If you are a fan of Dell computers then you might want to sign up to the Dell Outlet's new Twitter feed which is used to publish offers and last minute promotions from the UK store. Dell are one of those brands who have such a big Twitter presence (roughly 20 separate Dell branded Twitter feeds) that they can afford to set one up and just use it to display deals.
If you are subscribing to this Twitter feed then you will have a high propensity to make regular purchases of Dell products for home or office, and it works because so many of Dell's tech savvy customers will be on Twitter anyway.
Can't imagine it taking very long before they make £1m from the Twitter channel just like they did in the US...
The feed is here http://twitter.com/DellOutletUK
Monday, 8 June 2009
Etail Europe On This Week
Just a quick post to say I'm really looking forward to attending Etail Europe in London this week. It's a 2 day conference being held at the swish Guoman Tower and the line up is packed with some of the biggest names in ecommerce.
In particular I'm looking forward to the sessions on:
Patti Freeman Evans from Forrester who is speaking on "Capitalising on the Changing Shopping Behaviours of European Online Customers".
Surviving in A Search Dominated, Low Margin e-Retailing World (panel discussion) with the heads of ecommerce of Blacks Leisure Group, More Th>n and VisitBritain.
Ashley Friedlein from Econsultancy is also speaking and I'm looking forward to his session on "Unlocking the Value of Social Commerce To Contribute to Your Bottom Line".
If you're attending I look forward to meeting you in the numerous networking opportunities in the bar!
Finlay
In particular I'm looking forward to the sessions on:
Patti Freeman Evans from Forrester who is speaking on "Capitalising on the Changing Shopping Behaviours of European Online Customers".
Surviving in A Search Dominated, Low Margin e-Retailing World (panel discussion) with the heads of ecommerce of Blacks Leisure Group, More Th>n and VisitBritain.
Ashley Friedlein from Econsultancy is also speaking and I'm looking forward to his session on "Unlocking the Value of Social Commerce To Contribute to Your Bottom Line".
If you're attending I look forward to meeting you in the numerous networking opportunities in the bar!
Finlay
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
How Hot Are Your Models?
Funny thing happened to me in a meeting the other day with a well-known UK high street retailer. The client mentioned that one of their models, who has an uncanny resemblence to US RnB star Rihanna, achieves much greater conversion rates on the clothes she models.
I found this quite staggering: all the models are good looking, slim and striking similar poses. You'd have thought that the defining factors would be whether the customer liked the garment itself, whether there was good product info, whether it was in stock, in the right size, had a clear delivery message and was competitively priced etc etc.
But it turns out there is another factor which affects conversion, a much more subtle factor... if your models are dobblegangers for pop stars or movie stars, you could see better ROI on your marketing campaigns!
If you are agency side I don't think you can hide behind this when trying to explain to a client why you're peformance has dipped... I have a feeling "your models aren't good looking enough" isn't going to wash!
But it certainly made me think of the things which affect performance which are completely out of your control.
What do you think? If you've got any more examples I'd love to hear from you.
- Finlay
I found this quite staggering: all the models are good looking, slim and striking similar poses. You'd have thought that the defining factors would be whether the customer liked the garment itself, whether there was good product info, whether it was in stock, in the right size, had a clear delivery message and was competitively priced etc etc.
But it turns out there is another factor which affects conversion, a much more subtle factor... if your models are dobblegangers for pop stars or movie stars, you could see better ROI on your marketing campaigns!
If you are agency side I don't think you can hide behind this when trying to explain to a client why you're peformance has dipped... I have a feeling "your models aren't good looking enough" isn't going to wash!
But it certainly made me think of the things which affect performance which are completely out of your control.
What do you think? If you've got any more examples I'd love to hear from you.
- Finlay
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Internet Sales Still Experiencing Double Digit Growth
Although we all know the high street is struggling, it's extremely pleasing to see some new industry figures which show online continues to buck the trend.
Here's the latest retail figures which give some cause for celebration:
- The latest IMRG and Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index shows a 9% month-on-month growth in March compared to February and an increase of 19% YoY. This covers the whole retail sector (which varies significantly between categories) but clothing, footwear and accessories continue to be recording the highest monthly growth (28%).
- Video games retailer GAME.co.uk reported an increase in online sales of 85% in its preliminary results for the year (to the end of January). Online profitability also increased 109% YoY. Group sales (including high street) were up 32% overall.
- Amazon reported a sales increase of 18% for the first three months of 2009, with profits up 24%. This includes US figures, but the international segment sales (which includes UK, DE, FR, JP and China) were up 15%.
- Debenhams online sales were up 30% for the six months to the end of February. Clearly this is comparing Christmas figures with non-Christmas figures but a 30% rise in 6 months is still impressive.
- Tesco.com reported last week that their online business increased sales by 20%, to a whopping £1.9bn. Profits for the online channel (which includes Tesco Direct) were up to £109m.
Check out Internet Retailing for more news on these stories.
Here's the latest retail figures which give some cause for celebration:
- The latest IMRG and Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index shows a 9% month-on-month growth in March compared to February and an increase of 19% YoY. This covers the whole retail sector (which varies significantly between categories) but clothing, footwear and accessories continue to be recording the highest monthly growth (28%).
- Video games retailer GAME.co.uk reported an increase in online sales of 85% in its preliminary results for the year (to the end of January). Online profitability also increased 109% YoY. Group sales (including high street) were up 32% overall.
- Amazon reported a sales increase of 18% for the first three months of 2009, with profits up 24%. This includes US figures, but the international segment sales (which includes UK, DE, FR, JP and China) were up 15%.
