Tag: ecommerce

IBM Partners With Visa To Make Its Waston IoT Platform Commerce-Ready

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
IBM will equip its Watson IoT platform with Visa’s token technology to allow trusted connected devices to complete online orders for users within preconfigured permissions. This partnership will allow IBM to integrate Visa’s token service, which assigns a unique digital identifier to information found on payment cards, with connected devices that are plugged into IBM’s cloud infrastructure. The end result is a lot like Amazon’s Dash Replenishment Service (DRS), only replacing the need for a physical push to trigger the purchases with automation enabled by IBM’s cloud computing and Watson’s A.I. smarts.

What Brands Need To Do
While this partnership hasn’t developed any consumer-facing product yet, both companies see new business models emerging from the inspection of IoT and ecommerce. For example, a retailer can leverage this platform to manage their in-store stocks and optimizing the restocking process. CPG brands, on the other hand, could explore the possibility of leveraging this new platform to bring auto-replenishing packages into consumers’ homes. As A.I.-powered solutions start to percolate into a wide range of devices and platforms, brands will need to pay attention to the new possibility in automation and personalization they are set to unleash across industries.

 

Source: ZDNet

Walmart Drops Membership Requirement For Two-Day Delivery

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Walmart has discontinued the $49-per-year membership program ShippingPass it introduced in June for two-day delivery service, as the big-box retailer continues to challenge Amazon’s dominance in ecommerce. Accompanying this announcement, Walmart is also lowering its free shipping order minimum from $50 to $35. Over two million items will be available for free express delivery service, according to Walmart. In comparison, Amazon sells Prime Membership, which includes free two-day delivery on over 50 millions of items with no minimum per order, for $99 a year.

What Brands Need To Do
While it seems unlikely that Walmart will be able to convince the majority of Amazon Prime members to switch, the move at least shows Walmart is determined to compete with Amazon for the non-Prime U.S. households. As more and more consumers turn to online shopping for the convenience and flexibility, brick-and-mortar retailers need to learn from their online competitors and start branching out into the ecommerce space and exploring new ways to modernize their shopping experience.

How We Can Help
The Lab has extensive experience working with retail, beauty, and CPG clients to create and implement digitally-enhanced experiences for their stores. The recently-opened NYX Cosmetics store at Union Square is a proud showcase of our team’s work in crafting a digitally enhanced, innovative retail experience. If you’d like to learn more about how your brand can develop an updated retail strategy and implement digital-driven solutions to transform your retail experience, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source:ReCode

E-Retailer Phlur Uses Spotify Playlists And Curated Images To Sell Perfumes

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Phlur, an online-only perfume brand, came up with a brilliantly designed online shopping experience to introduce customers to its product lineup. Founded in 2015, the Austin-based startup aims to solve the obvious challenge in selling perfumes and colognes online – that you can’t smell it over the internet – with a novel sampling process.

Interested customers are encouraged to explore its elegantly crafted website, which presents an engaging digital experience where each product is explained with a unique audio-visual narrative supported by curated images and a mood-setting Spotify playlist. Then, customers are instructed to select two from the six Phlur products and have samples sent to their home for $10. If they like the sample and come back to purchase a full bottle, the $10 sample fee will be credited back to the customers.

What Brands Need To Do
In terms of business model, Phlur serves as another example of an ecommerce startup tapping into the “try-at-home,” direct-to-consumers trend established by the likes of e-retailer Warby Parker and Birchbox. What is more intriguing, however, is the way they build immersive audio-visual narratives that help introduce its products to prospective customers via a sensory experience. This should serve as an inspiration for other retail, ecommerce, and CPG brands that are aiming to innovate the shopping experience they offer, both online and offline. For example, brick-and-mortar retailers could use the trendy “store-within-a-store” concept, or perhaps tap into new technologies such as virtual reality like Taco Bell recently did, to build an interesting narrative to introduce customers to a new product.

If you’d like to learn more about how your brand can develop an updated retail strategy and implement digital-driven retail solutions to transform your in-store experience, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Source: Racked

Header image is a promotional image from Phlur

Amazon Ramps Up Paid Search And Launches Virtual Dash Buttons

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon is launching a paid search product as it seeks to monetize the heavy ecommerce traffic the site commands. A recent survey shows that nearly half of online shoppers start their search on Amazon, so it is only natural for the ecommerce giant to give Google, the undisputed leader in paid search, a run for its money. In addition to promoted search results, the Seattle-based ecommerce behemoth also says it also plans to create customized pages for brands not selling on Amazon. For example, auto marketers can create detailed product pages on Amazon that offer consumers more product information, reviews, and a link to set up test drives.

