Want to buy Steve Jobs’ biography or watch a movie? You just need your mobile. m-commerce has been slow to start in India, but global trends indicate a change is coming. The country might start shopping and banking on the phone. Here is a quick peek on the global opportunity and how India is embracing m-commerce.
The company has faced a barrage of online complaints over increases in charges for vendors using its portal to sell goods, but many decided anger voiced through the internet was not sufficient.
They turned up in their hundreds last month outside the companys headquarters in Hangzhou, a city south of Shanghai. Their other complaints centred on an online feedback system said to be open to abuse, and increases in security deposits.
The protest was a reminder that, for all of Taobaos domination of Chinas e-commerce sector, the company is not invulnerable.
Part of the Alibaba Group, which is 40 per cent owned by Yahoo, the online retailer had a market share of 71 per cent in the second quarter of this year, down from 75 per cent the same period a year earlier.
Some observers have suggested the companys emphasis on low cost is the main reason for a loss of appeal as shoppers become more sophisticated.
There is little doubt, however, e-commerce as a whole is set for rapid growth in China. According to a report just released by Boston Consulting Group, Chinas online retailing sector, which is worth US$74 billion (Dh271bn) a year, could increase to $314bn by 2015, as the number of online shoppers in the country doubles from 145 million to 329 million.
It is perhaps no surprise, given the huge size of Chinas population of internet users, which has been estimated at 485 million. By 2015, 44 per cent of urban Chinese are forecast to be shopping online, helping to increase Chinas online share of retail sales from 3.3 per cent now to 7.4 per cent.
Piscataway, NJ (PRWEB) December 05, 2011
Celebros, the first site-search partner for the e-commerce giant Magento, and global industry leader of site search, navigation, and conversion technologies for online retailers, announces the launch of Sabonnyc.com live with Celebros Salesperson Site-Search for Magento E-Commerce stores.
Celebros and Magento, the global open source e-Commerce platform provider, recently formed a partnership to bring the Celebros Salesperson site-search and merchandizing capabilities to Magento Enterprise, Magento Professional and Magento Community customers.
“Celebros has created the tools for our Solution Partners to effectively integrate site-search with reviews, ratings and other compelling content into a unique shopping experience,” explained Roy Rubin, CEO and Founder of Magento. “Our Solution Partners are experiencing the benefits of Celebros’ Saleperson Site Search, with a positive effect on their store’s traffic and performance.”
Having the ability to automate and streamline key search-merchandizing activities at top speed will improve the site’s effectiveness and free up more time for creative campaigns that ultimately increase sales. With Celebros’ Salesperson Site Search, SabonNYC.com can simplify daily merchandizing tasks such as redirecting customers to promotion pages, implementing auto complete or flagging different banners for search queries. To date, Celebros is the only in-memory site-search engine with the record response time of 0.05 seconds or under per query.
“Magento has fundamentally changed the e-Commerce platform game by rapidly growing an active community of Solution Partners and developers,” said Ofer Alt, CEO of Celebros. “It has really opened the door for broader innovation by merchants who had previously been priced out of the cutting edge of e-Commerce.”
“As a Magento Enterprise Partner, we’re focused on advancing this encouraging evolution. The Celebros hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution that makes a difference to hundreds of top online-shops globally, dramatically simplifies implementation and lowers the barriers to benefit from the cutting edge search and merchandising capabilities. We are pleased to welcome Sabonnyc.com, a Magento customer, to implement this service and look forward to helping more Magento stores meet their unique business and conversion goals by providing the best Site-Search and navigation in the industry, ” added Alt.
About Magento
Magento is a feature-rich, professional Open Source e-Commerce platform solution that offers merchants complete flexibility and control over the presentation, content, and functionality of their online channel. Magentos intuitive administration interface features powerful marketing tools, a catalog-management engine and is SEO optimized to give merchants the power to create sites that provide an unrivaled and rich online shopping experience for their customers, tailored to their unique business needs. Designed to be completely scalable and backed by an extensive support network, Magento is the ultimate e-Commerce solution. For more information visit http:// Magento.com.
About SabonNYC.com
SabonNYC.com sells a range of exceptional bath and body products using the finest natural ingredients. All products are manufactured and packaged by Sabon Israel and shipped worldwide. For more information visit SabonNYC.com.
