Twitter Inc. (TWTR) Is Teen’s Favorite With 32.3% Actively Using The Platform, Followed By Facebook (28.9%) And LinkedIn (21.4%). [REPORT]

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December 5, 2013

While Apple is reportedly testing five variants of the large screen iPad for a 2014 launch, a recent study on worldwide tablet shipments forecast claims that small screen tablets will control 57% of the total tablet shipments in 2017. According to IDC’s Worldwide Tablet Tracker, tablet shipments will peak at 386.3 million units by 2017. The total tablet shipments are estimated to reach 221.3 million units in 2013, up by 53.5% from 2012.

Small screen sized tablets are playing a crucial role in the overall market growth. In 2013, nearly 56.3% tablets will sport display-sizes between 7-inch to 8-inch. Surprisingly, despite of a warm response towards the new iPad Air, Apple is constantly losing its market to Google Android and Windows tablet. Apple’s iPad is estimated to govern over 35% of total tablet shipments in 2013, while a little more than 60% of total tablets shipped in 2013 are projected to be powered with Google’s Android OS.

Apparently, there is no end to Apple’s declining performance in the tablet industry. By 2017, Apple’s iPad market will be shrinked to 30.6% while the windows powered tablets will gain a sizeable chunk of the market by controlling 10.2% of the market.

“For months, Microsoft and Intel have been promising more affordable Windows tablets and 2-in-1 devices,” said Jitesh Ubrani, Research Analyst, Worldwide Tablet Tracker. “This holiday season, we expect a huge push for these devices as both companies flex their marketing muscles; however we still don’t expect them to gain much traction. We’re already halfway through the holiday quarter, and though there have been some relatively high-profile launches from the likes of Dell, HP, and Lenovo, we’ve yet to see widespread availability of these devices, making it difficult for Windows to gain share during this crucial period.”

Market analysts feel that a demand for big screen tablets is poised to grow due to the emergence of Phablet devices, which are narrowing the gap with the smaller screen tablet devices. Users prefer to invest in a 6-inch Phablet than a 7-inch tablet because a Phablet can give them many more features than a tablet at the same price.

Source: IDC

LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD): University Pages And Lower Age Barrier Likely To Aid Higher-Edu Aspirants! [REPORT]

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December 4, 2013

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE:LNKD), with a massive user base of 259 million, is continually evolving into a revolutionary professional network. B2B marketing, talent hiring and its knowledge sharing platform (the influencer’s program) for users across the globe, are some of its benchmark offerings currently. LinkedIn is now more focused on bringing the younger generation to the site. It recently revamped its features for iPad users as most of the teens are shifting to the mobile platform for web surfing and social media. To aid students, especially higher-education aspirants, LinkedIn introduced university pages.

Many students are able to crack top-level exams like SAT, GMAT or GRE, but very few end up into good colleges, a top ranked college is not necessarily best at every possible branch or field which students might be interested in. It is important for students to get an insight about the college before making their choices and educate themselves with various other criteria necessary to boost chances of selection for their dream college.

LinkedIn Lowers Age Barrier To Help High School Students Plan Their Future Well In Advance!

University Pages is the destination on LinkedIn for schools to market themselves and build a community to showcase a better insight into it’s academic and social life. Folks who are aspiring to get into any particular university can discuss, have conversations with alumni, current students, parents, prospective students, and even employers or faculty. Students can create profiles highlighting their achievements that would otherwise be hard to include in a traditional application.

The professors or alumnus who are approached by students can directly view a student’s profile and see if it matches their requirement for any particular research work prevailing and give special preferences to interested students during the in-take process. LinkedIn has also lowered the age barrier to 14 in the United States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Australia and South Korea and 13 years in most of the other countries, to enable students to engage and network with various university folks and alumnus at an early age, for better future planning.

University Pages are a great place to keep oneself updated with the latest that is happening in the campus, research related stories, campus life, activities conducted, to ask questions and engage with alumni and current students. Students can explore world-wide universities and draw a comparison between different options so that they can choose the best. They can also see whether the careers of graduates or alumni will get them to their goals in the post-graduate period.

