Amazon is ratcheting up conquesting campaigns, both as an ad platform and as a private-label brand operator. Conquesting is when a brand tries to directly peel off a competitor’s customers or audience. It was a limited strategy in the old world of media and shopping, where there wasn’t much data to identify a rival’s loyal […]
As marketers spend more with Amazon, they’re spawning a cottage industry of Amazon-focused ad tech vendors and service partners. Brands need specialists to guide them across Amazon’s sprawling marketing empire – a brand may deal separately with Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP), Amazon’s Alexa voice group, Amazon Fresh groceries, Twitch and the company’s packaging and shipment […]
Amazon’s “Other” category, its miscellaneous revenue segment that consists primarily of advertising, made $3.4 billion in Q4 2018, almost doubling from Q4 2017. The “Other” category also grew by about $900 million from the prior quarter, for the first time outpacing the growth of Amazon Web Services, the cloud infrastructure business, which added $700 million, […]
Pivotal Research forecast Amazon’s advertising revenues will reach $38 billion by 2023, growing faster than any other Amazon business in that time. The investment research firm also initiated coverage of the ecommerce company on Monday. Pivotal’s coverage of Amazon was spurred this summer at Cannes and in conversations with marketers about the looming presence of […]
When Gap Inc. launched the men’s activewear label Hill City in September, it marked its first new brand in a decade, and its first-ever foray into digital-first territory. Hill City has some notable differences compared to other DTC companies – like corporate ownership and a running start with distribution in 50 Athleta stores (Gap’s activewear […]
Thanksgiving holiday shopping trends have shifted from surprising to predictable. At this point, the big news will be in some hypothetical, future November when ecommerce sales stop growing hand over fist. Ecommerce sales reached $18 billion combined for Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to Adobe. Cyber Monday alone cleared about $8 billion, the […]
Direct-to-consumer brands like Mack Weldon, Manscaped and Peloton have expanded beyond their Facebook and Instagram roots – but don’t expect them to start advertising with or selling most of their products on Amazon. Though Amazon seems like a natural expansion for ecommerce startups, reducing the impact of the world’s biggest ecom platform is a strategic […]
The online clothing retailer Bonobos is at the center of upheaval in US retail and ecommerce. The company was acquired by Walmart last year for $310 million and has opened 58 brick-and-mortar stores in the past seven years. Bonobos also exemplified the direct-to-consumer category in September when former CMO Micky Onvural was promoted to CEO. […]
Dynamic Yield’s latest financing round is about one thing: growth. The company, which provides personalization software for ecommerce brands and publishers, raised $32 million in Series D cash on Wednesday, led by Viola Growth with participation from Union Tech Ventures. The round brings its total funding to $77 million since 2013. Dynamic Yield, whose clients […]
Amazon’s ad business continued to throttle up in the second quarter. The ecommerce giant’s “other” revenue category, where it houses advertising sales and services such as marketing measurement, cleared almost $2.2 billion, more than double the $945 million earned during the same period last year, according to the company’s earnings report, released Thursday. Amazon’s gross […]
Amazon Prime Day is the ecommerce leader’s biggest shopping day ever as well as an opportunity to see how the company strategically deploys its advertising and promotional products. Many retailers responded to Prime Day this year with their own deluge of special discount deals, but Amazon uniquely uses its arsenal of products, from Alexa-based voice […]
July is historically a slow month for the US retail industry. It splits Memorial Day and Labor Day shopping spikes, and foot traffic dwindles as consumers travel or hit the beach. But this year, ecommerce and brick-and-mortar retailers are pouncing with mid-July promotional events, hoping to seize the shopping energy stirred up by Amazon Prime […]
Adobe said Monday it will buy the ecommerce platform Magento for $1.68 billion. Magento’s 2017 revenue was $150 million, and the deal is expected to close by the end of August. Ecommerce has long been a big hole in Adobe’s tech, even as competitors spent heavily to acquire Magento’s competitors. SAP has owned hybris since […]
Amazon has become part of virtually every media plan and it’s only going to continue to grow. Yet, Amazon’s advertising business remains an enigma. Even its closest partners aren’t exposed to the inner workings of its ad stack. It’s also not clear how much spend flows through Amazon’s ad platform, though the investment bank BMO […]
Since it began delivering makeup product lines in 2015, the London-based beauty startup Wunder2 demonstrates how savvy ecommerce companies can use Facebook targeting and video campaigns to push into retail distribution. Wunder2 follows in the footsteps of Facebook-centric startup brands like the mattress-in-a-box manufacturer Purple, which landed its first retail distribution deal last month, and […]
