eCommerce Weekly Roundup Issue #13

The North Media eCommerce Weekly is a hand-curated newsletter from the team at North Media compiled every Sunday to bring you the best in eCommerce. To get this via email, sign up here.

Walmart and Google team up to take on Amazon(Read more)

I must say that we at North Media have certainly been enjoying watching the ongoing battle between Amazon and Walmart. It seems like they just keep going back and forth trying to one-up each other. As one cuts their prices or delivery times, the other seems to do the same shortly after. In the end, this battle ultimately benefits consumers and prices and shipping time continues to improve. Most recently, Walmart decided to team up with Google and offer a special bonus to anyone who purchases Google Home Mini or Google Home.

The incentive is a $25 Walmart gift card valid on any orders placed on the Google Home after purchasing it. Walmart is hoping to develop a shopping habit in their customer through the voice assistant device. An additional feature includes a shortcut to recorder items frequently bought from Walmart through the Google Assistant, an agreement that no other vendor has with Google. Walmart is now the largest vendor on the Google Home platform, which also includes retailers like Target, Costco, and Stop & Shop. It’s clear that Walmart envisions a future wherein you are sitting on your couch binge-watching season 5 of Stranger Things and after noticing that you are running low on chips and cola you simply shout at your Google Home device requesting more party-size Doritos chip bags and a couple of cases of Pepsi, only for it to show up at your door a couple of hours later. Now that’s a future we want to live in!

Amazon pokes at package pirates problem (say that five times fast) (Read more)

You just purchased a brand new set of headphones on Amazon only to go days and days without ever receiving it. You know that this is very uncharacteristic of Amazon, so you decide to check in with their customer service department, only to find out it’s already been delivered, damn package pirates! That’s right; package pirates are criminals who prey on lonely online delivery packages sitting on their victim’s doorstep. In theory, it’s an easy crime to commit, and the cases of such atrocities are many. In fact, In August, the U.S. Postal Service suspended deliveries on the southside of Milwaukee after an overwhelming number of package thefts in the area.

To a company like Amazon that does billions of dollars in quarterly sales, package theft is a detrimental cost to their business. They’ve tried to employ a variety of fixes including Amazon Lockers that give customers a safe place to pick up their packages (opened in more than 2,000 locations), a similar solution for apartment buildings called The Hub, and implemented “Photo on Delivery” which sends a photo of your delivered package to your phone. Amazon is now testing a different fix to the problem by using the trunk of your car. The company is in talks to form a partnership with Phrame, a maker of smart license plates that allow items to be delivered to a car’s trunk. The product fits around a license plate and contains a secure box that holds the keys to the car allowing users (delivery drivers) to unlock the box with their smartphone. It isn’t yet clear if this will be the solution that sticks, but it is certainly clear that this is a problem that desperately needs solving.

9 Tips from 3 of the best Ecommerce stores using Facebook Ads Today (Read more)

If you’re selling a product or service online, chances are you’ve experimented with Facebook Ads. If you’ve found success with Facebook, more power to you! The reality is, Facebook can be an extremely difficult way of driving traffic that leads to conversions on your site. People log into the social platform to connect with their friends and consume entertainment, not to shop. To make matters worse, not only do users have lower attention spans, but Facebook’s algorithm makes it difficult to get organic impressions and reach your audience.

There are ways to find success on Facebook, however. In this article, Compass shares nine tips from users of their platform that have found success running ad campaigns via Facebook. To see results from your ads, among other things, you should find the right, niche, and narrow audience, learn what your customers are looking for, and prepare for ad fatigue. And if you can take away only one lesson from this post, it should be to understand that people don’t click on ads, they click on content. Master your content strategy, and the rest will come!

3 key ideas on how to build a loyal customer base(Read more)

Let’s think about the concept of loyalty for a second and how powerful it can be. Customer loyalty is when they decide to purchase from over your competitor, even though you are slightly more expensive. Loyalty is when your customer continues to purchase from you, even though you had a small mix up with their last order. Loyalty is when your customer has a strong feeling or support or allegiance to your brand. As technology continues to evolve, and consumers can research several products similar to yours before making a purchase, how many brands could say they have truly loyal customer base. From the examples listed above, it’s clear that having customer loyalty is extremely valuable to your business, the question then becomes, how do you create a loyal customer base?

To improve the relationship with your customers and increase their retention, you need to start by putting them at the center of your business. Every business decision should be made with the customer in mind, paying close attention to how they would react to changes. Some of the past decade’s most notable business successes have put customers at the centre of their universe, and it’s paid off in spades. Loyalty is also won by offering greater personalization that helps customers become a bigger part of their brand and the ecosystem but in a less transactional way. But none of these strategies can be executed if your company does not have a strong internal communication base. Until you break down your company’s internal walls, the external wall with customers will remain. Rather than focusing on generating higher margins and cutting costs, focus on developing a loyal customer base and watch your sales skyrocket.

Nike is losing checks with the teenage market (Read more)

Ask any parent how difficult it is to have a teenager in the house, and they’ll surely nod away in agreement. Ask any apparel retailer the same question, and the emotions will be much of the same. It seems like what is “hip” with teenagers (which certainly doesn’t include the word hip) changes on a month-to-month basis, making it incredibly difficult for brands to keep up. What is clear from Piper Jaffray’s semi-annual teen research report, is that Nike is quickly falling out of touch with younger consumers. In fact, Nike is not alone on this list as brands like Ralph Lauren, Steve Madden, UGG, Fossil and Michael Kors also saw the largest decline among major apparel companies. According to the report’s research analyst, Nike’s moderate share as the preferred brand is something they’ve seen for the first time in years.

Nike and Adidas battles are reminiscent to those of Amazon and Walmart. The two major fashion brands are constantly trying to one-up each other, competing for the coveted teenage market. Having invested heavily in street styles, Adidas has been able to see second-quarter sales growth of 20%, outgrowing Nike meaningfully in all major geographical regions. Adidas has also been able to capitalize online with a 66% growth in the coveted e-commerce department. With an emphasis on reaching the Gen Z audience, Adidas intelligently cut back on television advertising in favor for online video streaming and social channels like Snapchat and Instagram. While it’s clear Nike’s approval is in decline, what isn’t clear is which brand will emerge as the prefered choice of this indecisive and difficult market segment.

The North Media eCommerce Weekly is a hand-curated newsletter from the team at North Media compiled every Sunday to bring you the best in eCommerce. To get this via email, sign up here.