Search for Shopping Tilting Back to Search Engines from Amazon

What happens when you open a search engine such as Google and type in a product you want to buy?

For many years now you've largely been provided links to related products on Amazon.com.

As the world has shifted to mobile consumption of the internet certain challenges and opportunities have presented themselves to digital companies.  Google has altered its approach to search to be far more mobile friendly.  The result?  Click-throughs are now much more likely to go to Google than straight to Amazon.

Read the full story here:

https://www.retaildive.com/news/amazon-slipping-in-search/513775/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Amazon is slipping when it comes to search. The e-commerce giant took 49% of consumers’ initial product searches, down from last year’s 55%, with search engines taking 36% (up from 28% last year) and other retail sites taking 15% (16% last year), according to a study by consumer research firm Survata first reported by Bloomberg.

It is important to note that Amazon is still getting about half of all such clicks.  Very strong, but declining and that is significant.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  This may be my final post from 2017.  Hope 2018 is a great year for everyone.

TargetPay is Here - Wallet

Following years of investment in mobile wallet through the now sold off MCX and the CurrentC mobile payments solution, and well after Walmart enacted its Walmart Pay solution Target has theirs in place. They call it simple "Wallet".

This is the beginning of furthering a huge divide between the top of the Tier 1 retailers and everyone else.  We may need to create a new designation like "Super Power" when mere "Major Power" was no longer enough.

The biggest merchants will have a strong physical presence, eCommerce presence, vertically integrated merchandising, strong mobile, and strong mobile wallet capability. Think Amazon and Walmart.  Now Target.

Everyone else?  Well, this speaks to the huge need for a white label solution for all of those merchants not big enough to handle all of this on their own.

Anyone?

Here is the story:

http://www.businessinsider.com/targets-mobile-wallet-is-finally-here-2017-12

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Target launched its long-anticipated mobile wallet for in-store payments on Monday, according to TechCrunch. The product, which will be barcode-based and housed in the existing Target mobile app, is known as Wallet. Two key features distinguish Wallet and could help optimize it for use:

The wallet is only available to store cardholders.

...

That’s especially true because it expands upon existing app functionality.

...

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Amazon - Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Two stories from Business Insider tell this story.

First up is how Amazon did on Black Friday and if you had any doubt, they rocked:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-dominates-thanksgiving-and-black-friday-online-sales-2017-11

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Amazon pulled in 45% of all online transactions — or purchases — on Thanksgiving Day, and 54.9% on Black Friday, according to Hitwise data cited in Dealerscope.

Next is Amazon on Cyber Monday ... and ... they rocked:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-says-cyber-monday-is-biggest-shopping-day-in-history-2017-11

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Amazon says Cyber Monday was its biggest shopping day in company history.

"Amazon customers shopped at record levels... ordering hundreds of millions of products from toys to fashion to electronics and Amazon devices," Jeff Wilke, Amazon's head of worldwide consumer, said in a statement. "Customers ordered nearly 140 million items from small businesses alone and this is just the beginning of the holiday season."

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Black Friday 2017

Business Insider is a site you should be checking out pretty much every day.  I'll be posting twice with three stories from them covering the holiday shopping season.

First up is Black Friday:

http://www.businessinsider.com/black-friday-2017-sales-surge-stores-remain-empty-2017-11

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Many stores were empty this Black Friday — but retailers have no need to panic.

Some shoppers were surprised to find empty Targets, Best Buys, and Walmarts when they showed up for Black Friday shopping.

When Business Insider's Sarah Jacobs arrived at the Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn early Friday morning, she found a meager line outside waiting for the mall to open, and even fewer people outside Target and Best Buy.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0255 Shopping Online Using What Device?

Best Reading of the Day

Forbes has a fantastic article for all of the holiday shoppers out there looking to browse online stores for their shopping needs.

Quick.  What device are you reading this on?  Desktop computer?  Is your smartphone nearby?

If you wanted to grab something off of eBay real quick which device should you use?

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Since the dawn of Cyber Monday, when consumers would come home from shopping in stores all Black Friday weekend, only to turn around and use high-speed connections at work on Monday to finish up their shopping lists, retailers have observed that consumers are using different digital channels for different objectives.

Over the past few years, holiday shopping has reflected some of these shifts. Online sales are growing far faster than store sales, and within online, mobile is capturing a larger share of traffic – but mobile still drags far behind desktop and even tablet experiences when it comes to sales.

Retailers also have not invested evenly across their digital channels. Just because a retailer's desktop website is a great experience, it doesn’t mean its mobile site – or app – has kept up.

Here is the whole story:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nikkibaird/2017/11/21/mobile-or-desktop-site-or-app-which-is-the-best-way-to-shop-this-holiday-season/#3be564c7214a

I wrote about these things a couple times here regarding retailer's digital strategies and here regarding the question of what is actually "mobile" and what isn't.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant