Cyber Monday. According to them, traffic increased 11% year-over-year, and the top 500 retail sites received over 206.8 million total U.S. visits. For Black Friday, online retail traffic increased 7% versus 2011 as those sites received over 193.8 million total U.S. visits. On Thanksgiving Day, according to Experian Hitwise, online retail traffic increased 6% versus 2011 as those sites received over 192.5 million total US visits.
“So far this past Holiday week of online traffic from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday to retail sites is up 8% for 2012 vs. 2011,” a spokesperson for the firm tells WebProNews. “Amazon.com remained the top visited retail site on Cyber Monday while Walmart received the second most visits. BestBuy was the 3rd most visited site with Target and JC Penney rounding out the top five.”
“Among the top 5 sites, Amazon saw the biggest year-over-year growth at 36%.Amazon.com was the top visited retail site on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” he adds. “Walmart was the #2 site each of those days.”
He also says consumer optimism is at an all-time high for this holiday weekend and retailers could see significant traffic gains for 2012 versus 2011.
“Last year Cyber Monday claimed the prize as the busiest shopping day of the year, growing from 138 million online visits to 177 million total US visits to the top 500 Retail sites, a 29% growth comparing 2011 to 2010,” he says. “Last year, Cyber Monday, Black Friday and Thanksgiving were the top 3 Email Transaction days during the holiday season.”
Online payments giant PayPal saw a 190% increase in global mobile payment volume on Cyber Monday, compared to the same day in 2011. That follows Black Friday, when PayPal saw its biggest mobile shopping day to date, and the company says it saw 44% more payment volume on Cyber Monday than Black Friday. PayPal saw 166% increase in the number of customers shopping with mobile devices on Cyber Monday 2012 as compared to last year. Shoppers in Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York made the most purchases through PayPal on Cyber Monday this year.
Last night, at their Gifts event in NYC (the one rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy), Facebook announced new partners for the ecommerce initiative as well as a global expansion of it that will see it roll out to millions more users.
According to Facebook, users will be able to send a variety of types of gifts through the platform. Of course, there are gadgets, clothes, cosmetics, books, and food to give. Facebook says that some new partners include babyGap, Fab, Brookstone, Dean & Deluca,L’Occitane, Lindt, ProFlowers, Random House, Inc. and NARS Cosmetics. But users will also be able to gift media to their friends through subscriptions to Hulu Plus, Pandora, Rdio, and more.
For the adults in your life, you’ll also be able to give wine from Robert Mondavi and Chandon via Facebook.
Facebook says that even more retail partners will be announced over the coming weeks.
So, Facebook Gifts is rounding out its partners and growing more robust by the second. The next big question is of course, when? When will the majority of Facebook users have access to the Gifts platform? Up until now, it’s only been available to a small number of users. Facebook says that they will continue to roll it out to users over the coming weeks.
When Gifts finally comes to your profile, you can expect every user’s profile to sport a Gifts button, making it easy to send gifts with a single click. This button will exist on both desktop and mobile. You can also expect some sort of recommendation engine, which suggests gifts based on what’s popular among users of a similar demographic set as the recipient.
Facebook recently updated their iOS app to provide Gifts support. They also announced the ability for users to give gifts to charity in their friends’ names through the Gifts platform. Facebook is getting into this game at the right time, as the holiday season is just getting underway. Because of that, we expect that most users will have access to Gifts sooner rather than later.
It’s been over two years since the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Blizzard’s first sequel to its classic RTS franchise inspired an entire new generation of eSports, and fans have been eagerly anticipating the release of the second game in the StarCraft II franchise since. It was originally supposed to come out at the end of this year, but Blizzard pushed the release to an ambiguous early 2013 launch.
The ambiguity has now been lifted, and Blizzard has announced that StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm will launch on March 12 in both retail and digital editions. The game will continue the story where it left off at the end of Wings of Liberty, but now focus on the always entertaining Kerrigan and the Zerg race.