About Celebros
Celebros, Inc. is the global leader in site-search, merchandizing, recommendations and mobile commerce for online retailers. Through its intelligent s concept-based search, Celebros site-search understands the shopper’s intent, and returns relevant and accurate results which translate into increased Conversion Rate and Revenues for online stores. For more information, visit Celebros.com.
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By: Clint Boulton
2011-12-04
Article Rating:/3
There are user comments on this Enterprise Mobility story.
Google Maps for Android 6.0 shows indoor footage of Macys, Ikea, Mall of America and several airports. This positions Google well for targeting Android phone and tablet users with daily deals, retailer sales and other mobile commerce perks.
Paypal: online commerce to reach $30b by the new year
Online payment system PayPal has forecasted local online commerce will reach $30bn by the end of the year, according to its Secure Insights report.
The forecast comes as eBay predicts this week to be the busiest ever in online shopping and Australia Post will shift an extra 3m parcels this December.
Elena Wise, acting MD of PayPal Australia said: “Over the last year, online commerce in Australia has grown at a rate of 11% and a huge number of Australian and international retailers have opened their virtual store doors to Australians. This year, consumers will be shopping across a mix of retail channels, from their PCs, to their mobiles to in-store. Wherever they are shopping, consumers are looking for flexibility, convenience and security.”
In preparation for Christmas, the week will be eBays busiest with the spending spree culminating in 1.6m Australians visiting eBay.com.au on Sunday 11 December.
The online auction site recently launched an attack campaign in response to David Jones price matching promises.
Deborah Sharkey, vice president at eBay said: “When it comes to hunting down the best products at the best prices, Australian consumers have stepped up a gear in the last 12 months and are now an army of savvy online deal hunters. With more than 10 million Australians now shopping online, smart shoppers can get the best deals on gifts and save time and energy to spend on the most important ingredients of the festive period friends and family.”
Australia Post is making an effort to be ready for the increase. Ahmed Fahour, MD and CEO said: “We’re opening more than 700 of our retail outlets for extended hours on weekdays and have 2,400 retail outlets now open on Saturdays to make collecting your parcels even easier. Since July, we’ve seen parcels growing at almost 13 per cent compared to the same time last year – a figure which can be directly linked to Australians taking up online shopping in record numbers.”
Recently, Baosteel signs e-commerce strategic cooperation
agreement with Kunming Steel Holding. Through Bsteel Co.,
Ltd. e-commerce service platform and operating experience,
the two sides will together promote B2B e-commerce
implementation and application in the Kunming Steel Holding
and provide support for Kunming Steel Holdings#39; purchase,
sale and supply chain collaboration. Kunming Steel Holding
travel and office supplies procurement, ferroalloy
procurement system platform go on-lines on the same day, and
the first transaction is completed. This is the first time
that Bsteel e-commerce platform is comprehensively carried to
the social market.
Over the years, Baosteel#160; actively explores the steel
and related industries#39; e-commerce applications. By
learning Baosteel purchasing and selling practice, Bsteel
forms third-party centralized shared e-commerce solutions,
application environment and professional service capabilities
which is of leading position in large manufacturing industry.
Its application areas have gradually expanded and it has a
high influence and reputation in the field of B2B
e-commerce.Previously, it has established single business
partnership with customers in the field of steel, heavy
equipment manufacturing, chemical industry, new energy, and
non-ferrous metals.
Kunming Steel Holding is a large enterprise group with iron
and steel metallurgy, coal chemical industry, mining
development and heavy equipment manufacturing as one. It has
annual output capacity of 7 million tons of steel and is
Yunnan#39;s largest steel production base. With the
increasingly fierce competition in the steel industry,
Kunming Steel Holding has increasingly urgent demand on
efficient and standardized operation mode and e-commerce is
an effective means to achieve this requirement.Kunming Steel
Holding has done some preliminary exploration in e-commerce
platform building, but it does not have experience in the
actual operation and business flow. It hopes to enhance
Kunming Steel Holding operational efficiency through mature
third-party e-commerce platform.