University pages also help in enriching the knowledge related to a notable alumni who has passed out of school and received recognition from the society for their special contribution to the society’s welfare. There are many students who are unable to match their area of interest with their dream college, such students can educate themselves with a diverse professional path, which few alumnus have chosen after graduation, see where they live and work, what they do, and even the skills they have acquired along the way and try to opt for a similar option.

LinkedIn can be effectively used to explore schools worldwide, greatly expand their understanding of the careers available, and get a head start on building a network of family and friends to help guide them at each step.

LinkedIn recently introduced LinkedIn Intro, for teens who love browsing the website on mobile devices. It will help in knowing the authenticity of people whom they message or network with for any sort of assistance. For parents who are worried about social networking habits of their minor age group children, can chose highly optimized settings in their LinkedIn profiles, to prevent them from being victims of any sort of negativity.

LinkedIn in their blog commented that – ”We believe University Pages will be especially valuable for students making their first, big decision about where to attend college. Therefore, beginning on September 12, we will be making LinkedIn available to high school students* who can use LinkedIn to explore schools worldwide, greatly expand their understanding of the careers available, and get a head start on building a network of family and friends to help guide them at every milestone.”

The Next iPad: Apple Testing 5 Models With A 12.9-inch Display For 2014!

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December 4, 2013

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Do you think large screen tablets have got a market in the future? At least, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) thinks so. Fresh rumours have claimed that Apple is testing five different models of the iPad sporting a 12.9-inch display, featuring 2K and 4K screen resolutions.

A Chinese publications PadAir claims Foxconn, a prime manufacturing partner for Apple’s products, has built five variants of the iPad, one out of which could debut in 2014. Citing people familiar with the matter, PadAir went on quoting that Apple could launch a 2K variant of a larger display iPad in April, followed by an upgraded 4K variant in October as per the regular upgrade cycle of the iPad.

It’s interesting to recall that Apple is reportedly planning to introduce a bigger screen iPhone 6 somewhere in the month of April-May next year and one can’t rule out the possibilities that a larger screen iPad along with a bigger screen iPhone will also be arriving.

This is not the first time that big screen iPad rumours have surfaced. Earlier reports from the WSJ and Korean Times had claimed that Apple was already in advanced stages of testing either an eleven-inches or even a bigger size display for the iPad.

Is Apple Getting It Right ?

Fresh rumours about the big screen iPad have triggered a debate over Apple’s understanding of the tablet market. Market reports have claimed smaller screen tablets, sporting 7-inch to 8-inch display will dominate the global tablet market in the next few years.

Market research leader IDC has estimated that 7-inch to 8-inch screen tablets will control nearly 60% of tablet market in 2013, and the figure is bound to grow. According to another report from NPD Display Search, by 2017 tablets sporting 12-inch screens or more will hold a negligible market compared to the 10-inch to 10.4-inch estimated to control nearly 18% of the total tablet market.

Industry analysts are hesitant about the success of these giant screen tablets, if ever Apple decides to introduce the iPad sporting 11.5-inch bigger display, it would setup an immediate contest with an 11.3-inch MacBook Air.

In any case, Apple is desperate to accelerate its growth in the tablet market and constantly declining market share is one of the biggest challenges the iPad maker has been facing for the last few quarters.

Marketing Tactics Versus Effectiveness On Facebook Inc. (FB): 69% Find Handling Customers’ Queries Most Effective [REPORT]

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December 4, 2013

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Marketers across the globe are adopting various innovative tactics to attract customers and drive sales. It is important for brand marketers to drive quality audience who are likely to engage and drive business for their firms. Nearly 38% of the U.S., Facebook and 43% of Twitter marketers, were more concerned with the quality of audience members added via social efforts than with the number of followers gained. Both Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) are known to drive potential customers to a brand’s website. It is important to periodically review the various marketing tactics and adopt those which are most effective.

Brand Awareness Was The Most Up Voted Business Objective Followed By Driving Website Traffic and Improving Customer Retention Rate!

