michaelslevy:e-commerce, social shopping and more.

Follow me on twitter: @michaelslevy

2011-02-16T10:27:00.003+01:00

Well, work and twitter finally got the best of me: it turns out I'm now tweeting instead of blogging... Follow me at @michaelslevy to keep up with the latest social commerce, e-commerce trends and news, curated by your truly :)

Two Cool Infographics About The Internet

2010-08-04T16:17:00.004+02:00

Enjoy!
(This is my longest blog post ever pixel-wise...)

A few stats about runaway success Groupon.com

2010-08-02T19:02:00.003+02:00

According to its CEO Andrew Mason, straight from the TechCrunch CrunchUp (wow):

50% gross margin
Launched in November 2008
A year ago today, active in 5-6 cities
Now running in 170 cities in 22 countries
Over 1,000 employees now
About 12 million people getting daily email. Adding 2 million a month
97% of businesses featured want to be featured again
Breakage rate is probably around 10%, though Groupon doesn’t directly track it

TechCrunch Social Commerce Panel videos, feat. Groupon, LivingSocial, Payvment, gWallet, Eventbrite, Zong

2010-08-02T18:35:00.003+02:00

TechCrunch's last Summer CrunchUp was all abour Social commerce: social currency, social savings, social coupons and social recommendations... See all about it here.

Why Google is scared of Facebook

2010-07-09T02:25:00.002+02:00

An awesome presentation on social networking by Paul Adams, UX researcher at Google:

The Real Life Social Network v2

View more documents from Paul Adams.

Breaking: Woot to be acquired by Amazon

2010-07-01T01:32:00.001+02:00

"Holy crap! Woot has signed an agreement with Amazon - yes, the Amazon - to become an independent subsidiary of the ecommerce colossus. Woot HQ will remain in Carrollton, Texas, and will operate as autonomously as other Amazon companies like Zappos and Audible.

Visit the blog for our usual snarky commentary and tell us what you think.
- Woot"

PIXmania targets EUR1.5b revenues in 2014

2010-06-28T09:26:00.003+02:00

PIXmania's turnover is up 15% to 897 million euros, and its net profit is up 40% ... The group intends to diversify even more, engage in online travel and expand its network of stores.

Also, the group's e-commerce outsourcing services, e-merchant, reached EUR35m revenues in the last fiscal year.

Original article in French

Google translation

How the World Spends Its Time Online

2010-06-21T10:18:00.003+02:00

Awesome Video from Jeff Bezos about Amazon and Zappos

2010-05-24T21:39:00.000+02:00

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos talks openly about Amazon and Zappos...

GSI Commerce Q1 2010 results

2010-05-05T00:11:00.002+02:00

From Internet Retailer:

GSI Commerce first quarter sales rise nearly 39%

E-commerce technology provider GSI Commerce reported today sales of $272.6 million for its fiscal first quarter ended April 3, up 38.7% compared to $196.5 million for the same period a year earlier.

For the first quarter, GSI reported:

Income from operations of $17.4 million, up 87.1% from $9.3 million.
Net loss of $8.1 million, compared to a net loss of $12.1 million.

"The year got off to a strong start for GSI with better than expected top and bottom line results in the first quarter,” says Michael G. Rubin, chairman and CEO of GSI. “The key drivers to the upside were strong comparable-store e-commerce trends and continued momentum in marketing services.”

GSI offered the following guidance for fiscal year 2010:

- Revenue of $1.3 billion, which would represent 30% growth from 2009 revenue of $1.0 billion
- Income from operations of $15.6 million
- Net income of $135.0 million.

Study says Social Commerce pays off

2010-05-04T17:04:00.002+02:00

Via the excellent Exciting Commerce blog:

"Unfortunately there are still too few scientific studies on networking effects in e-commerce. Understandable though, due to limited opportunities to make direct comparisons.

All the more exciting that a new study has been released (PDF) from France and the US with the title “Deriving Value from Social Commerce Networks”, whose results have been recently published in the Journal of Marketing Research. The study examines what happens when merchants begin to network with each other."

Download the study here.

Read the whole article at Exciting Commerce here.

iPad Commerce Watch: episode 2

2010-04-23T15:45:00.007+02:00

Following in GAP's footsteps, here comes Italy-based online fashion retailer YOOX, with its own iPad app...

It was developed by Yoox's in-house team, and it enables iPad owners to browse, shop and pay in 6 languages and for delivery in 67 countries...

Google incorporates ratings and reviews from e-retailers in search results

2010-04-23T15:38:00.002+02:00

Via Internet Retailer:

Ratings and reviews vendor Bazaarvoice is tying in with Google, enabling its 800 customers to display ratings and reviews from their websites in Google search results.

This enables Google to bring search even closer to the act of purchase for the users...

And it will probably increase the conversion rate of retailers using Bazaarvoice, as shoppers coming from a product-specific review in Google's search results will be even more qualified.

(This new Bazaarvoice feature is free and optional.)

Read the full article here.

Amazon's amazing growth compared to US retail and e-commerce

2010-04-13T23:18:00.003+02:00

A cool chart courtesy of Silicon Alley Insider says it all:

GAP e-commerce goes iPad: touchCommerce !

2010-04-13T10:36:00.002+02:00

GAP launched an iPad e-commerce app. It's gorgeous, mixing content and shopping, and making great use of the tablet's touchscreen gestures. Here's the video demo:

International E-Commerce Web retailers are reaping overseas sales without actively pursuing them

2010-04-02T17:14:00.002+02:00

So says An Internet Retailer survey...

