Written on February 22nd, 2012 by Samanthano shouts
Consumers are rapidly changing the way that they spend money. Modern consumers want convenience and better prices even more than ever—in fact, they are demanding it—and they know how to get it too. With the rise of the great and magnificent Internet, a plethora of valuable information has made consumers all the wiser. Along with this phenomenon is the increased interest by advertisers to sell their wares on the Internet, as well as build interest in their retail stores among consumers. Now, the newest phenomenon is the rise of the mobile Internet via smart phones and tablets—and this is only the beginning.
Savvy Shopper
Every consumer wants to feel as though they have the upper hand in making purchases. The modern selling market, with an increase in electronic points of purchase, has opened up more choices for consumers. For most products, consumers no longer have to settle for what’s right in front of them. Today’s consumer can shop around, and at his or her convenience. According to a recent “technology business” presentation at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco by Mary Meeker, an expert in the field, the increasing trend toward online business transactions is officially the preferred way for consumers to shop.
Consumers have driven ecommerce to an all time high. Meeker’s presentation put a spotlight on the tremendous growth of ecommerce over the last decade—retail store sales have risen to a height of approximately 6% with a marked depression of -9% at the beginning of 2009. On the other hand, ecommerce experienced a 30% height with a marked depression of -3% during the same beginning period of 2009. During the observed ten year spread this significant difference in percentage of sales was maintained with only a 10% minimum difference for at least six years straight, with ecommerce dominating the market.
Recovery of both systems were nearly parallel by the end of 2009 until the first quarter of 2010, when both systems started to split with ecommerce returning to a dominant height.
Commerce Going Mobile
Consumers have become savvier as the age of the Internet has pressed on. Comparison-shopping has always been a strategic staple of shopping. This may have called for a lot of legwork, then on to comparison-shopping online—today comparison-shopping can be done on mobile devices. In fact, there has been an unprecedented rise in mobile comparison shopping—while in retail stores 52% of consumers were able to find items at a better price online, 51% found items at a better price at another store, and 34% found negative reviews about an item on mobile devices Q3:2011.
Another selling point being used by merchants is giving preferential treatment to mobile users such as mobile user discounts, mobile coupon recognition, and specialized apps or subscriber programs that send out text messages advising consumers of upcoming deals that they can take immediate advantage of. As I am sure you can imagine, this is a seriously meaningful prospect for merchants and advertisers alike. This has also proven to be a “rejuvenator” of “local commerce” as a direct result of these activities.
According t0 Meeker’s report, the skies the limit on this type of mobile growth.
Resource:
Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com
Written on February 1st, 2012 by Samanthano shouts
Facebook has gone public today and now has an IPO. An IPO, an initial public offering is a way that private companies go public which reveals the inner workings of the company including financial information. Francis Gaskins, President and Editor of IPODesktop.com describes this process by using a “real estate analogy,” stating that it’s like a house that was once private and not open to the public is now on the open market where all relevant information is disclosed. The company, now open to the public, is “followed by analysts” and monitored by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC).
A company must go public when there are more than 501 investors and worth more than $10 million dollars.
A company usually starts trading about eight to twelve weeks later—after announcing it’s IPO.
This company’s information is being offered to attract investors that want to support the company as a shareholder and hopefully make money as the company grows. To invest, you must already have an account with an investment firm. You can then go through the investment firm to make requests to buy or sell investments.
What does this mean to you?
For such a huge and popular company such as Facebook, there is a lot of buzz and interest—it’s considered to be a “hot IPO.” This means that a lot of investors are going to be initially interested which will result in a spike on investing with the company during the first days on the market.
The people that are going to really see an immediate return on investment—and the making of instant millionaires—will be the employees of Facebook that have shares in the company. Other investors that are able to invest larger amounts of money and acquire more stock will also be prevalent. Traditionally, these are the sectors of investors that are able to afford immediate investment and thus experience a greater or more immediate return on investment.
It has been said that Facebook is going to offer a large amount of stocks so that regular people that hope to invest in the company will also have an opportunity. Being that the United States is the only country that does not have laws against a particular criteria of classes of people that may invest, this may be a huge opportunity for even the average investor.
It has been reported that Facebook opened a $5 billion dollar IPO.
The thing is that with Facebook, everyone knows about it and may sink money in for the moment before “spreadsheet” analysis has been generated that shows actual growth. This could mean a lot of changes by next week. Traditionally, low-key and unknown companies are more attractive for investors because they will be able to buy at a low price and sell at a much higher price—this is a time proven strategy.
Experts are advising that investors that purchase on Facebook today should seek to trade sooner than later, and not hold on to the stock for too long. Gaskins stated that within the after-market, the selling point in the weeks after the initial announcement of an IPO, more analysis would become available to make a more strategic decision on investing.
It seems that only time will tell.
Resources:
Associated Press: http://www.ap.org
Yahoo! Finance – Breakout: http://www.finance.yahoo.com