Tag: retail

How eBay Is Quietly Staging A Comeback

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original article on: WSJ Blog

In recent years, eBay has been lagging behind its competitors like Amazon and Alibaba, which was partly why it decided to spin off PayPal last year. Now just months before the planned split, the former ecommerce leader has quietly started to stage its comeback.

New reports claim that eBay is testing an Amazon Prime-like subscription program in Germany. The program, known as eBay+, promises customers free, expedited shipping and returns for just €15 to €20 (about $17 to $22) per year. For sellers, eBay will be offering discounts on selling fees and a subsidy to help cut the cost of shipping and returns.

Moreover, eBay is also reportedly planning a new ad unit called Promoted Listing that will allow some sellers to elevate their listings above others among the search results. Instead of the usual pay-per-click model, sellers only have to pay when a promoted listing translates into sales.

While it remains to be seen whether this comeback plan will work or not, it is clear that the ecommerce landscape will continues to evolve and expand. Brands operating in ecommerce space need to keep up with the constant changes, as well as the new opportunities they bring.

Philips Develops VLC Lights For Retail Indoor Navigation

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Engadget

Philips has developed a new indoor navigation system for retailers that uses special lights equipped with visible light communication (VLC) technology, which enables it to beam out a code imperceptible to the human eye. The corresponding smartphone app utilizes the forward-facing camera to read the VLC, thereby identifying the user’s locations and redirecting the user to where they need to go.

Among early partners is French supermarket chain Carrefour, which is already trialing the system at its flagship store in Lille. In addition to providing hyperlocal indoor navigation, the company is also reporting that the lights have helped reduce its energy bills by half.

It’s always important for retailers to explore new ways to improve the in-store experience, especially at a time when brick-and-mortar retailers are increasingly feeling the pressure from the digital competitors, such as Amazon and FreshDirect. Whether or not this new VLC lighting system will perform better than Bluetooth beacon systems, however, remains to be determined.

How Google’s “Buy Buttons” Could Impact Ecommerce

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original article on: Engadget

Google is reportedly planning to add “buy buttons” to its paid search results on mobile devices in the coming weeks, which will redirect interested shoppers to another Google product page to complete the purchase. According to sources, the search giant will start showing the buttons displayed under a “Shop on Google” heading when users search for products on mobile devices, which won’t appear with the non-sponsored results composed by Google’s search algorithm. Macy’s is named as one of the launch partners.

This new feature, should it come to fruition, signals the search giant’s ambitious plan in branching out its search platform into ecommerce space. Although its share in desktop search has slipped 3% from 67.5% in March 2014 to 64.5% in March 2015, according to comScore, Google still commands over 83% of U.S. mobile search market, according to StatCounter’s data, putting it well ahead of its competitors. Backed with a dominant position in the mobile search market, it makes perfect sense for Google to become a one-stop shop for mobile searchers.

Update 5/29/2015: Google’s Chief Business Officer Omid Kordestani has confirmed in a interview that the buy buttons would indeed be coming soon.

Walmart Plans Premium Shipping Service And Tests Mobile Payment In China

Posted on by Lab Team

Walmart is set to challenge ecommerce overlord Amazon with its own premium shipping service. The No.1 brick-and-mortar retailer will reportedly start testing a yet-to-be-named unlimited free shipping service this summer to expedite the delivery of online orders to customers. Tentatively priced at $50 a year, it will cost half as much as Amazon Prime, which, however, also covers unlimited access to Amazon’s streaming service Prime Video.

In related news, Walmart is aiming to use convenience win over local customers in China by adding support for Alibaba’s Alipay, the most popular e-payment service in China. Customers will be able to check out by having their Alipay Wallet app scanned, and will then be rewarded with cash-back on their purchases. Considering that Walmart is not currently accepting Apple Pay in the US because of its allegiance to MCX’s still-in-beta CurrentC, one has to wonder if this new partnership with Alipay in China serves as a test of in-store mobile payment for the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer.

Taken together, these two moves by Walmart suggest a strong intention to bridge the gap between the physical world of retail and digital one. In order to succeed in both worlds, all retail brands will need to step up their ecommerce game while also finding new ways to improve the in-store shopping experience with digital convenience.

 

Mondelez Experiments With “Buy Now” Button In Digital Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: CNN Money

Mondelez International has inked a global partnership with marketing tech firm ChannelSight to ramp up e-commerce sales across its digital platforms, including brands’ product pages, social media, and video ads.

As a crucial part of this partnership, “Buy Now” buttons will be added to the aforementioned media platforms across 25 global markets to make it easy for sweet-toothed consumers to find and purchase Mondelez products online. After clicking the button, interested consumers will be presented with a list of relevant third-party retailers that stock the specific product being advertised.

It is worth noting that such lists are compiled through ChannelSight’s technology rather than partnerships struck with the retailers, so as to offer prospective customers the best deal available. Although not quite the “one-click” purchase that some major platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon, are striving for, it is definitely a step in the right direction for the multinational conglomerate to improve its digital attribution.

Facebook To Supercharge Targeted Ads With IBM Partnership

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original article on: Wired

Today, Facebook and IBM announced a new partnership that will see Facebook’s existing ad targeting technology integrated into IBM’s line of retail tools and services. By combining retail data, both online and offline, with Facebook’s user data, the two companies hope to create effectively personalized marketing campaigns that don’t rely on cookies.

The news came just on heels of Facebook’s new deal with Nokia’s Here, as the social media giant doubles down on data-driven ad targeting. With this partnership, new tools would allow targeted ads to be placed directly into individual user’s Facebook feed, while also enabling marketers to go after specific behavioral segments, such as runners, foodies, and new parents. It is clear that Facebook is determined to keep up its momentum in offline attribution through these new partnerships and solidify its leadership in mobile ads in general.

 

SXSW 2015: E-Commerce Is The New Publishing

Posted on by Lab Team

With the total democratization of ecommerce, Rachel Youens of Wanelo believes online retailers should look to publishing for advice. When online media first appeared and proliferated, tools lowered the entry barrier to effectively zero. Blogs enabled content creation to be so easy that for awhile, it became almost impossible not to be a publisher.

The downside was that there were too many places to consume content. Blogs diffused across the Internet, and didn’t consolidate well. Social media changed that — instead of an XML or RSS feed, social feeds like Twitter enable a curated stream of media. This has led to some scaled success, like BuzzFeed, and some consolidation. Whatever the media revolution was, it is no longer that easy to become a publisher.

Youens thinks ecommerce is following a similar trajectory. Tools like Etsy and Shopify have enabled a revolution, allowing a massive proliferation of small online retailers. At the same time, it is difficult to scale such an industry. This is why platforms like Amazon, Pinterest and Polyvore — so-called shopping search engines — are gaining in popularity. Successful ecommerce businesses are creating different profiles on each site, much like publishers did with social platforms during the second phase of the media revolution.

The tipping point, Youens believes, has arrived. In order to stay ahead of the curve, ecommerce needs to adapt to become part of the new ecosystem — robust feeds, native platform integration, accessible messaging, as consolidation won’t be far behind.