Christmas & How Twitter Users Love Planning

On the run-up to Christmas 2016, Twitter have released an interesting Infographic about shopping behaviour and using the rather long hashtag #christmasisallaround

There's some interesting findings and some pretty obvious stuff mentioned, but overall it provides a useful insight into the planning of the festive season. Especially by Millennials.

Full PDF version is here

 

Google Shopping becoming a paid-for service

Google Shopping, the comparison shopping engine from Google, is about to change in the UK and several other countries from today. From 13 February it is moving from a free service to a paid-for one, in an increasing attempt by the UK & Europe’s biggest search engine to monetise its functionality.

 

However it will take a little while to transition over from the free service and the change will not be completely implemented until around the end of Q2 2013. Based upon Cost-per-click (CPC) bidding for each product, the system will be run from your Google account .It will then work in a similar way to the AdWords system that is used to display advertising alongside the organic search results (SERPs)

So....Are you ready for Google’s newly-monetised service?

If not,there are certain things you can do to prepare yourself

1. Create an AdWords account
   If you do not have an AdWords account already, you will need one if you want to keep your products showing up… but it will cost you when someone clicks on one of your products.
2. Make sure your bidding is competitive
   Just like pay-per-click costs, bidding on Product Listing Ads is not just based on what you want to pay for a visit, but what your competitors bid. Setting maximum daily budgets is therefore the obvious way to avoid any financial surprises.
3. Understand the work involved If you currently manage your free listings yourself and have little knowledge of the Google AdWords system, you could be in for a steep learning curve.
4. Make sure your feeds are correct
   The slightest error in your feed to Google Shopping could break the entry for your products in the Google Merchant Center account. These feeds also need to contain as much information as possible and be completely up-to-date (so you’re not paying for products you no longer sell or have stock of).
5. Keep a close eye on your analytics
   Remember, the number of visits to your site is not usually the best indicator that your paid-for campaigns are optimised. Ensure your analytics account (e.g. Google Analytics) has your goals set-up around conversions and then adapt your product listing adverts to get the most sales.

I’ll be following this new service as it gradually gets rolled-out to users. If you have any experience of paid for PLA’s(e.g. tips and hints) I’d love to hear your thoughts.

IRIS : Internet retailing in store

Congratulations to Internet Retailing Magazine and Expo for their introduction of the term IRIS which is short for Internet Retailing in-Store.
Not only is it a great term that is easy to remember, but the eye-based connotation is also clever and relevant.
http://www.internetretailingexpo.com/

These days the use of mobile devices to shop online has grown to become a major revenue channel for all but the most resistant of retailers. But as more and more people shop with their smartphone in stores, and use other connected devices when they are there, then the in-store Internet retailing experience is going to become of increasing importance.
Note: connected commerce happens anywhere you can get data, not just at home on the sofa via a fast broadband connection (as I'm sure a lot if ecommerce traders still believe).

The Government's High Street Review revealed that retail spending has fallen by 42% in town centres and is forecast to fall further to 40% by 2014. So one could therefore argue that the more recent developments in online retailing such as click & collect now need to connect the digital experience with the physical one. Not just to increase the revenue for online traders, but as a potential way of boosting the stores income too.

Happy eCommerce Christmas from North Korea

Here's a little bit of online shopping silliness using TV news footage from North Korea:


I hope this isn't your eCommerce experience this Christmas.

Social Media, Shopping and Trust

So who do customers actually trust these days?

Well according the “Trust Barometer”* for 2008 from Edelman, the world's largest independent PR firm, consumers feel the most credible source for information about a company is a....

.... “person like themselves.”

*Is this a box with two doors, out of which comes either a little man with a stick or a lady holding a carrot?

Theoretically we should then also should assume that the trust for a company carries over into product/brand trust and hopefully sales.

Of particular interest over the last 2 years is:

In 2007 businesses were more trusted than Governments, with the UK population having the lowest trust in Government (and in media companies).

In 2008 young opinion elites have higher general levels of trust than their older counterparts. They also apparently rely on multiple sources of information to form opinions of companies.

According to Jeff Grau, Senior Analyst at eMarketer:

“While blogs and customer ratings and reviews have long been a familiar
part of the Internet commercial landscape, over the past two years social
shopping sites have emerged as another way for customers to share product
experiences and opinions.”
“The sites typically provide tools for users to download photos of
interesting products found on retail Web sites to their profile page or blog.
Users then share and discuss their findings with the community,”

His article also goes into more detail about the social aspects of shopping, particularly the users need to feel part of a community and their recognition from peers.