EERS 11-5-17 NEWS STORIES

Ecommerce Enterprise Radio Show News Stories For your Eyes only November 5, 2017 830 pm EDST 1

Walmart throws parties to lure holiday shoppers away from AmazonIf you’re Walmart, how do you solve a problem like Amazon?The answer: Throw a party.That’s right, Walmart announced on Nov. 1 that it will be hosting 20,000 holiday parties at its Supercenters across the na-tion. The events will take place on Nov. 4, Dec. 2, and Dec. 16, and will include 165,000 product demos so shoppers cantaste and test items.Santa will also be in the stores to take photos with shoppers.To further enhance the in-store experience, Walmart is also bringing back its Holiday Helpers, associates dedicated to as-sisting customers.Even though Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, it’s pretty clear that these parties are an attempt to lure shoppers intostores and away from Amazon.The number of people choosing to shop online continues to grow. This is the first year that online beat out departmentstores as the most popular shopping destination.In addition to parties, Walmart will dramatically increase its in-store and online inventory this holiday season. For the firsttime, popular brands like Cuisinart and KitchenAid will be available in stores. Similarly, Bose is now available online andin select stores.Walmart’s online shoppers will also enjoy free two-day shipping on orders over $35. The shipping applies to more than 2million items, and unlike Amazon, a membership is not needed. 2

Amazon Snips Prices on Other Sellers’ growth in Amazon’s retail business.Items Ahead of Holiday Onslaught It also shows how much Amazon is willing to pay for marketThe move allows the retail giant to compete more fierce- share, part of its strategy to reinvest profits to grow the compa-ly with low-cost rivals, but could hurt its relationship with ny. Amazon last week posted a 34% increase in revenue in itsbig-name brands, manufacturers and merchants most recent quarter.Amazon has quietly started lowering prices by as much The discounts could be a mixed bag for some sellers. A loweras 9% in recent weeks on goods offered by independent price on an item that matches or beats a competitor could helpmerchants on its site, ratcheting up a price war with drive more sales at no extra cost to the seller. It may depleteother retail giants. inventory unexpectedly, though. And the lower prices could inadvertently violate a merchant’s agreement with a brandUntil now, Amazon has generally controlled prices only to keep its products at or above a set minimum advertisedon merchandise it sells directly to consumers. Now, it is price.discounting some items sold by third parties, coveringthe cost difference itself to ensure competitive pric- One third party seller isn’t sure if any of his products have beening. marked down yet, but said he’s signed agreements with Wal- Mart and other marketplaces to maintain price parity on theOn Amazon this week, a Boots No7 Instant Illusion Wrin- same products he’s also selling on Amazon.kle Filler sold by kn9ght was marked down 6% to $19.99,matching the same price offered online by retailer UltaBeautyInc. “This item is sold by a third-party seller. The discount One customer who was interviewed said she price comparesis provided by Amazon,” on her phone during her 40-minute commute into New York City every morning, shopping for things like toiletries and iron-One third party seller said that it appears most sellers still ing boards on Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target Corp. sites. If shehaven’t noticed the new discounts. The practice allows doesn’t need it fast, the sale goes to the lowest bidder—whichthe seller to benefit as Amazon competes for more sales. frequently isn’t Amazon, she says.“We are still receiving the same amount of money,” “I’m a bargain shopper,” says the 32-year-old customer successThe unusual move, while good for consumers, could fur- manager. “Sometimes there are certain things that I wouldn’tther strain Amazon’s complicated relationship with purchase from [Amazon], but if they do drop the prices, I’ll buy bSiagl-ensabmyeinbdreapnednsd,emntasneulflaecrtsuraerresaasnidgniitfsicamnetrachreaantosf. them.” 3

This year’s hottest holiday toy is already flying off shelvesFingerlings, plastic monkeys that hang on fingers, blink and respond to touch and sound, have quick-ly become one of the most sought-after toys of the year, selling out at major retailers across the coun-try.Walmart is already feeling the pressure from this hot toy, calling inventory “tight,” according toBloomberg.Fingerlings, manufactured by WowWee, was the second fastest-selling toy in September of this year.“As consumers make their holiday lists, it is equally important for retailers and manufacturers to man-age theirs – and these are the toys that should be on it,” said Juli Lennett, senior vice president for theNPD Group onWednesday.The toy, which typically retails for about $14.99, is being marketed on eBay for upward of $20 to $70for a single Fingerling and up to $799 for a full set. Holiday exclusives like Gigi the Unicorn and King-sley the Sloth are being marketed at a slightly higher price than the traditional monkeys.Parents scrambling to get their hands on these robotic monkeys may want to exercise caution, howev-er. Last year, many parents were scammed while shopping on digital marketplaces and through Face-book while attempting to procure Hatchimals for their young ones.So make sure to carefully vet a seller before forking over your hard-earned cash or sharing any of yourpersonal information. 4

eBay Kicks Off Holiday Marketing Campaign Focused on Deals November 1, 2017 9:29 am Ina Steiner, eCommerceBytes eBay is kicking off a “First Minute Holiday Shopping” marketing campaign to- day, November 1, 2017. It’s promoting deals and price-matching from pre-ap- proved merchants, as well as focusing on fast delivery. eBay is introducing five new marketing spots “spotlighting how early shopping helps you find the most unique and special gifts for the ones that matter most” airing on TV and through eBay channels on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Announcement follows: When it comes to holiday shopping, a new eBay study found that most people don’t want to wait until it’s too late. Nearly half of Americans (45%) start holi- day shopping well before Black Friday, so eBay is making ‘First Minute’ shopping easy and rewarding. Beginning today, eBay kicks off new, exclusive First Minute deals on some of the hottest holiday gifts from top brands like Adidas, Dyson, Mattel, KitchenAid and more. Additionally, the launch of eBay’s new Guaran- teed Delivery program will offer fast delivery speeds on millions of items, while eBay’s Price Match Guarantee promises no blackout on Black Friday to take the stress out of starting early. 5

