Dec
14th

Amazon vs. Walmart: The Epic Battle Wages On

Posted by Lawrence on December 14, 2009 at 4:07 pm

As we continue to move full speed into the final days of the holiday shopping season, there have been many interesting headlines surrounding the battle between retail giant Walmart, and the little engine that could, Amazon. I didn’t realize the history behind this epic battle that has been waging on for more than a decade. A little like the Hatfields and the McCoys, these entities have been duking it out for what is comparable to centuries in internet years.

Recent updates to the feud have the two companies in a price battle over everything from new books to Easy-Bake Ovens. Just before this year’s Black Friday, Walmart reduced the price of the Easy-Bake from $28 to $17, with Amazon responding that same day, dropping their price from $28 to $18. The same thing is happening with DVDs, video game consoles, mobile phones, and any other product these two companies have in common.

While online shopping is said to account for only about four percent of all retail sales, that number is destined to grow exponentially. With more and more people gaining access to broadband internet, reduced skepticism over the security of online purchasing and the falling prices of PC equipment, many more of today’s shoppers are embracing the internet as their main source for product ideas, reviews, comparison shopping and eventually, purchasing. And this trend is proving itself to be true. During the economic downturn, eCommerce wasn’t as heavily impacted as brick and mortar retail sales, and Amazon even saw a 24 percent increase in sales during the third quarter of 2009.

Walmart’s revenue has grown 9.1 percent per year (averaged over the past three years) in comparison to Amazon’s 31 percent increase per year. And while Amazon’s annual $19.2 billion in revenue is still dwarfed by Walmart’s $400 billion, the tortoise will eventually catch up and beat the hare in this race of time.

Utilizing these annual revenue figures and the current growth trends extended over time, the graph below visualizes when Amazon’s revenue will match that of Walmart, given that all other variables remain the same.

Things to consider that could affect the trends:

This graph is a comparison of the average growth of these two companies, based on today’s estimate that online shopping accounts for only about four percent of retail sales. What if that figure grew to 10 percent or 25 percent some day?

Currently, Amazon’s customers do not pay sales tax in most states. Meanwhile, lobbyists for Walmart and other retail chains are trying to eliminate this disadvantage these brick and mortar stores are facing.

Your business can learn a lot from these game changing enterprises. You don’t have to be Amazon or Walmart to reap the rewards of increased sales and exponential growth. While Walmart is still expanding globally, relying mostly on their brick and mortar stores, Amazon has built their business on an online foundation and continues to experience exponential growth as the future of the internet grows around them.

You don’t need to be a Fortune 500 company with a Fortune 500 budget to be a successful online retailer. A smart investment in online marketing paired with constant monitoring and optimization can now afford you a chance to compete with larger companies. SEO, PPC, Social Media, Display Advertising, Digital PR, Creative Services, Mobile Websites & Campaigns, Search Analytics, Podcasts, Consultation Services or a whole new website based on a solid SEO foundation can all lend a hand to help land you where and when your future customers are looking. Look to Oneupweb if you want the best, and let us grow your business. After all, it’s what we do.

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Dec
10th

The Weather Takes on Walmart: How the Blizzard of ’09 Drives Online Traffic

Posted by Kathryn on December 10, 2009 at 4:24 pm

What do Walmart, the weather and Frosty, the Snowman all have in common? These are currently popular search terms driving traffic online. And with Hanukkah right around the corner and only two weeks left until Christmas, holiday shoppers are either driving to the mall or shopping online. But if you live anywhere in the Northeast or Midwest, you might not have been able to get your car out of the driveway this morning—at least not without a shovel and a prayer. It’s usually not a good thing when your local meteorologist uses the words “hammered” or “blasted.”

