Category: Mobile Marketing

Retailers are giving one final post-Christmas sales push to get the most out of the shopping season.

Each of the five highest ranked retailers in the Keynote Mobile Commerce Index have implemented strategies that have been designed to be able to reduce the length of time that it takes their m-sites to load.

Keynote says that these stores are working to make sure their sites load faster and more accurately.

This was the same number of retailers that were using their standard web shopping sites for this post Christmas holiday shopping season and that were working to make sure that their sites loaded well. Out of the five top mobile commerce retailers as ranked by Keynote Systems, four experienced only a small variation in the speed and size of their pages last week when compared to the week before. This, according to a mobile performance evangelist from Keynote, Abelardo Gonzalez. Moreover, the leading five retailers in last week’s index were all the top five in the week before, as well.

The retailers used proper mobile commerce page design practices to improve the experience.

Gonzalez explained that “The retailers took advantage of mobile page design web practices—such as minimizing the number of objects and page size—to deliver a consistent and reliable experience.” The only exception that he identified was in JCP.com, from J.C. Penney Co. Inc., which saw a slower load time and a larger page size and object count than it had the week before. Despite the fact that it had a slower load time, however, Keynote did point out that the site was able to load 100 percent of the time.

J.C. Penney accomplished this goal through the use of a content delivery network. This firm, Akamai, was used to make certain that each of the elements of the page would render properly throughout the site. The reliability rating that this achieved for the site helped the company to keep its position among the top five retailers on the mobile commerce index. J.C. Penney’s position was second on the list, with a 100 percent success rate and a load time of 5.42 seconds, for a score of 935.

As the environment continues to mature and grow it is pushing other techniques aside.

Recent analyses and reports are showing that social media marketing is not only greatly expanding in its use and effectiveness, but it appears to be achieving its goals at the expense of display advertising.

Using social networks is proving to be much more appealing to consumers who are growing weary of other ad forms.

Recent research by IZEA, a social sponsorship startup, has revealed that after having surveyed 10,000 brand marketers, social influencers, and social media consultants, approximately one in three marketers are equally weary of display ads as has been seen from the side of consumers. On the other hand, social media marketing appears to be continuing to expand and mature on every level.

The social media marketing study revealed that actions in this area are improving in every direction.

For example, the use of sponsored photos has increased to 33 percent in 2013 after having been only 24 percent at the same time last year. Moreover, 29 percent of marketers said that they had been using Pinterest’s sponsored pins opportunity, said the report.

IZEA also pointed out that when comparing the revenue generated by sponsored images with that of display ads, it is the sponsorships that bring in more money according to 55.7 percent of the participants in their study.

At the same time, though, the rise of promotions and advertising in social networks has led to a notably greater demand from influencers. In fact, these individuals who are highly connected should now increasingly expect to receive brand compensation for making mention of the products or services that they are selling, said the report. Twenty six percent of influencers have said that the amount of time that they spent in the maintenance of their social presence can now be compared to the hours that they would apply to full time employment.

Equally, though, social media marketing remains a confusing environment, as a considerable percentage of influencers have not yet completely mastered the best practices for compensation disclosure, as the FTC now requires that this must occur when a substantial reward is traded for the creation of content.