According to a study by ExactTarget, more than 77% of Facebook and 70% of Twitter marketers up-voted brand awareness as the prime social media marketing objective. 55% of Facebook and 58% of Twitter marketers upheld driving website traffic as their main motto, followed by customer insight/improving retention rate was supported by 44% of Facebook and 28% of Twitter marketers. Providing service support was the least prioritized choice by 22% of Facebook and Twitter marketers respectively.

Brand Awareness is indeed the first step towards establishing a successful firm, both Twitter and Facebook brands are eager to create brand awareness amongst the online web users so that the initial required buzz is created to kick-start the sales process. On an average a Facebook user likes at least 80 brand pages, and has 130 friends on an average, hence the publicity gained when a user shares brand related posts is huge as well as viral. Brands should opt for ad campaigns which can drive impressions to create awareness amongst the public.

Social media can drive 58% more outreach than any other advertising method. Driving website traffic was the next important objective of marketers. Referral traffic through Facebook and Twitter accounts for more than 10% of the overall traffic to websites. Hence, active engagement of brands on the social media platform is decisive because it brings potential customers who are likely to drive sales. Social ads are known to direct high quality users to a brands’ website.

It is vital for a firm to increase sales with the existing customer base, more than 87% of advertisers follow various CRO tactics to drive sales as investing on ad campaigns from time to time is not very economical. Marketers should focus on embedding the content with rich media sources and marketing them effectively across various social media platforms. Brands should optimize their websites for mobile devices as social media referral rate is very significant. Facebook recently saw a spike of 253% in mobile referral rate to websites.

Loyalty programs must be offered as more than 84% of folks world-wide prefer shopping with retailers offering loyalty programs. Brands must use Facebook’s custom audience feature to re-target their existing customer base. Driving sales was voted as the 5th most vital factor for marketers, although, the rate of sales is a direct indicator of the firm’s revenue figure or profit, the initial tasks mentioned above for revamping the brand name are more important to promote long-term sustenance in market.

Even though providing service and support comes at a later part, it is the most important factor and must be given more weight-age. Customer satisfaction is the most important factor which can convert first time customers into repeat customers. Quick responses must be given to queries and service must be provided in the post-purchase period to promote the loyalty factor amongst consumers towards the brand. Feedback from customers must be analyzed well to improve customer service, 24/7 monitoring of brand pages on various social media sites is required as most of the discussions/queries/complaints related to brands happens on social media sites.

Marketing Tactics Opted And Its Effectiveness – By Facebook Marketers

Although marketers adopt various social media marketing tactics but very few of them prove to be effective. More than 76% and 70% of marketers included the Facebook like button on their website/blog and marketing emails/news letters respectively. But a mere 46% found the former tactic as effective and 40% claimed the latter one as rewarding. Low effectiveness could be attributed to the fact that people hate extra clutter on a web page, to execute the like plugin available on a website visitors have to be logged on to their respective Facebook accounts, which might seem like an extra muscle to be exercised, for some of the users, resulting in drop in the rate of effectiveness.

Organic growth through regular posts for sharing information and as a source of entertainment was supported by 58% of marketers and about 67% claimed it was effective. Brand fans usually engage with the social media brand page whenever a notification pops up regarding an update in a new post or article, people love reading the content posted on their favorite social media brand pages provided it is informative and entertaining as well and not mere self-publicizing content. Brand marketers should design content with imperceptible brand related messages embedded within. Infographic, SlideShare, images and videos must be included within the article to make it more engaging for brand followers.

E-mails specifically asking users to connect on Facebook was opted by 57% of users but hardly 41% claimed it was effective. There is already enough junk available on a user’s Facebook NewsFeed and they wouldn’t want further garbage to creep into their feeds and disrupt their browsing experience. If brand fans really want to be updated about their favorite brands, they would voluntarily connect with brand pages on Facebook, as the recently introduced verification mark has made it even more easier for fans to avoid engaging with fake brand pages.

