Analytics Teams; Prime Day Competition; eBay and Alibaba
By Cleveland AdmineCommerce Team Benchmark Shows Brands Increasingly Leveraging Analytics
Our research shows analytics can be one of the most important tools for building a successful eCommerce strategy, but oftentimes this area has lacked resources as it can be difficult to lay out the business case. However, our Teams Benchmark suggests that over the past couple of years brands seem to be investing in analytics more with both internal (58% dedicating full time resources to analytics) and external resources (47% using sales & share data providers to leverage the available data). Brands seem to be furthest along when it comes to Amazon analytics with 68% reporting using this information at least moderately well vs. 33% who are at least moderately well versed in data available from their omnichannel dot.com partners. We expect the analytics gap between Amazon and its omnichannel rivals to close over the next 12-24 months as these omnichannel retailers look to differentiate themselves from Amazon by sharing more insights with their key branded manufacturers. We also encourage manufacturers that do purchase advanced analytics from Amazon or external firms to ensure they have internal resources that can activate on the insights in order to get the most out of that investment.
Retailers Plan Deals to Compete with Prime Day
A recent report from RetailMeNot indicated that over 250 retailers are planning to offer deals during Amazon’s Prime Day, up from 194 last year (more detail on last year’s Prime Day available here). As a result, the report notes that Prime Day has become the kickoff for the Back-to-School season, with 64% of parents saying that they will shop on Prime Day at an average of 11 retailers. Notable retailers offering sales on Prime Day include Target with Target Deal Days and eBay with its July 15th Crash Sale. Walmart has not announced a specific promotional event, similar to its approach last year.
PurePlay eTailers Seeing Limited Brand Support
Feedback from our recent LiveCast event indicated that nearly 90% of surveyed brands are not currently selling on either eBay or Alibaba. For eBay, its auction reputation combined with the need to be a marketplace seller has limited adoption by large manufacturers more accustomed to wholesale models.