Under the agreement, Kunming Steel Holdings will use the
e-commerce platform to carry out online procurement of alloy
steel, metallurgical materials, general supplies and travel
and office supplies, online sales of chemical-related
products, steel scrap and and waste products. It will achieve
procurement, sales and supply chain collaboration business
e-commerce operations.In addition, Bsteel will continue to
provide Kunming Steel Holdings with business consulting,
process optimization, platform configuration, application
inputting, customer training and network marketing. This will
help Kunming#160; Steel Holding to improve the business
operating model and management processes and enhance the
efficiency and service capabilities with the minimum cost and
in shortest time.
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu testifies during the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing on The Solyndra Failure: Views from Energy Secretary Chu on Capitol Hill in Washington November 17, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Updated: US Commerce Secretary John Bryson to Travel to China
Nov 19, 2011 (Commerce Department Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) –
Updated: US Commerce Secretary John Bryson to Travel to China
Bryson to meet with American business community in Beijing and join USTR Kirk and Agriculture Secretary Vilsack for trade talks in Chengdu
[DETAILED SCHEDULE BELOW]
WASHINGTON – US Commerce Secretary John Bryson will travel to Beijing and Chengdu, China on November 18-22. He and United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ron Kirk will co-chair the 22nd Session of the US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan in Chengdu, China. Bryson will also stop in Beijing to meet with US business leaders and Chinese investors to discuss bilateral trade and investment issues. While in Beijing, he will see firsthand the benefits of US exports to China when he tours made-in-USA airport vehicles at the Beijing airport. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will join the delegation in Chengdu for the JCCT.
Established in 1983, the JCCT is the main forum for addressing bilateral trade issues and promoting commercial opportunities between the United States and China. In addition to the annual high-level JCCT meeting, a number of JCCT working groups meet throughout the year in areas such as intellectual property rights, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, information technology, tourism, environment, commercial law and statistics.
Last years JCCT was held in Washington, DC, and during the meetings China agreed, among other issues, to improve intellectual property rights enforcement, to revise its indigenous innovation policies and to accelerate its accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement.
Since President Obama announced the National Export Initiative in early 2010, exports have played an important role in Americas economic recovery. Worldwide exports in 2010 grew by 17% over 2009 and exports to China grew by 32%. China was the largest supplier of US goods imports in 2010 and was the third-largest market for US exports in 2010 (after Canada and Mexico). US goods exports to China were $92 billion in 2010, up 468 percent since 2000. Trade in services with China (exports and imports) totaled $31 billion in 2010; services exports were $21 billion and services imports were $10 billion.
While in China, Secretary Bryson will:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19 (Beijing, China)
* – Join USTR Ron Kirk for a roundtable discussion with members of the American business community hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and the US-China Business Council (closed press)
* – Host a meeting with members of the Chinese business community to discuss the Obama administrations SelectUSA http://selectusa.commerce.gov/ initiative and to encourage foreign direct investment in the US (closed press)
* – Join USTR Ron Kirk on a tour of made-in-America airport vehicles at the Beijing Airport (B-roll and photo opportunity)
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20 (Chengdu, China)
* Join the US and Chinese delegations for a cultural visit in Chengdu (closed press)
* Attend a reception and dinner with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and members of the Chinese delegation (closed press)
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21 (Chengdu, China)
* Participate in JCCT negotiations (photo spray)
* Host press conference with Ambassador Kirk and Secretary Vilsack following the official negotiations (open press)
Media Coverage: For more information about trip logistics for Secretary Bryson, please contact Hannah Chatalas at hchatalas@doc.gov or Parita Shah at pshah@doc.gov. For more information on local logistics, please contact the US Embassy public affairs office at beijingpressoffice@state.gov
Contact: Parita Shah, 202-482-4883
Copyright (C) 2011 Federal Information amp; News Dispatch, Inc.