Since 2011, ecommerce startup BarkBox has been delivering boxes of toys and treats to dogs and their owners. The six-year-old subscription service has half a million subscribers, became profitable in Q1 and is projected to reach $150 million in revenue for 2017. In August, BarkBox brought on Bank of America marketing vet Jay Livingston as […]
While tapping into purchases helps advertisers close the loop around the actual conversion, the use cases for purchase data have evolved far beyond measurement. The use of transactional data is maturing in media activation, as is the ability to commingle it with other data sources like behavioral, location and even panels in channels like addressable […]
Ecommerce site Rue La La, which offers deals on designer fashion and goods, wants its members to have a great experience so they keep coming back. “How do we stay top of mind for our best members and encourage them to come back over long periods of time?” said Jeff Steeves, VP of marketing at […]
Amazon is winning a growing share of CPG media dollars, and its September announcement that it would open an office in New York City to house a major expansion of its advertising platform business means the competition will only heat up. It comes as CPG brands pulling back on digital media undercut global agencies, marketing […]
Jet.com has been quietly pitching publishers on changes to its payment structure related to affiliate commissions. The message is clear: Work with Jet and it’s prepared to pay you for the privilege. Affiliate bucks often go to the more established players like Amazon or eBay. But in order to incentivize publishers to send traffic its […]
The convergence of retail and ecommerce accelerated with a blockbuster Friday when it was announced that Amazon would buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion and Wal-Mart is snapping up ecommerce men’s clothing company Bonobos for $310 million. The market response to the deals was clear, particularly to Amazon’s 11-digit investment in a brick-and-mortar footprint. The […]
As Amazon’s commerce and advertising revenues continue to skyrocket, the company’s enigmatic policies remain a core feature of the platform. While leading digital ad platforms like Google and Facebook churn out regular product updates and constantly brief media and customers on policy nuances, Amazon keeps even its closest partners in the dark, according to several […]
On May 10, eBay will part ways with its longtime ad rep firm, Triad Retail Media, which was acquired by Xaxis last October. Recode first reported the separation. EBay will move its ad sales team in-house, claiming this migration will allow it to take more direct ownership of its brand partnerships. “This is much more […]
Quotient, which originated as the consumer-facing Coupons.com in the late ’90s, is pushing deeper into programmatic media. The company has launched the Quotient Media Exchange (QMX), a digital media platform that lets CPG and retailer advertisers target ads across Quotient’s publisher network, including Coupons.com, Facebook and other third-party retail partner sites. Another day, another programmatic […]
Marketing automation is designed to push out messages, but it hasn’t always been great at incorporating pricing or product information. Datalogix vet Rob Holland recognized that reality when he served as an EVP at the Oracle Data Cloud – and he just jumped to ecommerce marketing startup Bluecore last week to help solve that problem […]
Another independent attribution solution is off the market. SAP said Wednesday that it had purchased Abakus, a move that puts it further into the paid media arena. Terms were not disclosed. Abakus’ attribution system is unique since it applies game theory to forecast scenarios that influence media buying and optimization. It also uses split-funnel attribution […]
EBay Enterprise alumni unite! When paid search and affiliate network Pepperjam and ecommerce platform Magento partnered in early November, it marked the reunification of two companies from eBay’s now-discontinued eBay Enterprise Marketing business. After the spinoff from eBay, Pepperjam and Magento were each reclaimed by their original owners to operate as standalone entities. “I had […]
Boxed, a bulk shopping startup that competes with Costco and Sam’s Club, wants to woo a younger demographic of shoppers to its version of the wholesale club. The three-year-old company is on a hiring spree and expects revenues to exceed $100 million this year. Now Boxed is dabbling in brand marketing for the first time […]
The No. 1 reason consumers shop online is because it’s convenient, yet online commerce still represents less than 10% of overall sales. “Why isn’t this number higher? It should be higher,” said Ken Cassar, VP and principal analyst at Slice Intelligence, at a New York City event hosted by Rakuten Marketing on Tuesday. According to […]
Xaxis, the WPP Group-owned programmatic media platform, snapped up the ecommerce ad tech business Triad Retail Media on Thursday. Triad handles media sales for major ecommerce sites, including those operated by Walmart, Sam’s Club, eBay, StubHub, Staples and Toys R Us. Triad’s gross revenue was more than $500 million in 2015, up from approximately $170 […]
