Tag: amazon

Amazon And Apple Collide In The OTT Space

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Two new developments from the OTT space today reminded us again of the ongoing convergence of content providers and digital distribution channels. Amazon Prime Video expanded its “download for offline viewing” feature from its Kindle tablets to its iOS and Android apps, while Apple has reportedly started talks with Hollywood executives about developing original contents for its long-rumored Apple TV subscription service.

Market Impact
By allowing users to download content for online viewing with monthly reauthorization required, Amazon would undoubtedly eat into the movie rentals and sales – most of them motivated by lack of Internet access caused by travel nowadays – that Apple’s iTunes Store currently occupies. Meanwhile, Apple’s ambitious entry into the OTT content market, complete with a subscription service and possibly its own original content, would put it in direct competition with Amazon along with a handful of other OTT services.

As the digital transition of the TV industry continues, we expect to see more twists and turns in the changing TV landscape that all brands and media owners need to be aware of, even if they are not immediately actionable.

 

Source: The Verge & Variety

Amazon To End Support For Flash Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Earlier this week, Amazon announced its decision to stop accepting Flash-powered ads on its site and advertising platform, effective September 1st, putting another nail in Flash’s coffin. Last month, Mozilla blocked Flash in its Firefox browser following a security breach, while popular e-sport streaming site Twitch also started to replace Flash with HTML5 video.

What Brands Should Do
Flash, despite being prone to security loopholes and ill-suited for mobile screens, has proven to be oddly resilient, possibly due to institutional inertia among digital creatives. But as the industry pushes toward HTML5, we will most likely be witnessing the demise of Flash soon, and brands would be wise to make the switch sooner than later, both for ads and for product demo videos.

 

Source: Digiday

Why Amazon Is Retiring Its Product Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Earlier this week, Amazon notified advertisers of its decision to shut down its popular pay-per-click “Product Ads”, which shows texts and photos at the bottom of Amazon’s search results and usually links to other sites. Besides the obvious concerns over diverting traffic to competing ecommerce sites, Amazon may also be discontinuing this particular ad unit to stop companies like Google gaining access to its shopper data.

What Brands Should Do
This decision will no doubt push some brands that advertising their products on Amazon towards selling their products on Amazon as well. For those brands, it is important to build out the product pages with rich product descriptions, demo videos, and photos that can truly capture the attention of digital shoppers. For brands that still wish to direct shoppers to their own sites, Amazon offers an alternative ad format named “text ads,” which, as the name indicates, only offers textual links, admittedly making it a less attractive option for most retailers.

 

Source: Marketing Land

Ecommerce Giants Continue Move Into Physical Retail Space

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Amazon has signed a lease for a prime warehouse formerly used by Tesco as a distribution center, in preparation for the imminent U.K. launch of its grocery delivery service. Similarly, Alibaba announced a $4.5 billion investment in Suning, a major electronics retailer in China, in hopes of connecting online shoppers with physical stores and further expanding its delivery network.

What Brands Should Do
As the traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are going online and building out their digital assets, some ecommerce brands, including Warby Parker and Casper, have been venturing into physical retail to take advantage of the benefits that physical storefronts offer. For digital-native brands seeking faster delivery service or even to expand beyond ecommerce, eclipsing the existing retail and logistical infrastructure via either partnerships or acquisitions would be a good place to start.

Source: The WSJ & The Guardian

Amazon Starts Selling Dash Buttons For $4.99 A Piece

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
The much-hyped Amazon Dash Buttons are finally here, available for all Prime members to purchase at $4.99 a piece. Back when it first launched four months ago, the bluetooth-enabled gadgets were initially offered for free to select Prime members by invitation only.

What Brands Should Do
As of now, there are 18 different branded Dash Buttons available, with nearly all of them created for household products. This means there is still many other CPG categories that could benefit greatly from putting out their own physical buy buttons to cultivate a long-term relationship with consumers that encourages habitual re-purchase. CPG brands should consider partnering with Amazon soon in order to gain the first-mover advantage.

Source: The Verge

Header image taken from Amazon’s site for “Dash Button“.

Amazon Cozies Up To Startups With Launchpad

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Earlier this week, Amazon unveiled Launchpad, a specialty store on its main website that aims to help startups, specifically those with innovative, consumer-facing hardware and physical goods, “launch, market, and distribute” new products. Similar to existing platforms like Product Hunt or Shopify, Launchpad marks Amazon’s first big move to pursue a symbiotic partnership with new product companies, in which the startups gain a strong marketer and distributor for their products, while Amazon gets a share of the innovative sheen, and, of course, the profits.