Tony Hsieh on Zappos and delivering happiness

2010-03-22T10:30:00.001+01:00

Check out this presentation by Tony Hsieh, CEO of zappos.com, about delivering happiness to yourself, your employees and your customers:

Zappos - Amazon - 02-25-10

View more presentations from zappos.

New Zappos TV ad, highlighting their unparalleled customer service

2010-03-15T11:39:00.003+01:00

This is the first TV spot in a new campaign for Zappos, the online footwear and apparel retailer. This spot was created by Mullen in Boston, MA.

Here it is:

E-commerce innovations: extreme retailing

2010-03-10T11:40:00.002+01:00

Are you ready for "Extreme Retailing" ?
E-commerce has evolved more in the last 12 months than in the last 12 years, with a combination of entertainment, game mechanics, and innovative shopping models.

According to Megan Conniff from the US National Retail Federation's big blog, here are 3 ongoing trends:

1. Deals and discounts (retailmenot.com)
2. Urgency retailing (woot.com)
3. Private shopping clubs (venteprivee.com and its hundreds of copycats worldwide)

And here are 5 upcoming trends:

1. Local discovery & promotion (groupon.com)
2. Mobile empowerment
3. Community and crowdsourcing (myfab.com)
4. Mass customization
5. Game Mechanics/entertainment commerce (swoopo.com)

I so agree with Megan (and with Jochen and Jason from Exciting Commerce, a recommended read by the way...)!

Bonus: here's a video of Joshua Goldman's presentation at the Retail Innovation & Marketing Conference, explaining swoopo.com's killer commerce model:

Mobile e-commerce: mobile site or mobile app?

2010-03-05T18:27:00.002+01:00

Here's Elastic Path's answer in video:

The State of the Internet: 2010

2010-03-05T14:24:00.000+01:00

Venteprivée.com 2009 revenues and 2010 projections

2010-02-05T12:23:00.002+01:00

According to Journal du Net, here are the latest figures from online private shopping club leader Vente Privée :

2009 figures:

- revenue: €680m, +33% vs. 2008

- 2009 profit: 6-7%

- 9.7m members, +12.5k per day

- 15% of sales only are made outside of France

- sales action : 2,500 sales in 2009 with 1,200 brands

2010 projections:

- €850m revenue,

- 25% growth,

- 2.5m new members,

- 3,300 sales,

- 250 new hires.

Wow.

Amazon.com '09: sales +28% to $24.51 billion, profit +40% to $902 million

2010-01-29T18:53:00.003+01:00

And here are the slides from Amazon's Q4 '09 earnings webcast:

View more presentations from Michael S. Levy.

US e-commerce Holiday sales reach $27 billion

2010-01-04T12:32:00.002+01:00

First off, Happy New Year everyone!

According to comScore, online Holiday sales (from Nov 1st to Dec 24th) reached $27 billion, a YoY growth of 5%.

Here's the comScore data breakdown:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from michaelslevy.com

2009-12-24T16:02:00.002+01:00

See you in 2010!

Michael.

GSI Commerce does coop e-mail marketing for its clients

2009-12-16T12:27:00.004+01:00

From Internet Retailer

"In a bid to help its individual retailer clients compete with large cross-category online marketplaces for a prime piece of the holiday shopping pie, GSI Commerce Inc. rounded up more than 30 of the retailers on its e-commerce platform for a co-operative e-mail marketing program.

Discounts and deals in GSI’s “World’s Greatest Friends & Family program," which started Sunday December 13 and ran through December 14, were promoted by each retailer to its customers via e-mail. The e-mails directed recipients to a special landing page on the retailer’s site that showed offers from all of the participating retailers. The offers also were posted at www.greatestgifts.com."

The Return of Retail: Holiday Spending 2009 - from Mint.com

2009-12-14T10:11:00.001+01:00

budget planner – Mint.com

Le Web Paris '09 social commerce / e-commerce highlights

2009-12-10T19:38:00.005+01:00

Here's my personal selection of e-commerce / social commerce moments from this year's LeWeb conference worth checking out, pulled-up straight from the Ustream feed of the event!

1. From the Main Stage: Always insightful business, company culture and customer service anecdotes and advice from Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

2. From the Start up Competition:

- Storific, a set of tools enabling online retailers and their employees to manage their customer communications and promotions on twitter and Facebook in one centralized/shared dashboard (jump to 22:41 for their demo)

- Shutl, a cool service from the UK, turning competing courrier and express delivery providers into a real-time web service for online retailers, enabling online shoppers of retailers using the service to have their on-line purchases delivered within 90 minutes of checking out or selecting a 1 hour delivery window at a time of their convenience – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! (jump to 33:42 for their demo)

- Not e-commerce but still I had to plug them, they're awesome: Tigerlily, a CMS-like Facebook app to manage your Facebook Pages, so cool (jump to 28:53 for their demo)

3. Here's a way too short roundtable, with low-interest questions and answers, on "How has the real-time web changed your e-commerce business?", with Zappos (USA), Vente Privée (FR), Otto (DE). Too bad, the topic was well worth exploring fo real.

4. And here's a little bonus, Gary V's intervention, about "crushing it" and giving a crap about your customers, before the conference's closing remarks. Always hard-hitting and hilarious. Enjoy!

Can you make the cut? Luxury brand launches: online and by invitation exclusively

2009-12-01T11:39:00.006+01:00

Von Rosen one ups closed-community shopping websites...

This 1-year old German luxury fashion label has launched a special business: it's online, with limited collections, and by invitation only.

If David Von Rosen has not invited you, well... you can send him a request, telling him who you are and what you do, and he will decide if you're worth being one of his customers...

“All customers have the right to choose a brand,” Von Rosen told Style.com. “We wanted to turn the perspective around and choose our customers. We don’t want money as the only hurdle to exclusivity. Yes, we’ve turned down people who’ve applied, like a good club would.”

A few figures:
- 10,000 requests since starting the site a year ago,
- has granted access to only 1,500 people,
- has sold about 4,000 items, average price of a sweater is €450, or about $675, shipping not included.

How's that for exclusivity?

I sent him a request... Will I make the cut? And can you?

UPDATE:
Hey I made it! :)
Here's the email I received in answer to my membership request:

"Dear Michael S. Levy,

You have asked for access to VONROSEN. Thank you for your interest.

Our customers rely on a high standard of exclusivity. In the interest of our existing customer base, we are only able to grant access to a limited number of enquirers.
Unfortunately, we are not acquainted personally. However, you have us interested by your professional background and the information that we have found about you. We believe that you fit VONROSEN.

VONROSEN brings you the best quality and timeless-urban designs. The VONROSEN-signet is individually engraved with your monogram. As a fashion label from Berlin, we produce exclusively in Italy and Germany. Also, you will never encounter any sales or discounts at VONROSEN. For all orders, including gifts and/or gift certificate purchases, we receive before Dec. 31, we offer you an extended money back guarantee (send back by Jan. 14., 2010). With code XXXXXXXX you can now log on at vonrosen.com.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Welcome to VONROSEN!

Yours Sincerely,
David"

Man, I feel so hip right now... See you later, I have some shopping to attend to :)

eBay with the coolness: interactive USA map of all Black Friday transactions !

2009-11-28T20:51:00.001+01:00

ebay forays into physical retail and private sales

2009-11-26T22:02:00.004+01:00

eBay announced plans to open "pop-up" boutiques in 12 cities across the USA in an effort to service holiday shopping.

Pop-up retail is IT right now...

Its first ephemeral store popped up on November 20, in a 5,500-square foot Manhattan location, and will close its doors on November 29.

Also, eBay has launched its very own closed-community event sales website, Fashion Vault... except it's not closed :)

Fashion Vault is open to all eBay members and offers free US shipping. As usual, sales events last for two to three days only, and quantities are limited. Currently on sale: DKNY.

Cool e-commerce & social commerce info this week

2009-11-26T15:57:00.002+01:00

Argh. Can't bring myself to post all this info I found this week...
So here's my very own weekly review of things worth noting:

Thanksgiving / Black Friday: US online retail picking up?
According to Mint.com
According to Forrester
According to ComScore

eBay targeting $500m GMS by mobile users this year!
That's a lot. And they're launching a new app called 'Deals Today'.

Woot! launches deals.woot! and it's awesome
A wooters-powered deal finding community website

Milo.com: a very well designed product finder driving traffic to local stores
Complete with price comparison, real-time inventory in stores near you, and consumer reviews straight from the stores' websites. It's Milo.com.

Noteworthy social media tactics by major retailers
Toys'R Us's cool Facebook-only Black Friday catalog and mystery deals campaign

IKEA's genius Facebook campaign:

That's it for this week!

xoxo

Michael.

Top Internet Trends of 2000-2009: E-commerce - Via ReadWriteWeb

2009-11-23T15:20:00.002+01:00

In this post, ReadWriteWeb reviews the past decade of e-commerce and the key trends:
- Advances in recommendations technology,
- The explosive growth of social media and social commerce
- The slow but promising emergence of mobile commerce

Social Media ROI: Socialnomics

2009-11-19T11:55:00.000+01:00

Design treasures from Amazon

2009-11-12T15:40:00.003+01:00

Commerce Search: a search engine for your e-commerce website, courtesy of Google -finally!

2009-11-05T15:05:00.003+01:00

Google has just released Commerce Search, their search product for e-commerce websites.

If it's as efficient as Google Search, then maybe it is worth testing, to see if its conversion rate is better than the current search engine you have implemented on your website...

Usage cost is based on the number of products/items (SKUs) in your data feed and the number of search queries entered on your site each year.

I'm looking for e-commerce sites that have switched and are testing it out. If it is your case, drop me a note!

Here's a video from Google explaining the basics:

Storenvy.com, the social store community, is live and it's awesome.

2009-11-04T18:26:00.002+01:00

Gorgeous design.
DIY stores.
Community-enabled shopping features.

I love it.

Check it out: http://www.storenvy.com

"On one side, Storenvy is a series of online stores run by independent sellers. "The little guys." Stores are fully customizable, with a feature-rich store admin panel, and completely FREE.

On the other side, Storenvy is a network of shoppers who can shop across all of those stores at once, interacting with each other by watching what notes and ratings they leave on products and stores throughout the site. It's like following your friends and style icons on a shopping spree, watching what they pick up and what they actually buy."

E-commerce deals update: Zappos, Ruelala.com

2009-11-02T18:24:00.003+01:00

Well, it turns out Amazon will shell out $1.2b instead of the anticipated $928b to purchase Zappos, according to today's official press release.

Also, GSI Commerce Inc., the blueprint for PIXmania's e/merchant business I helped build, purchased US-based Retail Convergence, owner of Smartbargains.com and Ruelala.com, a 1,5 year old closed-community shopping website... for a whopping $350m. Official news release is available here. GSI Commerce now has private sales capabilities to round out its complete array of e-commerce services (customer acquisition and online marketing, storefront design, order fulfillment, customer support, technology and infrastructure, fraud prevention... you know the drill).