Nearly 39% of marketers adopted – gifts in the form of products or prizes (for likes) – 70% of them consider this tactic as an effective one because a majority of users who engage with brands do expect freebies or giveaways, or benefits in any form like discount offers or coupons. This method can be used to create an initial buzz amongst consumers if the brand is new in the market or to accelerate the sales if performance has dropped in a significant duration of time.

Only 27% of marketers on Twitter and 34% on Facebook said they publicly answered customer service questions on the social platforms, yet 60% and 69% of respondents, respectively, reported this as effective. When customer queries are addressed publicly it creates better impressions as the post is viewed by a majority of social media customer base of brands.

Marketers should make sure that social media brand pages are monitored at all times, all through the year, to mitigate all the customer queries without much delay as customers are priced possessions of any brands and that reflects its growth rate. Offering FAQs and how-tos also had low usage rates among marketers, but at least 50% of respondents from each group claimed it as an effective tactic.

via eMarketer (survey conducted – August 2013)

Smartphone Market In India Q3 2013: Samsung Pips Micromax And Karbonn To The Top Spot

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December 4, 2013

At a time when Micromax – India’s second-largest Smartphone vendor – is reportedly gearing up to launch its IPO in 2014, Smartphone market in India Q3 2013 is showing a great sign of transformation as users seem a little sceptical about the company’s products and performance. Despite the much-hyped hiring of Hugh Jackman as a brand ambassador, Micromax is apparently losing its grip over the pulse of highly ambitious Smartphone users in India.

According to the latest IDC report on Smartphone market in India Q3 2013, Samsung strengthened its Smartphone market presence by scaling up its market share to 32.9% in Q3 from 26% in the second quarter of 2013. Interestingly, Samsung remained the only Smartphone vendor in India that registered positive growth in its market share, while local vendors Micromax and Karbonn disappointed. Smartphone market shares for Micromax shrunk to 17.1% in Q3, 2013, resulting in a sizable loss of 4.9% share to Samsung, compared to Q2, 2013.

Smartphone Market India Q3 2013 - Vendors Share

The overall Smartphone market in India recorded an astounding Y-O-Y growth of 229% and 28% Q-O-Q growth in Q3, 2013. Smartphone vendors shipped total of 12.8 million units compared to a mere 3.8 million in the same period in 2012.

“The change agents for this rapid shift of consumer preference towards Smartphones have been the narrowing price gap between Feature phones and Smartphones. The Smartphone market is expected to maintain these elevated levels of growth in the near future” comments Kiran Kumar, Research Manager with IDC India.

The other Smartphone vendors in India, including Apple, Sony, LG and HTC, managed to grab 29.1% of the total market in Q3, 2013. However, Nokia, the second-largest Smartphone OS in India, held on to its fourth position with an unchanged 5% market share.

The biggest surprise emerged in the form of Lava that made it to the list for the first time by controlling 4.7% of the Smartphone market in India. Thanks to Lava’s XOLO and IRIS series Smartphones, tagged with highly competitive prices, which succeeded in luring first-time Smartphone users.

Mobile Phone Shipments In India Q3, 2013

The overall mobile phone market, which includes feature phones and Smartphones both, in India recorded a 12% Y-O-Y and 7% Q-O-Q growth in Q3, 2013. The market share of feature phones has kept shrinking as more number of users continued to migrate to Smartphones in Q3, 2013.

Mobile Phone Market Growth India Q3 2013

Samsung remained the top mobile phone vendor with 50.8% market share, followed by Nokia and Micromax that controlled 15.3% and 14.7% of total Indian mobile phone market in the quarter.

Source: IDC

Worldwide Smartphone Average Selling Price Will Plunge To $265 By 2017 : IDC

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December 3, 2013

Smartphone shipments are estimated to surpass 1 billion units in 2013, that is on a global scale, resulting in 39.3% growth over the last year. According to the latest report from IDC, the growth in Smartphone market is primarily being driven by developing countries witnessing high penetration rates of low-priced Smartphones. The forecast report claims that by 2017, yearly Smartphone shipments will reach to a figure close to 1.7 billion, accounting for 18.4% CAGR (Common Annul Growth Rate) from 2013 to 2017.

