Building a multi-billion pound business online
The recent valuation of Facebook at $104bn, the purchase of Instagram (by Facebook) for a billion dollars, and even Rakuten’s investment in social network Pinterest shows that there is serious money to be made in online business.
We ask all our merchants to join the Rakuten University to help them maximise their online sales, but some of the principles taught here can be applied to any online business, however they sell.
Here are some invaluable tips for online business and retailers that we’ve learnt over the years...
JUMP Magazine, US Edition...big ideas on big data
In this first US issue, the magazine tackles 20 important multi-channel topics, from big data and the challenges of the silo-less organization, to bringing innovation to the enterprise.
We're just getting warmed up for the JUMP event, happening November 1st in New York.
What happens when you can't meet customer demand?
When a team can't meet customer demand, that demand starts to go underground.
This can have unintended side effects...
Ten interesting digital stats we've seen this week
I've rounded up some of the most interesting digital marketing stats I've seen this week.
Stats include multi-screen usage, mobile email, online returns, buying patterns of tablet users, social media customer service and Twitter's mobile user numbers.
Content trends: six things everyone’s talking about
We're nearly halfway through 2012 and there are some clear content trends emerging.
Here are the top six hot issues we’re discussing with content owners…
Monday morning panic stations? 18 checks to make when your sales are down
So sales are down, the MD / CEO wants to know why web sales are down and you have an hour to prepare for the trading call or meeting.
We have all been in the position where we have sprung into the office on a Monday morning full of the joys of spring, compared like for like trading and found sales are down.
If this happens, you need some answers or at least to be armed with some basic information so you can identify where sales could have been lost.
Listed below are some 18 things that are always good to check on a Monday morning, or indeed any day when sales aren't as expected....
Square learns that customer service in the payments space is a tough job
Technology has disrupted a seemingly countless number of industries over the past decade, from advertising to real estate. When looking at the industries grappling with technology-driven change, however, arguably few have been more affected than the multi-trillion dollar payments space.
The advent of mobile phone, and the smartphone in particular, has created significant opportunities, many of which upstarts like Square are trying to exploit.
The cloud: where your games go to die?
For consumers, the cloud's appeal is hard-to-resist.
From music to documents to applications, and everything in between, the ability to access our 'stuff' anywhere we go on any device is an extremely attractive proposition.
Until it isn't.
Traditional CRM vs social CRM (Infographic)
Over the past two years Our Social Times has hosted social CRM conferences in London, New York and Paris.
It's a fast-growing industry with many specialist themes, but the first question the speakers always get asked is: "How does social CRM differ from traditional CRM?"
Q&A: Jeff Dachis on the new Facebook APIs and big data
Arguably Jeff Dachis is most known for co-founding the interactive marketing and design agency, Razorfish, in 1995.
A two person operation which started in Dachis's bedroom in New York, blossomed into a 2200 strong company worth more than six billion dollars. With the dot-com crash, Razorfish fell with it. Its shares plunged to $1 from $47 per share at the beginning of 2000 and 400 employees lost their jobs.
Leaving Razorfish after its downturn, Dachis went on to form Bond Art + Science in 2006 and in 2008, Dachis founded the Dachis Group in Austin, Texas with the idea that everything can and will be social.
We had a chance to talk to Dachis about why he set up Dachis Group, its relationship with Facebook, how they are integrating Facebook's new APIs and how marketers can start to leverage Facebook as it moves into big data territory.