It has been a Happy Halloween for Zappos and RueLaLa :)

Michael Jackson's "This Is It" movie tops online sales

2009-10-28T11:44:00.002+01:00

MJ's movie premieres tonight in the US and in France.

According to movie tickets website Fandango, 61% of all its tickets sales in the last 2 weeks are for "This Is It", and over 1,000 showtimes for the flick are already sold-out in the US.

Also, "This Is It" producer AEG estimates that the first 5 days will bring in $250 million, which is more than Spiderman 2 did...

I'm going to see it tonight in Paris... Will post my review :)

Morgan Stanley's 2009 Economy + Internet Trends

2009-10-21T17:50:00.002+02:00

The always highly anticipated yearly presentation by Mary Meeker is embedded hereunder.

Key themes: The Return of the Economy, the Mobile Internet revolution.

Enjoy!

Morgan Stanley Economy Internet Trends

Be Your Own Social Media Director | via Practical Ecommerce

2009-10-16T03:32:00.003+02:00

In this edition of "Ecommerce Know-How", Kevin Patrick Allen from Practical Ecommerce shares three roles the owner and de facto social media director of an ecommerce company can play and how, by incorporating those practices within his business, he can better reach the new age of consumers online.

In the Beginning: 9 Really Old School Ecommerce Designs | Via GetElastic

2009-10-14T18:38:00.002+02:00

Cool post from the GetElastic Blog, showing early e-commerce websites designs in the late '90s.

Enjoy!

French private shopping club Vente-privée.com, an e-commerce European success worth USD 1.5 billion

2009-10-13T01:36:00.005+02:00

From Techcrunch Europe, an update on private shopping clubs in the US (a.k.a. closed-community shopping websites), on the interest from e-commerce power players on this awesome business model... and on the mother of all private shopping clubs, Vente Privée.

"TechCrunch Europe thus understands, from some very good sources, that Gilt, Amazon and eBay are all actively looking at acquisitions in the European private shopping club space. The price for Vente Privée alone is being talked about in terms of a $1.5 billion sale. Some sources even put the figure at between $2 billion and $4 billion.

One VC I spoke to said Vente Privee was “very attractive” to the big ecommerce beasts like Amazon and eBay, and a roll-up of these types of clubs is potentially in the offing across Europe. Another said “It would be a good move – depending on price – from either Amazon or eBay.”

Read the whole article here.

"Faceshopping": Carrefour launches exclusive live shopping deal application on Facebook

2009-10-10T03:10:00.008+02:00

Here's a little social commerce app we designed and launched at Publicis K4 for Carrefour, the #2 retailer in the world.

It's called "Faceshopping" and it offers daily shopping deals for Facebook members only.

Launched on September 22nd, it is the first application of its kind.

Reviews are starting to show up accross the Web...

Go ahead and try it for yourself...
All of your comments and ideas are welcome, so we can make it better over time.

(A special shout-out to the fine folks at KRDS for the great work!)

RetailMeNot.com survey says 30% of online adults will not make a purchase at an online store if they can’t find a coupon for that store...

2009-10-08T12:28:00.003+02:00

Awesome online coupon website RetailMeNot, from the fine people at Stateless Systems, just released the results of its survey on consumer couponing habits.

Major learning include:

- Coupons drive more purchases (duh)

- The wealthy have increased the use of coupons (these are tough times for everybody)

- 30% of online adults will not make a purchase at an online store if they can’t find a coupon for that store

- and much more... read all about it here.

2009 Social Ecommerce Planning Guide by Optaros

2009-10-06T15:41:00.002+02:00

Check out this Presentation by Optaros, summarizing what a retailer can do in social commerce in 2009:

2009 Social Ecommerce Planning Guide by Optaros

View more documents from Michael S. Levy.

Update : A little bonus : Screencast of the Facebook Connect Magento Extension !

Gilt Groupe CEO Susan Lyne Interview at Shop.org

2009-09-25T19:14:00.004+02:00

A very interesting interview of the CEO of one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in the US, based on the private sale model born in France, during the Shop.org annual summit which ran from September 21-23, 2009 in Las Vegas.

Susan Lyne talks about why the Gilt Groupe website is so addictive to shoppers, how retail is just repackaged entertainment, and announces a new venture...

Read it all here.

Average e-commerce conversion rates in the UK

2009-09-25T11:45:00.002+02:00

Here's a very nice article on average e-commerce conversion rates in the UK on blogstorm.

We learn that:

- the average conversion rate across all industries in the UK is 3.04% with conversion rates from natural search slightly higher at 3.16% for March 2009;

- shopping cart abandonment stands at 50.1% in the UK compared to 65.61% in the US.

A lot of insightful figures, from Coremetrics.

Is woot.com's traffic the new Big Mac Index?

2009-09-09T14:32:00.002+02:00

"Woot’s ability to predict a financial rebound should not be dismissed and that trend is going up." -Read John Biggs' treatise here.

US online retail figures from Forrester...

2009-09-09T00:01:00.002+02:00

Forrester pegged total online retail sales at $156.1 billion last year and projected growth to $229.1 billion, or 8% of total retail sales, by 2013. But fewer than a third of online consumers purchase package goods online today.

