Much has been made of how big Cyber Monday was for online retailers this year. Here are the headlines from the IMRG:
• £1.4 million spent online today at 13:43 in just one minute.
• The busiest minute for online retail sales saw a 61% like-for-like increase on last year
• Between 13:00 and 14:00 retail sales peaked at £33 million, an increase of 21%
• The busiest online shopping day ever, is forecasted to end on a high up 16% year on year
Figures from Retail Decisions, the credit card processing company, revealed that Monday 7th December was the biggest day of UK ecommerce this year.
The IRMG's Director of Operations David Smith commented that if consumers continue to spend at this level "we will exceed our December forecast of £5bn".
Consumer electronics continue to dominate the most popular products list, with games consoles, TVs, laptops and digital cameras making waves.
Top Ten Must-Have Christmas Gifts
1) Nintendo Wii Black
2) Wii Fit Plus & Balance Board
3) LCD TV (Samsung)
4) Toshiba Satellite Laptop L450D
5) Babyliss for men easy cut clippers
6) Panasonic Digital Camera DMC Range
7) Nintendo Wii (Standard edition)
8) Phillips Shaver HS 8460
9) Micro Scooter
10) Apple IPOD Touch
In other news it's interesting to see searches for "Christmas gifts" have risen 22 per cent in the past year, while searches for "gold jewellery" are up 39 per cent and "diamond rings" 76 per cent. Excellent news for those at the top of the SEO rankings for those terms.
Monday, 14 December 2009
Monday, 2 November 2009
Amazon PayPhrase
Amazon is trying to revolutionise the way we buy stuff online with the introduction of a quirky new checkout service called PayPhrase. Payphrase works by creating a shortcut to shipping and payment information stored within your Amazon account. Instead of filling in lengthy forms with your payment and delivery details, users will be able to input a unique phrase associated with a four-digit pin. A key component is you don't need to be signed into Amazon to purchase this way.
Here’s how it works:
Online merchants associated with Amazon Checkout such as DKNY.com and Buy.com will also be able to use this service which is good news for consumers who don’t want to give out the credit card details to an array of third-party websites. Moreover, this innovation could be revolutionary for M-commerce as it will make it much easier and convenient to buy via your mobile.
However, as far as online payments go, there are still many challenges ahead for this system. Many people struggle to remember multiple passwords as it is, and surely a payphrase is another one to add to the list.
Similarly, TechCrunch make the valid point that since many people would have 1234 as the pin code, there is the potential that lots of fraudulent orders could be placed.
- Guy Jarvie
Here’s how it works:
Online merchants associated with Amazon Checkout such as DKNY.com and Buy.com will also be able to use this service which is good news for consumers who don’t want to give out the credit card details to an array of third-party websites. Moreover, this innovation could be revolutionary for M-commerce as it will make it much easier and convenient to buy via your mobile.
However, as far as online payments go, there are still many challenges ahead for this system. Many people struggle to remember multiple passwords as it is, and surely a payphrase is another one to add to the list.
Similarly, TechCrunch make the valid point that since many people would have 1234 as the pin code, there is the potential that lots of fraudulent orders could be placed.
- Guy Jarvie
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Econsultancy: The 27 Ways Retailers Can Use Twitter
Magnificent blog post by Chris Lake at Econsultancy, documenting the 27 ways retailers can use Twitter. Since Twitter has been valued at $1bn and is still taking the world by storm, more and more retailers are devising strategies for this medium.
Personally i think the following types of tweets are best for retail:
1. Time limited offers
2. Coupons
3. Dealing with a PR disaster
For the full list clicky clicky on this link here.
Finlay
Personally i think the following types of tweets are best for retail:
1. Time limited offers
2. Coupons
3. Dealing with a PR disaster
For the full list clicky clicky on this link here.
Finlay
Friday, 25 September 2009
H&M Finally Embrace Digital
Two things have happened this week which suggest Swedish fashion retailer H&M are beginning to take the digital channel seriously, with the announcements that firstly they are launching a global digital campaign to push their Autumn / Winter collection, and secondly that they are due to start selling online in the UK next Autumn.
The decision to start selling online represents a mindshift change for the retailer, who were one of the last high street brands to put investment behind an ecommerce channel. The decision comes after third quarter pre-tax profits were slightly higher than expected, and it also comes on the back of major rival Zara announcing last week it was going to do the same.
