Consumer Analytics

Amazon is priming the appetites of customers in Seattle with a new feature as part of its Prime Now one-hour delivery service.

Menlo Park, Calif. – As eBay celebrates its 20th anniversary, a new competitor in the online trading market is emerging.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is making it easier for consumers to use its Groups feature to buy, sell and/or trade goods.

Facebook began allowing users to create “for sale” groups late in 2014. However, the social media giant is no longer requiring creators of for sale groups to obtain its official approval before launching them.

Philadelphia – Marketers are largely not conscious of the full potential social images (such as Instagram posts) hold for their email marketing efforts.

According to new research from Curalate and Movable Ink, while 76% of marketer emails include social media buttons, only 14% include social images.

Armonk, N.Y. – Consumers are mobilizing for back-to-school shopping in a very literal way.

Mobile sales were up nearly 42% in August, reaching 25.3% of all online sales, according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark data.

During this time, consumers also used their mobile devices to browse deals, with traffic accounting for 49.4% of all online traffic, up more than 19% compared to the same period year.

Back in September 2013, I wrote a TechBytes column about how millennials aren’t that different from prior young generations in their interests and needs. I have since realized there are a few unique millennial social trends which reflect specific generational consumer attributes. Using leading-edge technology, retailers can effectively meet the generational needs of this increasingly important customer demographic.

Rock is Dead

As many of us grasp at the last moments of summer, those in the retail industry have one eye on the end of the year -- the time between November and December. It makes sense: holiday shoppers spent over $616 billion dollars just last year between Black Friday and Christmas. And while the ample time and resources spent on these two annual marketing priorities is certainly deserved, it is easy to put all of our eggs in this basket, accidentally neglecting the major retailing opportunity just around the corner -- the first quarter.

San Jose, Calif. -- The back-to-school season traditionally gives retailers a much-needed boost, bringing traffic into stores in August. How did things turn out this year?

Not so great it turns out, according to RetailNext Inc., which provides retail analytics for brick-and-mortar stores. The firm’s, monthly Retail Performance Pulse revealed a 7.3% year-over-year decrease in sales on a 9.9% decline in traffic at physical stores for the retail month of August (Aug. 2 through Aug. 29 on the retail 4-5-4 calendar).

Bentonville, Ark. -- Sam's Club is taking on Costco in the auto buying program business by teaming up with one of the biggest names in car-shopping.

The all-new Sam's Club Auto Buying Program will now be powered by TrueCar, Sam's Club announced Thursday. Sams Club says members will have access to more than 10,000 TrueCar Certified Dealers nationwide, more than three times the nearest competitor in the warehouse club channel (i.e., Costco).

Austin, Texas – Labor Day is supposed to be a day of rest, but consumers are planning to work at shopping for the upcoming Labor Day holiday Sept. 7.

According to a recent RetailMeNot-Kelton survey, two in three (67%) people planning to spend money this Labor Day will spend an average of $144.

In addition, 13% anticipate their Labor Day spend will exceed $200. While 67% of consumers do actually plan to relax at home, one in three intend to visit the mall.

I know what you’re thinking … another article about programmatic. But given the rapid pace of advancements in the programmatic space, we’ve entered a time when advertisers and retailers are forced to reexamine their strategy, take a closer look at what programmatic means to their business, and prioritize the pieces of the puzzle they should be employing to reap the greatest benefits.