State of e-commerce fraud in France

2009-09-08T16:17:00.002+02:00

A white paper by FIA-NET

"Entertainment Shopping" on your iPhone

2009-09-02T12:01:00.004+02:00

Check out the SevenSnap app!

Demo video:

Top 10 Web 2.0 Activities for Ecommerce | via GetElastic

2009-08-19T12:49:00.002+02:00

"Retailers often wonder what Web 2.0 / social media activities to be involved with, so this post ranks what I believe are the top 10 Web 2.0 activities for ecommerce based on their business impact."

The Music Industry Is Dying: a Visualization.

2009-08-17T10:13:00.003+02:00

No comment.
Source: The New York Times

Geolocalized mobile shopping app drives sales to stores

2009-08-12T16:35:00.005+02:00

NearbyNow, the website that helps you find the products you want to purchase that are available in stores nearest to your physical location, has released a white-label iPhone App Platform, enabling brands to offer a product availability/localization feature directly from your mobile phone.

How a NearbyNow-powered app works (excerpt from Seventeen magazine's "Fashion Finder" app description) :
- Browse the latest looks by style or item.
- Zoom in and out of the stuff you like, so you can see the details.
- Tap “Find It Near You” to find a store within 50 miles that carries the item.
- Confirm the item is available in your preferred size and color.
- Just enter your contact information and the Seventeen Fashion Finder personal shopper will call the store during normal business hours and put the item on hold. Within 10 minutes, you will receive an e-mail or text message with details on where to find the item in the store and whom to ask for. You’ll have 24 hours to come in and try it on.
- Tap “Find It Online” to get a list of online stores for items available on the Web.

Pretty neat service huh?

BUT... a human from NearbyNow actually has to call stores in your area to check availability of your item in your size... Not a very scalable model, don't you think?

GM, eBay to Test Online NEW Car Sales | via Reuters

2009-08-11T17:56:00.002+02:00

The venture, accessible at gm.ebay.com, "currently limited to California, lets shoppers scroll through about 20,000 vehicles sitting on the lots of 225 of GM's 250 dealers in the state. The listings include a "buy it now" price, which customers can accept, or they can enter into online bargaining with a dealer."

Retailers shift focus to e-commerce... where retail still has a pulse.

2009-08-10T19:56:00.004+02:00

According to the Wall Street Journal, US retail powerhouse Target won't renew its contract with Amazon when it expires in 2011. Target had been outsourcing its e-commerce operations (software, hosting, call center, logistics...) to Amazon since 2001...

As e-commerce grows bigger in the retail market, and as it is the only distribution channel with promises of growth, major retailers finally realize online retail is no longer an afterthought. They want to regain control over it and integrate it with their store channel, in order to create multi-channel offerings for their customers, and get a piece of the online cake before it's too late.

Target is the latest to end their contract to outsource their e-commerce operations at Amazon, after Borders and Toys 'R Us.

Breaking: Publicis buys Razorfish

2009-08-09T17:32:00.008+02:00

Paris-based advertising group Publicis has confirmed 1 hour ago that it has purchased Razorfish, the digital agencies network, from Microsoft for 530 million dollars, in cash and shares (this makes Microsoft the owner of about 3% of the Groupe by the way...), with an agreement to purchase ad inventory from Microsoft online properties in the years to come.

Publicis Groupe now owns the #1 (Digitas) et #2 (Razorfish) digital agency networks in the world. It is in line to generate 25% of this year's revenue from digital communications.

Razorfish will be included in the VivaKi agency line-up.

Official press release here.

US manufacturers going direct online: follow-up

2009-08-07T19:14:00.001+02:00

Excellent post from the GetElastic blog following Internet's Retailer's article about manufacturers being the fastest growing segment of e-commerce in the US: read it here.

in the US, brand manufacturers lose their fear of selling online | via Internet Retailer

2009-08-06T12:08:00.002+02:00

"As a group, consumer brand manufacturers have lagged behind Top 500 web-only merchants, catalogers and retail chains in the race for e-commerce sales.

But with more at stake, Top 500 manufacturers, which grew their combined web sales 15.7% to $14.0 billion in 2008 from $12.1 billion in 2007, are leading the pack. When Amazon.com, which accounts for 52.2% of sales among all Top 500 web-only retailers, is factored out, manufacturers stood out as the fastest-growing merchant category."

Read full story at Internet Retailer.

With Swaxy.com, QVC meets woot.com meets Playboy !

2009-08-05T12:52:00.003+02:00

Sex sells with Swaxy.com, literally... :)

Augmented Reality hits mass-market with Wal-Mart and Best Buy

2009-08-05T10:46:00.006+02:00

Augmented Reality is now a mass-market marketing technique... and is getting closer and closer to e-commerce.

Walmart was the first multichannel to launch an AR initiative, finally finding a way to add true value to their weekly ads and engage consumers with print advertising (you can print out this AR marker to try it for yourself).

And now Best Buy launches "Best Buy in 3D" with the same model in mind: showing the paper weekly ad to your webcam launches the AR engine, displaying a 3D rendering of the highlighted products within the webcam video on your computer screen, complete with info, specs etc etc.

Seeing is believing!

1-800-FLOWERS.COM Sets Up Shop Inside Facebook

2009-07-29T18:28:00.003+02:00

"In another testament to the notion that Facebook is quietly turning into the internet on top of the Internet, online flower retailer 1-800-Flowers.com has launched an e-commerce store inside its Facebook Page."

On step further into True Social Commerce after launching their Alvenda shopping widget...

Once again, 1-800-Flowers leads the way in this type of ventures.

