🗞️ Headlines for 2023.01.26
RIP Brandodon?
So maybe my idea that brands that want to create digital community should start a Mastodon server was a bad one. The points made by the Financial Times Alphaville team are apt, and the most common thread is liability. Definitely something I’d be wary of in light of pending cases that could put platforms on the hook for what users post.
I do wonder if there is a way to do it as a private community. I’m not willing to let this idea go yet, but it’s not looking great.
BuzzBook
Meta needs engagement. Which means more users spending more time in the apps. Which means more content for them to look at, interact with, get incensed by, etc. Which means more people making that contact. Which leads us to The Eye of Sauron paying Buzzfeed millions of dollars to help bring in that sweet, sweet content.
Volume Down For This
A few days ago I included a headline about Proctor & Gamble reporting a 6% drop in sales volume on 10% higher prices.
Kimberly-Clark is one upping them with 7 on 10.
The 10% price hike helped keep earnings numbers up, but consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands are on the razor’s edge of price and profitability.
Welcome to The Age of the Store Brands.
When Digital Gets Physical
What’s old is new again as direct-to-consumer brands are increasingly opening brick-and-mortar stores (rent is just another name for customer acquisition costs).
[A study] found that customers of Outdoor Voices and Everlane spent, on average, more than 35 minutes on store visits compared to less than four minutes in their online stores—where they often made the purchases they contemplated inside the shops.
How To Surf A Tsunami
With more e-commerce comes great return rates, especially during the holidays.
Salesforce predicted a “returns tsunami” and major retailers find it’s sometimes cheaper to just refund the purchase and let the customer keep the product (I heard of one return flow recently that included the option to get a 70% refund and keep the item).
Modern Retail has a piece up on how some small brands have circumvented the issue. They include:
- Reworking the return flow to encourage exchanges via a quiz-like process
- Provide savings without sales, like a free gift with purchase (the company used for this idea also has a proprietary innovation that lets turn returns into something like exchanges)
- Extend return windows during high-volume shopping seasons to reduce customer anxiety
- Make sure you have the right audience
Just The Headlines
-Apple’s Privacy Policies Under Fire From Ad Tech Industry (specifically about its “hypocrisy” (who could have seen this coming?))
-33% of Americans prefer to buy on computers because its easier than on mobile sites (wouldn’t be surprised if the % increased with price.)