The e-commerce technology company announced on Monday a new Seattle location, Amazon Go, that has no registers. Instead, shoppers scan into the store with their free Amazon Go app, shop as normal, and leave the store with the items billed to their Amazon.com account.
While some stores have used a wedding-registry technique to allow this kind of shopping, Amazon takes it one step further. Using computer vision — the kind of technology that lets self-driving cars “see” — the store recognizes the user, making it unnecessary to individually scan items.
According to the Seattle Times, the 1,800 square-foot store, featuring ready-to-eat meals and snacks, is open to Amazon employees participating in a testing program. The store will open to the public in early 2017....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Amazon is now testing three different types of retail – bookstores, pickup/drive-through and now, an innovative no cashier, no checkout, no lineups, convenience store. Retailers look out!
Adobe Digital Insights predicts 2016 online sales will be up 11% and shoppers will be out earlier than ever. 55% of US and UK retailers say Amazon will drive the majority of their holiday sales this year according to research by ChannelAdvisor and Morar Consulting. The National Retail Federation expects US consumers to spend an average of $935.58 with overall holiday sales to rise 3.6% and online sales up 7% to 10%.
What’s Walmart’s holiday sales strategy? Value, price rollbacks and features, along with Santa’s helpers at checkout. UPS expects to be busy as well, shipping more than 700 million packages during the holidays, up 16.7% from 2015. Bestblackfriday.com, says Friday’s Black Friday sales may drop by 10% in-store to$9.2 billion though online sales may reach $3 billion, up 13%....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Here's an interesting roundup of holiday e-commerce and retail predictions.
The largest-ever acquisition of an e-commerce company likely won't be enough for Wal-Mart to dethrone Amazon. But there's no shame in playing for second.
In a bid to juice its online business, the world's largest retailer agreed Monday to purchase Jet.com in a $3.3 billion deal. The acquisition will beef up Wal-Mart's e-commerce prowess, from deepening its bench of talent to finding the cheapest way to ship online orders. These capabilities should help Wal-Mart grab a larger piece of the growing e-commerce pie. They're also the best chance it has of closing the wide — and growing — gap between it and Amazon, analysts said.
"Amazon's got this huge lead. That lead is going to be tough to relinquish but there's a lot of [share] out there," Moody's analyst Charlie O'Shea told CNBC....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Worst-kept secret, but Walmart finally completes the deal to buy Jet.com.
Marketers spend a lot of time trying to nail down abstract concepts. They're tasked with turning brainstorming sessions and comments sourced during focus groups into campaigns that sum up everything about a brand's identity in a neat, tidy, and most importantly, interesting way.
But what if a consumer could walk into a room and fully experience your brand with all their senses? Pop-up events offer just that -- the chance for consumers to get up close and personal with their favorite companies in a truly immersive setting.
In their simplest form, pop-up events are temporary retail spaces that give companies the opportunity to sell their products in an environment completely designed and controlled by them. Since they're temporary, they offer a relatively low-cost and low-commitment way for companies to take creative risks, generate buzz, and introduce their brands to new audiences.
Consumers love the lure of exclusivity, and brands love the unmatched opportunity for experimentation. To inspire your next branded experience, we've curated a list of 15 innovative and visually stunning pop-up events....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Creative marketing concepts are evident in these 15 examples of branded pop-up stores. good lessons. Good lessons.
Shoppers are warming to beacons and virtual reality.
The majority of consumers are open to location-based technology as long as it improves their shopping experience, according to a new study.
In the no-surprise department, coupons are viewed as the biggest incentive, based on a survey of 1,400 U.S. consumers focused on shopping habits and emerging retail technology conducted by Walker Sands.
While a third (33%) of consumers aren’t open to beacons or any location-based technology in stores, 67% say in-store tracking could improve their in-store shopping experience.
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Shoppers say bring on the in-store coupons and perhaps some maps.
A new report answers the questions, how many products does Amazon actually carry, and in which categories. And it shows the incredible impact third-party merchants have on Amazon's selection.
The report from 360pi shows that Amazon alone carried 12,231,203 total products as of May 2016, excluding Books, Media, Wine, and Services - note that product variants were not included in the analysis.
