Publishers that have struggled to adapt to competition from digital channels need to consider how commerce fits with the changing needs of audiences. Read more…
Month: November 2018
Common technical standards for the industry may help publishers avoid duplicating their efforts. The money they save could be spent on creating original content. Read more…
Publishing has become a high-tech business, especially with smartphones boosting the consumption of online content in the past 10 years. Digital publishers depend on teams of tech workers to keep their websites and apps running smoothly. Read more…
‘BuzzFeed’ CEO Jonah Peretti caused a stir this week by suggesting his company could merge with other digital publishers to gain more bargaining power with Silicon Valley’s tech titans. Read more…
The newspaper’s marijuana vertical aims to funnel a target audience into a dedicated section of the website as part of an effort to boost digital subscriptions. That’s a smart strategy, considering pot advertising is highly regulated in every state where it’s legal. Read more…
Adobe Analytics published data about online sales during the Black Friday weekend.
| Day | Sales | Yearly Gain |
| Cyber Monday | $7.9 billion (biggest online shopping day of all time) | 19.7 percent |
| Thanksgiving Day | $3.7 billion | 28 percent |
| Black Friday | $6.2 billion | 23.6 percent |
| Saturday and Sunday | $6.4 billion | 25 percent |
Revenue from smartphone users rose 48.1 percent to $2.1 billion on Cyber Monday.
Mobile devices represented 51.4 percent of site traffic, including 43.6 percent from smartphones and 7.8 percent from tablets.
Mobile devices made up 34 percent of online sales, including 26.3 percent from smartphones and 7.7 percent from tablets.
Top sellers on Cyber Monday included the Nintendo Switch, Little Live Pets, Red Dead Redemption 2, LG TVs, drones (DJI, Air Hogs, Sky Viper), Dell laptops, FurReal Pets and Amazon Echo devices.
Black Friday had the best deals for TVs (prices down 18 percent) and computers (17.8 percent). On the Sunday before Cyber Monday, the best deals were for toys (prices cut 31.6 percent). Adobe forecast the biggest discounts for furniture and bedding (14 percent) to happen on Giving Tuesday.
Denver had the biggest shopping baskets since Thanksgiving with orders averaging $163, followed by $157 in San Francisco, $156 in New York, $156 in Portland and $154 in the Seattle/Tacoma area. The nationwide average rose 6.1 percent from a year earlier to $138, indicating shoppers are more comfortable buying more and bigger ticket items online, Adobe said in a statement.
Large retailers ($1 billion or more in annual e-commerce revenue) saw 6 percent higher conversion rates on smartphones, indicating their investments in improving the mobile shopping experience are paying off.
Social media didn’t help to drive revenue, with a 1.1 percent share of total sales on Cyber Monday, similar to past years. Direct website traffic drove the most revenue with a 25.3 percent share of sales (down 1.2 percent from the prior year), followed by paid search at 25.1 percent (up 7.4 percent), natural search at 18.8 percent (down 2.8 percent) and email at 24.2 percent (up 0.5 percent).
Sales Drivers
| Source | Share | Trend |
| Direct website traffic | 25.3 percent | Down 1.2 percentage points |
| Paid search | 25.1 percent | Up 7.4 percentage points |
| Natural search | 18.8 percent | Down 2.8 percentage points |
| 24.2 percent | Up 0.5 percentage points | |
| Social media | 1.1 percent | Little changed |
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti caused a stir this week by suggesting his company could merge with other digital publishers to gain more bargaining power with Silicon Valley’s tech titans. Read more…
Technology companies that develop software, not hardware, had the highest employee turnover rate last year at 13.2 percent, according to a study by business-networking site LinkedIn.
The company evaluated turnover using job changes indicated by its users.
In the software industry, companies with the highest turnover rates were: computer games (15.5 percent), internet (14.9 percent), computer software (13.3 percent), IT and services (13 percent) and e-learning (11.6 percent).
The occupations in the software industry with the highest turnover were: user experience and designer (23.3 percent), data analyst (21.7 percent) and embedded software engineer (21.7 percent).
In the media and entertainment industries, companies with the highest turnover rates were: newspapers (13.3 percent), online media (13.2 percent), sports (13.2 percent), travel and tourism (13 percent) and motion picture and film (13 percent).
The occupations in the media and entertainment industries were: animator (25.6 percent), 3D artist (22.3 percent) and marketing specialist (19.8 percent). Most people who leave media and entertainment companies also leave the industry. Only 36 percent of job changers leave for another media and entertainment company. A big reason for turnover is the industry’s project-focused nature.
Source: LinkedIn
Source: LinkedIn
| Company | 2018 | 2020 |
| 37.1% | 35.1% | |
| 20.6% | 20.8% | |
| Amazon | 4.1% | 7% |
Source: eMarketer
Top Amazon Advertising Products Ranked by Marketers
| Amazon Marketing Services | 86.5% |
| Sponsored products | 79.8% |
| Headline search ads | 72.5% |
| Product display ads | 66.8% |
| Amazon Media Group | 58% |
| Amazon display ads (mobile/desktop) | 55.4% |
| Both AMG and AMS | 50.3% |
| Amazon image and text ads | 45.6% |
| Amazon Advertising Platform | 30.1% |
| Amazon in-stream video ads | 21.2% |
| Kindle & Fire Tablet lock screen | 13.5% |
| Fire TV home screen | 10.9% |
Shoe retailer DSW kicked off a mobile web campaign for the holiday shopping rush that’s powered by an interactive augmented reality (AR) “smile meter” for customers to unlock discounts. Read more…