Amazon just made another move into the fashion industry (AMZN)
Amazon
The BI Intelligence Content Marketing Team covers news and research we think you would find valuable. This topic was originally sent to subscribers of the E-Commerce Insider newsletter.
Amazon is getting into the fashion game.
The e-commerce giant has debuted the first episode of its live home-shopping program "Style Code Live," in which three hosts discuss current trends in the fashion world. The show streams for free on Amazon's website.
Much like QVC and the Home Shopping Network, "Style Code Live" will provide direct links to the items discussed so viewers can buy them directly from Amazon.
"Style Code Live" will let viewers interact with the hosts via a live chat feature to which the hosts will respond in real time on the broadcast. The show will also have a "Style Code Love Bag" that will register virtual feedback. For example, viewers can "applaud" a segment of the show by clicking the bag icon, which then fills with confetti. It releases the confetti when full, which indicates a popular portion of the show.
The show feeds into Amazon's aggressive plan to be a major player in the fashion and apparel retail space. After months of speculation, Amazon debuted its private-label clothing line last month that included at least 1,800 items for sale under seven different brands for men, women, and children.
QVC and HSN have both been making efforts to grow their e-commerce businesses. QVC's global revenue from e-commerce sales hit $861 million as of the third quarter 2015, a 10% year-over-year increase. HSN does not release e-commerce sales numbers but did announce that e-commerce accounted for 40.5% of its total business in Q3 2015, up from 38.8% in the same period one year earlier.
Amazon is an undisputed e-commerce titan, but it is still adjusting its strategy to reach its customers. And other companies are doing the same as the e-commerce world continues to change.
Consider this latest holiday season gave us the clearest indication yet that there's never been a better time to be a consumer. The rise of online and mobile shopping has given consumers more choice, flexibility, and often better service, and retailers are shifting their strategies to keep up.
Cooper Smith, senior research analyst at BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on new e-commerce strategies that looks at some of the top trends affecting retailers at each stage of the purchase funnel and how they're responding to those shifts.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
- Within digital, consumers are spreading out their retail purchasing across channels, forcing retailers to spread out their online marketing budgets. Paid search, affiliate marketing, and email all increased their share of e-commerce referrals last year, according to Custora.
- Paid search especially stood out as a major source of spending by retailers. Search ad spending grew 18% YoY in Q4 2015, according to IgnitionOne.
- Mobile continues to drive the most sales growth for retailers, but sales still aren't keeping up with retail traffic. IBM found that smartphone traffic beat both tablet and desktop, making up 53% of all online traffic. But mobile still only accounted for 29% of all online sales.
- Retailers only have themselves to blame for underperformance on mobile, as many still aren't using best practices for mobile websites and apps. Only 60% of the top 100 global retailers currently have a dedicated mobile website, according to The Search Agency.
- The increase in online shopping has put stress on the shipping and logistics industry. The number of UPS ground packages delivered on time during the holidays fell from 97% in 2014 to 91% in 2015, according to ShipMatrix.
- Retailers are beginning to explore alternative shipping options. Earlier this year Gilt Groupe switched its primary ground shipper from UPS to Newgistics.
- Retailers that can't afford to invest in alternative shipping options are offering consumers more fulfillment options using what many of them do have — brick-and-mortar stores. Buying online and picking up in-store, also called click and collect, made up about 30% of e-commerce sales at Sam's Club in 2015.
In full, the report:
- Looks at how retailers are shifting their ad spending and marketing efforts to keep up with online retail behavior
- Identifies which channels are top performers for referral traffic and new opportunities for reaching consumers
- Analyzes how retailers are responding to the rise of mobile purchasing and where they're falling short
- Examines the evolving delivery landscape and the aggressive moves retailers are making to become their own shipping carriers
To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:
- Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
- Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT
The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of new e-commerce strategies.