In related news, Amazon is also adding virtual Dash Buttons” to the home page of its website and mobile apps. Introduced in April 2015, Dash Buttons are branded, connected physical buttons that Amazon Prime customers can push for a quick reordering. Now with the virtual buttons that Amazon shoppers can customize based on their preferences, Amazon is making one-click habitual reordering even easier and readily accessible.

\What Brands Need To Do
Amazon’s two new products both aim to leverage its massive scale to further its market dominance and lock in online shoppers. For brands selling on Amazon, the paid search ads may be worth a try for a short-term boost in visibility. The Dash Button, on the other hand, is a great tool for brands to develop and maintain consumer loyalty by enabling convenient reordering. For brands with CPG  products, it would be wise to work with Amazon to develop their own branded buttons to cultivate a long-term relationship with consumers.With the popularization of connected devices, we expect to see more automatic replenishment services like Amazon Dash pop up in the near future.

 

Source: AdExchanger & ARS Technina

Amazon Brings Shopping To TV For Prime Members With Apple TV App

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon has released an Apple TV app to let Prime members browse and shop from the comfort of their living room couches. By logging into their tvOS app via the four-digit code generated by their mobile app, Apple TV users can browse and search for products, see product details, and read reviews for millions of products available on Amazon. Prime membership is required to make a purchase on the Apple TV app. The home page of the app features a carousel of Amazon-curated collections, including holiday gift guides and other various packs.

What Brands Should Do
Amazon enjoys some unique advantages in transforming TV into a direct sales channel, given its massive scale and the ability to seamlessly integrate ecommerce functionality into the TV streaming devices by syncing up users’ Prime accounts and enabling one-click purchases. And the latest Apple TV model enables ecommerce brands to reach viewers via dedicated apps. For brands that are currently selling on Amazon, it may be worthwhile to tap into these new TV shopping initiatives to get a better understanding of the emerging shoppable TV experience. To read more on how brands can reach shoppers on OTT platforms with shopping apps and branded content, please check out the Appified TV section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Brands Can Now Use Facebook’s Dynamic Ads To Drive App Installs

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Facebook has updated its Dynamic Product Ads to allow brands to drive mobile app installs with more efficiency. Now brands with serving product ads on Facebook can instruct users that are browsing its product ads to install the branded mobile apps directly. This adds to the direct-response nature of the dynamic ad units, which delivers better results than ordinary mobile app install ads, according to Facebook, as they target users already interested in the product and brand.

What Brands Should Do
Just in time for the final push of this holiday shopping season, brands and retailers would be smart to leverage this new feature to spice up their dynamic ads and reach Facebook users more efficiently. Even if the installs don’t drive immediate returns, they can carry some long-term benefits, as having an app installed on a shopper’s smartphone keeps it top of mind.

For more information on how retailers can effectively reach connected consumers by taking a mobile-powered, omnichannel approach, check out the Boundless Retail section in our Outlook 2016.

 

Source: VentureBeat

How E-Retailer MeUndies Hosted A Successful Facebook Live Event On Black Friday

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
For this Black Friday, online underwear retailer MeUndies tried something different as it hosted a live sales event on Facebook, which attracted 13,300 viewers and scored a conversion rate of 25%, 13 times the average rate that MeUndies usually get on Facebook.

To promote the hour-long live event, MeUndies first sent out invites to its 314,000 Facebook Page followers and then ran a Facebook event ad targeting customers who opened MeUndies emails but hadn’t made a purchase in over a year. The event went live on the afternoon of Nov. 25, complete with a DJ and dance contests. Throughout the hour, MeUndies unlocked increasingly larger discounts as more viewers tuned in to get them to check out the Black Friday sales on its website.

What Brands Should Do
This event serves as a great example of how brands can leverage live video to reach a growing segment of the online audience. In particular, this MeUndies live event is illustrative of how brands can use live streaming as a direct sales channel to pitch to a captivated audience in real time and drive conversion. It also shows the importance of careful planning and pre-event promotions so as to drum up customer interests and maximize the event impact. As more and more brands and publishers rush into live video to capitalize on the growing consumer attention, brand marketers should start exploring live-streaming platforms to engage with online customers in real time.