What Brands Should Do
Brands in the innovation space, especially those that are seeking scale, should consider this new platform offered by the ecommerce giant. Meanwhile, consumer gadget retailers like Best Buy and Brookstone need to take relevant measures to address the potential threats Launchpad could introduce to the market.

 

Source: TechCrunch

Head image taken from Amazon Launchpad webpage

Why Amazon Is Trialling A “Drive-Up” Grocery Store

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Following the 3 pop-up storefronts it experimented with late last year, Amazon is now ready to step further into physical retail with a “drive-up” grocery store. Reportedly a new 11,600-square-foot building in Sunnyvale, this store will allow consumers to quickly pick up grocery items ordered online beforehand with a scheduled visit. Amazon has been getting serious with its same-day delivery service, especially in the grocery category, which it just expanded to U.K., the first market to receive such services outside the U.S. In that regard, the “drive-up” store could easily double as a distribution hub, should Amazon choose to further expand its same-day delivery services into new markets.

What Brands Should Do
There is no doubt that Amazon, along with other tech companies and startups, are set to disrupt the local market with the convenience of on-demand services. Therefore, retail and CPG brands need to take notes of Amazon’s rapid expansion into the space and find ways to work with it. One possible way would be to partner with Amazon to get your product featured on the “order” webpage. If Amazon can soon beat Macy’s in clothing retail, then grocery stores and supermarkets may just be its next targets to conquer.

 

Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal

Jet Challenges Amazon With “Smart Items” & Dynamic Discounts

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
A new ecommerce site Jet.com, created by co-founder of Diapers.com parent Quidsi Marc Lore, launched on Tuesday, challenging ecommerce leader Amazon with lower pricing. Lore says that Jet uses a proprietary technology engine to link certain items that cost less to deliver when purchased together, creating a dynamic discount system that reprices items based on what shoppers already have in their carts. Such items are branded “Smart Items” and promoted on Jet with a special icon, similar to how Amazon promotes the “Prime-eligible” items.

What Brands Should Do
While it is still too early to tell if Jet’s offering is appealing enough to truly compete with Amazon. It does bring something new to the ecommerce space with the “Smart Items” system that enables dynamic discounts, which CPG brands and alike could potentially leverage to increase sales on digital outlets by encouraging bigger orders.

Source: Re/code

Amazon To Become The Biggest U.S. Clothing Retailer By 2017

Posted on by Lab Team

According to a new report by Cowen & Co released on Monday, Amazon is set to sell $27.77 billion worth of apparel domestically in 2017, possibly dethroning Macy’s as the No. 1 clothing retailer in the states. Such a rosy prediction is likely due to the ecommerce giant’s efforts to woo fashion brands during the last few years. More importantly, it also dovetails nicely with the rise of ecommerce in recent years, projected to top $440 billion by 2017 in revenue, while brick-and-mortar retail continues to decline.

Source: Fortune

Amazon Celebrates 20-Year Anniversary With “Prime Day” Sales Event

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: ZDNet

To celebrate its 20-year anniversary since launch, Amazon is planning a one-day-only sales event dubbed “Prime Day” that aims to encourage both transaction volumes and prime membership sign-ups.

Looking to make it into what Amazon calls “a global shopping event,” the ecommerce giant claims it will be offering “more deals than Black Friday,” exclusively for Prime members in the U.S., U.K., and 7 other global markets. Considering that Prime members on average reportedly spend $1,500 on Amazon a year, more than doubling the $625 non-members spend, it makes perfect sense for Amazon to create ways to lure more customers into Prime membership.

While it may be a first for Amazon, it certainly isn’t the first time an ecommerce site has tried to make a spectacle out of a sales event. In China, Alibaba has been single-handedly spearheading its Annual Sales on Single’s Day – a brand new holiday pushed into public consciousness by Alibaba’s marketing department – into a nationwide online shopping craze. Last year, it even broke the global single-day ecommerce sale record with a smashing $9.3 billion (RMB 57.1 billion) in total transaction volume. If Amazon could score half the success that Alibaba has bad with Single’s Day, Prime Day may very well become a yearly event.