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Morrisons launches first ecommerce store: is it any good?

Morrisons has finally taken the plunge and unveiled its first ecommerce store.

The grocery retailer said that its failure to launch an ecommerce store was one of the main reasons behind its recent 5.6% slump in sales, which saw its share price fall by 7%.

Ecommerce still only represents about 5% of total grocery sales in the UK, but that’s still a £7.5bn market that Morrisons wasn’t able to compete in.

In general I’m not that impressed with the UX offered by Morrisons’ rival stores, as the checkout process is generally overly long and badly designed on grocery sites. 

But has Morrisons managed to buck the trend? Let’s find out…

Eight NFL teams getting creative with Twitter’s Vine

Since launching last year Vine has become a firm favourite at Econsultancy as it allows brands to create some really creative content.

However the app also presents a challenge for marketers, as it can be difficult to come up with entertaining and shareable ideas that fit perfectly into the six-second format.

Brands that base their marketing activities around live events obviously have a natural advantage in this respect as there’s always something to point a camera at to capture some behind-the-scenes footage.

I’ve previously highlighted several fashion brands that have begun to use Vine as part of their social marketing, but professional sports are another obvious example of an industry that should be experimenting with the six-second videos.

Top 10 UK buzz brands of 2013

Here are the top 10 UK brands of 2013, as nominated by YouGov’s BrandIndex.

This is based on brand perception, acquired by conducting approximately 3,700 daily interviews and asking the question “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?”

It seems the most popular brand of 2013 in terms of positive regard is the BBC iPlayer, which has remained at the top spot for the last two years.

Top US buzz brands of 2013

Here are the top 25 US brands of 2013, according to YouGov’s BrandIndex.

This is based on brand perception, acquired by conducting approximately 2.5m interviews a year and asking the question “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?”

It seems the most popular brand of 2013 in terms of positive regard is Amazon.com, which has overtaken Ford as America’s corporate sweetheart.

Top of the social Premier League: Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool & Spurs

Arsenal are apparently the most talked about Premier League team on social media, followed by Manchester United, Liverpool, and Tottenham.

The rankings were calculated by RadiumOne based on the number of stories shared about each team on popular sports news websites, combined with how effectively each club has been interacting with its fans in the 30 days leading up to the 20th game of the season.

Personally I’m just pleased to see Spurs back in the top four, but it’s also worth investigating further to assess how each club approaches social media.

As such, here’s a quick look the Twitter feeds of the four clubs that top RadiumOne’s rankings. And for more information on this topic, read Ben Davis’ in-depth post detailing Manchester United’s strategy on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Sina Weibo…

A/B testing: software recommendations from four ecommerce experts

In the past few months I’ve rounded up a number of case studies which show the benefit of A/B testing for web optimisation.

However it’s been pointed out to me that I’ve neglected to mention how site owners should go about setting up an A/B test in the first place.

So to find out, I spoke to three optimisation experts to find out which tools they use on their own sites or when setting up tests for their clients.

Read on to discover their recommendations, or for more information check out our blog post that shows how small copywriting changes can lead to big increases in conversions.

How brands can use social images to sell online

When it comes to shopping, consumers have always preferred a more tactile and visual experience. 

The growth of ecommerce and social networks like Pinterest means that brands are increasingly allowing, even encouraging, consumers to share images of products online. 

Here, I’ll look at how the mobile revolution and the prospect of wearable technologies like Google Glass are set to change how retailers  can use images to drive both brand awareness and, ultimately, sales.  

Gmail tips, tricks and hacks from the lab and beyond

Caveats first: other email providers are available. There I think that covers everything.

As of August 2013 there were 425m Gmail users, but this won’t be the place where we discuss the dominance of Gmail over the providers that it quickly overtook, such as Hotmail or Yahoo.

Nor will we discuss the above figure, which although reported in The Guardian and other publications, is actually contradicted by comScore, who suggests Google still trails behind its two rivals.

This is the place where we’ll discuss little tips, tricks and hacks, as developed in the Gmail lab, that will hopefully make your life just a tiny bit easier and more interesting. At least when it comes to emailing.

I touched on Gmail hacks in my 16+ best things to happen to the internet in 2013 post last month where I suggested you go and spend a little time exploring the backrooms of Gmail to see what you can find.

Well now you don’t have to, as I’ve already sifted through the experiments, separating the prime specimens from the formaldehyde filled jars of yellowing mutants, to bring you the best Gmail hacks currently available.

M&S and Next report strong online sales, but could they improve site UX?

Marks & Spencer has reported a 22.7% increase in online sales in the three months to the end of December, though it wasn’t enough to prevent an overall decline in sales.

Like-for-like sales fell by 2.1%, though there was a small improvement over the last eight weeks of the year during which M&S launched a sale, with general merchandise sales up 0.5%.

M&S’s disappointing results come after Next achieved impressive sales figures over the festive season, with the latter reporting that in-store and online sales increased by 12% in the period November 1 to December 24.

John Lewis also had a record breaking end to 2013, reporting that online sales for the five weeks to 28 December were 22.6% up on last year with johnlewis.com accounting for 31.8% of the total John Lewis business during this period.

Having previously examined the reasons behind John Lewis’ continued success in ecommerce, I thought I’d compare Next and M&S’s approaches to online retail.

2030: have email and social destroyed the art of letter writing?

Imagine it’s 2030, that’s 16 years from now, not half past eight in the evening, clever guy.

You sit down to write a letter with your futuristic ray gun pen. But wait, haven’t the postal service just announced hover ships are no longer delivering sealed missives?

Have postal bods stop delivering the letter (the last mile at least)? How have letter volumes changed alongside email and social messaging? How has click and collect affected courier services? Could Amazon be ruling parcel mail?

There are indeed lots of questions.

Well, it’s the New Year and I think it’s time for a literature study, this time looking at the humble letter. After all, I have previously delighted and enthralled my colleagues, collecting tens of page impressions by writing about the fax machine. So why not pen and paper?

I’ve been tracing the history of letter writing in numbers alongside the rise of email and social. Are we close to the end of the letter and triumph of online?

100+ amazing stats from Econsultancy’s 2013 reports

With the beginning of a new year one is supposed to be inspired to look ahead and set lofty goals for the future.

However it is also a time to look back on the past 12 months to reflect and see if there are any lessons to be learned from past experiences.

Therefore there’s no better time to re-read some of the excellent surveys and reports that Econsultancy’s award-winning research team produced in 2013.

The publications cover a broad range of topics including mobile, user experience, marketing budgets, personalisation, email, SEO, cross-channel marketing, conversion rate optimisation and content management.

So put the kettle on, sit back, and improve your mind with these intriguing digital marketing and ecommerce statistics…

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