But when products available from marketplace sellers were included, the total number of products increased almost 30X to a total of 353,710,754 products offered by Amazon and its marketplace sellers combined (applying the same exclusions noted above).
The top 5 categories based on the number of products listed on Amazon's U.S. site, including marketplace sellers (again, the same exclusions apply) are....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Very interesting look at the number of products Amazon carries.
In looking to solve this problem and figure out exactly what it is that is convincing consumers to buy online, BigCommerce commissioned a study into the modern consumer journey. We learned how, when, why and where U.S. consumers buy today –– and more so, what is stopping them from doing so.
This information is incredibly important for retailers looking to sustain and grow their revenue. In today’s omni-channel world, brands must be strategic about merchandising on their various channels and need to fully understand why or why not their customers are clicking the buy button –– no matter where it appears.
Check out the infographic below for key insights or read the full State of Omni-Channel Retail Report....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
What's the consumer journey looking like today in an omni-channel world? Marketers and retailers take note.
Coupons are quickly growing as a significant component of beacon-enabled proximity marketing thanks to strong redemption rates, with brands and retailers forecast to deliver 1.6 billion coupons a year by 2020, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The results point to how proximity marketing is gaining traction as retailers look to engage more deeply with consumers in and around their stores, prompting the volume of beacon-enabled coupons to grow quickly from the 11 million expected to be delivered in 2015. However, the research also underscores the potential danger of turning beacons into nothing more than another offer channel, which is likely to cause shoppers to lose interest.
“I would imagine that coupons will represent a key plank of any beacon-based proximity marketing strategy,” said Dr. Windsor Holden, head of forecasting and consultancy at Juniper Research as well as author of the report....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Talk about powerful? Beacons will deliver more than 1.6 billion coupons a year by 2020 according to a new report from Juniper Research. Recommended reading for retailers and marketers. 9/10
Brand loyalty is important to retailers, but one tool can lure loyal shoppers away to other establishments.
Coupons are still one of the most effective tools to attract customers away from brands and retailers to which they are loyal, according to a report from Valassis.
Furthermore, coupons are just as influential among average consumers as they are among brand loyalists:
84% of all consumers (not including brand loyalists) would likely switch stores in order to capitalize on weekly specials, compared to 82% of brand loyalists.
Coupons would lead 82% of all consumers to purchase a product from a brand they would not otherwise, compared to 78% of brand loyalists
85% of all consumers would purchase a new product because of a coupon, compared to 84% of brand loyalists....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Coupons are still a powerful influence with the ability to move consumers from one brand to another with the right deal.
There's more evidence to support the growing importance of mobile devices along the path to purchase.
According to Nielsen's fourth-quarter 2015 Mobile Wallet Report, 37 percent of respondents said their purchases start with mobile shopping more than one-quarter to half of the time.
The report compares mobile use from the fourth quarter of 2015 to the same period the year before. It found that shoppers are using mobile devices, particularly smartphones, to assist with in-store sales more frequently than for online shopping.
Roughly 72 percent are researching an item or checking prices on a smartphone before buying. Store locators are popular with 60 percent of smartphone users, and 55 percent are using mobile coupons.
Reviews are popular with slightly more than half of all mobile device users and 44 percent of smartphone users use digital lists while shopping....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Marketers, check out these key Nielsen stats:
37% of shoppers start on mobile
72% are researching or checking prices on smartphone
Executives at a number of US retailers may be surprised to see Bloomberg’s headline on Friday: “Retail Sales Rise Most in a Year, Marking U.S. Consumer Comeback.”
This despite a number of America’s top retail chains reporting dire earnings reports and lowering their outlooks this week. Macy’s shares fell to a four-year low this week, with one analyst saying its woes could doom a third of US shopping malls. Kohl’s reported an 87% drop in net income for its most recent quarter. Nordstrom is cost-cutting following its drop. Gap Inc. may close more Old Navy and Banana Republic stores as its portfolio struggles. JCPenney shares sunk 10% on Friday morning after its disappointing quarterly report.
