ecommerce – Page 9 – IPG Media Lab

Ecommerce Giants Continue Move Into Physical Retail Space

Posted on August 11, 2015 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 July 30, 2015 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 July 29, 2015 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

Jet Challenges Amazon With “Smart Items” & Dynamic Discounts

Posted on July 21, 2015 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 July 20, 2015 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

Birchbox To Deliver VR Experience Powered By Google Cardboard

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Lab Team

Subscription-based beauty e-retailer Birchbox will start putting Google Cardboard in their monthly box for male customers in August, leveraging the inexpensive, makeshift virtual reality viewer to prompt subscribers to download an iPhone or Android app to watch some branded, immersive video clips. It’s the first time Birchbox has experimented with virtual reality, and its monthly mailings could give a boost to the VR technology if the brand is able to consistently put out new content. If successful. Birchbox could also bring in some of its partners like Sephora or Ulta to create their own branded content, such as a virtual store tour or a shoppable tutorial video, for its VR platform.

Source: AdWeek

Header image courtesy of Google Cardboard

Meredith Corp. Acquires Grocery Server To Tap Into Hyperlocal Market

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Lab Team

Women’s magazine publisher Meredith Corp. has acquired Grocery Server, a digital ad platform that powers location-based ads for food and retail brands, aiming to make its digital assets more shoppable. The publisher first worked with Grocery Server in April 2014 to plug local ads into its AllRecipes site to let users shop for ingredients with real-time sales info from nearby grocery stores and retailers. After the acquisition, we expect more hyperlocal features like this to start popping up on other Meredith digital properties such as Better Homes and Gardens, Eating Well, and Martha Stewart to incorporate ecommerce into its digital publishing and add value for their readers, while also benefiting the CPG brands and retailers.

Source: AdWeek

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

Posted on July 7, 2015 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.

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