And following Google Trends the last couple of days, weather related searches have topped the charts. People are searching for their local news stations to find out more about school closings and local snow storm warnings. (Last time I checked, about 40% of the search trends were weather related). So in celebration of the winter weather, here are my top three snow related topics this week:

1) Weather-related searches outpaced Walmart searches. So when the weather outside is, well, frightful, why not go online? And e-commerce is on the rise—Cyber Monday online sales were up five percent from last year. Also, the top three online retailers, Amazon, Walmart and Target are all seeing increases in traffic to their websites. HitWise reported Walmart was number two in most trafficked retail sites during the big Black Friday weekend—topping the ranks in referral traffic from Black Friday websites and paid search results. Yes, Virginia, paid search does produce real results. But the blizzard of ‘09 has the volume of Walmart’s Black Friday search traffic.

2) The Facebook snowball fight The weather closed down University of Wisconsin this week forcing thousands of college students to play outside. Socially-savvy students attempted to organize the largest snow-ball fight EVER—using Facebook.

3) Frosty heats things up And what’s more inappropriate than Walmart and co-ed snowball fights? Frosty, the Snowman, of course. Technically, the new Frosty mash-up might not count as a “trending topic,” but it has received a lot of attention on YouTube. Check it out and laugh away the winter chills.

Planning for the Next Digital Storm
Unless you’re planning for the snowball fight of the century, you don’t have to rely on the weather report to generate online buzz. But if you can’t forecast the changes in online marketing, you may be left out in the cold this holiday season. Online marketing is changing—social media is growing at a break-neck pace and Google just rolled out a new search algorithm that might affect your ranking. It might be time to compare your online marketing wish list with our list of services. Go ahead and heat up your online marketing this winter with Oneupweb.

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Nov
30th

Black Friday, Cyber Monday & Mobile Devices! Oh, My!

Posted by Chip Rice on November 30, 2009 at 4:27 pm

If you’re like most, the past few days has marked the official start of the holiday shopping season.

Whether you peeled yourself out of bed at the wee hours of the morning in search of the greatest Black Friday deal ever, you took a more traditional approach and hit the stores during the daylight hours this past weekend, or you’ve been plotting your online shopping strategy to take advantage of Cyber Monday—the shopping has undoubtedly commenced.

So after last year’s lack-luster shopping season (lack-luster by recent standards, anyways), how are things shaping up so far this season?

Well, as was expected, the early reports by the NRF (National Retail Federation) show that the number of Black Friday shoppers was up this year while the total amount spent was down—195 million shoppers this Black Friday compared to 172 million last year and $343.31 as the average amount spent per shopper, down from $372.57 last year.

Echoing this sense that people are focused on finding bargains this year, there was also a noticeable increase in the number of shoppers that made it into the stores by 5am—31.2% this year, up from 23.3% last year.

Another very interesting trend this year is the amount of Black Friday activity being conducted from mobile devices. PayPal has reported that the number of mobile payments they processed this Black Friday was up 140% when compared to an average Friday. Other sources have noted that this is up a whopping 650% over Black Friday last year.

And the product search engine, TheFind.com, reported about 200,000 searches being conducted from mobile devices this year, up from a mere 5,000 last year. Clearly, the impact of the increased adoption of web-enabled smart phones is on display.

However if online shopping is more your speed, you’re certainly not alone. Year after year the number of people who do at least some portion of their holiday shopping online continues to grow.

So what will this mean for Cyber Monday this year?

According to the NRF, a survey conducted for Shop.org by BigResearch predicts that 96.5 million Americans plan to shop on Cyber Monday this year, up from 85 million last year.

So regardless of how you prefer to do your holiday shopping this year, be assured that you are certainly not alone. And best of luck as you attempt to brave the masses, the new technology and your budget.

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Jan
21st

Learn Practical Shopping Trends for a Better 2009 Holiday Season – Oneupweb White Paper

Posted by Starr on January 21, 2009 at 9:21 am

Saying “Brrrrrrrrrrr” and listening to my teeth chatter is something I’ve become accustomed to while living in Northern Michigan. And I have to admit that I would rather read a good book while cuddling under a warm blanket with a steaming cup of hot chocolate than shop in a crowded store – especially when temperatures are below 35 degrees.

And it seems I wasn’t alone this past holiday season.

