Online Shopping is Booming, Part XXVII
I hesitate to offer you all yet another “e-commerce is growing” story, but it’s been a little while, and this one’s from the largest newspaper in the U.S. According to the Wall Street Journal, online retail spending increased 14 percent compared to the second quarter last year. Notably, nearly 10 percent of all discretionary spending in the U.S. is via e-commerce. Serious business, folks.
Read the story at online.wsj.com (subscription required).
Terrific Tips for F-Commerce
And now for a summary of a synopsis of a report on how to refine and streamline your f-commerce efforts; for those of you who weren’t sure, f-commerce is the strategy of connecting to one’s customers and consumers through Facebook. The first rule of the f-commerce club is that simply porting your e-commerce store onto Facebook won’t cut it. The trick is to create a dynamic, interactive experience, capitalizing on the nature of social media. That involves producing likable wall-posts, providing exclusive promotions and discounts, soliciting constructive feedback from fans, and offering a forum for general communication, reviewing, and the like.
Read summary #1 at socialcommercetoday.com.
Out-of-Control Teens Addicted to… Smartphones
Troubling? Impressive? Surprising? Unsurprising? We’re not sure which adjective to use, but it is no doubt notable that, according to Maija Palmer of the Financial Times, nearly half of all British children aged 12 to 15 own a smartphone–with 60 percent of those claiming to be “addicted” to their device. Interestingly, a much greater proportion of teenagers in the U.K. own smartphones compared to adults: 47 percent compared to 27 percent. This kind of rampant use almost certainly has its detriments on social etiquette: young people chatting during movies, playing video games at the dinner table, and literally bumping into each other on the street. However, there is one fact about smartphone use that cannot be ignored: With nearly a third of smartphone owners using their devices to access the Internet, online retailers would do well to up their m-commerce efforts, as we’ve mentioned on several occasions.
Read the full story at ft.com (subscription required).
