Analytics + electronic store displays + mobile purchase = next step in retail (and analytics)

Posted in Analytics, Business, Marketing, Web Analytics on January 30, 2010 by pdebois

At the annual National Retailer Foundation expo in New York, large vendors offered model digital displays that provide more than store information. These displays offer users the ability to find retail inventory and departments quickly, with touch features similar to an iPhone (or iPad, if you will!). One display providing ability to add a selection to a mobile wallet — with a light touch of a semi-transparent display users can call the image of their selection, just like a selection on a webpage, and then move the image to a virtual wallet linked to a mobile phone. The consumer can then purchase the selection with a credit card.

And who are the leaders who displayed this technology? Adobe? Google?

Try Intel and Hewett Packard.

Yeah.

This development makes a lot of sense in some ways. HP makes plasma screen for home. The increased appearance of plasma screen in commercial environments gives a natural extension opportunity for HP.

Intel can be more of a mystery at first blush, its main product being processors. But Intel’s involvement in digital display shows an end use for Intel-powered mobile devices.

It also means:

    Increased need to merge database information on offline retail products with online analytics data to give a full picture of how a business retailing is doing.
    Analytic practitioners must be better aware of a business’ operation — more importance for consulting firms to have access to all sources to create solid analysis.
    Increased opportunity for mobile purchases to become reality. These offering make credit card purchases on the spot possible.
    Potential advantage for Omniture and other analytic tools in managing more real-time data. Increased grannuarity segmentation of data will be possible.
    Increased importance of mobile web design & further refinement of app design, to ensure consumer convenience.
    More competition for the management tools of data.

Most of all, this development will aid the main battlecry of many analytics practitioners, that analytics unlocks value for companies. Many professionals have become evangelists for analytics within their firms, explaining the importance of metrics to varied departments. The growth of display functionality can only strengthen the case that analytics is essential for consumer satisfaction and profitable operations.

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Reading of “We Shall Overcome” by Stuart Scott for Black History Month

Posted in Uncategorized on January 30, 2010 by pdebois

It’s not everyday one gets to share a book on which a client help create, so I am figuring a healthy shout-out is in order here.

Stuart Scott created a coffeetable book called We Shall Overcome: A Song That Changed The World.   The book tells the story of how the famous song played a galvanizing role in the civil rights movement, as well as other social events during the period. There is  a CD recording of the song included with the book.

Terrance Cummings, a former Zimana client, created the illustrations for the book.  Cummings is an award winning illustrator, an art director, and a former teacher at Parsons School of Design.  He has illustrated several books in his past, along with managing catalog layout design and graphic design projects for corporate clients.  He has a studio in New Jersey, just outside of New York City.

Stuart Scott’s appearance will be at Politics and Prose in Washington DC on February 11th (click here to learn more) .  You can purchase the book via Amazon (click here for purchase).  The Amazon site also has a cool video to accompany the post.

I wish the very best to Stuart and Terrance.

And I wish the very best to all during Black History Month.

Pierre

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RT @nickjayres @smulpuru @CNNMoney: How

Posted in Uncategorized on January 19, 2010 by pdebois

RT @nickjayres @smulpuru @CNNMoney: How The Wiggles became an empire http://bit.ly/6umS77 // fun stuff RT by Georgia Tech classmate

RT @GoogleRetail: New Google Place Pages

Posted in Uncategorized on January 16, 2010 by pdebois

RT @GoogleRetail: New Google Place Pages Help Local Businesses Reach Existing and New Customers http://ow.ly/WFtZ

RT @eMarketer: Study: Shopping with Smar

Posted in Uncategorized on January 16, 2010 by pdebois

RT @eMarketer: Study: Shopping with Smartphones | Android users willing to spend more than iPhone users – http://bit.ly/74v05G

How local search listings can increase sales: Fox Business

Posted in Uncategorized on January 15, 2010 by pdebois

Fox Business News talks about how businesses can link local search listing to mobile devices & increase sales. http://ow.ly/WOtt

Thinking of Pay Per Click? Try an online coupon (and a li’l web analytics, too!)

Posted in Uncategorized on January 7, 2010 by pdebois

An eMarketer report on online coupons provides various stats that indicate growing usage among retailers and marketers as a marketing strategy to drive website traffic and sales. The usage, which became more mainstream with consumers beginning with the 2008 holiday season, is expected to increase in the coming years.

The surging usage should also be a boon to analytics practitioners.

Why? With capability to track campaigns in an analytics solution, practitioners now have a new medium to convince managers the value that analytics can play in investigating the response to an online buzz. With the explosive growth in social media, along with consumer interest in value, coupon campaigns are becoming a great value for marketers. Furthermore, smartphones have made sharing online coupons a benefit for potentially engaging customers with new offers and events. While analytics still has a long way to go for covering the entire tagging activity from a coupon to a site, analytics solutions can still help to correlate site interest to coupon campaigns.

The online coupon growth may also be a benefit for small businesses. Many business owners are leery of PPC, having been burned by overspending on keywords that lead to little actual conversion. Yet these businesses need another driver to their e-commerce site. Coupon creation sites such as twtQpon can help ensure that small businesses can announce tantalizing offers as tempting as those from large corporations.

And a li’l web analytics can help ensure the best results.

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from Autoblog — MyFord touch shows 2nd

Posted in Uncategorized on January 7, 2010 by pdebois

from Autoblog — MyFord touch shows 2nd generation connectivity in #Ford cars. Read it here — http://ow.ly/Ty9q #measure

Hootsuite / WordPress functionality introduced

Posted in Uncategorized on January 7, 2010 by pdebois

Hootsuite announced a new feature, the ability to post to WordPress blogs. This post, in fact, is a HS post. Read more… http://ow.ly/TxUr

What Spock and Kirk Can Teach Us About Analytics Measurement

Posted in Analytics, Marketing, Web Analytics with tags , on January 6, 2010 by pdebois

Picture of Spock and Kirk from 2009's Star Trek

Okay, you’ve probably overheard this talk at some cocktail party somewhere during 2009 — Is the new Star Trek movie as good as the past Star Trek movies? But you probably never heard a debate about whether Spock and Kirk are the best examples of how to approach analytics. You have? Well you’re well ahead of many folks, then.

Spock epitomizes a rational, logical character that constant tries to suppress human emotion, an archetype woven into many of the ST storylines. In the 2009 movie, the rational demeanor comes to a particular head as he and Kirk, a more impulsive character, butt heads. Both men come to a point where working together balances the personalities and their downsides.

Analytics specialist must strive for a Kirk-Spock balance. Spock is proof that analysis is essential, while Kirk shows that a sensibility of a given situation is important to get to an ACTIONABLE result. Web analyst can refine their sensibility by being a student of their given industry. If one is in an auto industry, for example, he or she can continue monitoring articles on consumer taste in vehicles. The insights can later help support examination of, says, visitor engagement-related data and guide the analyst to which metrics would best provide actionable insight for a given request.

An analyst will never have all the answers in play — and seeking so can be an opportunity cost. However, analysts should use analysis to increase efficiency and reduce risk, and use intuition to imagine a result beyond the data received.

I now return you to the mother of all debates — Kirk vs. Picard…. :-)

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