Tag: Retail

Pinterest Infographics Reveal Marketing Potential

The good folks at Modea, a branding and technology agency from Blacksburg, VA, produced this Pinteresting infographic on important Pinterest demographics. (say it five times, fast)

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You’ll notice that the majority (68.2%) of users are women. Anyone with a Pinterest account will imediately notice the amount of women’s fashion articles being pinned.

Pinterest could be the fastest growing social media site out there, with a 2,702.2% increase in traffic since last year. The average time users spend on the site is much more than Facebook or Twitter. It even rivals YouTube for time spent. Pretty impressive considering the time commitment it takes to watch a video vs. browsing pictures.

The most interesting thing is the marketing implications this information presents. 28.1% of users have an annual household income exceeding $100,000. 50% of them have children.

Retailers are seeing a huge increase in referral traffic from the site, with a 289% increase from July – Dec. last year, and the amount of traffic is over twice that of LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube combined.

Another infographic from LinchpinSEO shows the ways in which Businesses are marketing on Pinterest:

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Photographers and fine artists are showcasing their work on Pinterest with descriptions on where to buy. Wedding planners are taking advantage of the high percentage of women on the site. Businesses are even posting coupons and QR code to drive traffic, build awareness, and ultimately get those high referrals.

March 1, 2012
Study: Retailers Not Optimized for Tablets

According to a study released today by Zmags, most retailers are not ready for the tablet revolution.

While many businesses are aware that mobile is the way to go when trying to reach their customers, apparently quite a few are content to let their existing websites stand as “good enough”. They are not planning to optimize them for mobile, either phone or tablet.

“What we discovered, unexpectedly, was that very few retailers—even among this elite group of marketers—are tapping into the full shopping potential of mobile and tablet devices. In fact, not even close to it,” said W. Sean Ford, COO and CMO of Zmags.

In the study, the key finding was that less than one-third of retailers have optimized their sites for tablet commerce. The rest are relying on their standard websites to deliver an “adequate enough” tablet shopping experience. Some retailers’ approach has been to develop iPad apps to address the tablet shopping market, but one-quarter of these apps don’t allow shoppers to buy directly.

Retailers are more evolved when it comes to smartphones, with more than half of retailers having developed smartphone-specific offerings; but those are still falling short. While more than two-thirds of the retailers have developed iPhone apps, only half of that group offers the ability to purchase via the app.

Only 19 of the top 100 retailers studied extended beyond ordinary HTML-type content to include more engaging material such as look books, catalogs, editorial picks, etc. However, none of them extended the dynamic environment or optimized the brand experience across the full range of smartphones, tablets and Facebook.

Social commerce is another channel that is still in its infancy but growing in significance and ripe with opportunity. All 100 retailers evaluated have branded Facebook pages, but just one lets consumers directly purchase from within its Facebook page.

The tablet’s user interface, in particular, is so well suited to the creation of an immersive and engaging shopping experience. Not to harness it renders the device into nothing short of a small, flat laptop. Connected consumers plan to shop even more on tablets and on Facebook; they are seeking inspiration, an experience that is discovery-based and not limited to the confines of directed purchase typically found on PC-based ecommerce sites. Today, they face a range of inconsistent and unfulfilling experiences. Retailers are leaving their customers hanging. By not treating every touchpoint as a truly revenue producing storefront, retailers are neither capturing the imagination of, nor driving purchases from their highly valuable connected consumers.

February 16, 2012
Valentine’s Day Infographic Shows How Expensive Love Is

Whether you’re doing your Valentine’s Day shopping online or off, it’s going to cost you. If you’re in the right business, it’s a good time to profit from the love (or at least affection) of other people.

LiveScience put together the following infographic looking at “the price of love”. It combines data from the National Retail Federation, ItsJustLunch.com, Sears, OpenTable, Motley Fool and Gannett.

Source:LiveScience

If you’ve made it this far down the page, you deserve this accompanying treat:

Oh, why not take this one in as well:

February 11, 2012
Mini Apple Stores Coming To Target

Target has confirmed rumors that it was getting dedicated in-store Apple displays like those currently found in many Best Buy stores. Reuters is reporting that Target will begin a 25-store test program that brings larger displays of Apple products into its stores.

