Social media Vs. E-commerce

Online sales is playing an increasingly important role in total holiday sales. But how much of that growth can be attributed to social media, like a link on website such as facebook?

Blogger Paul Chaney asked Hitwise, the competitive intelligence service, how is the situation (Internet traffic) e-commerce sites was affected by social media. A spokesman for Hitwise responded via Twitter that the number was 4.39 percent for the "top 500" ecommerce sites on Black Friday. That is, according to Hitwise, social networks referred 4.39 percent of traffic to the top 500 retail sites on Black Friday 2010.

In today's informational society, not only companies are using social media to promote merchandises and deals during the sales high season, but consumers get benefits from their own purposes also. For instance, I would like to share information about some favorite products and purchases I experienced on facebook; I may also follow the recommendations from friends about products they like on twitter, and even hang out to go shopping or purchase online together with friends and family.

Cyber Monday Hit Biggest Sales Record Ever : $1B

Cyber Monday reached a record-breaking level this year with more than $1 billion dollars spent online, making it the heaviest U.S. online shopping day ever recorded. I would expect the huge E-commerce business opportunity in the future, as you can see the sales during last five years are keeping increase even though during the recession period. 

eHarmony is moving to Asia

           eHarmony.com, a leader of online dating service provider, will launch its first Asia branch in Japan recently. Blogger David Evens Worried about the differences in culture between the US and Japan, and he wonders what changes eHarmony will make in their matching systems based on 29 dimensions of compatibility for Japanese. I remember I had a presentation about the eHarmony for my Marketing class at USC. So basically, customers need to answer more than 400 questions before s/he becomes an official member, and paying 60 bucks monthly. But one of the coolest things is that eHarmony rejects 20% of its potential customers in order to guarantee their outstanding services to existing users. Expending internationally seems a necessary path for companies to be more profitable, but bases on eHarmony currently business model, I would doubt could this company survive in Japan, a country is still keeping many traditional rules toward men and women, and also a country has the lowest divorce rare in the world?

Cyber Monday Sales

            Many consumers are getting more familiar with the term "Cyber Monday" during these years. In fact, in the end of November, 2005, the term was created by "Shop.org" press which release entitled "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year". I believe many retailers, especially for E-commerce companies are more glad to use "Cyber Monday" as a marketing promotion to persuade people shop online after Thanksgiving "Black Friday". Now, Black Friday is not an only biggest discount event to those people waiting for a whole year. Many smart consumers know they should just be patient because more products with deeper discounts would come out after weekend. This year, Cyber Monday may have been the heaviest online spending day in history with a record-breaking $1.028 billion in online spending — a 16% jump in spending when compared against the same day last year.

New Businee opportunity

               What we usually do after turkey dinner? "Hard-working" people probably already left from home to get on line outside of shops. Many people like my family just prefer staying at home watching new-released movies. So the those movie rental companies like Netflix would be a best choice because of its fast mailing, and abundant movie resources.

               However, One market segment that Amazon has not yet penetrated is subscription video service just like Netflix. I believe Amazon should add a service where users can stream anything and everything in the Amazon catalog for a monthly or yearly fee.  Amazon already has web technology in place that allows for one time purchases or rentals of streaming movies. Currently, Amazon even offers customers the option of downloading digital copies of music and movies that they have already purchased. This service allows customers to watch films while they wait for the physical discs of movies they have ordered to be shipped. Netflix has already proven that a market exists for a subscription video service, and the Amazon name would add credibility, affordability, and value to such a service.

Black Friday - the biggest shopping day of 2010

happy thanksgiving

          Who would be happy on Thanksgiving day? Students get a long weekend holiday to hang out with friends. Employees can not wait for this day comes, so many of them leave company early on the day before thanksgiving. But the happiest groups of people could be those shoppers got big discounts on black Friday, and of course, the retailers. Amazon.com Inc. Amazon.com says that this black Friday was its biggest-ever record for sales of Kindle devices.  Company also posted on the Amazon Kindle link on Facebook page many days before that on Friday, it will sell its older, second-generation Kindle for $89, which is $10 less expensive than Best Buy. On average, online spending on Black Friday this year increased nearly 16 percent compared with last year, and The  average order value on Black Friday was $190.80, up from $170.19 last year.