Kohl’s quantified its distress with the report of a sales drop of 3.7 percent and a profits plunge of more than half; sales at stores open at least a year were down by 3.9 percent. This followed an earlier report by Macy’s that first-quarter sales had fallen off by a huge 7.4 percent, while profit plunged by 40 percent; same-store sales were down by 5.6 percent, Macy’s fifth consecutive quarterly decline. Earlier, Gap said its comparable-store sales for the quarter would be down by 5 percent....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Big retail is suffering, but online sales are gaining traction and omni-channel strategies will grow in importance
The e-retailer, which has had trouble getting some apparel manufacturers to sell to it wholesale, is now selling apparel for women, men and kids under its own brands. Here’s a close look at these Amazon brands and their prospects.
Amazon.com Inc. over the last eight months rolled out a series of Amazon-owned private-label apparel brands. The lines follow through on plans previously hinted at by Amazon executives, and represent a way for Amazon to become a bigger force in apparel, a segment where it’s been limited by the reluctance of some higher-end fashion brands to sell to Amazon.
KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Edward Yruma identified the brands in a research note released earlier this week based on his research. Amazon has not commented or confirmed the brands directly, but Internet Retailer located trademark applications filed by Amazon Technologies Inc. for six of the seven brands dating to March 2015. Amazon did not respond to inquiries....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Will Amazon fashions impact big fashion retailers or brands without its own bricks-and-mortar stores? That depends on how they build and carry out their own e-commerce and mobile strategies.
5miles, the Dallas and Beijing-based challenger to Wallapop and Craiglist has secured $30 million in new investment as it celebrates its first year in business this month.
The 1-year-old 5miles mobile marketplace app has managed to attract more than 5 million users (averaging 30,000 downloads a day) and is continuously working towards becoming a major player in the local online classified advertising business that’s been long dominated by Craiglist.
Its list of investors now includes IDG, Morningside, Blue Lake, and SIG-China (part of the Susquehanna Investment Group). In addition, individuals who have worked with or have ties with e-commerce giants like eBay and Alibaba have also invested in the app....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Even the mighty Craigslist is susceptible to disruption.
Howdy all and welcome to a special edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Rand Fishkin. I'm the founder of Moz, and today I want to talk with you about how to craft the best damn ecommerce page on the web. I'm actually going to be using the example of one of my very favorite ecommerce pages. That is the Bellroy Slim Wallet page. Now, Bellroy, actually, all of their pages, Bellroy makes wallets and they market them online primarily. They make some fantastic products. I've been an owner of one for a long time, and it was this very page that convinced me to buy it. So what better example to use?
So what I want to do today is walk us through the elements of a fantastic ecommerce page, talk about some things where I think perhaps even Bellroy could improve, and then walk through, at the very end, the process for improving your own ecommerce page....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Rand Fishkin reviews e-commerce page best practices and offers valuable tips.
The online retail ecosystem is fast evolving, and increasingly, shoppers no longer simply go to the nearest store. Rather, they grab the nearest digital device. And with the world at our fingertips, why only shop domestically? In fact, digital analytics firm eMarketer projects that online retail sales will more than double between 2015 and 2019 and account for more than 12% of global sales by 2019. Retail therapy is giving way to e-tail therapy.
To gain a better understanding of how consumers are navigating the connected commerce landscape, the Nielsen Global Connected Commerce Survey polled respondents in 26 countries. We looked at how consumers are using the Internet to make shopping decisions both in stores and online, and we examined what they’re buying, where they’re purchasing and how they’re paying for goods and services.
While connected commerce is still largely a domestic affair, with consumers primarily ordering from retailers in their own country, cross-border ecommerce is a growing phenomenon. Shoppers are increasingly looking outside their country’s borders, as more than half of online respondents in the study who made an online purchase in the past six months say they bought from an overseas retailer (57%).
Nearly three-quarters of Indian respondents* who purchased online in the past six months say they bought items from an overseas retailer (74%). But this isn’t just a developing-market trend. Roughly two-thirds of respondents in the Western European countries in the survey say they purchased from an overseas retailer, including 79% in Italy—the highest percentage in the online study—and 73% in Germany....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Cross-border e-commerce is growing quickly and evolving just as fast. This Nielsen report is a must read for marketers looking at overseas markets.