The global digital campaign has been created by agency Perfect Fools, and encompasses social media activity and a website that tries to bring the print activity to life through slow motion video. The site certainly looks pretty and is great for profiling a limited number of top products, but it's all in flash and internal navigation/search within the site is very limited.
H&M are supporting the campaign with display activity and on their Facebook page, and they're also trying to get users to embed links into their own blogs and social network profiles.
The decision to start selling online represents a mindshift change for the retailer, who were one of the last high street brands to put investment behind an ecommerce channel. The decision comes after third quarter pre-tax profits were slightly higher than expected, and it also comes on the back of major rival Zara announcing last week it was going to do the same.
The global digital campaign has been created by agency Perfect Fools, and encompasses social media activity and a website that tries to bring the print activity to life through slow motion video. The site certainly looks pretty and is great for profiling a limited number of top products, but it's all in flash and internal navigation/search within the site is very limited.
H&M are supporting the campaign with display activity and on their Facebook page, and they're also trying to get users to embed links into their own blogs and social network profiles.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Google UK Retail Summit pt 2 – Richard Last, VP, JC Penney
Next up was Richard Last, VP at JC Penney and Chairman of the Board for Shop.org, who delivered the keynote speech.
Richard mentioned that JC Penney’s ecommerce operation was like “a religion” in the early years – “wasn’t profitable and required a lot of faith” which drew a number of laughs from the audience. Made me think of those high street players such as Primark, Zara and TK Maxx who are either just embarking on this journey or still have this whole experience to go through.
He went on to talk about how JCP.com had played an important role in reshaping JC Penney’s approach to different channels. It is clear Richard’s organisation is truly multichannel, as they have put in place structural changes to break the silos of the individual channels, and have moved to a centralised marketing department.
The focus is on having a consistent message and letting the consumer decide how they browse and shop at JC Penney across whatever channel suits them. It’s common knowledge that a multichannel shopper spends more than a shopper who just shops in one channel, and by enabling customers to have multiple touch points with the brand then JC Penney are further ahead than most in harnessing the value from a multichannel strategy.
The main themes explored by Richard was video-commerce, social shopping and mobile shopping. From using flash animation to improve interaction and engagement with shoppers (see the teen section below) to working with Bazaarvoice on ratings and reviews, JCP.com is constantly innovating.
There was an interesting disclosure that JC Penney found it was better to have a negative review for a product compared to no review at all, and in trialling coupons which are redeemed by using mobile phones they have a way of showing how their mobile channel impacts instore sales.
Richard Last talked for an hour on his business and it’s clear that JC Penny have completely embraced online, they are working towards a fully integrated digital retail experience and they are well on the way to achieving this.
- Finlay
Richard mentioned that JC Penney’s ecommerce operation was like “a religion” in the early years – “wasn’t profitable and required a lot of faith” which drew a number of laughs from the audience. Made me think of those high street players such as Primark, Zara and TK Maxx who are either just embarking on this journey or still have this whole experience to go through.
He went on to talk about how JCP.com had played an important role in reshaping JC Penney’s approach to different channels. It is clear Richard’s organisation is truly multichannel, as they have put in place structural changes to break the silos of the individual channels, and have moved to a centralised marketing department.
The focus is on having a consistent message and letting the consumer decide how they browse and shop at JC Penney across whatever channel suits them. It’s common knowledge that a multichannel shopper spends more than a shopper who just shops in one channel, and by enabling customers to have multiple touch points with the brand then JC Penney are further ahead than most in harnessing the value from a multichannel strategy.
The main themes explored by Richard was video-commerce, social shopping and mobile shopping. From using flash animation to improve interaction and engagement with shoppers (see the teen section below) to working with Bazaarvoice on ratings and reviews, JCP.com is constantly innovating.
There was an interesting disclosure that JC Penney found it was better to have a negative review for a product compared to no review at all, and in trialling coupons which are redeemed by using mobile phones they have a way of showing how their mobile channel impacts instore sales.
Richard Last talked for an hour on his business and it’s clear that JC Penny have completely embraced online, they are working towards a fully integrated digital retail experience and they are well on the way to achieving this.
