The ‘Best Things for Everything Guide’ enables users to browse and discover products, or choose from one of eight product categories including babies & toddlers; electronics; games, arts & crafts; health & beauty; home & office; outdoors & on the road; pets; and sports & fitness.

Once the consumer has found a product they like, they can tap it to find more information on a product description page, which features prices, reviews, and places to buy.

The microsite, which is active for the ‘next several weeks’, has been launched in response to searches for products such as ‘best exercise bikes, ‘best ring lights’, and ‘best air fryers’ increasing by 100 per cent or more in the past year.

“When you shop for products — whether for your home, your family or yourself — you should feel confident knowing you’re making a good decision and buying the best product for your needs,” said Marvin Chow, VP of Marketing at Google. “With the Best Things for Everything guide and Google, you can discover top products and the best places to buy them.”

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The shopping button, which looks like a storefront icon, provides immediate access to a business’ catalogue, enabling the user to browse products and start a conversation about an item they see with one tap. In the past, users had to click into the business’ profile to see if the business had a catalogue.

The button replaces the voice call button in business chats. Now, the voice call option is housed within a general ‘call’ button where the user can select either voice or video call.

The rollout of the shopping button comes a few weeks after WhatsApp made several changes to its Business app and Business API. Changes included making it possible for users to make purchases from directly within a chat, providing businesses with the option to manage WhatsApp messages via Facebook’s hosting services, and beginning to charge for some Business services.

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From mid-October, the search giant will make it free for retailers to list their products on the Google Shopping tab through Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, meaning search results on the Shopping tab in these regions will be primarily made up of free listings and offer shoppers more options.

Businesses already using Merchant Center and Shopping ads will automatically see their listings show up at no cost.

According to Google, free listings and ads have got an average of twice as many views and 50 per cent more visits in the US since launching there earlier this year, with small and medium-sized businesses seeing the biggest increases.

In addition to free listings, Google is launching ‘Local Services Ads’ in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. This product helps people to connect with trustworthy local professionals who are backed by the Google Guarantee badge. Searchers are able to see license information and reviews from previous customers, and can also compare and contact providers.

Professionals using Local Services Ads only have to pay when they are contacted by a customer and will not be charged just for people clicking on the ad.

Finally, Google will roll out Google for Small Business and Grow My Store – which helps local retailers drive customer traffic – to more countries by the end of this year. Google for Small Business was launched in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK earlier this month; while Grow My Store was recently expanded to Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain.

The post Google wants to help businesses to reach customers more easily in these trying times appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

On the Shoploop platform, all videos are shorter than 90 seconds, providing a way for users to quickly review products and help out those who may be interested in possibly buying certain items.

Once a user sees a product they like the look of, they can either save it to purchase later or click straight through to the seller’s website. Users can also follow their favourite creators and share videos on external apps.

Initially, Google is giving posting powers to content creators, publishers, and online store owners in the beauty industry. The platform is currently only optimised for mobile, but Google says it is working to bring Shoploop to desktop users ‘soon’.

Shoploop is the brainchild of Lax Poojary, who previously worked at Area 120 on travel planning platform Touring Bird.

The post Google launches video shopping app appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The smart shopping cart, which features its own touchscreen and is signed into using a QR code, uses a combination of built-in cameras, sensors, and scales to automatically detect what customers have placed in their cart. The customer can then simply walk out the store with their shopping cart and the total amount of their goods will be deducted from the card linked to their Amazon account.

The whole process is very similar to what Amazon has delivered in its Go stores. However, these shopping carts do not lean on an array of cameras dotted around a store. They have also been for small or medium-sized shopping trips, rather than big food shops.

The shopping carts won’t be debuted in a Go store – or even a Whole Foods Market store – with Amazon choosing to launch the carts in its first ‘true’ grocery store in the Woodland Hills neighbourhood of Los Angeles later this year.

The post Amazon to roll out smart grocery carts for cashierless shopping experience appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

With the app, PLA and PDC leadership will be able to control and regulate the number of shoppers in the mall at any given time. Once shoppers choose the date and time slot they would like to go to PLA or PDC, they will receive a ticket which will be scanned at the entrance of the malls. Besides guest tracking, EID’s mobile app features also include event notifications and key building information.

“We are thrilled to work with Plaza Holdings Inc., to develop solutions that meet the needs of todays technical and social environment,” said Scott Morrow, Express Image Digital CEO. “To their credit, they approached us with the concept, and both teams have worked relentlessly in a short time period to deliver the feature to coincide with the future opening of the malls.”

“We are committed to ensure a safe, comfortable environment for our shoppers and employees while adhering to CDCs social distancing in the post-pandemic world,” commented Jaime Luis Fonalledas, PLAZA Holding Inc. executive vice president. “Malls and entertainment destinations know they need to control the number of visitors for the time being while delivering personalized experiences. All of us want to resume normal lives, yet it is our responsibility to do as much as we can to promote a safe and secure social distancing environment for our guests and employees once the Government of Puerto Rico approve the opening of our Malls.”

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Today, Instagram released its top tips for businesses during lockdown, highlighting how businesses of any size can take advantage of the platforms features during this pandemic. Amid the current economic shutdown, many businesses are beginning to feel the negative effects of drastic revenue and traffic drops.

