Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Nearly half of every pound spent online in 2015 was spent with a retailer that had no shops, new analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests.

The ONS study, Shopping in shops that have no ‘shops’ says that in 2008, 5p in every £1 spent with retailers was spent online. By 2015 this had risen to 13p. And when people shopped online in 2015, 49% of spending – or 49p in every pound – went to retailers that had no permanent physical store.

This, says the analysis, is “not a blip – it’s actually a growing trend – up from 41p of every £1 spent in shops online in 2010.

”The report suggests while the supermarket was arguably the big retail development of the 20th century, making shopping less personal for many, the 21st century has been about shopping online – a development that some say has made shopping even less personal.

It suggests that while 88% of all UK shopping took place in physical stores in 2015, “the British public are not ready quite yet to move to an exclusively online shopping experience.” 

Suspicious Web traffic in the U.S. rose 36% sequentially in the third quarter of 2014, and bot traffic grew by 35%. Data released Friday identifies 55% of the traffic on retail sites as suspicious with 34% of traffic confirmed as bot. The data defines "suspicious" as non-human behavior.

U.S. retailers could waste about $4.6 billion of eMarketer's projected $11 billion spent on digital advertising this year on bot traffic fraud, estimates Solve Media. The company's latest Quarterly Bot Traffic Market Advisory focuses on U.S. retailers.

Solve Media CEO Ari Jacoby believes 2015 will become the year of verified human audiences. Media companies are "demanding to purchase only human ad traffic and viewable ads."

Brands waste millions of dollars annually. If Bloomingdale's spends $200 million annual in digital, "we estimate $68 million of that could be wasted on bot traffic," estimates Jacoby.....

With 2015 lurking around the corner, it’s time to ensure your ecommerce site is ready to tackle the challenges the New Year will bring to e-retailers.

This is going to be a significant year for online retailers as the concept of ecommerce recently turned 20 (if you consider the age of internet payment processing systems). Bigcommerce predicts global B2C ecommerce market will hit record growth in 2015, with revenue of around $2 trillion. According to a study conducted by Emarketer.com, Asia-Pacific is likely to become the top region for ecommerce sales in 2015, followed by North America and Western Europe.

Growing an ecommerce business often requires a broad set of skills. An online merchant may need to be equal parts bookkeeper, marketer, and developer. Fortunately many of the necessary skills can be developed online for little or no cost.

Here is a list of educational resources for online merchants. There are resources for specific subject areas, such as inbound marketing, coding, and mastering Google Analytics. There are also broad education sites, with many useful courses in business and technology, and many other topics.

The 2015 Loyalty Report saw an increasing number of people opt-in to a variety of loyalty programs in the past year, and revealed the extent to which programs are effective in influencing customer behavior show no signs of diminishing.

Here's a Top 5 list of what's trending in loyalty....

Online shopping has become a multibillion-dollar revenue stream--not to mention it has completely turned the path to purchase on its head.

What retailer doesn't want a piece of that growing pie? This is where multichannel marketing comes into play. Any successful online marketing strategy, however, begins with understanding--and then catering to--consumers' various shopping patterns and preferences.

To start you on your way, here is a glimpse into the online purchase habits of the modern-day shopper.....

Macy’s has announced they will shut down 14 stores as part of a restructuring effort, citing a shift in how consumers shop. The retail giant notes that this is part of a broader plan to meet consumers where they are: online.

The closed stores will mean a reduction of 1,343 jobs and should be completed within the next few months. The news has the average layperson assuming the worst of the brand, but Macy’s is no JCPenney, no, this is a simple effort that is common for large brands. These closures represent only a fraction of the brand’s 790 stores across America....

Although psychology has been an integral part of marketing for many years, in recent years we have seen it become an even bigger component as more and more consumers turn to the Internet for information. In its most basic definition, psychology is the science of behavior and the mind.  As online marketing develops and grows out of consumer demand, so does psychology and an understanding of how consumers think and behave as they use the Internet for purchasing decisions.

How does psychology work in the process of lead conversion? First, let’s gain a better understanding of lead conversion in online marketing, specifically inbound marketing.  As you may know, call-to-actions (CTAs) and landing pages are an integral part of lead conversion and inbound marketing.

Shoppers have always had different personalities. They are motivated to buy for all kinds of reasons, and their shopping strategies can be radically different.

In order to stay competitive in an increasingly challenging online ecosystem, marketers need to understand exactly what drives the behavior of the shoppers who frequent their online stores. Here are eight types of shoppers based on personality types and how marketers can provide the best online experiences to reach them...

For society, smartphones are becoming appendages. They may even be as important as breathing air! Ok, not really, but with Cyber Monday now a date on the holiday calendar, it is evident that our smartphones will influence how society shops.

A higher percentage of women than men shop online. Additionally, 30% of women use mobile devices to shop.

Throw in social media into this mobile online shopping melting pot and what do we get?

Let’s find out!