Both current and former customers of the outdoor-clothing company Patagonia, for example, are more likely to consider themselves quite knowledgeable when compared to other shoppers, yet less equipped with social skills than the Lord & Taylor crowd. People who shop at Hot Topic, which caters to a younger, more alternative demographic, see themselves as highly imaginative, while patrons of Jos. A. Bank, which sells men's suits and business casual attire, see themselves as leaders.
Overall, these distinct personality types reveal the power of marketing, if done right.
One report anticipates that the retail industry alone will spend $15.09 billion on digital ads in 2016, followed by $16.95 billion in 2017 — a 12% increase. While it's important to know the best location to place an ad, knowing the personality of your intended audience is just as crucial....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
There are potential strategic marketing advantages within the personalities of retail brands.
The world might be a mess, but look on the bright side: Men’s shaving products are much better than they used to be.
Thanks to several online shaving start-ups, razors, creams, gels and other paraphernalia are now cheaper, of higher quality and more convenient to purchase than ever before. Last week one of the upstarts, Dollar Shave Club, was acquired by the consumer products giant Unilever for $1 billion. For shaving behemoths like Gillette, it is the first skirmish in the coming guerrilla war for men’s faces, not to mention other parts. (Dollar Shave also makes bathroom wipes for men.)
This column usually focuses on the technology industry, an area that sounds far removed from shaving. But the Dollar Shave acquisition signals something bigger than a mere improvement in shaving — it also underscores a consumer products revolution that would not have been possible without technology.
Hilarious online ads passed along social networks allowed Dollar Shave to create instant customer recognition — in other words, a brand — far more quickly, and for far less money, than a shaving company could have managed a decade ago. Online distribution allowed it to get products into consumers’ hands without a costly retail presence. In fact, by cutting out on retail, and shipping products to people’s homes on a subscription basis, the company made buying shaving products more convenient than going to a store....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
NY Times columnist Farhad Manjoo looks at the power of online brands and how they are impacting traditional retail channels.
According to a recent survey looking at consumers’ attitudes toward retail technology, omnichannel personalization solution RichRevelance found shoppers are still not comfortable with all technology has to offer the retail industry.
Polling more than 1,000 consumers, the “Creepy or Cool: 2016 Consumer Survey” offered insight into the types of retail technology that appeals to consumers and what turns them off.
Sixty-seven percent of the survey participants labeled facial recognition technology as creepy when asked about it being used by retailers to direct salespersons toward high-value shoppers. (An even higher percentage of Millennials — 71 percent — said they found it creepy.)...
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Research says shoppers still like coupons, especially digital coupons, but facial recognition is "creepy."
Subscription services have become popular among online shoppers, but those same shoppers are also abandoning these services.
Through these subscriptions, customers make recurring payments and receive order shipments at regular intervals, and they have become popular because they let consumers refill products they need to replenish often, such as health and beauty products.
These services typically personalize orders based on a shopper's interests and style, which the companies often learn through connected social media accounts and quizzes. This experience mirrors the personalized service customers would get inside brick-and-mortar stores from sales associates.
So interest in these services has remained high, as 10% of U.S. shoppers have enrolled in one, and another 33% would consider doing so, according to the latest UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper report.
But satisfaction in these services is dropping, as 61% of those who have signed up have since canceled. And there are four main reasons why....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Curated e-commerce subscriptions – an early e-commerce favorite – may have now run its course according to a Business Insider report.
Selling through Amazon is extremely tempting for a simple, logical reason: you don’t have to pay for digital marketing to drive traffic to Amazon. The volume is bigger than any marketer can dream. Before Journelle, I worked at an Amazon subsidiary, Quidsi, and during my tenure, our core strategy pivoted from investing in its stand-alone sites like Diapers.com and Soap.com to rapidly scaling sales on Amazon’s Marketplace, exactly for this reason.
Amazon Marketplace vendors simply need to offer the most competitive price on a product to win the coveted Amazon “Buy Box”. “Buy Box” winners take all of the sales volume without any marketing spend required, making up for margin loss and commission to Amazon. To scale on Amazon, Quidsi capitalized on selection breadth and uniqueness, and created effective and predictive pricing algorithms to beat their competitors. Overnight, day-to-day business became more like trading stocks than traditional online marketing.