- Debenhams online sales were up 30% for the six months to the end of February. Clearly this is comparing Christmas figures with non-Christmas figures but a 30% rise in 6 months is still impressive.
- Tesco.com reported last week that their online business increased sales by 20%, to a whopping £1.9bn. Profits for the online channel (which includes Tesco Direct) were up to £109m.
Check out Internet Retailing for more news on these stories.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Doubleclick to offer transactional banner adverts
I missed this when it was originally announced a couple of weeks ago but it's a concept i'm definitely going to try and get more info from DoubleClick on.
Being able to buy a product from a retailer without actually visiting their official site is going to get much bigger in the next 2 years, and DoubleClick are showing considerable foresight by teaming up with Adgregate Markets to allow consumers to purchase directly from an advertising banner.
Sarah Clark at Internet Retailing did a better write up here, but I'll also try and follow up with my own contacts to see if i can get more information...
- Finlay Clark
Being able to buy a product from a retailer without actually visiting their official site is going to get much bigger in the next 2 years, and DoubleClick are showing considerable foresight by teaming up with Adgregate Markets to allow consumers to purchase directly from an advertising banner.
Sarah Clark at Internet Retailing did a better write up here, but I'll also try and follow up with my own contacts to see if i can get more information...
- Finlay Clark
The Outnet.com and Flash Sales concept
Those of you in the fashion retail space will no doubt be interested to hear that the people behind Net-A-Porter.com have started up a sub brand designed to serve the discounted designer fashion market.
It's called the Outnet.com and i would describe it as a kind of like a very, very upmarket TK Maxx (online).
The concept about what they're trying to do is explained here, but the thing that caught my eye was the way in which they're running "Flash Sales".
I think the Outnet are being quite innovative in this arena, merging traditional sale items with an ebay-esque "beat the clock" mentality (which will no doubt drive repeat visits) and harness impulse purchases at the same time. Whether or not spending hundreds of pounds on a new handbag worth $1,900 originally can be deemed an "impulse buy" is another matter but i don't think there products are really aimed at me... I'll be interested to see how low the prices go once this hits a critical mass of followers, but it certainly is an interesting approach to run sales and drive promotions.
A couple of things which weren't so good caught my eye as well, too many pop ups to explain the concepts of what they're trying to do and the fact the Going, Going Gone content was on a secure [https] page will not help with search engines, but i suspect the site will do very well as lots of people in the fashion world are talking about it already.
It's called the Outnet.com and i would describe it as a kind of like a very, very upmarket TK Maxx (online).
The concept about what they're trying to do is explained here, but the thing that caught my eye was the way in which they're running "Flash Sales".
I think the Outnet are being quite innovative in this arena, merging traditional sale items with an ebay-esque "beat the clock" mentality (which will no doubt drive repeat visits) and harness impulse purchases at the same time. Whether or not spending hundreds of pounds on a new handbag worth $1,900 originally can be deemed an "impulse buy" is another matter but i don't think there products are really aimed at me... I'll be interested to see how low the prices go once this hits a critical mass of followers, but it certainly is an interesting approach to run sales and drive promotions.
A couple of things which weren't so good caught my eye as well, too many pop ups to explain the concepts of what they're trying to do and the fact the Going, Going Gone content was on a secure [https] page will not help with search engines, but i suspect the site will do very well as lots of people in the fashion world are talking about it already.
Monday, 6 April 2009
Some ecommerce tips on YouTube
hi folks,
The marketing department here at bigmouthmedia have enlisted a couple of us here to run some short videos with Your Business Channel, and they are now live on the internet!
You can watch them directly on Your Business Channel or go via Youtube (run a search on Finlay Clark to find them).
I actually filmed a couple sometime in the summer last year, speaking about user generated content and blogging, but i had to wear a rather daft headset which makes me look like a terrible madonna impersonator.
The latest ones i did in January are on social media and the role of generic and brand keywords in PPC. Luckily our IT team set up a makeshift studio so no headset required!
Anyway, thought you would find them useful. Those of you who know me can vouch that i am rarely lost for words on digital marketing but its sometimes tough when you have the lights and camera infront of you.... lets just say there were many takes to get them right!
Finally, my colleague Chris Cathcart who runs the finance vertical at bigmouth (and blogs at WongaWorld.com) has also done some which are worth a look. I think he comes across far more accomplished and succinct on camera than i did! Here he is talking about some current trends within the finance marketplace.
Thoughts and comments most welcome!
Cheers,
Finlay
The marketing department here at bigmouthmedia have enlisted a couple of us here to run some short videos with Your Business Channel, and they are now live on the internet!
You can watch them directly on Your Business Channel or go via Youtube (run a search on Finlay Clark to find them).
I actually filmed a couple sometime in the summer last year, speaking about user generated content and blogging, but i had to wear a rather daft headset which makes me look like a terrible madonna impersonator.
The latest ones i did in January are on social media and the role of generic and brand keywords in PPC. Luckily our IT team set up a makeshift studio so no headset required!
Anyway, thought you would find them useful. Those of you who know me can vouch that i am rarely lost for words on digital marketing but its sometimes tough when you have the lights and camera infront of you.... lets just say there were many takes to get them right!
Finally, my colleague Chris Cathcart who runs the finance vertical at bigmouth (and blogs at WongaWorld.com) has also done some which are worth a look. I think he comes across far more accomplished and succinct on camera than i did! Here he is talking about some current trends within the finance marketplace.
Thoughts and comments most welcome!
Cheers,
Finlay
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