Feels Like We’re Being Watched…
Tracking consumer behavior online has become a profitable, if sneaky, strategy for shrewd advertisers. However, it seems online shoppers are becoming more aware and dissatisfied with the constant surveillance. According to a study by Harris Interactive, as reported by Marketing Pilgrim, a considerable majority of online consumers are aware of terms like “Internet cookies” and “online tracking,” while over 40 percent are cognizant of ” behavioral tracking” and “location-based advertising.” Furthermore, quite possibly as a result of all the monitoring, a large majority of consumers say they either definitely or probably wouldn’t consent to sharing financial information, contact information, current location, or even their name with advertisers. Behavioral tracking is no doubt here to stay, but for businesses that maintain high regard for their customers’ privacy, comprehensive, accurate, and honest content merchandising is an effective and less abrasive solution.
Check out the charts at paidcontent.org.
What’s up Down Under?
If you love questionably relevant statistics, you’ll definitely want to check out this article from Warc. Kidding aside (sorta), the report breaks down a study from the Australian Institute, which seems to indicate that the fate of e-commerce in that country lies in the hands (algorithms) of the almighty search engines. As an example: Of those surveyed, when seeking a particular item, only 24 percent went directly to the retailer’s website, with the rest employing searches of various kinds.
Read all the numbers at warc.com.