- Finlay
Google UK Retail Summit pt 1 – Philipp Schindler, VP for Northern & Central Europe, Google
Yesterday I attended Google’s UK Retail Summit at the very swish Andaz Hotel on Liverpool Street, London. The event was compered by Peter Fitzgerald, Industry Leader for Retail at Google UK and it was jam-packed with some of the biggest retailers and advertising agencies in the industry.
Phillipp Schindler (Google’s VP for Northern and Central Europe) was first up and opened the event with some hard-hitting stats about the latest trends of consumer behaviour in Europe:
• Google receives a staggering 3.6bn searches worldwide per day
• 64% of UK adults have used the internet to research products in the last 4 months
• 70% of UK web users will make at least one purchase online this year
• £42bn was spent online in July 2009 in the UK alone. This is up 70% year on year.
• £102m was spent online on Christmas Day in the UK in 2008 – but Boxing Day was bigger
Phillipp also gave the retailers in the room some practical tips on how to improve their own ecommerce operations:
• By simplifying the checkout form Comet increased conversion by 7%
• Next implemented Google’s technology for its internal site search and reduced exit rate by 19%
• The loading speed of the website is a key metric which affects revenue, and this is often overlooked
• Personalising the shopping experience will dramatically increase conversion
• Mobile is finally happening. 1.8bn apps downloaded from itunes shows that there is real worth in trying to move your ecommerce operation on to all available platforms.
• How mobile integrates with the high street will be one of the most interesting aspects of ecommerce in the next 5 years.
Also, Google dropped the statistic that the world’s second most popular search engine (behind Google) is YouTube.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Content Websites Growth Outstrips Retailers
Last month i missed a very interesting post from Robin Goad at Hitwise and thought it was worth covering here (sorry i'm late to the party!).
The gist is that retail websites gain a smaller share of the available time which users are spending online. The graph below illustrates this quite well over the past 3 years; you can see clearly that the blue retail line is on a downward trend whilst the yellow social networks line has shot up significantly.
When you think about it, a lot of this makes sense; people check social network sites all the time to find out what their friends are up to, you only go shopping online when you have a desire to buy something. It's important to say that this graph does not illustrate that retailers get more traffic than they did 3 years ago (!) there has definitely been growth... its just not as fast a growth spike that the likes of social network sites and news /media sites (e.g. YouTube and the BBC's iPlayer site) are achieving nowadays.
Robin goes on to say that way back in July 2006 transactional sites used to attract similar levels of traffic as content websites. Get up to date in July 2009 and you can see a seismic shift in that content (entertainment, social networks and forums, news and media, and lifestyle) websites attract 73% more traffic than their transactional equivalents (transactional includes shopping, travel and finance websites).
People continue to spend more of their time online, and of course shopping is just one of these aspects. From a retail aspect it's important to think that people use the social networks and news sites to inform their purchasing decisions on products, so just because someone is on YouTube doesn't mean they're not viewing a review of the latest Nokia with a view to upgrading.
That's why I'm seeing more and more retailers put serious thought into their own social media strategies at the moment.
Finlay
The gist is that retail websites gain a smaller share of the available time which users are spending online. The graph below illustrates this quite well over the past 3 years; you can see clearly that the blue retail line is on a downward trend whilst the yellow social networks line has shot up significantly.
When you think about it, a lot of this makes sense; people check social network sites all the time to find out what their friends are up to, you only go shopping online when you have a desire to buy something. It's important to say that this graph does not illustrate that retailers get more traffic than they did 3 years ago (!) there has definitely been growth... its just not as fast a growth spike that the likes of social network sites and news /media sites (e.g. YouTube and the BBC's iPlayer site) are achieving nowadays.
Robin goes on to say that way back in July 2006 transactional sites used to attract similar levels of traffic as content websites. Get up to date in July 2009 and you can see a seismic shift in that content (entertainment, social networks and forums, news and media, and lifestyle) websites attract 73% more traffic than their transactional equivalents (transactional includes shopping, travel and finance websites).
People continue to spend more of their time online, and of course shopping is just one of these aspects. From a retail aspect it's important to think that people use the social networks and news sites to inform their purchasing decisions on products, so just because someone is on YouTube doesn't mean they're not viewing a review of the latest Nokia with a view to upgrading.
That's why I'm seeing more and more retailers put serious thought into their own social media strategies at the moment.
Finlay
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