The test program is part of a broader plan to bring a variety of specialty boutiques into Target stores. This program, “The Shops at Target” is meant to bolster the retailer’s flagging sales and mimic similar specialty shops found within other retailers like Kohl’s.

Best Buy’s version of this program has been relatively successful, however Best Buy is specifically an electronics company. It will be interesting to see how these mini Apple Stores fare in a department store like Target.

[Source: Reuters]

January 12, 2012
Apple Retailers Siding With eBizcuss In Legal Dispute

Late last week we brought you news of a lawsuit brought against Apple by French retailer eBizcuss, the largest Apple Premium Retailer (APR) in France. The suit accuses Apple of anti-competitive behavior. Specifically, eBizcuss says that Apple unfairly gives preferential treatment to its own Apple Stores over local retail partners. In an interview with Le Figaro, eBizcuss CEO François Prudent claimed that his stores had seen a significant decline in business since Apple brought their own retail store to France (to the Louvre, no less) in 2009. This, he said, is despite his company investing $6.5 million to bring itself into line with Apple’s stringent requirements for resellers.

Now, British news site ChannelWeb is reporting that eBizcuss is not the only European APR to have problems with Apple’s business practices. After the story broke in Europe, two other APRs – one continental and one in Britain – approached ChannelWeb to offer their agreement with eBizcuss’s accusations. The continental retailer even sent ChannelWeb a 4,400 word letter enumerating its concerns with Apple’s business practices.

The letter listed a number of ways in which Apple has treated its APRs unfairly. The letter says that APRs have often received major Apple products later and in fewer numbers than Apple’s own stores, that many have not been allowed to sell the iPhone at all, that Apple has cut some APRs’ credit lines, leading to cash flow problems, and that Apple’s requirement for in-store reorganization reduces the number of third party accessories APRs can sell, stifling a lucrative aspect of their business.

These two retailers’ support for eBizcuss stopped does not appear to go further than their communication with ChannelWeb, however. Both spoke on condition of anonymity, out of fear that Apple could retaliate if their support of eBizcuss were known.

It will be interesting to watch how this case pans out. If eBizcuss gains even a small measure of victory now, it could have significant repercussions for Apple’s dealings with its retail partners later, especially if other retailers are emboldened to take similar action in other countries.

[Source: ChannelWeb]

January 5, 2012
Google Apps Retail, Alfred & Will Ferrell

Today’s video round-up features some Old Milwaukee ads with Will Ferrell and a webinar about retail using Google Apps. What more do you want?

View more video round-ups here.

Alfred: The app that Groupon is rumored to be in talks to acquire:

Will Ferrell is helping Old Milwaukee with advertising apparently:

Native client: behind the scenes:

Google Apps retail webinar:

December 9, 2011
Social Network Retail, NFS-Enabled iPhone 5 & iPad 3

Today’s infographic round-up features the increase of importance for social networks in retail, and the prospect of a NFC-enabled iPhone 5 and iPad 3.

View more infographic round-ups here.

The Importance of Social Networks in Retail:

++ Click Image to Enlarge ++

Will Apple Release a NFC-Enabled iPhone 5 or iPad 3?

via

November 7, 2011
Apple’s New Retail App To Enable In-Store Pickups, Self Checkouts

An all new Apple retail store app is coming on Thursday, and with it will come two major changes in the way Apple customers interact with the Apple Store.

According to BGR, the new app will bring easy in-store pickup of items ordered online as well as enable customers to purchase smaller Apple Store items without ever having to talk to an Apple Store employee.

First, the in-store pickups. We’ve already seen a little bit of this in select stores in California and New York. It allows customers to make Apple purchases online, and pick up their merchandise the same day in the Apple store of their choice (considering it’s in stock, of course).

The new retail app for iOS will aid in this process, as it opens up to more stores on Thursday.

If a customer orders a product online or from the retail app, they will be able to pick it up in 12 minutes. Yes, apparently there will be a 12 minutes guarantee. Why 12 minutes? Well, 3 minutes for the order to go through + 2 minutes for the back room guys to grab the merchandise + 7 minutes for everyone to get everything perfect.

If an item is not immediately available in the store, a pick-up date will be given to the customer immediately following their purchase. Anything shipped to the Apple Store for pickup will have free shipping.