“With Heart of the Swarm, our goal has been to expand on the multiplayer action and cinematic storytelling of Wings of Liberty,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Combined with features like unranked matchmaking and our new leveling system, this expansion elevates the StarCraft II experience for players of all skill levels.”
The basic game will be available for $39.99 for both the retail and digital versions of the game. Blizzard is also offering a Collector’s Edition that will retail for $79.99. This version will include a Behind-the-Scenes DVD and Blu-ray, soundtrack CD and Zerg Rush mousepad.
If physical goodies are not your thing, Blizzard will also offer the Digital Deluxe Edition for $59.99. For an extra $20, players will get StarCraft II Battle.net portraits and decals, an in-game pet for World of Warcraft, Blade Wings and Banner Sigil for Diablo III, and the Torrasque, a unique look for the Ultralisk unit. All of the Digital Deluxe Edition content is included in the physical Collector’s Edition set.
As far as multiplayer goes, Heart of the Swarm will introduce a number of new units for each race – Terran Hellbats, Zerg Swarm Hosts and Protoss Tempests. Units from Wings of Liberty will also be updated with new abilities.
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is now available for pre-order on Battle.net. Those who pre-order will be able to pre-load the title before it launches and play when it becomes available.
In another sign of both the dying retail video game merchants and the slow death of the current console cycle, new numbers show that retail sales of video games, video game hardware, and video game accessories in October were down 25% from that month last year.
According to a Bloomberg report citing research firm NPD, retail sales of video games were down to $755.5 million. NPD blamed much of the decline on low console sales, which are down 37% year-over-year, while video game sales were down 25%.
As for the languishing console wars, Microsoft managed to still lead console sales in October, selling 270,000 consoles, a number that is down 31% from last year. With Nintendo’s new Wii U console being released on November 18, expect next month’s numbers to show a large Nintendo lead in console sales over Microsoft and Sony.
This news, though not unexpected, comes just as game companies are kicking off the holiday buying season – the biggest sales months for the gaming industry. Sequels such as Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed III, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II will net hundreds of millions of dollars for their publishers and demonstrate the apex of what graphics are accomplishable with current console hardware. They also demonstrate, however, that the industry is in a transition period, and that new consoles and new IPs will soon be needed to keep gamers from becoming burnt-out on sequels.
comScore put out some new data on U.S. retail ecommerce spending for the third quarter of 2012. It was up 15% from the same quarter in 2011.
Online retail spending reached $41.9 billion for the quarter, and the fourth quarter is where we should see the real spending. It’s the twelfth consecutive quarter, by the way, that comScore has shown positive year-over-year growth. It’s the eighth consecutive quarter of double digit growth.
“The Q3 growth rate of 15 percent growth remained in line with the prior quarter and provided confirmation of the strength in the e-commerce sector, despite a few negative headwinds in the macroeconomic environment during the quarter,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Such performance offers some optimism as we approach the holiday season, especially given recent improvements in consumer sentiment.”
“With the housing market beginning to show signs of recovery in addition to increasing – if still underwhelming – job growth, there appears to be strong enough footing to support a very healthy online holiday shopping season,” Fulgoni notes.
comScore found the top-performing product categories to be Digital Content & Subscriptions, Consumer Electronics, Event Tickets, Apparel & Accessories, and Computer Software. Each of these grew by at least 16% compared to the year ago quarter.
The firm also found that 37% of U.S. consumers say they have engaged in “showrooming” behavior, where they use a smartphone while in a retail store. Google recently shared some interesting stats about this trend as well.
“The survey also shows that despite a slow-moving economic recovery there has been marked improvement in consumer sentiment in the past quarter, although many consumers still remain challenged by economic conditions,” says comScore. “48 percent of U.S. consumers now rate the economy as ‘poor’ an 8-percentage point improvement vs. the prior quarter and the most pronounced improvement since early 2009 (following the worst of the financial crisis).”
Apple announced a big company-wide reorganization at the upper level late Monday. The shakeup saw the company let go of two execs – Scott Forstall and John Browett, and it also saw others given more responsibilities in Cupertino.