Can't wait when Facebook launches their proprietary payment platform. There are going to be a LOT of shops popping up WITHIN Facebook...

From Techcrunch.

Amazon Acquisitions and Investments Map | Via MeetTheBoss

2009-07-29T17:10:00.004+02:00

Neat!
Read all about it here.

... And Zappos launches my.zappos

2009-07-23T00:55:00.001+02:00

Check out my.zappos.com:

- Add stuff to your closet

- Share items with friends

- See what your friends think!

At eBags.com, video and social marketing go hand in glove - via Internet Retailer

2009-07-20T16:35:00.003+02:00

"At eBags.com, about 1,700 unique visitors view videos each day and the retailer distributes its videos liberally across a wide variety of marketing channels, including e-mail campaigns, affiliate programs and on various social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Videos from eBags.com posted on YouTube since last fall have been watched by almost 19,000 unique visitors."

eBags.com's videos are product demos, hosted by category/product managers, with the occasional event video (overstock sale, brand advertising or the 10 millionth bag delivered...)

One cool feature is the 'BUY NOW' button in the video player control panel, which enables viewers to browse product thumbnails from the featured product to help jumpstart the shopping process. The video center and player are provided by LiveClicker.

The whole story from Internet Retailer is here.
And the eBags.com video section is here.

And hereunder the video of the 10 millionth bag delivered :

1-800-Flowers Claims First Retail Transaction Inside Facebook - via GetElastic

2009-07-20T14:58:00.002+02:00

1-800-Flowers has embedded its e-commerce widget into its Facebook Fan Page, and goes down in history by claiming the first retail transaction within Facebook.

At 11:50 am EST on July 8, 2009, it sold a “Slice of Life” for $34.99.

The whole story from the GetElastic blog here.

Augmented Reality Video Social Shopping!

2009-07-19T18:23:00.006+02:00

Augmented Reality meets Motion Capture meets Social Networking meets Online Shopping :)

Zugara, a California-based interactive marketing agency, has just released a new product called the "Webcam Social Shopper".

It's an online shopping application, which couples the features of Augmented Reality and Motion Capture. The Webcam Social Shopper app allows to seemingly hold articles of clothing up in front of yourself, while it tracks your movements so you can interact with the site's content when standing several feet away from your computer's controls. And it's Facebook Connect enabled, so you can share pictures of yourself wearing the reality-augmented clothing with your friends.

Here's a video demo from Zugara:

optaros ebook: 5 Winning Strategies in Social Ecommerce

2009-07-10T10:22:00.002+02:00

Optaros has just published a free ebook on the 5 social media integration trends that they believe will have an impact on e-commerce.

You can download it here.

E-commerce can help get over the economic downturn in France

2009-07-07T10:06:00.005+02:00

According to a July 09 study by Eurobrief, e-commerce will save the economy in France: it is still growing, it favors exportations and the creation of jobs.

Hereunder a few interesting figures from the study.

In 2008:

- E-commerce sales in France grew 25% vs. 0.2% for retail stores sales.

- Average order size was 92 euros (but 87 euros in Q4 2008).

- 69% of online users are shoppers: about 22 million people.
That's 4 times more than in 2002.

- 186m online card transactions vs. 132m in 2007

- An e-commerce website is born every 45 minutes: 48,500 total.
That's 5 times more than in 2004.

- 20% of sales are exported outside of France vs. 9,2% for retail stores.

- E-commerce represents 80,000 jobs in France (25,000 direct and 55,000 indirect).
A 15% growth year over year.

Tweba turns Twitter into a social marketplace | Via VentureBeat

2009-07-06T15:54:00.006+02:00

Tweba (formerly Tweebay) aims to bring the power of Craigslist and eBay to the swap meet-like community of Twitter, allowing users to sell and buy goods as they stream in real time.

You can sign-up/log-in to the service using your Twitter or Facebook account.

Does the UX ring a bell? :)

Indeed, Tweba makes extensive use of the Twitter API... and of its user interface design.

Via VentureBeat

Gilt Groupe Raises $40 Million At $400 Million Valuation

2009-07-03T11:23:00.003+02:00

The US copycat of French private sales powerhouse venteprivee.com has just signed a term sheet to raise an extra $40m, valuating the company at $400m (Source: Silicon Alley Insider).

Gilt Groupe announced that it had $25m revenue in 2008, should have about $150m in 2009, and projected over $500m revenue for 2010.

The company is said to be cash-positive for three months now.

The private sales model is booming in major markets, benefiting from the economic downturn where consumers are looking for deals more than ever and where brands need to get rid of their bigger than ever excess inventory faster than ever.

Brands4friends from Germany is having a similar stellar year, reviewing its target revenue for 2009 from €75m to €85m.

Spotify aims for IPO

2009-07-02T11:33:00.005+02:00

Free music streaming application Spotify has revealed its aim to file for an IPO in the long term.

Spotify has gained widespread UK media attention and is reported to have more than 500,000 users in the UK alone, but its revenues were as little as GBP82,000 in May 2009.

Spotify is a direct competitor of Deezer, which offers an online streaming service, vs. Spotify's app which has to be installed on the user's computer to stream music.

Spotify's revenue is based on a freemium model: free streaming with audio and visual ads embedded in the app, or paid monthly service with no ads.

And wait 'til the iPhone app comes out... World domination ahead:

Source: The Register

14 Michael Jackson LPs in Amazon.com's Top 15 music sellers; all sold out.

2009-06-30T09:46:00.007+02:00

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/music/ref=sv_m_3

Rest In Peace MJ.