At the same time, there are downsides to relying too much on Amazon. First, there’s the risk of having too much of your revenue coming from a platform you don’t control. There’s also the risk that if you offer all your products on Amazon, you’ll cannibalize your own direct sales (and lose those higher margins). Finally, for high-end brands, Amazon’s site does not offer luxury customers a distinctive experience....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Harvard Business Review shares key questions to help e-commerce companies decide.
For the sixth year, Coupons.com, Quotient Technology Inc.'s (NYSE: QUOT) flagship savings destination, is releasing America's Most Frugal Cities list, showcasing cities with the most budget-conscious shoppers. According to the 2015 Coupons.com Savings Index[1], shoppers in 2015 clipped more than 1.6 billion digital coupons and saved more than $2.3 billion on consumer packaged goods, including grocery and household items.
This year, residents in Orlando are once again the savviest savers in the nation, reclaiming the title of Americas Most Frugal City from San Francisco, which took the lead in 2014 for the first time. Orlando won the 2013 honors and slipped to the third-ranked position in 2014. Rounding out the top 10 list, Washington, D.C., took the #2 spot for the second year in a row. Charlotte, N.C., moved up two spots to #3 and for the first time ever, New York City cracked the top 10 list as the #4 most frugal city in 2015. Atlanta (#5), Cleveland (#6), and Tampa, Fla. (#7), came in at a virtual tie, with Nashville, Tenn. (#8), narrowly beating Raleigh, N.C. (#9) and Virginia Beach, Va. (#10) to round out the top 10....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Where are the biggest cheapskates according to Coupons.com? Orlando, Washington DC and Charlotte, NC.
RetailMeNot, Inc., a leading digital savings destination connecting consumers with retailers, restaurants and brands, both online and in-store (www.retailmenot.com/corp), released a new study today, titled "The Evolution of Dining in the Digital Age," that explores digital savings and mobile habits among restaurant patrons, as well as general habits related to dining out and spending.
More than ever before, consumers are turning to their digital devices to help make dining out decisions easier, including searching for nearby locations and deals. In fact, nearly a third of consumers (32%) have used a deal that they found online or on their mobile device at a restaurant in the past three months. But that's not all they're using their smartphones for when dining; the survey breaks down when, where and how their mobile devices impact the dining journey....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Digital coupons and mobile have a big influence on consumer restaurant and food choices.
It looks as if Amazon is getting into the food business.
A new report from The Wall Street Journal says the online retail giant is gearing up to launch its first brand of foodstuffs by "as soon as the end of the month."
These "private-label brands" will reportedly include Happy Belly (including nuts, tea, and oil), Wickedly Prime (snacks and treats), and Mama Bear (baby products). But they are designed and created by Amazon, with all the profits going straight to the company....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
More disruption ahead by Amazon, this time in the food business.
A study from HRC Advisory finds that operating earnings as a percent of sales has declined by up to 25 percent for retailers due in part to a shift from in-store to online sales. The high cost of fulfilling e-commerce and omnichannel transactions also took its toll.
As part of the study, HRC analyzed the financial data of department stores, luxury, specialty apparel, beauty and off-price retailers as well as interviewing 15 c-level retail executives to gain their perspectives.
The study found that investments made in supply chain upgrades, digital marketing, IT, variable logistics costs and managing a high level of online returns generated incremental SG&A costs of two to three percentage points of sales. At the same time, real estate and wage inflation as well as declining in-store sales are resulting in a one to two percentage point reduction in physical store profit contributions....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
E-commerce is helping erode retail profitability according to research from HRC Advisory. Not great news for bricks and mortar stores.
As the 2016 year comes barreling towards us, it’s essential to look back at what you’e done with your business in order to establish a plan for the unexpected ahead. Even evaluating your entire ecommerce system is a wise choice, considering companies change, prices go up and offerings are not always what they once were.
Yes, the new year is a time for reevaluation, and the ecommerce world is no stranger to that. Therefore, keep reading to learn about the ten most interesting ecommerce trends for 2016 and beyond....
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Amazon is now testing three different types of retail – bookstores, pickup/drive-through and now, an innovative no cashier, no checkout, no lineups, convenience store. Retailers look out!