“Apple today announced executive management changes that will encourage even more collaboration between the Company’s world-class hardware, software and services teams. As part of these changes, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will add more responsibilities to their roles. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim,” said a press release.
Apple doesn’t giver any additional information on what led to Forstall’s ousting. But the mobile software head and 15-year veteran of the company is said to have left due to a scuffle over Apple’s failed Maps product launch. The Wall Street Journal reports that Forstall was asked to exit his role after he refused to sign an apology for the problems with Apple’s recently-launched Maps product. The New York Times also says that this incident was the catalyst for his departure, but also adds that tensions had been brewing for some time.
Apple also ousted newer hire John Browett, saying “a search for a new head of Retail is underway and in the interim, the Retail team will report directly to Tim Cook.”
One of the big stories from this management shakeup is the rise of Jony Ive. As part of the stated changes, Ive will now head all of Apple’s product design.
Here’s what Apple had to say in a press release:
“Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design. His incredible design aesthetic has been the driving force behind the look and feel of Apple’s products for more than a decade.”
You probably know Ive best from his role as product walkthrough guy in all of those Apple videos you see for various new products (recently the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini).
Others like Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, and Bob Mansfield will also take on bigger roles.
The best decision EA ever made regarding Need for Speed was putting Criterion Games in charge of the franchise. They are arguably the best racing studio around, and their talents put Need for Speed back on the map with a glorious reboot of the Hot Pursuit titles. Now they’re back at it again with another beloved Need for Speed title.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted will be launching on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita and PC on October 30. It’s an open world racing title in the vein of the original Most Wanted, but with the flourishes and blistering speed that Criterion Games is known for.
Most Wanted may be under the Need for Speed, but fans of Burnout Paradise will be right at home. The focus on explosive wrecks may be toned down, but the game still features the vehicular mayhem and fantastic visuals that made Burnout a household name.
In other interesting news, EA is reportedly considering making Need for Speed: Most Wanted the first third-party game to support Sony’s Cross Buy program. The idea is that consumers who buy the PS3 version of Most Wanted will get a free download of the Vita version of the game. This will allow consumers to transfer saves between both devices.
Earlier this month, Google announced the official date that all Google Shopping results in the U.S. would come from merchants who are Product Listing Ads advertisers. That date was October 17 – Wednesday.
“We will be ranking these results based on relevance, with bidding as an additional factor,” Google reminded us. “The ranking of natural search results on Google.com will not change.”
We had a conversation about the transition with Michael Griffin, founder of Adlucent, which exclusively managed Amazon’s paid search until Amazon took it in-house in 2009. It currently powers paid search and shopping analytics for over 130 other retail brands, and has been managing Google Product Listing Ads for clients. The company, in fact, teamed with Google on a case study about Product Listing Ads.
“The same retailers that thrive in paid search today will have the highest chance of being successful with PLAs,” Griffin tells WebProNews. “Since the bids a retailer can afford are dependent primarily on a retailer’s ability to convert buyers (conversion rate) and maximize cart value (average order values), the best retailers will continue to dominate. Important to note, we are in a period where competition is low and CPCs are somewhat depressed. Right now, PLA CPCs are about 20% lower than paid search CPCs. Eventually, we expect CPCs to be 15-20% higher than paid search CPCs. Retailers moving quickly are being rewarded with the opportunity to test and gain market share at a lower cost.”
“Additionally, PLAs can be complicated to setup and require some technology sophistication on the part of the retailer,” he adds. “Besides setting up feeds and keeping the feeds updated in real-time, retailers must understand how to use consumer demand signals to optimize their feeds and bids. Most retailers will submit feeds and let Google do the optimization. These retailers are missing out on an opportunity to reach the right audience to get the highest return on ad spend. The smartest retailers will continuously optimize their product feed and unique product data, pro-actively manage their bids, and also leverage search query data to determine on-going refinements to investment.”
“Retailers in commoditized categories will struggle the most as CPCs increase,” says Griffin. “Retailers with low conversion rates and low average order value will eventually be pushed out. Additionally, smaller retailers with low IT resources and/or agency support will struggle. Not only will it be harder for them to produce the right feeds, but it will be difficult for them to optimize them in real-time.”