Visual product search app maker SnapTell acquired by Amazon

2009-06-18T12:31:00.004+02:00

SnapTell, maker of the iPhone and Android app of the same name, has been acquired by Amazon to become part of its A9 line-up.

The SnapTell app enables users to snap a picture of the cover of any DVD, CD, Book or Video game with their phone, and the app will return:
- info on the product from its huge product database,
- reviews, best prices from partner websites and retail stores,
- directions to the retail store you select,
- and the ability to purchase straight from the phone.

If you own an iPhone, you can try it for yourself HERE.

Pretty neat!

A little more user-friendly than the ShopSavvy app where you actually have to snap a picture of the barcode of the product to get info on it.

Oldy but goody: How Retailers Can Sell More Online With Social Commerce

2009-06-18T12:21:00.005+02:00

Interview of Jay Shaffer of PowerReviews, at last year's Internet Retailer conference, on how social commerce can help retailers sell more and better.

From Get Elastic

Amazon will return to TV advertising... with User Generated creative!

2009-06-15T15:23:00.002+02:00

User Generated TV advertising, round 2: After Doritos with its Superbowl ad, Amazon has just launched an ad contest, calling on its customers to produce the creative.

The brief is wide open, go nuts!

Dell makes USD3m on Twitter

2009-06-15T12:03:00.000+02:00

Dell’s Twitter presence is responsible for more than USD3m worth of sales, says the company.

According to Dell's blog, USD2m of this is the result of offers advertised on DellOutlet, a Twitter feed where the company promotes discounted products. The rest is from customers entering Dell’s website via Twitter links and spending money in departments other than the outlet store.

Read the whole story HERE.

ShopTogether: bring your friends with you when you shop online...

2009-06-10T11:35:00.008+02:00

US junior clothing retailer Charlotte Russe just added ShopTogether from DecisionStep on their online store.

ShopTogether is a hosted application for retailers that lets customers interact in real-time while surfing e-commerce websites.

ShopTogether is actually a toolbar that is displayed at the bottom of the site (à la Facebook), from which shoppers can invite their friends to browse/shop with them through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, email or instant messaging.

Charlotte Russe homepage with ShopTogether toolbar

Invite friends via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Email or IM

Once they accept the invitation, ShopTogether connects two or more friends for a joint shopping session. Shoppers can chat, view products, share favorites and ideas, helping shoppers making better buying decisions, thanks to the advice they get from their firends, just like in "real-life" shopping.

Undergoing shopping session with chat panel expanded from toolbar

Great integration of social services into the shopping experience.

I wish we could add video chat, and save shopping sessions /shared favourites for later in the shopper's account...

A one-up to the FluidSocial product I reviewed a while ago, which integrated Facebook components into Jansport's website.

Ignorant e-commerce founders do it better?

2009-06-02T16:45:00.002+02:00

Interesting post from VC Fred Destin:

"I have been talking to a number of e-commerce startups recently who share a few things in common.

They do not anticipate any knowledge of their end market
They do not pretend to understand what their customers want
... nor where they can be found online

They understand the basics of product and pricing and how to manage their supplier relationships; they are competent but not stellar on back-end and customer service.

Where they shine is precisely where you would expect them to be weak: they are entirely ignorant of, and refuse to assume any knowledge of, what method will work in terms of attracting customers. They will continuously spend small amounts of money across channels and simply measure, measure, measure (or correlate, correlate, correlate). They throw data at the problem. "

Read the whole post here.

Social shopping for real: An embeddable widget to sell your stuff to your friends on social networks

2009-05-20T17:40:00.007+02:00

Told'ya helps you build and display a storefront widget in about 2 minutes on your Facebook, Blog, MySpace... and populate it with stuff you would like to sell. Payments are made via Paypal and Told'ya gets a $0.99 cent fee per transaction.

This is social shopping in its purest form (C2C social selling): users sell stuff to people who are in their own social graph, using the platforms where they socialize with them...

Here's a screenshot of my demo store, as only US residents can publish a store:

Update: here's a competing offer called Cartfly, and a demo store widget:

Update 2: here's yet ANOTHER competitor: Put-A-Cart. Man this space is getting crowded...

Social Advertising Best Practices

2009-05-20T11:57:00.000+02:00

IAB has just released its Social Media advertising best practices.

"These Best Practices are intended to help
protect consumer privacy, ensure transparency for what and how data is being used, and to define consumer permissions. The purpose of this
document is to provide best practices that illustrate, inform, and
facilitate greater adoption of the medium by defining creative components, data usage, consumer control, and privacy guidelines and by providing social advertising examples."

Click here to download the "Social Advertising Best Practices" PDF.

Banners as standalone shopping widgets: really shop in display ads!

2009-05-18T15:14:00.004+02:00

Here's a link to cool demo of a campaign launched in the US by 1800flowers, of a rich display ad embedding a fully functional e-commerce storefront.

You can browse bouquets, search, view product details, add your selection to the basket, checkout and pay without leaving the website you are on, all within a Flash expand layer.

How's that for interactive direct advertising?

An alvenda production.

How to use a billboard in a tourist spot to get instant massive social media coverage of your brand

2009-05-14T13:01:00.003+02:00

The McDonald's Picadilly interactive billboard.
See end of video to see what I mean...
Brilliant!
A Leo Burnett production.

