Hello and welcome to November: In Review
We’re officially in the most festive month of the year so that means it’s time to recap on the best retail and ecommerce news and advice to hit the internet in November. Last month was a big month for retailers and wholesalers as the holiday season preparations were in full swing and we saw the Black Friday & Cyber Monday weekend finally take place.
Take a quick break from processing all those holiday season orders and check out these 4 stories that are not to be missed!
1. Video: Introducing Amazon’s AR View
Once again, Amazon made a big announcement with the launch of its augmented reality experience which lets you view thousands of products in your home, before you buy them. ‘AR view’ is part of the Amazon app which allows users to search for products and then see what they would look like in their home.
Watch the video to see how it works…
What do you think of previewing products before you buy? Let us know in the comments section.
2. Q+A: Why ERP is Important for Brands Wanting to Scale at Speed
Our partner, WeMakeWebsites wanted to explore the importance of ERP for fast-growing ecommerce businesses so they spoke with our very own Scott Hill, VP of Product here at Brightpearl, to learn from his wealth of retail technology experience. They asked him a series of questions to truly get to the bottom of why ERP is so important including:
- Why are more people not talking about ERP?
- Implementing an ERP solution saves time and ultimately money, but how else can enterprise resource planning help transform a business?
- When is a good time for a business to start looking at implementing an ERP solution?
- Can businesses survive without ERP systems and is it ever a bad idea or a bad time to implement them?
- Post implementation, what benefits are immediately evident and what can business owners expect after a year?
If you’re considering implementing an ERP system, this blog is definitely worth a read!
3. Blog: 10 Ways to Boost Conversion with Personalization for your B2B Customers
JH wrote a great guest blog for Magento this month which explores how personalization isn’t just for your B2C customers as people might think and how you can use personalization to boost conversion in the B2B side of your business.
The blog shares 10 different areas of your business where B2B personalization could be applied including personalized accounts, recommendations and product listings, navigation and search, social media and even pricing!
B2B ecommerce is expected to be twice as large as the B2C market in the next 5 years. Now, that’s a reason to read the full blog and find out more
4. Infographic: Black Friday & Cyber Monday in Numbers
We couldn’t recap on November without talking about the results of the Black Friday & Cyber Monday weekend and with mixed feelings from retailers, we weren’t sure what the statistics would say! It turns out that the BFCM weekend was still a huge success with a 20.7% overall increase in gross merchandise value (GMV). Here are some of the highlights from the results:
- After Black Friday reigned in 2016, Cyber Monday has pulled it back again with shoppers spending more on the final day of the sales.
- However, Small Business Saturday in the US saw the biggest GMV growth from last year with a 23.8% increase.
- After seeing average order value (AOV) fall in the last few years, the 2017 cyber weekend saw an increase in AOV.
- Baby & Toddler merchants saw the biggest increase in GMV year-over-year as it was up by a whopping 76% from 2016.
- The US saw much bigger growth in GMV, order volume and AOV in comparison to the UK.
- Cyber Monday was the most popular day in the US, whilst Black Friday came out on top in the UK.
Check out the full infographic for even more interesting stats!
That’s all from me! If you enjoyed November’s recap, why not subscribe to the blog to get content like this delivered straight to your inbox?
