Blog360 - The Blend360 Agency Blog - Advertising, Branding, Web Design, SEO and Web Analytics

Black Friday Sees Big Increase in Online Spending

Jon Cogan

The initial Black Friday reports are in from Coremetrics. Online shopping saw a huge boost with spending increasing 15.9% from a year ago. The average order was also up 12.1% from $170.19 to $190.80.

Health and beauty saw some very encouraging numbers on Friday, with a rise of 73.1% of new consumers completing their first purchase on their sites and 53.4% jump in conversion rates (number of visits where consumers completed an order). Jewelry retailers saw a 17.6% increase in online sales indicating a boom day for luxury goods.

The way consumers were shopping online this past Friday indicates a shift in how purchase decisions are being made. The benchmark report revealed that consumers are viewing 18% fewer products on sites than they did last year.  This suggests that online shoppers have done their research and know what they want to buy and where to get it. Department store sites seem to be the research resource of choice, as the report shows a 17.7% increase in the amount of time being spent on these sites from the same period a year ago.

Mobile shopping had a breakthrough day this Black Friday. 5.6% of online consumers logged on to a retailer site using a mobile device. That is a 26.7% increase from a year ago!

The report shows a modest increase in social shopping. More and more consumers are turning to their favourite social networks to learn about deals and inventory levels. Just under 1% of visitors to retailer sites came from social networks. This is to be expected as people are not usually in a shopping frame of mind while on social sites, but even this modest increase indicates a possible shift in that attitude is starting to take shape. Facebook is leading this charge.

For more insights form the President of Blend360 Communications, check out his own blog at: http://www.joncogan.com

Steve Jobs Makes Us Re-think Web Design

Jon Cogan

Apple recently announced that they have absolutely no plans to enable Flash content on iPhones, iPods or iPads and this has made everyone in our business re-think the utilization of Flash in web content. But the more conventional wisdom would be to think multi-platform. Think inclusive rather than exclusive.

What this announcement really brings home is the difference between the wired and mobile web. The world is changing and mobile devices are leading the way. If popular devices such as Apple's repertoire do not support one of the most popular animation applications on the internet, an adaptation or a correction if you will, has to take place somewhere down the line.

One thing seems certain. The adaptation will not come from Apple. They have listed reason after reason why their devices will not support Flash.. And all these reasons are quite valid. Apple believes in the open web, and Flash is closed and proprietary (even though many of their products, including the operating system on the iPhone, iPod and iPad are proprietary). This closed third-party architecture can be quite ubiquitous for developers when trying to integrate with these platforms. From a more basic perspective, Flash doesn't support touch navigation, which is a biggie, and can be a big drain on battery life. Another biggie.

So I get it. I understand Apple's position. It makes sense.

That doesn't change the fact that this stance they are taking is completely incompatible with today's web. So many sites offer Flash today as a central part of their content. The smart sites detect if a the Flash player is available, and if it is not, it serves up a boring placeholder image, and that cool user experience is lost. It's not Apple's fault. It certainly isn't Adobe's fault. And it also really isn't the designer's fault either. It is the fault of the web as we know it today. The web is primarily designed for the wired, not the mobile device.

Yes, there are plenty of mobile versions of sites being produced. Basically, these are stripped down versions of websites, lightweight interpretations that play nicely in the mobile world. But the iPhone offers an interface canvas that can easily allow for all the bells and whistles. The iPad in particular certainly should be able to keep up with the media rich content of today's web, no? Considering that you can play HD quality video on the thing!

What we have here is a complete change from what we expected a few years ago. Back then we were starting to see platforms coming together, making web design simple in that it was truly becoming a build once, run anywhere medium. But that has changed because the media has changed. Mobile users demand that content be delivered compatible with the devices they own, and at the same time, they will be unimpressed with the overly stripped-down. We are reaching a time where content from the world wide web will need to dynamically and drastically adjust for the platform, and web designers will be challenged to make that happen. Even more challenged will be the agencies as they try to convince their clients that they don't just need to add the mobile version for their website, but the iPad, or touch navigation version as well.

The next Buzz in Mobile Marketing

Steve Sussman, Blend360 Communications

One of the hot buzzes of late is Mobilie Marketing. Simply put, it allows advertisers to interact with anyone who has a cell phone or PDA. But some recent studies point out that marketers have to be careful. These kinds of devices are considered “personal communicators” and a lot of people don’t like the idea that someone or some company is invading their personal space. Of course the early adopters (men), who have had their communication devices the longest, are the least likely to be upset by this invasion of privacy.

So what’s all the excitement about? Firstly, Mobile marketing has now gone mainstream. Mobile is being now thought of as a major marketing platform along side of print (including billboards), radio & TV (broadcasting), and online. You now see billboard & bus ads with "Text 'CAR' to 12345" for information on the latest hot car or many other innovative marketing campaigns. Ads now appear on mobile phones - sometimes as banners and sometimes embedded in a product but not often as a total screen that takes over the phone.

But for marketers and programmers this is just the beginning. Another more advanced solution has been developed by Zavers that became the first firm to crack the code with respect to true real-time measurement and mobile marketing effectiveness. Zavers is working with major retailers and marketing promotions firms to allow the mobile subscribers to instantly, find, save and redeem their digital coupons using both the Web and mobile phones and then allowing the consumer to use their existing loyalty card (or phone number) at retail to redeem the coupon. This leading technology by Zavers provides the breakthrough of providing a tie between the promotion (to generate increased sales) and the redemption (to provide analytics on the behavior of the buyer).

Additional mobile loyalty programs were recently announced by Tetherball in the U.S. and Zapa in Europe. Working with ViVOtech, a contactless sticker carrying a loyalty number is added at the back of subscribers' existing phones to associate with the personalized coupons they receive through text messages. Subscribers tap their loyalty sticker enabled phones near store and in-store environments opting-in to receive coupons tailored specifically for them, and tap the phone to redeem coupons for a purchase. This allows information about the purchase (who, where and what) to be collected and summarized for the companies doing the promotion.

Like all things digital, the speed of the acceptance of this new form of marketing will be watched carefully by marketers to see just how far they can go before we turn off our PDA’s.