The explosive growth in Smartphones will also attract high competition in the emerging markets. This will result in a constant decline in average selling price of Smartphones descending to $265 by 2017 from the current price of $337 in 2013.

“The key driver behind smartphone volumes in the years ahead is the expected decrease in prices,” said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Mobile Phone team. “Particularly within emerging markets, where price sensitivity and elasticity are so important, prices will come down for smartphones to move beyond the urban elite and into the hands of mass market users. Every vendor is closely eyeing how far down they can price their devices while still realizing a profit and offering a robust smartphone experience.”

Asia-Pacific Smartphone Market 2017 : In Driver’s Seat

By being the biggest market for Smartphones by number of mobile subscribers, Asia-Pacific enjoys the dominant position in the worldwide Smartphone market. In 2013, more than half of Smartphones (52.3%) would be shipped in the region alone. Interestingly, in the next four years, APAC’s market share in Smartphone shipments is estimated to grow at the cost of matured markets such as North America and Europe. By 2017, APAC is estimated to control 58.5% in yearly shipment of Smartphones, NA and Europe will apparently lose their grip on the market, as their market share will take a dive to 11.2% and 15.5%, respectively.

However, the Latin America and Middle East Africa (MEA) regions would be able to maintain their share and contribute around 9.2% and 5.5% of total Smartphone shipment by 2017.

Besides shipment, APAC has got a major role to play in the constantly decreasing average selling price of Smartphones globally. The emergence of local players such as Huawei, Micromax and ZTE have pushed global players to cut the corners, resulting in launch of a higher number of low-priced Smartphones.

In the next four years, APAC and Europe regions will record the biggest drop in average selling price (ASP) of Smartphones. In Europe the current ASP for Smartphones of $419 would be decreased by 9% to $259, while in APAC the ASP will reach $215 – the lowest across the globe – by 2017. Surprisingly, North America will remain the only region that will see a 2.1% upsurge in the ASP of Smartphones from $531 in 2013 to $567 in 2017. This will result in an overall decrease of 7.3% in the ASP of Smartphones by 2017, globally.

Source: IDC

Facebook Inc. (FB) NewsFeed Update : More Relevant News Articles Will Be Promoted To The User’s Feeds [REPORT]

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December 3, 2013

Social media titan, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) is continuously making changes to its NewsFeed algorithm to provide users with more relevant news and enrich their browsing experience. Facebook has analyzed engagement rates by users for various types of posts in their news feed and is trying to provide news which users enjoy reading the most. Referral traffic through Facebook to media publisher’s site spiked up by 170% in the last 1 year, which indicates the demand for news content related to latest trends and updates. Social media giant recently revamped its news feed algorithm to provide users with more relevant articles in their NewsFeed, and it updated its Story Bumping feature to highlight stories with new comments.

Media Publisher Sites Saw Facebook Referral Traffic Rate As High As 1081%! Facebook Mobile Users Love Browsing For Latest News And Trends!

Facebook conducted survey with 29 media publishers for a 7 day period to test the engagement rate by users with articles pertaining to news updates and latest trends. Results were quite positively diverging towards Facebook providing it a new direction to emerge as a media powerhouse in conveying news related to various fields to its users. Media publishers had a flourishing year with regards to the engagement from Facebook users, as average referral traffic from Facebook to media sites has increased by over 170% in the last 12 months. From September 2012 to September 2013, TIME’s referral traffic has increased 208%, BuzzFeed is up by 855%. and Bleacher Report has increased by a whopping 1081%. Posting news updates from media publishers more frequently has increased the referral traffic by over 80%. Engagement in the form of Likes per post increased by over 10% and the number of net fans per page went up by 49%.

