From Google Drones, Amazon Wands and Apple Pay, the worlds of ecommerce and high street retail are becoming ever-more entwined. With more shoppers going mobile, using click and collect and ‘showrooming’, digital is offering more buying choice than ever before. This was the year that Alibaba floated on the US stock exchange and social networks turned into shops. As part of our review of the year, we look back at the ten biggest headlines that shaped ecommerce in 2014.
Key trends to check your 2015 plans against:
• Chinese ecommerce boom: Alibaba IPO makes it more valuable than Amazon and eBay combined as Singles Day rivals Black Friday in the online shopping frenzy stakes.
• Mobile shopping explosion: Apple Pay gives users a viable reason to use their phones as credit cards as Google links purchasing habits in the real world based on ads exposed to online.
• Amazon’s power play for ad dollars: Biggest AdWords spender is ditching Google for its own ad platform powered by shopping habit data
Walmart to start price matching Amazon in-store
Consumers will soon be able to get Amazon’s bargain prices at their local Walmart in the US, as the supermarket giant looks to win back lost sales online and the growing phenomenon of ‘showrooming’.
Alibaba gets record $8bn sales on singles day
China’s online retail giant Alibaba says it has pulled in almost $8bn (£5bn) in sales from its annual ‘Singles’ Day’ shopping event.
Apple Pay goes live across 30+ US retailers
Apple Pay has gone live, letting iPhone users pay for goods and services in store by tapping their phone.
View this video from CNN discussing the new scheme here:
PayPal to split from eBay in 2015 floatation
eBay is planning to split off its payments system PayPal into a separate company next year, amid claims they are holding each other back.
Watch this video from Bloomberg examining the split here:
Alibaba ‘as valuable as Facebook’ after biggest IPO in US history
Chinese online retailer Alibaba has smashed records with the largest public offering in US history – and is now as valuable as Facebook after just one day on Wall Street.
Watch this video from Bloomberg discussing the deal:
Twitter becomes online shop with ‘buy it now’ button
Twitter has expanded into ecommerce a new ‘buy’ option that will appear alongside a brand’s tweet.
Watch this video from Twitter explaining how the service works below:
Amazon ditches Google AdWords for own ‘sponsored links’
Amazon is working on its own online ad platform, as the online retailer looks to utilise its massive amounts of user data to serve ads relevant to their buying habits, in a bid to challenge Google’s dominance in the display sector.
eBay claims paid search ads have ‘no measurable benefit’
Web users are just as likely to click on natural search results as paid ads, according to new US research from eBay.
Google links ad clicks to in-store purchases with cookie tracking test
Google is offering advertisers the option of targeted app install ads on mobile search and YouTube, following similar moves by rivals Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter.
Amazon turns kitchen into shopping cart with ‘Dash’ wand
Amazon has launched a new barcode scanner device, called ‘dash’, that lets users scan and orders groceries from the comfort of their kitchen.
Watch this promo video showing how the service works below: