Satish Meena says, ““Big Billion Day” — was marketed by Flipkart extensively, both online and offline. The founders of Flipkart, Sachin and Binny Bansal, sent a personalized email to registered users announcing the date and mentioning their emotional connection with the number 610 (the number of the apartment from which they launched Flipkart in 2007). October 6 falls in the festive season of Diwali, a period that accounts for 40% of the total sales of key brands in India. Online and offline retailers are competing for a major share of sales during this year’s Diwali. 2014 was a... [...]

Pete Prestipino says, “E-commerce merchants are struggling in the highly competitive, real-time retail market as shoppers have full visibility on product prices – something merchants don’t always have at the point of impression. Last week at Shop.org, Retail intelligence solution Upstream Commerce released Predictive Pricer, a new automated price optimization solution that will enable retailers to set an optimal price based on “demand prediction” analytics. “Using advanced statistical and predictive analytics capabilities, we developed pricing algorithms to... [...]

Allison Howen says, “New data from Bigcommerce shows that the e-commerce industry is growing at a rate of 30 percent per year, leading the e-commerce solutions provider to predict the industry will reach $2 trillion in sales by 2015. Bigcommerce’s Democratization of Ecommerce Report is based on research across the company’s more than 55,000 clients, which is combined with third-party research from Sagence, Inc. According to the report, the U.S. small and medium business e-commerce market is also growing, and is expected to exceed $100 billion in total sales in 2015″. Prediction:... [...]

Jordan Elkind says, ““Free shipping and free returns” has become the proud declaration of many online fashion retailers. These policies have contributed to the explosion of online fashion sales: customers appreciate the convenience and savings associated with flexible shipping and return policies. Unfortunately for retailers, this consumer-friendly approach has an unwelcome side effect, a little-known fashion e-commerce secret: crippling return rates. This issue will be painfully relevant during the upcoming holiday season, when online shopping — and returns — reach peak volume”. 4... [...]

David Moth says, “We’ve previously highlighted 11 great ecommerce checkouts, and now it’s time to see which brands have managed to create top notch, user-friendly mobile checkouts. Given the disparity between conversion rates on desktop compared to mobile, it’s perhaps understandable that retailers might put more effort into optimising their desktop checkout. However as mobile conversions are so hard to come by, you really need to make their purchase journey as comfortable as possible. These are by no means the very finest mobile checkouts in the world, and I’d actually... [...]

Jason Del Rey says, “As of Tuesday afternoon, investors are valuing China’s Alibaba at $215 billion. That’s more than Amazon. That’s more than eBay. And it’s about as much as both of them combined. That might surprise people who look at the size of the companies. Alibaba recorded revenue of $8.46 billion in its last fiscal year, compared with Amazon’s $74.45 billion and eBay’s $16.04 billion. But there’s more to the Alibaba story beyond sales. The following three charts, when taken together, help explain why investors are so excited about Alibaba”. Why Alibaba Is Worth More... [...]

Allison Howen says, “Merchants who are looking for ways to increase conversions this holiday season should consider incorporating more videos into their e-commerce sites. In fact, a new report from Invodo reveals that online shoppers who view video are nearly two times (1.8) more likely to make a purchase compared to shoppers who did not watch a video. Furthermore, the Video Commerce Benchmarks Report for Q2 2014 reveals that the majority of video viewers (67 percent) watch videos to 80 percent completion. This shows that online shoppers are typically watching the portion of videos that... [...]

Verónica Maria Jarski says, “The e-commerce world is rapidly changing, with fierce competition on a global scale. “In the United States, e-commerce is growing at 4X the rate of retail, while in China, it grew a staggering 51% in 2013,” reports Baynote in the following infographic. The 302 largest e-tailers in France, Germany, and the UK grew combined sales 16.7% in 2013. By comparison, the sales of the 46 largest e-tailers in Italy, Portugal, and Spain grew 26.6%. Moreover, “Indian e-commerce is expected to grow from $13B in 2013 to $50B-$70B by 2020,” according... [...]

David Bowen says, “Mobile commerce is very much here and now. A fifth of all online spend now is now on mobile, accounting for around £8bn. That’s a huge figure, and it’s only going to increase.  So what are the key trends that are driving this growth? We’ve highlighted three here”. How demographics and devices are shaping the future of mobile commerce ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Amberly Dressler says, “Has your company realized the maximum value from its supply chain? This is Chainalytics core purpose, which is one reason 18 of Gartner’s top 25 Supply Chain companies count on it to accelerate the transformation of their supply chains. Its focus, according to Irv Grossman, Chainalytics’ vice president of supply chain operations, includes supply chain design, integrated supply demand planning, transportation, packaging optimization and more. Website Magazine caught up with Grossman to discuss ways to reduce logistic costs, plan for the holidays and what... [...]