When asked whether retailer size matters, he says, “I think conversion rate, average order value, technology aptitude, lifetime value, and retailer margins matter. Large retailers tend to be good in all of these areas, but there are exceptions. The winners will excel in all of these areas.”
One may wonder if Google will cannibalize its own paid search business in the rush to product listing ads. Griffin also shared some thoughts on that.
“In early studies, before the transition, it did not appear that PLAs were cannibalistic,” he says. “However, as Google places them in more prominent positions on the page, they will cannibalize some paid search traffic. Google is optimizing the page to have the highest RPS (revenue per search) and will rearrange the page in a way that drives a higher RPS.”
“RPS is determined by CTR of the ads on the page and the CPCs of these ads,” he explains. “PLAs currently have a higher CTR than traditional text ads. As CPCs increase, as predicted, Google will place PLAs in even more prominent positions. I do not believe Google is worrying as much about cannibalization as they are about continuing their efforts to constantly improve RPS.”
So what can consumers expect to see on both Google’s main search page and on Google Shopping?
“In the short term, I believe we’ll see a continued rise in prominence of PLAs on Google’s main search pages for commercial searches,” Griffin says. “They will continue to take over more valuable real estate as click-through rate and CPCs increase.”
“Regarding Google Shopping, Google’s intention is to become the default destination for online shoppers,” he says. “As such, we can expect that they will continue to invest in augmenting shopping pages with more information that customers find valuable. I think it’s reasonable to expect them to begin aggregating and showing product ratings and reviews, linking to product videos, augmenting descriptions, providing product recommendations, etc. If they want to be the default destination for online shoppers, they need to provide the richness of the experience that retailers are providing today.”
This whole thing sets up an interesting strategy in Google’s competition with Amazon.
“Both Amazon and Google want to be the default destination for online shoppers,” he says, pointing to this snippet of a recent New York Times article:
“In 2009, nearly a quarter of shoppers started research for an online purchase on a search engine like Google and 18 percent started on Amazon, according to a Forrester Research study. By last year, almost a third started on Amazon and just 13 percent on a search engine. Product searches on Amazon have grown 73 percent over the last year while searches on Google Shopping have been flat, according to comScore.”
“The changes in Google Shopping put Amazon directly in competition with Google over the attention of online consumers,” Griffin tells us. “Today Amazon monetizes searches through product sales, marketplace sales, Amazon MediaGroup and Amazon Product Ads. We can expect that Amazon will continue to invest in areas where they can link more consumers to more products and monetize related advertising.”
“Conversely, we can expect that Google will continue to invest in areas where they can further monetize searches outside of the existing PLA, display, and text-based search offerings,” he adds. “Google will need to compete on the quality of the entire shopping experience from search to delivery so we should expect to see them continue growing programs like Google Trusted Stores and Google Wallet.”
I’d wager that Google Offers will be an important product for Google in this area as well.
“Ultimately, this competition will be good for online customers as both companies will compete to make a richer experience for online customers,” says Griffin.
Earlier this month, Google launched the available of product level bidding to Product Listing Ads, so merchants can use it during the holiday season. This lets advertisers optimize bids for individual products and easily create product targets using the product ID in the Merchant Center feed to manage bids at the product level. More on this in Google’s help center.
Nintendo has been testing the waters of digital content delivery for some time now. The 3DS eShop was their first real effort to bring full games to players everywhere via digital delivery. They took it one step further when they made New Super Mario Bros. 2 available day-one as a digital download. Now they’re making their back catalog available via this method.
Nintendo announced today that four hit 3DS games are now available on the 3DS eShop. Gamers can buy Super Mario 3D Land, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D and Mario Kart 7 from the comfort of their 3DS systems. The games cost $39.99 each because Nintendo still hasn’t figured out digital pricing.
