Barry Levine says, “Video analytics service Visible Measures is out today with a new tool that allows brands to see the future of competitive video campaigns and plan accordingly. The new Industry Forecaster is available in the premium version of its True Reach video benchmarking and planning platform, which tracks viewings, shares and other performance measures of video content or video ads released by more than 7000 brands in 240 industry verticals on the web or in apps. The company said the new capability is the “first predictive video analytics tool for media planning.” It extrapolates... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Almost three out of every four e-commerce dollars spent by US consumers on July 12 were spent with Amazon. You may recognize that date as Amazon’s second Prime Day, and this new data from Slice Intelligence supports Amazon’s own claims that Prime Day 2016 was its “biggest day ever.” Using its panel of more than four million online shoppers and tracking about 400 online retailers (including all of the major players), Slice estimated Tuesday that Amazon owned 74 percent of all US consumer e-commerce on Prime Day — that’s almost double its normal 38-percent market... [...]

Christina Warren says, “Prime Day is back! Amazon has announced that its faux holiday, Prime Day, will return on July 12, 2016. This means that for one day, Amazon Prime members can save money on products across categories. Last year the event was a huge success for Amazon – even if plenty of the deals were weird as h*ll. In its second year, Prime Day will be even bigger, with more than 100,000 deals worldwide. Amazon says new and existing Prime members in the U.S., UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium and Austria will be able to access deals throughout its massive... [...]

Greg Finn says, “One of Amazon’s most appealing features is the unbiased reviews provided to members. Unfortunately, it turns out that some sellers have taken it upon themselves to feed fake reviews to their customers-to-be. This wouldn’t be a prudent idea. Amazon is (and has been) suing those sellers that are buying positive reviews. Amazon has previously sued to stop websites that sell fake Amazon reviews, along with individuals offering to write fake reviews. This latest batch of lawsuits is against the companies that buy fake reviews for their products. A story from TechCrunch this... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “Amazon announced yesterday that it has reached $100 billion in annual sales. According to a report from The Seattle Times, CEO Jeff Bezos told the audience at Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting, “We are the fastest company to ever reach that milestone.” Amazon Web Services (AWS) — the e-commerce company’s cloud computing division — is also set to reach a major milestone this year, on its way to $10 billion in sales. Amazon says AWS is now bigger than Amazon.com was 10 years ago and is growing at a faster rate. After facing harsh criticism over the treatment... [...]

Barry Levine says, “Amazon is now making its video service more like its general marketplace. On Tuesday, the e-commerce giant announced a new service, called Amazon Video Direct (AVD). While it allows any video creator to upload work and receive payment in several ways, it’s clearly directed at video professionals — which it describes as “creators and storytellers” — and not at your brother’s collection of adorable video clips of your new niece. In other words, professional video makers can now choose to sell their works on Amazon without waiting to be selected by their programming... [...]

Devendra Hardawar says, “Amazon has spent the past few years emulating Netflix with its many streaming video offerings. Now with Amazon Video Direct (AVD), it’s taking a cue from Vimeo and YouTube by making it easier than ever to get your videos streaming, and most importantly, get you paid. You’ll be able to upload your own videos and choose exactly how you want people to access them with AVD. You could, for example, make them available to all Amazon Prime viewers, or just go the typical video on demand rental and purchase route. Alternatively, you can also make it open to all... [...]

Reuters team says, “Amazon.com Inc.’s business marketplace, which connects businesses with suppliers, has generated $1 billion in sales in its first year, making it a significant player in a fragmented industry worth more than $8.2 trillion in the United States. Amazon Business offers U.S. businesses exclusive pricing and discounts for buying in bulk, free two-day shipping for orders of more than $49, tax exemption and the option to get products delivered with an Amazon guarantee. “We are continuing to grow at a rate of 20 percent month-on-month, and that highlights … how... [...]

Greg Finn says, “Avid Amazon shoppers may notice some patterns when performing product searches on the retail behemoth. Better-selling products tend to show up at a more frequent clip. A new study from Ripen eCommerce looked at more than 344,936 unique products and 746,500 search results to find what high-ranking products have in common. Amazon Best Sellers Rank Of all of the items measured, the top correlation with high rankings was unequivocally a product’s Amazon Best Sellers Rank. This metric is assigned to a product across specific sub-categories and categories (if popular) and correlates... [...]

Arie Shpanya says, “Amazon has become synonymous with great deals. Retailers using the marketplace have spoken out about drastic undercutting from Amazon as a retailer, especially because they reprice with such high frequency (changing the price of the bible 100 times in five years). But what’s Amazon’s actual strategy when it comes to pricing? Judging by the news that has surfaced over the years, one would speculate that Amazon’s strategy is to frequently lower prices until they beat competitors–for all products. As a consumer, you probably go to Amazon because you think... [...]