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Worldwide Digital Economy Snapshot

DigitalNews

There’s a big wide world of internet users out there. Tufts University took a look at what is moving the needle in the top 50 internet countries.

The Digital Evolution Index (DEI), created by the Fletcher School at Tufts University (with support from Mastercard and DataCash), is derived from four broad drivers: supply-side factors (including access, fulfillment, and transactions infrastructure); demand-side factors (including consumer behaviors and trends, financial and Internet and social media savviness); innovations (including the entrepreneurial, technological and funding ecosystems, presence and extent of disruptive forces and the presence of a start-up culture and mindset); and institutions (including government effectiveness and its role in business, laws and regulations and promoting the digital ecosystem). The resulting index includes a ranking of 50 countries, which were chosen because they are either home to most of the current 3 billion internet users or they are where the next billion users are likely to come from.

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Stand Out countries have shown high levels of digital development in the past and continue to remain on an upward trajectory.
Stall Out countries have achieved a high level of evolution in the past but are losing momentum and risk falling behind.
Break Out countries have the potential to develop strong digital economies. Though their overall score is still low, they are moving upward and are poised to become Stand Out countries in the future.
Watch Out countries face significant opportunities and challenges, with low scores on both current level and upward motion of their DEI. Some may be able to overcome limitations with clever innovations and stopgap measures, while others seem to be stuck.

Via Harvard Business Review

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New Research Shows How Digital Connects Shoppers to Local Stores

DigitalMarketing

While some might say that the rise of digital has made the role of the local retail store obsolete, new research from Google suggests that the relationship between digital and in-store shopping is far more nuanced and interconnected than that. In gaining an understanding of the impact of digital on in-store shopping, we were able to debunk three common retail myths. We also identified ways retailers can use digital more effectively to connect with consumers. With two in three consumers not finding the information they need in-store and 43% then leaving frustrated, digital presents an opportunity for retailers to improve the in-store shopping experience.

The retail industry is undergoing a dramatic shift: In-store foot traffic is down, online research is up and smartphones are becoming increasingly important to the consumer’s in-store shopping journey. Here we debunk three common myths associated with the impact of digital on in-store shopping. We’ll also highlight how consumers’ digital behavior affects—and in fact, helps—retail stores today.

Myth #1: Search results only send consumers to e-commerce sites.

The Reality: Search results are also a powerful way to drive consumers to stores.

A common myth is that as a result of searching online, shoppers will only visit e-commerce sites. In reality, three out of four shoppers who find local information in search results helpful are more likely to visit stores. The lesson for retailers here is simple: Digital is a powerful way to connect consumers with stores.

Myth #2: Once in-store consumers start looking at their smartphone, the retailer loses their attention.

The Reality: Retailers can grab consumers’ attention through search results and their mobile site or app.

Digital is transforming the in-store experience for customers. Our study shows that 42% of in-store shoppers search for information online while in-store. For the most part, they’re using search engines (64%). However, almost half of shoppers head to the retailer’s own site or app. Only 30% will look up details from a different retailer’s web site or app. This presents a powerful opportunity for retailers to connect with consumers—and prevent them from turning to the competition.

Retailers can use their online presence—website, apps, mobile ads and search results—to assist shoppers in-store. This includes the integration of local information in their online presence. Geo-targeting content and ads helps retailers connect with shoppers who may be in close proximity to their store or already there.

Myth #3: Online research has lowered consumers’ expectations of stores; they really just go to a store to transact.

The Reality: Consumers visit stores for more than just a purchase, and their expectations of retailers are higher than before. They’re looking for an informative, customized experience.

Some retailers fear that today’s consumers are so well informed before they step into a store that the shop itself has become nothing but a playground for a quick transaction. In fact, people are visiting stores throughout their purchase journey—even before making a purchase. Thirty-two percent of shoppers visit stores when they’re first thinking about a purchase, and 33% actively research in stores to find out more about a potential purchase.

The consumer path to purchase is becoming increasingly mobile. Retailers that provide relevant, local information via search and online presence (mobile app and site) will increase both reach and engagement. Digital has fundamentally reshaped the shopping journey—in a good way—and savvy retailers who make use of it to attract and engage consumers will find themselves ahead of the competition.

See the full findings and report at Google’s blog.

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The 3 New Realities of Local Retail According to Google

DigitalMarketing

The relationship between digital and local stores is changing. Google found three new realities of retail: digital drives in-store traffic; smartphones are in-store shopping assistants and varied shopping habits call for a holistic approach to measuring retail success. Savvy retailers are learning how to reach customers by better connecting the online to the offline and by caring less about where a sale happens and more about how to help shoppers convert.