The Wil gets one lonely update today with Reel Fishing Ocean Challenge on WiiWare. As you can guess, it’s a fishing game that features “exotic fishing locales” and “tons of tackle.” I’m sure it will be a hit among the three people who still playing fishing games.
This week’s eShop update is a little on boring side, but there’s gonna be some great content next week. Level 5’s first eShop game, Liberation Maiden, will be hitting the eShop next week. It’s a shmup created by Suda 51, the mind behind this year’s Lollipop Chainsaw.
Google announced today that it’s rolling out the ability for retailers in Google Shopping to add promotion to their product listings. This, Google says, will make the listings stand out more.
As you may know, Google Shopping now consists of all paid inclusion results. In other words, you have to be an advertiser using Google’s Product Listing Ads to be listed. Wednesday was the official day that this transition was to be complete in the U.S.
Advertisers using these new promotions can distribute them on other Google properties, such as Google Maps for Android, or the Google Offers App.
“In a few simple steps retailers can create a promotions list, map it to the right products in Google Shopping and upload to Google Merchant Center,” Google says in a post on its Commerce Blog. “Our system supports user specific redemption codes and associated reporting, enabling retailers to measure the performance of each promotion.”
“This is one of the many steps we’re taking to provide traffic, technology and tools to help retailers grow their business,” the company adds.
Google says it will expand the program to include more retailers in the coming months. So far, over 25 big name retailers are using the promotions.
At a press event today Target CEO Greg Steinhafel unveiled the new initiative, which will see the retailer match the prices displayed online by a number of companies including Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Toys R Us, and of course, Target.com.
The in-store price matching currently does not include Target.com:
“If you find an item in a competitor’s printed ad that is priced lower than it is at your Target store, we will match the price. The competitor’s ad must be local and current, and the product must be the identical item, brand name, quantity and model number. Target.com is excluded from our price matching policy. Competitor catalogs can also be ad matched as long as the catalog displays a valid date and meets all other qualifications,” says the company on their current “Low Price Promise” page.
The current price-match policy excludes “promotions or products advertised on another company’s web or mobile sites, even those advertising in-store prices” as well, so this is a big change for the company.
It’s not permanent, however, as Target will only price-match these select online retailers from November 1st to December 16th (the prime holiday shopping period).
Target told Mashable that the Amazon price-matching will not include third-party sellers housed on Amazon Marketplace.
What Target and Best Buy are fighting is showrooming, the now-ubiquitous practice of finding a product you want, snapping a picture or jotting is down in your notes, and then returning home to buy it (sometimes for cheaper) online. Basically, it’s using brick and mortar retailers like Best Buy and Target as your own personal showroom – something they clearly aren’t fans of.
Target hopes that this will get people in the door, but more importantly make sure they actually walk out with something in the cart.
Apple Maps have to get better. Tim Cook knows that they have to get better. In his public apology for the iOS 6 Apple Maps fiasco, he said that “we know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard [as our other products].”
If sources reported by MacRumors are to be trusted, Apple is tapping a new source to help fix their painfully flawed new maps product: Apple retail store employees.
According to the report, “multiple sources” have confirmed that certain Apple Stores will dedicate 40 hours a week to the new project, which will ask some retail employees to help look at errors in the app and submit corrections via a “dedicated internal portal” within Apple’s systems.
Not much else is know about the specifics of the program, for instance exactly how the employees are being tasked with finding errors and suggesting corrections. But at least one store has indicated that 10 employees are going to be a part of it.
If you’ve had your head in the sand the past couple of weeks, you may not know that Apple Maps (unveiled in the new iOS 6) has hit plenty of snags since launch. Everyone else knows that the new Apple Maps have drawn user ire for broken landscapes, mislabeled locations and landmarks, and a slew of other issues.
Of course, Apple retail store employees aren’t the only people that have been tasked with improving iOS 6 Maps.
“The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you,” said Cook. With every screw-up that you find and report to Apple, the Maps app will continue to improve.
Despite the early fumbles by Apple Maps, there may be a silver lining. Apparently, Apple Maps use a significantly lower amount of data than Google Maps. If and when Apple fixes Maps to users’ liking, the data conservation angle may become a big selling point for using the product over the various other reliable maps products in the app ecosystem.
That was fast. Just a few days after multiple outlets reported on a new way Facebook is providing better analytics on ad campaigns to marketers, two electronic privacy groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into whether or not the practice violates recent concessions made by the company in an FTC privacy settlement.
We recently learned that Facebook is tracking what you buy in order to help marketers determine if their advertising campaigns on the site are paying off. Facebook is working with a data mining company called Datalogix to see if users served certain ads on-site are ending up buying said products and services later on down the road.
Datalogix compiles a giant database of consumer purchasing data, including email addresses and other user information. They do this primarily by tracking what consumers buy on retailer rewards cards. When that data is paired with Facebook data concerning user IDs and ad impressions, marketers can see a clear picture of whether an impression directly resulted in a purchase.
Although the procedure seems rather surreptitious at first, all of the user information is kept anonymous and is simply used for analytic purposes, according to Facebook.
“Facebook doesn’t get data that retailers give Datalogix; retailers don’t get any data from Facebook; nor do advertisers share any of their data with Facebook or vice versa,” says Facebook. What Facebook does share is “anonymous IDs corresponding to consumers exposed to a given ad campaign.”
But according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), the data mining venture may constitute a breach of terms laid out by a previous FTC settlement.
That FTC settlement barred Facebook from misrepresenting “in any manner, expressly or by implication, the extent to which it maintains the privacy or security of covered information,” as well as ““the extent to which [Facebook] makes or has made covered information accessible to third parties.”
It also requires that Facebook “prior to any sharing of a user’s nonpublic user information by [Facebook] with any third party, which materially exceeds the restrictions imposed by a user’s privacy setting(s),” Facebook must make a “clear and prominent” disclosure and obtain the “affirmative express consent” of the user.
Basically, if Facebook wants to share user information in a way above and beyond their privacy settings, Facebook has to make it abundantly clear their intention to do so.
The two privacy groups have this to say to the FTC in a letter:
The Commission should investigate whether Facebook has violated Parts I and II of the Consent Order. Facebook did not attempt to notify users of its decision to disclose user information to Datalogix. Neither Facebook’s Data Use Policy nor its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities adequately explains the specific types of information Facebook discloses, the manner in which the disclosure occurs, or the identities of the third parties receiving the information. In fact, Facebook only mentions Datalogix once – at the bottom of the “Interacting with Ads” page. This page requires at least five actions to reach from the Facebook.com home page and simply directs users to the Datalogix privacy policy. The Consent Order’s prohibition on misrepresentations includes misrepresentations by omission. Thus, the Commission should determine whether Facebook’s failure to notify users of the disclosure of user information to Datalogix violates the consent order.
They also question Facebook’s assertion that it is all anonymous, saying:
Facebook asserts that the shared information is hashed, and thus anonymous. But the Commission has stated that “hashing is vastly overrated as an ‘anonymization’ technique.”
These two privacy groups have a history of demanded FTC actions on Facebook services. EPIC has already asked the FTC to look into Facebook’s Timeline feature and well as it’s facial recognition software.
What do you think? Is it a violation of the previous FTC agreement?
If buying green is something that’s important to you in your everyday life, a new site now in beta wants to be your go-to retailer.
Vine.com is live, and it wants you to “live life green.” All of the products available for purchase on the site meet certain criteria for being labeled as “green,” and they provide free 1-2 day shipping on any order above $49.
Yes, Amazon has a hand in Vine.com, although you probably wouldn’t know that from looking at the site. Vine is a part of the Quidsi network, which includes other category-specific retail sites like diapers.com, soap.com, wag.com, and yoyo.com. While those sites are all about baby supplies, cleaning products, pets, and toys, respectively, Vine.com is all about being eco-friendly. Amazon purchased Quidsi back in 2010 for $545 million.
So, what are those green criteria? Vine has a green philosophy that say any product they carry is “made with healthy, environmentally sound ingredients and materials [and] at its core, is better for you and better for the planet.”