Customers who use the in-store pickup option on online purchased items will be given full priority inside the store – that means they skips lines and just grab their stuff and go. Apple looks to make this service as smooth and painless as possible.

You will also be able to return products shipped to you via online purchase to Apple stores.

As far as part two of the new retail experience goes, customers will be able to make their own purchases inside the store. Say you want to buy a new case for your iPhone 4S; you’ll be able to load up the new retail app, snap a photo of the case with your camera, and it will charge the purchase to whatever credit card is linked to your Apple account.

Then you just walk out of the store, no questions asked. Will this lead to an easier shopping experience? Or widespread theft? This sounds like an awesome new initiative for Apple, but there is definitely some room for abuse.

What do you think about Apple’s upcoming retail offerings? Let us know in the comments.

November 2, 2011
Online Retail Set For Continued Double-Digit Growth

Online retail in the U.S. and Western Europe will continue to have double-digit growth over the next five years, according to a new report from Forrester Research.

U.S. and European online retail will grow at a 10 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2010 to 2015, reaching $279 billion and €134 billion, respectively, in 2015. The forecasts include business-to-consumer sales excluding travel and financial services.

“The online retail market in both the US and Western Europe remains strong, despite the challenging economy,” said Forrester Vice President and Research Director Patti Freeman Evans.

“In fact, with consumer purchasing behavior returning to normal, US web sales in 2010 actually accelerated over 2009 compared with the prior year, growing 12.6 percent. In Europe, very strong growth in 2010 was fueled by new online buyers and higher spend per capita on the demand side, as well as the launch of transactional websites by established offline players.”

Retailers are supporting consumers’ increasing use of the Web in the US, helping to drive growth with new business models, such as flash sales and group buying, as well as improved merchandising to provide a broad selection of products available online.

In Western Europe, the online retail market grew 18 percent from 2009 to 2010 and is projected to grow 13 percent from 2010 to 2011, but growth rates will then slow as the market matures and buyer penetration begins to level off. By 2015, 68 percent of online adults will have made a purchase online; however, northern European countries will see 80 percent or more of their online population buying on the web, versus less than 50 percent in southern countries.

February 28, 2011
Email Drives More Traffic To Retailer Websites Than Social Media

Traditional marketing provides a better return on investment (ROI) for retailers than social media, according to a new report from ForeSee Results.

Do you find email to be more effective than social media? Let us know in the comments.

The report found that social media interactions are a main influence for only 5 percent of visitors to retail websites.

The research found that more traditional marketing tactics like promotional emails (19%), search engine results (8%), and Internet advertising (7%), influence more visits to retail websites.

Other highlights from the report include:

*Traditional marketing techniques like promotional emails influence not only more traffic; they deliver better-quality traffic. Some of the most satisfied site visitors arrived at the site because of previous familiarity with a brand, promotional emails, word-of-mouth, and product review websites.

*Most people want to engage with retailers, but but prefer to do so via email or on retail websites, rather than on social sites. In fact, only 8% of online shoppers said that’s social media was their preferred way to interact with a retailer.

*People are more satisfied with retailers’ presence on Facebook than they are with Facebook itself.

“Every retailer should know how many customers are influenced by promotional emails, advertising on Facebook or word-of-mouth recommendations, and furthermore, they should know which group is most likely to buy,” said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results and author of today’s report.

“They should also know how people want to hear from them and how well they’re doing when it comes to communicating through those channels. Serious thought needs to be given to finding out whether social media is worth the investment for their business, and then if the answer is yes, they need to make the most of it by making sure that interactions on social media meet the needs and expectations of customers.”

Do you use email marketing and social media? Let us know in the comments.

February 7, 2011
Online Retail Spending Tops Record $40 Billion

U.S. online retail spending reached a record $43.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, an increase of 11 percent over a year ago, according to a new report from comScore.

This growth rate is the fifth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and second quarter of double-digit growth rates in the past year.

“Retail e-commerce had a strong fourth quarter, growing 11 percent versus last year as holiday season spending was bolstered by an improving sentiment among some consumer segments and by retailers’ discounting and promotions,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

“The 2010 holiday season saw the first billion-dollar day on record and several more surpassing $900 million to help propel Q4 to record spending levels. We anticipate that the progress we’ve seen in the past year as we climbed out of the recession will continue with sustained double-digit growth rates in 2011.”

Other highlights from the report include:

*The top 25 online retailers accounted for 68.4 percent of dollars spent online, up 5.6 percentage points vs. year ago. However, this percentage represented a decline from Q3 2010, during which the top 25 retailers accounted for 69.9 percent of dollars, an indication that small and mid-sized retailers are also rebounding from the recession.

*84 percent of U.S. Internet users conducted an online transaction in Q4 2010, up from 78 percent last year. The average buyer spent about the same amount online during the most recent quarter as they did last year.

February 4, 2011
More People Adopting Mobile Shopping

People are using mobile phones to access websites and apps more than ever before, with 33 percent using their phones to access a retailer website, and an additional 26% indicated they plan to access retailer websites or mobile apps by phone in the future, according to a new report from ForeSee Results.

“It looks like more than half of all shoppers will soon be using their mobile phones for retail purposes,” said Kevin Ertell, vice president of Retail Strategy at ForeSee Results and author of today’s report.

“Any retailer not actively working to develop, measure, and refine its mobile experience is leaving money on the table for competitors.”

Shoppers who are highly satisfied with a mobile experience say they are 30% more likely to buy from that retailer online and 30% more likely to buy offline, as well as being far more likely to return to the main website, recommend it, and be loyal to the brand.

“It’s another reminder and a nice way to quantify that every customer touch point matters to overall loyalty and sales,” added Ertell. “Retailers cannot afford to ignore or even neglect the mobile experience and assume it won’t hurt their traditional online or in-store business.”

In general, shoppers rate their satisfaction with retail websites significantly higher (78 on the study’s 100-point scale) than their satisfaction with mobile experiences (apps and sites) (75).

“It’s true that mobile sites have far less maturity than traditional e-retail websites,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results.

“But I’m not sure that matters to consumers. Their expectations are being set by the best websites and the best mobile experiences. They aren’t going to have a lot of patience for excuses about the challenges that mobile shopping presents when it comes to design and usability. Retailers need to step up their game in this area.”

Other highlights of the report include:

* A total of 11% of web shoppers reported having made a purchase from their phones this holiday season, compared to only 2% at this time last year.

*The majority of shoppers who used their phones did so to compare price information (56%). Shoppers also used their phones to compare different products (46%), to look up product specifications (35%), and to view product reviews (27%).

*While in physical stores, more than two-thirds of mobile shoppers (69%) used their phones to visit the store’s own website, but nearly half (46%) also used their phones to access a competitor’s website.

January 10, 2011
Retailers Increasing Paid Search Ads Ahead Of Black Friday

U.S. paid search spend from retailers has increased nearly 37 percent ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, compared to last year, according to a new report from SearchIgnite.

The increase in retailers’ online PPC spend appears to be paying off as the economy bounces back from the recession; the rate at which consumers converted after clicking on a paid search advertisement was up 28.7% and their Average Order Values from online shopping were up 20.7% YoY.

"The increase on search spend among retailers is promising for the state of the search market overall," said Roger Barnette, CEO of SearchIgnite.

"More promising, however, is consumers’ increased Average Order Values and conversion rates. We expect this to be a very strong holiday season for e-commerce as the economy bounces back and consumers increasingly go online to do their shopping."

Other highlights from the report include:

*Spend growth slows on the combined Yahoo/Bing: Retailers’ search advertising spend on the combined Yahoo/Bing grew only 2.2% YoY, down from mid-Q4 2009 when both engines showed more significant increases (47% Bing, 8% Yahoo YoY).

*CPCs are rising for retailers: CPCs are rising. Despite widespread speculation that CPCs would increase specifically on Yahoo/Bing following their integration, CPCs rose most notably on Google (13% YoY), compared with only 4% rise on Yahoo/Bing.

November 23, 2010
Google Launches Resource to Prepare Retailers for Holidays

Google has launched a new site called "ThinkHoliday", which counts down the days until Christmas, and provides information for businesses and marketers that will help them prepare for the holidays. According to the site, 71% of consumers have started researching their holiday purchases, and 89% of them have started shopping online.