New reality #1: Digital drives in-store traffic

As it turns out, digital doesn’t just drive e-commerce. It actually gets consumers into local stores. A 2014 study on local search behavior found that 50% of consumers will visit a store within one day of a local search on their smartphone. Scott Zalaznik, Sprint’s vice president of digital, has seen digital’s influence on offline shopping firsthand: “Ninety percent of our customers start their journey online but buy in-store.”

New reality #2: Smartphones are in-store shopping assistants

Thanks to our constantly connected world, we’ve become accustomed to instantaneous answers and a wealth of information at our fingertips, but not all retailers have translated this well into in-store experiences. Shoppers are increasingly frustrated by the lack of in-store information. Two-thirds of those surveyed said they couldn’t find the details they needed while visiting a store. Many, as a result, are turning to their smartphone to fill in the information gap. Of the 42% who research online while in stores, almost half use the retailer’s own site or app. And one in three shoppers actually prefer to use their smartphone to find additional information rather than ask a store employee for help.

New reality #3: Omnichannel shopping calls for omnichannel measurement

Though shopping habits have changed drastically, retailers haven’t necessarily caught up in the ways they measure their marketing efforts and allocate their media spend. Most retailers don’t yet understand the extent to which digital drives in-store transactions and how in-store visits affect online purchases. The result is that they’re often viewing sales in silos and undervaluing the real impact of their digital spend on total sales. Consequently, they’re making suboptimal decisions about their media mix.

Macys.com’s Serena Potter says the brand has placed a special focus on understanding just how much of local business sales come from digital searches. “We’ve been able to show that for every dollar we invest in search, we drive $6 of sales in-store,” she says.

See the full blog post here, at Google’s Blog.

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Digital to Overtake TV Ad Spending in Two Years

DigitalNews

U.S. advertisers’ spending on digital advertising will overtake TV in 2016 and hit $103 billion in 2019 to represent 36% of all ad spending, according to Forrester’s latest estimates based on its ForecastView model. U.S. advertisers will spend $85.8 billion on TV ads in 2019, which will equal 30% of overall ad spending that year, according to Forrester.

But digital won’t usurp TV because of big brand advertisers taking their commercial money and redirecting it toward YouTube and Facebook. There will be some cannibalization of TV budgets, but the bigger contributing factor will be an influx of new money dedicated to digital because marketers are able to prove that digital works, said Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk.

Marketers aren’t upping their digital budgets because of bright shiny objects like so-called native ads or computer-automated programmatic buying processes. They’re doing so because the economy has recovered. Advertisers have more money to spend now than in recent years and the oversupply of ad inventory online gives them a lot of places to put that money. And they’re comfortable spending their money online because years of testing and learning has shown those digital dollars are well spent.

via Advertising Age

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News Websites All Look the Same – Here’s Why.

DesignDigital

Mashable blogger Jason Abbruzzese takes a look at the similarities between the most popular media websites. Why do they all seem to look the same?

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“It’s sort of the same way that all cars look more or less the same. There’s only so many ways you can design a doorknob to where it’s going to be effective,” said Brad Frost, a web designer that has worked on the websites for TechCrunch and Entertainment Weekly.

Cars and doorknobs serve a purpose under certain constraints, just like websites. But unlike those everyday items, the demands on websites have changed drastically as audiences have taken to different devices.

“To a certain degree, websites always look the same. Design is fashion and it follows trends. We’re in the middle of a trend of big and clunky, not just because of responsive design but also because of touch,” Clark added. “As touch has spread from small screens to laptops and desktops, all desktop designs have to be touch-friendly, and that has influenced the aesthetic, too.”

Enter Responsive Design

Numerous major media sites have shifted to responsive design with similar results — multi-column, boxy and flat designs that look almost strangely similar.

At first, it was tenable to create multiple sites: one for mobile, another for desktop. Now, more sites are moving to the responsive design as a one-size-fits-all solution. There are simply too many different screens and experiences to plan for.

“Your head is going to explode trying to support that stuff, let alone afford it,” Clark said.

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“Media sites have a specific limitation called an ad unit that really limits the flexibility of design, because unlike every other unit, this ad can’t change size,” Clark said.

Online advertising guidelines are set by the Internet Advertising Bureau so marketers and websites can have a common market. Rigid ad sizes may help sales, but end up being a pain for designers.

“You have these dinosaurs grasping at straws, that haven’t been able to move as fast as the rest of the industry, and it creates a real restraint,” Frost said.