Qualifying green products must meet at least one of the following criteria:
Made from sustainable materials; energy efficient; natural (minimal processing); organic; designed to remove toxins, powered by renewable energy, reusable, or water efficient.
“We also recognize that green can mean different things to different people. On every product page, you’ll find additional information about our products, provided by the companies behind them, so you can quickly shop according to the issues that matter to you,” says Vine.
“This is a site that is not necessarily about saving the planet, though we feel the products are useful in that regard,” site head Josh Dorfman tells The New York Times. “It’s really saying to mom, ‘If you care about raising safe and healthy kids and you feel green products without chemicals can help along the way, we’ve figured out ways to help you do that.’”
One more interesting aspect of the site is a “shop local” feature that allows shoppers to browse green products made within 100 miles of their selected city. Right now, there are only about a dozen cities to choose from, including New York City, L.A., Chicago, Seattle, Boston, and Denver.
Oracle announced that it is acquiring cloud-based talent sourcing app maker SelectMinds. The company’s apps provide tools for businesses in recruiting, hiring, and employee social connections.
“Recruiting candidates through employee referrals is widely acknowledged as the most effective method to find talent through trusted contacts. Making recruiting efforts efficient and seamless by leveraging social connections and through mobile applications helps companies find better quality candidates and continue to build the pipeline for future talent,” said Thomas Kurian, Executive Vice President, Oracle Development. “By adding SelectMinds to Oracle’s Talent Management Cloud, Oracle can help customers with a complete talent management solution, enabling streamlined recruiting practices, more quality referrals, faster employee on-boarding, and better performance.”
SelectMinds CEO Anne Berkowitch added, “Oracle’s proposed acquisition of SelectMinds represents a strong endorsement of SelectMinds intuitive social sourcing technology and the value customers have achieved with our solutions. We’re excited to be a part of Oracle, and look forward to combining our resources to better serve and support customers with more global scale.”
Oracle says SelectMinds products are already fully integrated with Oracle Cloud Recruiting, Perfromance Management ANd Human Capital Management solutions.
Oracle has also introduced a new mobile point-of-service extension for retailers called Oracle Retail Mobile Point-of-Service.
“Gartner research shows that retailers are extremely interested in mobile POS as a way to transform the check-out experience,” said Jeff Roster, Research Vice President, Gartner. “As one of the four transformational forces that Gartner has defined as part of its Nexus of Forces research, mobility, including mobile POS, will be a key area for experimentation and investment for retailers going forward.”
In addition to all of that, Oracle has launched its new banking platform, which the company describes as a comprehensive suite of business applications for large global banks.
A new study finds that Pinterest is proving to be quite valuable for online retailers. While it trails Facebook in a variety of metrics, it’s gaining ground in those, and is leading in one very important metric. Plus, Facebook’s dominance only stands to increase Pinterest’s value within the other metrics.
Earlier this week, we looked at the following infographic from RichRelevance comparing Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, in terms of the shopping traffic they drive to retail sites:
The infographic is based on a study from the firm, which looked at 689 million shopping sessions on “leading U.S. retail sites” between January 1 and August 31.
“Every social network promises a new way of connecting consumers with retailers and brands,” said Diane Kegley, CMO of RichRelevance. “However, the big take-away from our research is that not all channels in the social space are created equal. As retailers and brands continue to sort out how to take advantage of social networks, this infographic provides great insight into better understanding the nuances of each channel, how they resonate with consumers and how marketers can take advantage of each in their own unique way.”
It may be Facebook on top in most of the metrics listed in the graphic, but Pinterest, interestingly, is blowing both Facebook and Twitter out of the water in the critical AOV (Average Order Value) metric. That is: the sum of revenue generated divided by the number of orders.
Also of note is Pinterest’s “surprisingly large share” of sessions (particularly when compared to Twitter, which has obviously been around much longer). Likewise, Pinterest is significantly higher than Twitter in share per session and revenue per session. Pinterest is gaining in both revenue per session and conversion by source, as RichRelevance points out.