The site is a follow-up to an event Google hosted in the summer, also called ThinkHoliday. The summit was aimed at sharing tactics and learnings to help retailers prepare for this year’s holiday season, with discussion from people like Google Director of Emerging Platforms Mike Steib, Director of Product Management Sameer Samat, Director of Google Display Network Bruce Falck, and Group Product Marketing Manager Sara Kleinberg.

"Here at Google we have a wealth of information on what consumers are searching for," the company says. "As holiday nears, check out what products are hot and how consumers are already thinking about Black Friday."

The site looks at rising searches in the last 30 days, interest over time for "Black Friday", and special trend categories like Apparel, Home Furnishings, Consumer Electronics, Cyber Monday, Toys and Promotional Offers. It also points to relevant articles.

Google says it will update the site frequently as the holiday season approaches, and that retailers should bookmark it and check back often.

There are 53 days until Christmas.

November 1, 2010
Google Calls Upon Retailers to List Inventory

Google announced today that it is making public its help documentation for Local Shopping inventory for Google Merchant Center. This is a feature that allows retailers to let consumers know about what they have in stock right from the web.

"One weekday evening a few weeks before our son was born, my wife commissioned me to find a box of raspberry red leaf tea for the delivery," says Google Product Search business product manager Paul Lee, explaining the usefulness of such a feature. "I promptly drove to the nearest grocery store, which has an awe-inspiring wall of tea. After diligently scanning the wall and not finding the tea, I began to wonder if it even existed. Was the similarly-labeled raspberry tea the same thing? What about red leaf tea?"

"Stumped, I pulled out my phone and looked up ‘raspberry red leaf tea’ on Google," he continues. "Beneath the ‘Shopping results,’ I saw a red map marker for a nearby Vitamin Shoppe and a link, ‘In stock nearby,’ next to a picture of Alvita Raspberry Red Leaf Tea. I hopped back in the car, and 15 minutes later had accomplished my mission. Two weeks later, my wife accomplished her much more important mission and we welcomed Benjamin, a healthy and happy baby boy, to our family."

Keep in mind that Google doesn’t accept all retailers who apply for listing this information, but there is a form you can fill out to do so. If you aren’t accepted, Google will keep you on file for potential future inclusion.

You’ll be asked to submit a complete and accurate data feed, including unique product identifiers. You’ll also need to be listed and verified in Google Places.

September 2, 2010
What Coupon Searchers are Looking For

Retailers generated nearly $31 million in online coupon sales through RetailMeNot.com in May, according to the site. That’s over a 42% increase compared to the same time last year, and that’s just through RetailMeNot.

The company has released a report looking at coupon usage and search behavior in the month of May. RetailMeNot says it’s in a unique position to track trends in the coupon industry, as it is the most highly trafficked coupon site and the only site with over 450,000 coupons for both online and in-store offers.

Here’s a look at the top 10 most searched stores in online coupons:

Here’s some data on printable coupons:

The top online coupon in May was for $30 off of a 5 night booking with hotels.com. The top national printable coupon download in May was for a free entree with the purchase of an entree and two beverages from IHOP.

RetailMeNot’s entire report can be found here.

June 21, 2010
AOL and Mediabrands Partner on Retail Advertising

AOL and Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands (one of the largest buyers of retail advertising in the U.S. ) have announced a digital retail advertising partnership. The two companies plan to align their collective resources and announce a Retail Advisory Board in the coming weeks.

“Mediabrands partners with top retail and CPG brands, and we are committed to investing in resources to develop innovative retail solutions beyond what currently exist in the marketplace today," said Bant Breen, President, Worldwide Digital Communications, Initiative. "AOL has a substantial audience of engaged shoppers that can provide critical insights into what consumers need to enrich their online retail experience. Those same insights can also help marketers create a consistent consumer experience with the local retail store. By partnering with AOL, we can leverage our collective assets in retail, consumer insights and hyper-local to re-invent the category."

The two companies will use research from IPG’s Lab to create a new online pre-shopping program that will be tested with key retailers throughout Q3 and Q4 2010. It will include five leading retail partners, and the companies say success will be measured against the creation of user training, in-store sales lift and the effectiveness of new advertising formats.

The companies plan to expand the partnership to create new solutions in Hyper-Local Marketing by leveraging Mediabrands’ Geomentum, a $2 billion local advertising agency, as well as AOL’s own hyper-local platform.

June 21, 2010