Facebook in its Newsroom Blog commented that – ‘’ People use Facebook to share and connect, including staying current on the latest news, whether it’s about their favourite celebrity or what’s happening in the world. We’ve noticed that people enjoy seeing articles on Facebook, and so we’re now paying closer attention to what makes for high quality content, and how often articles are clicked on from News Feed on mobile. What this means is that you may start to notice links to articles a little more often (particularly on mobile)’’

People love browsing through high quality content articles about current events, sports and entertainment, hence Facebook enhanced its platform for users to provide all their needs within the site. To make the experience even more unique and engaging, Facebook will show its users additional articles similar to the ones they had just read. After users click on a particular article link, 3 more related articles will be shown directly below the NewsFeed post which might interest users to engage.

To make sure that users don’t miss out on any news, the bumping feature has also updated, which will highlight stories with new comments. Users after having read a particular story hardly bother to check if any of their friends have evoked any discussion related to it, latest update will resurface the article with new comments from friends so that users can also participate and voice their opinions. According to Pew research center, Facebook was the leading social media site for more than 30% of the U.S adults for news consumption.

Facebook Trying To Emerge As A Complete Package Website Or Intentions Of Monetization Behind The News Feed Revamp ?

Increasing penetration of internet on Smartphones has shifted a major part of web surfing from desktop to mobile devices. Facebook mobile has also revamped its features well to provide soothing experience to users to browse through its site. Both these factors have contributed to the increase in news consumption on Facebook mobile. Facebook has magnificently paced in driving mobile referral traffic rate to websites with an increase of 253% in last one year.

Facebook recently has implemented a lot of changes to provide users with all possible needs of the day, and enhance itself as a complete package website such that whatever is needed by the users, their first preference would be Facebook. The increasing demand for news content by people and rising usage of Smartphone and tablet devices are likely to up surge news consumption rate in days to come.

Yet another motto behind the move could be – monetization and shift of networking trend to messaging apps. Facebook hardly introduces any features which are not monetizable. Although, right now Facebook is providing news content to its users through media publishers but at a later stage they are likely to monetize this feature and media publishers might have to invest monetary funds to be the first ones to outbreak news information to its readers. There is a lot of demand for news amongst public, media publishers are striving hard to be the first one to broadcast the news to public – Facebook might leverage this fact and monetize this feature to educate its 1.189 billion users with news from media publishers with maximum investment for ramping up their news updates on top of the user’s news feed.

Another prime reason could be the shift of networking activity to messenger apps. WeChat (400 million users), WhatsApp (300 million users), Line (260 million users) and similar mobile messenger apps which serve approximately over 1.3 billion users, have stolen the thunder from Facebook as most of the teens prefer networking with their friends on these messaging apps. Facebook is looking to evolve its platform for diversified purposes as each of these services like the messenger apps, blogging sites (Tumblr) and Twitter are stealing the charm from Facebook.

With Desktop Online Sales Worth $1.198 Billion, Black Friday Recorded The Holiday Season’s First Billion Dollar Day! [REPORT]

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December 3, 2013

As the holiday shopping season is about to end in the next 30 odd days, brands are hustling with revised offers and deals to ramp up the sales rate and grab a majority of customers. The first 29 days of November-December 2013 holiday shopping season recorded$20.6 billion sales, an increase of 3% versus corresponding days last year. Black Friday 2013 (November 29) saw $1.198 billion in desktop online sales, an increase of 15% compared to Black Friday, 2012, making it season’s first billion dollar day and the heaviest online spending day to date. Thanksgiving Day (November 28) recorded a 21% increase from $633 million in 2012 to $766 million in 2013.

More Than 66 Million Americans Opted For Couch Commerce! Kick-Start Of Holiday Shopping Stores Shifts To Online Channel!

comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR), a leading researcher of digital trends, reported detailed statistics about sales and revenues amassed by shoppers in the prevailing holiday shopping season. Couch commerce saw latest trend inhabited by a majority of shopaholics as they avoided standing in long queues or shopping amidst heavy rush in offline stores. Thanksgiving day recorded well above the average growth rate (21% as mentioned above) and is the fastest growing online shopping day over past 5 years.

The retail federation reported that 92 million people shopped, up from 89 million last year. More than half the shoppers preferred the online mode especially on Black Friday, according to the retailers’ survey, while traffic at brick-and-mortar stores was down by more than 11% (according to ShopperTrak) on that day. The average online order was up more than 18% on Black Friday to about $172 per order.

