Holiday shopping forecast 2009: a lot like 2008, with more coupons
Many believe that the worst is behind us but a key economic indicator is still a few short months away. Will Santa deliver strong retail sales this holiday season or will the holidays serve as a reminder that times are still tough for consumers?
According to the RetailMeNot's Second Annual Benchmark Survey on Consumer Coupon Behavior conducted by HarrisInteractive, Holiday Shopping 2009 will look a lot like Holiday Shopping 2008.
Retailers need to embrace m-commerce if they want consumers to start shopping
The mobile market is expected to explode in the coming years thanks to the popularity of smartphones. But for the market to really take off, retailers need to get comfortable selling their wares in the space.
According to an eMarketer survey released this week, that hasn't happened yet. The new study, “Mobile Commerce: Ahead of Its Time," shows that while 70 million American consumers will access the mobile web from their phones this year, retailers are hesitant to sell products to them. That ought to change over the next year.
Are brand advertisers dwelling on the wrong metric?
Most brand advertisers accept that the click-through rate is far from the perfect metric. But it's easy to understand and easy to measure, which offers some comfort. And that means that the low click-through rates (CTRs) associated with display ads aren't always so comforting.
Even though it's logical that there's more to display advertising efficacy than CTRs, the absence of widely-accepted alternative metrics is a problem.
Online video audiences can't grow fast enough
Online video viewing is set to reach a milestone next year according to eMarketer. Numbers released this week show that half of Americans will watch online video next year.
But there needs to be a categorical shift of viewers online if the web video hopes to make the kinds of revenue that are seen offline.
What do customers want to buy on their mobiles?
While mobile commerce is still in its infancy in the US, and even more so in the UK, there are signs that users are coming round to the idea, with 71% saying they feel it is safe to make a purchase on their mobiles.
An eMarketer round up of recent mobile commerce stats also reveals some interesting information about the kinds of products people want to buy from their phones.
Revising the downturn, again
Growth forecasts for 2009 continue to be revised. Emarketer, following on the heels of the IAB's tentative outlook on 2009, has taken its internet ad spend projection down to 4.5 percent. It predicted an 8.9 percent bump last December.
And like the IAB, eMarketer analysts are hailing the projection as a good achievement in a terrible economy. That's for internet spending. On a global, multimedia level today WPP's GroupM revised U.S. spending this year to fall by 4.3 percent in 2009 to approximately $155 billion (versus the 3 percent drop predicted in December) and drop another 6.8 percent to about $144.5 billion next year.
Research findings split on economic impact for social media
Social media is becoming a tough game to call for research companies. Several recent reports present divergent looks at ad spending projections and the potential size of key players, all pointing to the possibility that spending in this area is more spontaneous than search, display, or even traditional media.
Take, for example, two reports issued today on ad spending projections. The first, from eMarketer, predicts $2.3 billion in worldwide on social network advertising in 2009. In 2013, spending will reach an estimated $3.5 billion. Those numbers are positive on the surface, but they represent a 50 percent reduction from eMarketer's last projection, delivered in December 2008. The company, which culled research from Deloitte and comScore for its projections, says the limiting factor is the worldwide economic crisis.
Should more etailers be using video?
According to new stats from comScore, the number of US web shoppers watching videos on e-commerce sites has grown by 40% in a single year, as more retailers have started to use them as a sales tool.
A number of UK e-commerce sites are already using video on their product pages to promote items, but should more be doing this? And which sites are using product videos effectively?
Online ads rank third in influence
TV influences consumer buying decisions the most because it costs the most.
That was the finding in a Deloitte survey (as reported by eMarketer) of 5 major global markets, conducted between last September and October
eMarketer cuts social network ad spend projections
In what seems to be a frequent occurrence, research firm eMarketer has cut its estimates for ad spend on social networks.
In May, the firm estimated that spending on social network ads would reach $1.4bn. That number has been lowered to $1.2bn.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
