| Here at BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, our goal is to provide:  | Unbiased insight and analysis
| | | Forward-looking views of changing trends and impending disruption
| | | Advanced curation of key topics to help you make smarter decisions
| As part of this mission, we have a team of heavy-hitting analysts spending thousands of hours researching and identifying the core issues you need to know within your key areas of interest. To do so, the team dives into all available research and data followed by exhaustively refining their findings into jargon-free straightforward reports. One of our most followed subscription verticals has been e‑commerce, led by senior analyst Cooper Smith. On a daily basis Cooper & the research team analyze consumer trends, emerging technologies, and disruptive companies in the retail sector. His research has been featured on CNBC and CNN, as well as in The Washington Post and Wired Magazine, among other publications. Prior to Business Insider, Cooper was a consultant to the Federal Reserve, and studied computer science at Harvard University. Recently, we interviewed Cooper about the current state of e‑commerce and emerging trends in the industry. Here are his answers… | Cooper, can you give us a little background on how you ended up concentrating on e‑commerce? You worked for the Fed and studied computer science — where does e‑commerce come in? | | | I've always been fascinated by how technology disrupts industries. Retail is among the largest and most complex sectors of the economy, so it's important to understand how it's evolving. How are consumers using technology to shop? How are retailers using technology to their advantage? These are the questions I'm always thinking about as an e‑commerce analyst. My time working at the Federal Reserve and studying computer science helped prepare me for this work at the cross-section of market research and technology. | | | E‑commerce has evolved quite a bit since its early days. What's the state of e‑commerce right now? | | | Right now everything is making the shift to mobile. Smartphones are the leading consumer touch point for retailers, and time spent interacting with retailers via smartphones is growing at a much faster rate than on other devices. Because of the mobile trend, there's an uptick in the usage of shopping apps. This enables retailers to engage with consumers using technology like beacons and NFC (near field communication). | | | Talk about beacons. Should we pay attention to them? Are they here to stay, or are they a fad that will go away? | |  Beacons are small, wireless devices that allow brands and retailers to push mobile coupons and promotions to shoppers' smartphones based on their physical locations. Consumer packaged goods (CPGs) are getting the biggest lift with the use of beacon-based promotion. The top five categories benefiting from beacons are deli items, over-the-counter medication, wine & spirits, nonalcoholic beverages, and snacks. CPGs are bought frequently and regularly. Thus, brands using beacons to push promotions and coupons for CPGs would likely see the highest engagement, as shoppers are always looking to save on these oft-purchased items. Many beacon programs went mainstream during the 2015 holiday season. | | | So should everyone besides CPG's let beacons go? | | | I encourage all major brands and retailers to at least be looking at beacons and understand how they work. There are just so many things you can do with NFC technology — from contactless payments and inventory management to location-based offers and consumer tracking. This versatility is why we're seeing beacons being used successfully in all types of commerce environments — not just brick and mortar retail, but also entertainment venues, and public transit. | | | Have the benefits of social peaked for e‑commerce? Do you see continued growth there or is it as good as it will get? | | | Social commerce will continue to grow. Facebook, for example, is constantly building out its e‑commerce capabilities and optimizing them for mobile. They are working on things like a "one-tap purchase" capability in their Messenger app. This will help retailers connect with consumers and make transactions very easy. Social networks improving the ease of shopping within the platforms that consumers are already using will continue to contribute to the growth of social commerce. | | | Other industries are starting to facilitate e‑commerce. Publishers are getting a piece of the pie through affiliate programs. Is this a big deal? | |  It is. Affiliate marketing now drives as many e‑commerce orders in the US as email. It jumped from 13% of US e‑commerce orders in 2014 to 16% in 2015, while organic search declined from 24% to 21%, and direct traffic declined from 23% to 19%. The decline in the success of display advertising and obstacles like ad-blockers are forcing brands to turn to more native forms of promotion. Major retailers and publishers are coming together to use performance-based marketing to drive sales of all sorts of products — from electronics to apparel. 1,000 of the largest publishers, including Business Insider, are currently involved or are considering getting involved in affiliate programs. | |
Want to keep up with the latest developments in e‑commerce? If you want to keep up to date with the latest developments in e‑commerce and gain access to all of the research and reports from Cooper Smith and his team, subscribe to BI Intelligence today, risk free! By signing up, you'll be adding Cooper and a whole team of extremely intelligent analysts to your team. With your subscription you'll gain access to a library of research reports which take a deep dive into some of the trends we touched on in the interview, including Beacons, Social Commerce, Affiliate Marketing, and hundreds of others. In addition to e‑commerce, BI Intelligence covers digital media, the Internet of Things, payments/fintech, and mobile industries. All research is presented in an easy to digest format through reports, newsletters, charts, infographics and includes the underlying data for your reference. Learn more today » |
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