(Above figures denoted in the table are in millions ($))

comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni – “While Black Friday – and now Thanksgiving Day – is the traditional kick-off to the brick-and-mortar holiday shopping season, both days continue to grow in importance on the online channel. Clearly many consumers prefer to avoid the crowds and lines typically associated with Black Friday by shopping from the comfort of their own homes, and we saw a record 66 million Americans do that this year. Also interesting is that the recent trend of kick-starting holiday shopping by opening stores on Thanksgiving Day seems to be having a spill over effect on the online channel.

As internet penetration is at an all time high in the U.S, a majority of folks preferred shopping sitting at comfortable places on desktops and mobile devices. The overall sales through home and work desktop computers in the first month of shopping season rose up from $19,956 million(November 2nd-30th) to $20,574 million (November 1^st – 29^th). Due to the rising costs of products, shoppers are increasingly opting for the showrooming technique, more than 61% of North Americans are price conscious and are likely to visit an offline shop and buy the same product online at discounted rates. Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY), Walmart (NYSE:WMT), BestBuy Co. (NYSE:BBY) and Target Corp. (NYSETGT) was amongst top 5 most visited website on Black Friday, 2013.

Apparel And Accessories Was Leading Product Category Accounting For 28% Of Total Online Sales!

Apparel & Accessories emerged as the leading product category accounting for 28% of online spending by consumers. Next in line was Computer Hardware with 19%, Consumer Electronics with 7%, Consumer Packaged Goods 5% and Shipping Services (5%).

The Apparel & Accessories category is posting particularly strong sales this holiday season as compared to the rest of the year with nearly double its baseline (i.e. January through October) market share. Even the Computer Hardware sales are galloping at faster rates, outperforming its baseline market share from past ten months.

Facebook And Twitter: Platforms For Shoppers And Brand Owners!

We know that more than 48% of shopaholics prefer social media for planning their holiday shopping schedule. More than 42% of Facebook brand fans who engage actively expect coupons or discount offers. Retail brands have opted for innovative tactics to attract customers based on their needs, well in advance before Black Friday or Thanksgiving Day, as most of the brand fans post about Thanksgiving and Black Friday during the two days before and two days after Thanksgiving Day. More than two-thirds of users who post about Thanksgiving and Black Friday are females.

Major brands and retail shops were found offering Facebook users who like their pages, dollar discount or percentage off purchases, and these offers were exclusive to Facebook fans. Offer door-buster coupons or early entry passes to ensure a quick start to the shopping day, Free coffee and donuts for coupon-holders and Mystery discounts that can only be redeemed in-person. The internet is overflowing with retailers, hence each of them should look to provide an edge to their fan base over other retailers, a coupon offer that is exclusive to a particular brand’s Facebook page is likely to trigger a sale.

Consumers engage on social media sites actively during the holiday shopping season and are loyal to their favourite brands which have served them well. About one in six Facebook user posts related to Black Friday mentioned specific retail stores. As a result, retailers have increasingly been offering Loyalty programs, to extend the shopping season momentum to a longer duration beyond the year. According to a study by Nielsen, nearly 76% of North American folks prefer purchasing at retailers providing Loyalty programs. More than 82% of North Americans prefer discount or free products as part of Loyalty programs. A few marketing tactics opted by retailers are summarized below. Free shipping and extended warranty & service period were other incentives opted by retailers to attract customers.

If we consider the Black Friday buzz on Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR), more than 2,465,562 tweets were tweeted world-wide. Engagement rate increased steadily when the epic shopping day arrived, and zoomed up sky-high on Black Friday. More than 55% of Tweets were by Female users and 45% by male users. Amazon and Walmart were amongst brands spoken about on Twitter, while iPad, HD TV and Camera were the top accessories mentioned about on the micro-blogging site.

Is Ericsson’s Demand To Micromax On Patent’s Royalty Fee Irrational? Will Micromax Give In To The Demands?

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December 3, 2013