Google Search Options

2009-05-14T10:40:00.001+02:00

Here's an update on yesterday's post on Google's Snippets: the full video tour of Google's new 'Search Options', edging the search engine closer to real-time search...

Google's 'Rich Snippets' Lets Webmasters Enrich Their Organic Search Results - via MarketingVOX

2009-05-13T20:04:00.004+02:00

Yesterday Google debuted Rich Snippets, a feature that enables webmasters to build on the "snippet" of content that appears for their sites in organic search results.

What's displayed in Google's search results is data about people and reviews/ratings, see screenshot embedded below.

Another sign of Google preventing traffic from reaching ecommerce websites and shopping engines by using content it crawls: true, this is currently made possible if the webmasters 'set it up' to be displayed, but for Internet users, why go visit the targeted page if the content you need is displayed straight in the engine's search results?

Ebay Q1 2009 Earnings Report

2009-04-27T12:24:00.000+02:00

Presentation on Q1 2009 Earning Report of Ebay Inc.

View more presentations from earningreport.

Amazon Q1 2009 Earnings Report

2009-04-27T12:20:00.000+02:00

Presentation on Q1 2009 Earning Report of Amazon

View more presentations from earningreport.

Facebook friend-based merchandising now a reality for online retailers

2009-04-16T09:36:00.005+02:00

Remember the Razorfish Facebook Connect scenario making e-commerce truely social? Well, it's not a scenario anymore: digtal agency Fluid launched their FluidSocial product, enabling Facebook Friend-based shopping and merchandising; and implemented it on Vans.com and Jansport.com.

FluidSocial enables conversations (comments and live chat) with your friends directly on a product page.

Great feature! Better retention and conversion are direct consequences:

- For online retailers, these friend interactions allows for shoppers to never leave the site to get feedback from friends.

- For shoppers, it lets them see ratings, comments and real-time chat on specific products from friends whose opinions they value and trust more than from strangers.

Amazon: Now One-Third Of All U.S. E-Commerce

2009-04-15T19:50:00.000+02:00

Amazon.com could be responsible for close to a third of all U.S. e-commerce transactions, RBC Capital analyst Stephen Ju asserted in a research note this morning. [...]

Ju’s data suggests the total slice of U.S. e-commerce through Amazon was about 34% in Q4, up from 27% a year earlier.

Could Sold Out Products Increase Email Click Through?

2009-04-15T18:34:00.003+02:00

Chad White from the Retail Email Blog recently spotted this email from TigerDirect that dynamically updates image files when a product sells out. This practice prevents the frustration and disappointment when one clicks to a product that’s no longer available, creates urgency for other products and may prompt the recipient to open TigerDirect emails right away in the future.

(From The Retail Email Blog, via The Get Elastic Blog.)

Digitas/Performics brand survey: Internet to benefit most from media spend reallocation from TV, radio and print in 2009

2009-04-12T15:23:00.000+02:00

Baromètre des investissements digitaux vague 3 - Free Legal Forms

Follow me on Twitter!

2009-04-12T15:12:00.000+02:00

http://twitter.com/michaelslevy

2009-04-09T00:06:00.001+02:00

11:45 Just added myself to the wefollow.com twitter directory under: #ecommerce #startup #entrepreneur #

Follow me on Twitter

2009-04-08T00:07:00.001+02:00

20:09 Private sales shopping-clubs business still growing strong accross the globe: digg.com/u1RDT #
20:11 One King Lane, private sales website for home furnishing, launches. www.onekingslane.com #
20:12 Spanish online shopping-club BuyVIP raises 3rd round for €14.5M: digg.com/u1RER #

Follow me on Twitter

2009-04-07T00:07:00.001+02:00

09:53 twitpic.com/2wo6r - #
14:16 New Web Trends Map released: bit.ly/19RpWQ #

Follow me on Twitter

2009-03-29T00:04:00.001+01:00

19:35 Recession Special? Amazon shuts down 3 warehouses in the US: tinyurl.com/d89yey #

Follow me on Twitter

Recession Special? Amazon shuts down 3 warehouses in the US | AllThingsD

2009-03-27T17:11:00.002+01:00

Amazon announced Thursday that it is closing three distribution centers and will cut/transfer the 210 employees.

Amazon Closes Book on Distribution Centers | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Product pictures on steroids

2009-02-10T12:30:00.005+01:00

Silverdock produces video for online retailers, and cheap too, starting at $100 a piece.
Here's their cool take on how to showcase clothing. Ain't that great?

Also check out this selection of my past posts on online videos for shopping:
http://michaelslevy.blogspot.com/2008/04/video-merchandising-features-coming-up.html
http://michaelslevy.blogspot.com/2008/05/video-merchandising-contd-video.html
http://michaelslevy.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-video-powered-online-sales.html
http://michaelslevy.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-video-you-can-shop.html

Noca offers merchants zero-fee online payment processing

2009-02-09T11:38:00.002+01:00

"Noca, a startup founded by ex-Visa employees, is attempting to virtually eliminate transaction fees by bypassing the credit card companies altogether with its own online payment service. Since $5 billion goes towards online transaction fees every year in the United States alone, and since online vendors have particularly slim profit margins, the company thinks that the near elimination of transaction fees would be a huge boon for online vendors. Concurrently, Noca seeks to provide consumers with a more rewarding and more secure purchasing experience, thereby making its service appealing to both actors involved in a transaction." - From Techcrunch.

Zero processing fees, zero start-up costs, zero recurring costs.

(Currently available for merchants with a US bank account only)

... Anyone trying it out, please give me a ring ...