 

Source: AdExchanger

Lead image courtesy of MeUndies’ Facebook

Oreo Launches Pop-up Ecommerce Site To Attract Holiday Gift Shoppers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Oreo is dipping its toe into ecommerce as the popular cookie brand opens its first branded ecommerce site (gifts.oreo.com) to sell holiday-themed Oreo cookies directly to the gift shoppers. Unlike other ecommerce site, however, this Oreo Gifts site offers an interesting feature where the gift buyer can simply put in the email address or mobile number of the recipient without filling out the address. The recipient will receive a notification via text or email with instruction on how to claim their gifts.

Why Brands Should Care
Oreo is not the only popular snack brand to venture into ecommerce in time for the holiday season. Earlier this month, Cheetos launched an online shop that sells branded holiday gifts ranging from clothing to perfume. Oreo’s parent company Mondelez International says the site is part of a global e-commerce strategy, which it is expecting to grow by at least $1 billion in revenue by 2020. As more and more consumers opting for the convenience of online shopping, traditional CPG brands should take a cue from Mondelez and start exploring ecommerce opportunities to reclaim some of the diminishing distribution channels and build a lasting customer relationship.

 

Source: PR Newswire


Lead image courtesy of Oreo Gifts

By The Numbers: Mobile Commerce Made Up 1/3 Of Black Friday Online Sales

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Mobile shopping continues to rise in prominence as reports on this year’s Black Friday sales start to roll in. According to a report from Adobe, this past Black Friday set a new record in online sales with $3.34 billion, a 21.6% growth year-over-year. Mobile shopping accounted for $1.2 billion, about one third of the total online volume, a 33% y-o-y increase. Major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, and Target reported that mobile traffic and sales were on the rise, with Target saying that 60% of its Thanksgiving sales were done on mobile devices.

While the total sales number from brick-and-mortar retail still dwarfs that of ecommerce, data from multiple reports suggest that it is in decline. Analytics firm RetailNext says net sales at brick-and-mortar stores fell 5.0% over the Black Friday weekend, while the number of transactions fell 7.9%. According to retail research firm ShopperTrak, physical store visits fell 1% during Thanksgiving and Black Friday when compared with one year ago.

What Brands Should Do
As ecommerce, especially mobile commerce, continues to grow and erode physical retail, brands and retailers can no longer simply rely on traditional distribution and sales channels to effectively reach a migrating consumer base. As the numbers show, retailers and brands operating physical stores will need to learn to properly utilize tools in mobile, email and social promotions to boost sales and update their retail strategies with a mobile-powered, omnichannel approach.

The Lab has extensive experience working with retail and CPG clients to develop and implement digitally-enhanced retail experiences. The recently-opened NYX Cosmetics store at Union Square is a proud showcase of our team’s work in crafting a digitally enhanced, innovative retail experience. If you’d like to learn more about how your brand can develop an omnichannel retail strategy and mobile-driven retail solutions, please contact our Client Services Director Samantha Holland ([email protected]) to schedule a visit to the Lab.

 

Sources: TechCrunch & Reuters

Cheetos Ventures Into Ecommerce With Branded Holiday Gifts

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
As part of its fashion-oriented holiday campaign, Cheetos has opened an online store to sell Chester Cheetah-themed holiday gifts, ranging from clothing and perfume to cosmetics and even jewelry. While some of the items in the catalog, such as the jewelry piece, charge premium prices, some on the lower end of the spectrum are already sold out, affirming the popularity of the Pepsi-owned snack brand among consumers.

What Brands Should Do
While admittedly rare, this is not the first time a Pepsi brand has branched out its CPG product category to grab consumer attention with branded products. Last year, the food and beverage giant sold Pepsi-branded smartphones to Chinese consumers as a marketing ploy. This week, Pepsi opened a kola-themed restaurant in New York City to broaden its brand expeirence. Similarly, with the new Cheetos-branded gifts, Pepsi is thinking outside the box and experimenting with a new way to transform their loyal fans into brand advocates, which should inspire brands to think of other ways that brands can permeate consumers’ daily life.

 

Source: Yahoo Finance

Header image courtesy of Cheeto’s YouTube video