Many screens, many ad types

“As a digital designer, our world is now going from watch space to 80-inch screens, so what do you do with that? Do you seriously try to design one interface for all of those screen sizes and all of those experiences?” Storey said.

And it’s not just screens. The rise of contextual advertising, in which a variety of data is used to tailor advertisements, could end up pushing design forward as well.

“The content and experience that brands are going to want to offer is going to demand more design and more design thinking, more consideration for not only those unique devices, but also where you are and what time you are there,” Storey said.

Via Mashable

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Wireframes for non-designers

DesignDigital

Think of wireframes as a blueprint for what’s to come. Wireframes help a designer experiment quickly – move navigation elements, hero images, banners, product images, etc without burning a lot of billable hours immersed in code or working in Illustrator or Photoshop. Let’s take a look at some example wireframes:

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Going Local: How Advertisers Can Extend Their Relevance With Search

Digital

People have come to expect a certain amount of contextual relevance with regard to search. In fact, new research shows that four in five U.S. smartphone users believe search ads should be customized to their city, zip code or immediate surroundings. Location-based ads can quickly satisfy consumers’ expectations by featuring a store’s address, directions to a nearby business and a phone number. By adopting a local strategy—one that takes people’s locations into consideration—businesses can provide consumers with the information they need to take action.

We’ve all been in situations in which we needed to find something nearby—on a business trip in a new city, while running errands around town or even when simply planning where to go for dinner. In the past, when we wanted to find, say, a great Mexican restaurant for dinner, we’d consult our favorite foodie magazines or critics’ reviews from a local newspaper.

Today we search. We’d simply search for “Mexican restaurant” and the results would be relevant to our location. This kind of searching is now commonplace. In fact, four in five consumers use search engines to find products, services or experiences nearby. They conduct local searches wherever they happen to be; 84% use search engines on their computer or tablet and even more (88%) do so on their smartphone.

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When it comes to a local strategy, advertisers should consider the following:

Optimize for the consumer’s location. Advertisers can reach a large set of consumers by starting with a wide geographic area such as the entire U.S. and then using location bid adjustments to fine-tune bids for specific areas or zip codes.

Help consumers find what they need. Make it easier for the people searching to see the information they need most. Simply adding location extensions, a phone number or a click-to-call button right in the ad can help consumers take action faster.

Engage consumers near your stores. You should use radius bidding to reach consumers near stores and build an attribution model for local searches.

Today’s consumers are constantly connected; they’re using search engines to gain access to local information whether they’re at home, on the go or in-store. By optimizing budgets for location and providing information that is locally relevant, advertisers can deliver better experiences to people in the moments that matter.

Via Think with Google Blog

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Is That a Discount Coupon on Your Wrist?

Digital

At the Mobile World Conference in February, the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer Samsung unveiled two sleek products in the second generation of its watches with internet capabilities. The Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo will land on the market April 8. LG and Motorola have unmasked their own devices. Qualcomm also has its own. So do a gamut of companies, from hardware veterans Sony and Intel to Pebble Technology, a small, scrappy company financed by the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. (And then there’s China, where one analyst said “hundreds” of manufacturers are in the mix.)

The potential for advertising on such devices ratcheted up in March when Google — which earns 90% of its core revenue from ads — released Android Wear, a software-development kit for wearables. Google is tying up with HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Asus, along with chip-makers Broadcom, Intel and Qualcomm, among others.

Marketers salivate at wearables’ data-collection potential. When it comes to advertising, any ads would need to show immediate, tangible value. For example, pushing a discount on a latte when you’re near Dunkin Donuts. Any ads must have a utility that will enhance what you’re doing.

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Jet Magazine Packs Its Bags and Goes Digital

Digital

The full-on sprint to digital is on for yet another publication. Jet Magazine, published since 1951, is heading to the digital domain as a result of slipping ad revenue. All subscribers will be given digital access and shifted to the better-performing Ebony magazine.

“The purpose of Jet 63 years ago was to deliver news in a faster format,” said Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, chief operating officer and head of digital at Johnson Publishing. The move to all digital is a natural extension of this idea, she explained. “Now people want to be able to get their info wherever they are,” she added.

Jet’s ad pages in the first quarter of this year fell 25.6% from the equivalent period last year, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. Ad pages dropped 18% last year.

In case you missed it, Ladies Home Journal has changed from a monthly to a quarterly publication – and will probably soon go all digital when that shift doesn’t change their fortunes either.

Source: AdAge