The startling reality about online ad spendingCategory 1 storm clouds are gathering over what has traditionally been one of the most lucrative, and perhapsonly profitable, sectors to come out of Silicon Valley in decades: online advertising.Two months ago, it was P&G which fired the first shot across the “adtech” bow when it announced it wasslashing its digital ad spending because it thought it was not getting the kind of return on investment it desired.Moeller also touched on the two most common complaints about digital advertising scams: advertisers arepaying for ads that are viewed and clicked on by bots, not humans; and ads are placed by thousands of auto-mated “ad exchanges” that are out of control of the advertiser on sites and pages that don’t match the advertis-er’s products.A separate, if just as concerning problem emerged in August, when the WSJ reported that online ad giant,Google, would issue refunds to advertisers for ads bought through its platform that ran on sites with fake traf-fic, and generated no actionable advertising “clicks.” Just how much of Google’s ad revenue (and thus profitsand market cap) had been inflated over the years by said “fake ads”?So fast forward to last week, when CEO, Gary Friedman, divulged the following striking anecdote about thecompany’s online marketing strategy.We had our marketing meeting in the company several years ago and the online marketing team was pitchingto double their budget, right, and at the time, say, look, nobody in the company is doubling their budget. Buttell me why you believe that’s the right thing to do. And they said, well, look, our customer acquisition costand our ad cost is the lowest in the company. And I said, well, tell me about the data, show me how. And theysaid, well, people who click through the words that we buy on Google, the ad cost was lowest. And I said, howdo you know that they’re clicking on the word and going to the website because of the word you bought versusthey saw a store or they received a source book? They said, oh, we know.I said, well, how many words do you buy? They said 3,200. 3,200 words. I said, well, what are the top words?How are they ranked, the ranking of the words? Oh, we don’t have that, right. And I was getting the look atlike, oh, Gary is kind of one these old brick-and-mortar guys. He just doesn’t get it.And I said, well, what are the top 10 words? And they didn’t have the information. I said, why don’t we cancel 6

the meeting and come back next week when you have the data? I’m sure that Google sales representatives who are taking you to the expensive lunches and selling you the 3,200 words have that data. So why don’t we get the data and then let, review the data? And they came back the next week and we sat in a meeting and all of a sudden, I can tell you there’s a little change in the faces. They had to wear it kind of down. Everybody kind of came in. I said, so what did we find out? And they said, well, we’ve found out that 98% of our business was coming from 22 words. So, wait, we’re buying 3,200 words and 98% of the business is coming from 22 words. What are the 22 words? And they said, well, it’s the word Restoration Hardware and the 21 ways to spell it wrong, okay? Immediately the next day, we cancelled all the words, including our own name. By the way, we are paying for the little shaded box above our words and said, oh no, we have to hang on to that because Pottery Barn might squat on top of us. I said, excuse me? I said, if someone goes to a mall or a shopping center and they’re going to Restoration Hardware and there’s a Pottery Bam there, they’re already squatting, okay? It doesn’t mean they’re going to go into their store. If somebody wanted to buy a diamond from Tiffany and just because Zale’s is sitting on top of them in a shaded box doesn’t mean they’re going to go to Zale’s and buy a diamond. I mean, I can’t believe how many companies buy their own name and they’re paying Google millions of dollars a year for their own name, like maybe if this is webcast, right, a lot of people are going to go, holy crap. They’re going to look at their investments. They’d go, maybe we don’t need to buy our own name. Google’s market cap might go down… One wonders how long before all retailers – most of whom are notoriously strapped for revenues and profits courtesy of Amazon – and other “power users” of online advertising, do a similar back of the enve- lope analysis, and find that they, like RH, are getting a bang for only 2% of their buck? What will happen to online ad spending then? And what will happen to the online ad giants, if the vast majority of ad spend- ing that justified their hundreds of billions in market cap is exposed as “bloat”? As Friedman politely, yet sarcastically put it, “Googles market cap might go down.” 7

Teri Aycock from HoneyBirdSoaps 7:26pm Nov 3, 2017 EDT I might have messed up... again.. ok, so I have shipped my first 3 orders, but due to a pancake, I couldn’t print etsy shipping labels. Will the money for the shipping be direct deposited into my account along with my payments? Tana from PrairiePrimitives 7:27pm Nov 3, 2017 EDT edited Yes, you always get the money that the customers pay for shipping. It doesn’t matter where or how you pay for the postage. Be sure to mark the orders as shipped; otherwise they will remain open until you mark them as shipped. hazel bays from BuffCreekFarmhouse 7:29pm Nov 3, 2017 EDT I have to ask “due to a pancake”? Teri Aycock from HoneyBirdSoaps 7:38pm Nov 3, 2017 EDT My son wanted a paw patrol design on his pancake and stuffed it into the printer Barbara Keady from Fleeceofnature 8:03pm Nov 3, 2017 EDT LOL! That is the funniest thing I’ve heard all day! BigDogLady from BigDogLadysJools 8:05pm Nov 3, 2017 EDT LOL, sorry not funny and probably a mess to clean up, but your son wins the originality prize for sure. :)\8

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