It’s no surprise that Facebook is the dominant player here in most of the metrics, given its sheer size. The company recently revealed that it has 955 million active users. However, this actually serves to help Pinterest in the same metrics, given the site’s Facebook integration.
For one, Facebook is one of the log-in options for Pinterest, so many users are already using Facebook.
Facebook featured Pinterest in its “Developer Spotlight” earlier this year, taking about how Pinterest was taking advantage of the Facebook Timeline. “Pinterest focused on the most frequent and social things people do on their site – pin and follow – and built Open Graph stories that people could identify with,” explained Facebook’s Will Liu. “Pinterest also prompts people to add the app to their timelines through a clear call out that is integrated into the design of the site.”
In less than a month of launching its Facebook Open Graph integration, Pinterest saw the number of Facebook users visiting Pinterest every day increase by over 60%. Now, that stat is slightly dated at this point, as the post was from February, but the point that Pinterest is only helped by Facebook remains valid.
It’s worth noting that RichRelevance’s study only included browser-based shopping sessions and not shopping that may originate from mobile apps. This is actually a really important thing to consider for a couple of reasons. For one, Facebook says its mobile users are more likely to be daily active users.
As I noted in a previous article, Pinterest’s growth and cross-platform compatibility could be just what the doctor ordered for e-commerce businesses looking to get more web traffic from social media, especially now that they have to pay Google to be listed in Google Shopping. There are various products coming out designed to get Pinterest users interested in, well, products.
ShopInterest, for example, is a DIY online shop for merchants to create pinboards of the stuff they sell.
Of course, RichRelevance’s data only represents one study. MarketingCharts does a little comparison, writing, “These findings appear to contrast with data released in July 2012 by Jirafe, reported by Forbes. According to that study, which examined the behavior of 89 million online shoppers who visited Jirafe’s clients’ 5,000 online stores in the past year, average order value (AOV) for traffic from Twitter and Facebook was far higher than for Pinterest traffic. In fact, traffic from Twitter (5.3x), Google (3.45x), Facebook (2.5x), and Bing (2.1x) all had AOV’s more than twice as large as traffic from Pinterest.”
“Methodological differences may explain the discrepancies,” MarketingCharts adds. “The Forbes article noted that Jirafe serves only a few of the top 500 online retailers, such that Pinterest data for these larger sites may be more positive. The RichRelevance data is also based on its client base – select US sites that have deployed its retail recommendation software. That study also includes only browser-based shopping sessions and does not include shopping that may originate from mobile application versions of the platforms. It is unclear how such sessions were treated by the Jirafe study.”
In general, brands themselves are flocking to Pinterest. According to a recent study from SimplyMeasured, 51% of the top 100 global brands now have Pinterest accounts.
Pinterest has been expanding its category offerings, and I expect that this will continue, which should only open the door further for merchants. It already has its built-in “gifts,” feature, for product promotion, complete with price tags.
If you’re unfamiliar with this, it’s a drop-down menu at the top of the homepage, which lets users browse items by price range. Pinterest will include price if it’s in the description of the post. Shopify has a good post about this and other ecommerce tips, saying, “Every ecommerce store owner should make full use of this functionality!”
Shopify also suggests pinning other people’s products, and not just your own, not pinning every item you sell, linking to products “tastefully,” being visual with product photography, creating a re-pin board, and of course, getting followers. They suggest frequently posting Pinterest content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ streams, adding, “Remember to keep the focus of your posts on things that are visual appealing.”
Has your site seen a significant amount of Pinterest traffic? Do you have a Pinterest strategy in place? Let us know in the comments.
Apple kicked off its big press event today by showing an inspirational video about its Apple Stores. CEO Tim Cook then announced that Apple has 380 stores in 12 countries, and that number 13 is coming on Friday with the opening of its fist Swedish store.
“Our stores offer the best buying experience and the best customer service on the planet.”
According to Cook, Apple stores had 83 million visitors in the last quarter (April – June), adding that it’s “Amazing”.
