Amazon | Internet Marketing Blog

Are the top 20 UK online retailers bothered about Google+?

According to a recent report three quarters of the worlds top brands have Google+ pages, with a combined following of more than 20 million fans.

This is a massive 9,400% increase since December 2011 when only 222,000 people followed them collectively.

But while writing a recent series of posts looking at how some of the world’s top brands use social I noticed that the amount of effort put into their G+ pages massively varies, while user interaction with content and posts is almost non-existent.

So to find out whether this is a common theme, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how the UK’s top 20 online retailers use G+ and the levels of engagement that they achieve.

Just to clarify, this post isn’t about the SEO benefits of G+ or the potential for +1s to become more important in future, it’s an evaluation of how brands use G+ and how their fans respond...

by David Moth 26 March 2013 10:42am 12 comments

The trillion dollar ecommerce pie: are you getting your slice?

First the $1 trillion part: According to a recent report from eMarketer, ecommerce topped the trillion-dollar mark for the first time in 2012.

This was not a one-time fluke, or even something unexpected, on the contrary, this number is expected to rise: The National Retail Federation and Shop.org both reported that eRetail spending grew by 15% over 2012.

ComScore recently reported that ecommerce represented 10% of all discretionary dollars spent in 2012 and that web sales for 2013 are expected to increase from 9 to 12%

How can you get your slice? Truly, a trillion dollar question. We have prepared some tips that can help you on your way to having your pie and eating it as well.

by Arie Shpanya 21 March 2013 18:02pm 2 comments

Five dynamic pricing issues retailers should consider

From social media sentiment analysis to digital ad buying, faster is increasingly seen as better, or at least necessary.

So it's no surprise that the ability to generate lots of data and analyze it rapidly is changing the way products and services are sold.

by Patricio Robles 25 January 2013 14:01pm 2 comments

Which of the top 20 UK online retailers use responsive design?

Responsive design is a hot topic in web design at the moment, as it allows site owners to tailor content to any sized screen from a single set of code - which is obviously very useful as the mobile web continues to grow in popularity.

Yet it’s still quite difficult to find examples of retailers that have embraced the technology.

This is particularly true among the top retailers that tend cling to their existing mobile sites and apps rather than going responsive.

Though responsive design is an all-encompassing way of building your site rather than a mobile strategy per se, for the purposes of this post I thought it would be interesting to look at which of the top 20 UK retailers use responsive design compared to those who have a separate mobile site.

Here’s what I found out...

by David Moth 24 January 2013 12:36pm 13 comments

Six different approaches to online product recommendations

You need only take a look at Amazon’s homepage to understand the importance of product recommendations to ecommerce.

One report suggests that 70% of Amazon.com is devoted to recommendations, so it’s obvious that they play a vital role in exposing customers to new products and increasing sales.

In fact, according to an infographic from Monetate recommendations can increase revenue by up to 300%, improve conversions by 150% and help boost the average order value by 50%.

Obviously these figures will vary wildly depending on initial benchmarks and how extensively recommendations are used across the site, but the evidence is still too compelling to be ignored.

by David Moth 22 January 2013 11:33am 0 comments

Brick-and-mortar retailers making big gains in the SERPs: report

Brick-and-mortar retailers may face challenges in competing online, but pure-play online retailers that think they've won the ecommerce game shouldn't count out their old-school competitors.

In fact, in some product categories, brick-and-mortar retailers are starting to beat out pure-play retailers.

by Patricio Robles 17 January 2013 18:21pm 1 comment

10 ways to encourage customer reviews online

Customer reviews are a hugely important in ecommerce for improving your conversion rate, and can lead to an uplift of 18% in sales.

Research has shown that 61% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase decision and 63% of customers are more likely to make a purchase from a site that has user reviews.

Annoyingly though, customers generally can’t be bothered to leave their feedback. As such you need to find ways of encouraging your customers to leave their feedback without coming across as desperate.

It’s a topic we’ve previously touched on in posts looking at how to organise ecommerce product reviews and how to optimise reviews for higher conversion rates.

And here are 10 tips to help you drive up the number of reviews on your site...

by David Moth 07 January 2013 09:45am 2 comments

10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week

It's been a slow week for marketing stats, but even so here are some of the best we've seen.

Stats include Boxing Day ecommerce traffic, mobile sales and conversions from Affiliate Window, a record week for app downloads and sales data from John Lewis, Amazon and Next.

For more digital marketing stats, check out our Internet Statistics Compendium.

by David Moth 04 January 2013 11:19am 3 comments

Amazon to launch RTB in 2013: report

Amazon may be the world's online consumer retail giant, but don't let that fool you: the company isn't content with being the Walmart of the web.

Already, Amazon has become a leading player in the cloud computing space, and in 2013, it's coming to Madison Avenue, perhaps in a big way.

by Patricio Robles 18 December 2012 15:17pm 0 comments

Online retailers deliver a better customer experience than high street stores: report

It’s a common sight to see Amazon perched at the top of consumer satisfaction surveys thanks largely to its speedy delivery and massive product range.

But a new survey suggests that it’s not just Amazon that’s delivering an excellent online shopping experience.

In fact, the Nunwood report shows that supermarket customers gave the online experience scores which were higher by an average of 3.9%.

Across the wider non-food retail sector, customers that had interacted with a brand purely online gave the experience on average a 5% higher score than those who had experienced the same brand purely in-store.

by David Moth 04 December 2012 11:12am 2 comments