Cold weather and a sluggish economy are why many shoppers stayed home, choosing to shop via computer or even by mobile phone. Unfortunately, that spelled disaster for retailers who didn’t plan ahead. That is, with the exception of Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart kept 91% of its holiday shoppers and, according to Hitwise, the retailer beat Amazon for the title of “top visited retail website”. When smart planning collides with an understanding of digital trends, even a brick-and-mortar can give an e-commerce giant a run for its money.

Wal-Mart followed search engine marketing best practices and took advantage of innovate new technologies this past season, reaching us in our cuddly blankets via text messaging. So, I’m not surprised they were successful.

Planning ahead and following through is a piece of best practices advice Wal-Mart followed and Oneupweb discusses in its latest white paper, The 2008 U.S. Online Shopping Report.

Our newest white paper provides useful information for understanding when shoppers are most likely to buy or shop for deals online. It also offers practical advice formulated from search engine marketing best practices for planning this year’s digital marketing strategy.

Before finalizing any plan, take a proactive step by downloading The 2008 U.S. Online Shopping Report. That way next holiday season, when I’m sitting by a warm fire and reading a book off my iPod Touch, or Amazon Kindle, or WHATEVER!, you might just have a shot at getting my business.

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Sep
25th

Economic Gloom & Doom? Not for Online Retailers!

Posted by Steven on September 25, 2008 at 1:42 pm

2008 has been a difficult year for retail. The United States economy has had to face a housing market correction, a sub-prime mortgage crisis, rising unemployment, high food and energy costs, a declining dollar value, and now a financial bailout for Wall Street.

The National Retail Federation predicted this week that these financial pressures will result in the worst holiday sales season since 1991.

online holiday shopping While overall retail sales will be slumping this year, the online retail market sector is expected to grow by 17% according to a Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research. With a little digital marketing strategy, this holiday season could still be full of cheer!

Take these steps and you’ll be jolly this holiday season:

PLAN: Understand holiday online retail buying trends and plan your marketing strategy around them. Learn more by reading our Oneupweb white paper (an oldie but a goody). Listed below are the top 5 holiday shopping days:

• Thanksgiving Day
• Black Friday (Friday after Thanksgiving)
• Cyber Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving)
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day

PROMOTE: To resonate with shoppers, offer incentives for shopping sooner this year. Starting after Halloween, use deals like “Free shipping all this week” that could entice consumers to purchase early, and more importantly, from you.

ONLINE MESSAGING:

• Redesign your homepage with a Christmas/Holiday theme. Here are some examples.
• Use holiday season messaging in your SEM campaigns to help consumers identify your site as a good place to shop for gifts.

SAVE SALES ON OUT-OF-STOCK ITEMS:

• Redirect your customers when a product is out-of-stock. Use language like “If you liked product x, you’ll love product y!” and provide a link to product y.
• If a product is only temporarily out-of-stock, provide a method for the customer to receive an email when the product is in-stock. This will also give you additional opt-in email addresses.

MERCHANDISING: Cross-selling and up-selling

When a customer adds an item to your shopping cart, instead of taking them to the shopping cart page, land them on a cross-sell page. There the customer is reminded of exactly what item they added to the shopping cart, then immediately show additional items from the same category to keep the customer browsing. If the customer then chooses to check-out, you can get more aggressive with a highly targeted pop-up. If the customer adds that item to the cart, send them back to the cross-sell page and repeat.

OPTIMIZE FOR LAST-MINUTE SHOPPERS: As Christmas approaches, start displaying purchase cutoff dates for guaranteed delivery to reassure customers that they will receive their gifts on-time. When holiday shipping deadlines are behind you, promote electronic gift cards by using tag-lines like “It’s Not Too Late” or “There’s Still Time” to attract last minute shoppers.

Don’t let the economic pundits and pessimistic forecasters get you down this holiday season. Crisis creates opportunity, and you can capitalize this year if you plan to succeed.

Happy Holiday digital marketing to all, and to all a good ROI!

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