Every week, the EtailDetail team prepare a digest of the previous 7 days of online retail news. Along the way, we’ll pick the most interesting stories from the worlds of technology, social media, marketing and more, allowing you to see everything at a glance.
Retail News and Trends
Weak consumer spending and fierce competition forces prices down: BRC
August Shop Prices fell by 0.4% compared to a 0.1% decrease in July. This is below the 12- and 6-month average price increases, both of 0.3%, and is the fastest rate of decline since June 2018, according to the monthly BRC retail price index.
Retailers feeling pretty good
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/news/retailers-feeling-pretty-good/
The research report, The Shape of Peak to Come, polled over 400 U.S. and U.K. retail marketers. Less than 10% surveyed expect a flat or negative result for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, according to a press release.
58% of global consumers ready to buy from the UK as research prompts brands to look ‘past Britain’
The new research looks into the rise of the international shopper, surveying over 3,570 consumers across seven countries including the UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Singapore and the USA.
Ebay calls for SMEs to have a bigger voice on trade negotiations
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2019/08/ebay-calls-smes-bigger-voice-trade-negotiations/
The online marketplace revealed the initiative two months ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU, while also highlighting the contribution that SMEs have on UK exports.
Amazon selling 4152 banned and unsafe products says damning report
Amazon has been accused of selling more than 4000 banned, unsafe or mislabelled products on its platform, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Review fraud: Hijacked Amazon reviews a big problem says Consumer Reports
Review hijacking happens when the seller of a product is able to associate positive reviews from another, unrelated product with its own to deceive potential buyers.
Audio & Video
Spotify’s rumored ‘Create a podcast’ feature could be a valuable resource for marketers
The “Create a podcast” button discovered in the Spotify app would allow users to create podcasts via Anchor, an app Spotify purchased in February.
Video marketing tops list of marketers’ priorities, voice search ranks low
According to the study from Mondo, only 17% of marketers have plans to optimize their websites for voice search in the next 12 months.
Opinion
What could a no-deal Brexit mean for retail?
The obvious casualty will be sales – with consumer confidence potentially plummeting if we crash out of the EU on 31 October.