Its only been a short while since smartphones and tablets such as Apples iPad arrived on the scene in a meaningful way, but already these devices are having a profound effect on how shoppers behave and how retailers communicate with them. Mobile shopping only makes up a tiny fraction of retail sales, but it is accelerating at a brisk pace. Last year, about 3.8% of all ecommerce sales were made on mobile devices, according to John Squire, chief strategy officer at IBM Coremetrics. At the moment, mobile has grown to a 9% share of all online sales, but that number could rise to about 15% to 16% of all ecommerce sales over the holiday season, Squire said. The growth is even more impressive when you think that online sales are also accelerating. Its all about value According to a Deloitte study, almost half of all consumers say they will shop for holiday gifts online â?? a double-digit increase from last year. This makes the Internet the No. 1 shopping destination, now tied with discount stores, for the first time since Deloitte added the channel to the annual study. One of the main reasons is that consumers say they can find more competitive prices online, and increasingly these consumers realize smartphones and tablets are another tool they can use for this research. Within the next five years, more than half of US consumers will be actively using their mobile devices regularly for shopping, according to a recent study by LEK. Consulting. This activity will drive m-commerce sales to about $31 billion by 2016, estimates Forrester Research. The figure represents a compounded annual growth rate of 39% from 2011 to 2016. Couch commerce To look only at sales receipts, however, misses the broader influence mobile is having on the retail industry. Take Thanksgiving. Much has been made of retailers such as Toys R Us and Walmart Stores kicking off their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving evening. But many retail analysts expect the shopping will begin long before the doors open at Toys R Us at 9 pm Last year, the busiest days for mobile shopping was Thanksgiving, and this year the volume is only expected to increase. So all those complaints about the millions of Thanksgiving dinners being ruined by the early start of the Black Friday madness miss the point that many Americans are already doing their holiday shopping in a tryptophan-induced haze from the comfort of Grandmas couch. People arent really waiting anymore, said Claudia Lombana, a shopping specialist at online payments service Paypal. Better experiences Another reason why m-commerce is accelerating is retailers are simply providing consumers with better experience. Most retailers have improved their mobile sites and some have developed applications to make it easier to shop. There also has been a lot of attention paid to improving the way email displays on mobile phones, said Heather Blank, vice president of Strategic Services at Responsys. This includes increasing the font size of the emails to make them easier to read on smaller screens or making the call-to-action buttons bigger so they are easier to click, she said. The assumption is that people are going to be saving emails and referencing emails as they shop, Blank said. Typically, about 10% of emails are viewed on a mobile device, but during the holidays that number could rise to 20%, she said. Email remains a powerful tool for retailers, according to Blank. Last year, 89% of the top online retailers increased the number of promotional emails they sent during November to December compared with the earlier months. And retailers have more tools at their disposal to make these emails more effective, according to IBMs Squire. For example, retailers can tailor email messages to the types of products a customer is likely to be interested in, or they can send fewer emails if they detect recipients are leaving the emails unopened. More valuable consumers SMS text messaging is another area of focus, according to Blank. One reason for this is that consumers who opt in to email or to receiving texts from a retailer are likely to be a more valuable consumer. This gives retailers permission to engage in promotional events that they might not with a broader audience. For example, Williams-Sonoma is not a retailer known for aggressive sales or deep discounting, but the company can provide special offers to their customers who opt-in for text messages. These deals help improve the relationships retailers have with these loyal consumers. There is tons of data that show multichannel customers (those who shop online and in brick-and-mortar stores) are more valuable, Blank said. If you layer in that a consumer has opted to receive messages from a store and are also affluent enough to own smartphones and tablets, a portrait of an extremely valuable consumer emerges. Look for the QR codes This holiday season, youre also likely to see more store signs and mailings that incorporate QR codes, which can be scanned by a mobile phone to redirect shoppers to a website. Retailers are using these codes for special contests and to provide shoppers with more information about products. For example, a shopper at Macys may be able to scan a QR code near a piece of Martha Stewart cookware and see a video of Stewart demonstrating how to use the product. JC Penney is giving its customers an opportunity to attach voice messages to their presents using QR codes. The codes, which the retailer calls Santa Tags, take a few steps to step up, but some gift givers are likely to appreciate the ability to add an extra touch to their gifts. At the end of the day, it all comes down to how well these products serve the consumer. According to mobile ad network Jumptap and Comscore, nearly a third of mobile device owners have made a purchase with their device. Tablet owners are even more likely – about 63% of tablet owners say they have made a purchase with their device. Gabe Donnini, a data solutions engineer at Chitika, a data analytics company for online advertisers, points out, though, that a one-time purchase is not enough to keep mobile sales growing. It has to become a repeat, ingrained behavior, but he sees the utility of the platform driving consumers to mobile. Mobile is empowering consumers to make good purchasing decisions, Donnini said. And at the end of the day, thats what consumers want: the knowledge that they scored a great deal. Â 2011 CNBC.com
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Kayla Habermehl | The Flint Journal
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