Instagrams first tip for businesses was to start utilizing Live as much as possible, citing that on Instagram alone, Live views have more than doubled in the UK in the past month. The platform suggests planning out the Live session beforehand, including lighting, strong WiFi, charged phone, and script or agenda of the session. Instagram also pointed out the importance of building an audience before going Live, so advertising the session to followers beforehand with time, date and topic.

Additionally, Instagram suggested prepping questions that may resonate with viewers beforehand, rather than try to keep track of questions popping up in the Live messages on-screen. Another aspect that could make a Live session more popular is adding a collaborator to speak on the session with you, which can be an audience member or pre-determined partner.

Next, Instagram advised businesses to take advantage of the platform’s shopping features, such as Shopping tags, which can be added to Feed posts. Additionally, Instagram Stories allows businesses to post new product launches, where viewers can use the swipe-up feature to go directly to the product page.

Instagram’s third tip is focused on using Stories to keep customers up to date on the company’s activities, as well as post Q&A and polls that the viewers can interact with. Lastly, the platform advocated for businesses to ask followers to give back to the community in these unprecedented times, including paying for meals for the elderly or donating to the NHS.

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The Pinterest Marketing Partners program has become the global Pinterest Partners program and, with this, opened the door to more platform partners, feed management providers, shoppable experience platforms, and tag management providers.

Pinterest has been focusing pretty heavily on its shopping features in recent times. Most recently, it introduced features to enable brands to advertise their entire product catalogue via ‘Product Pins’.

The social media firm has also been rapidly expanding its advertising products to non-English-speaking markets, making advertising available in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Italy over the past half-year or so. It has continued this expansion by adding a pair of international partners in the shape of MakeMeReach in France and Adsmurai in Spain.

Finally, Pinterest has begun testing a Reporting API to help businesses understand their organic and paid performance on the platform.

The post Pinterest opens up shopping experiences appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

Instagram has made a splash with shoppable posts but few will realise China is way ahead on social shopping and could offer marketers a very crucial tip.

It was always likely to happen. Social media is becoming ‘shoppable’ starting with Instagram allowing brands, and their influencers, to allow items in posts to be clicked on and purchased.

It means that for the first time, Instagram users can not only be dazzled by the latest item being shown off in an advert or paraded on the red carpet by a celebrity, they can also buy it with a tap of a finger. Bloomberg neatly summed up the news at the start of June, “Sorry Amazon, Kim Kardashian is now a store”. 

YouTube is believed to be considering launching a similar service towards the end of the year through which products in a video, or related items, will be made available for purchase.

But while the US and Europe are normally seen as a hotbed of innovation for social media and mCommerce, when it comes to combining the two and building social commerce services, they are still way behind China.

China leads the way
Social commerce is pervasive in China and has already seen the rise and rise of Xiaohongshu, which translates as ‘little red book’ and calls itself a “lifestyle community”. It is effectively a cross between Facebook and Amazon that allows Chinese consumers to talk about all goods in general, while cosmetics and beauty products have a higher proposition. The site started out leaning more on the social side but soon realised there was a lot of profit to be made in allowing Chinese consumers to not just talk about luxury goods, but also to buy them.

According to PitchBook, the company now has a valuation of $3bn and has attracted more than $400m in investment. Interestingly, three-quarters of this backing comes from the Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba.

Another model that is gaining a lot of attention in investment circles and a great deal of traction among users is Pinduoduo. It offers social commerce with a twist. By grouping together to make multiple purchases of an item the users of the mobile app are assured they can get better deals than if buying alone.

Its latest figures for Q1 suggest it is on course to have revenues of nearly $2.5bn, thanks to growth of more than 200 per cent in sales from its 444m active social commerce customers. The service was one of the biggest IPOs in New York last year when it raised $1.6bn, valuing the business at more than $20bn.

China shows video is key
Clearly, the tech giants in the US have realised that this huge success in China of combining social media and eCommerce (or rather mCommerce), could be repeatable in other markets.

So, it is unsurprising that Facebook has chosen to launch shoppable posts through Instagram because the insight from China is that good photography and, in particular, video, is vital. Video is seen as central to driving sales on the new social commerce apps and sites as well as the e-commerce giant, Alibaba, and its offshoot, Taobao. This cut-down version of the Alibaba marketplace is a little more social in nature, or at least has more of a peer-to-peer feel about it, allowing individuals to set up small online shops to sell to one another backed by strong imagery.

The omens for shoppable posts are looking good for Instagram. Not only does it have huge traction with a young, stylish and image-led consumer base, but it is also the current king of influencer marketing. This is important because not only has Instagram made posts shoppable, it has just started to allow brands to pay to boost posts from their influencer network.

It is easy to see that brands will reach out to influencers to make their posts shoppable and will then be prepared to put some budget behind getting those slick-looking posts seen by a wider audience.

If there is a lesson to learn from China, which is more advanced with social shopping, it will be to get not only the service and the products right but to ensure the imagery and video are enticing enough to hook browsers and turn them into customers.

The post Where Instagram goes, China has led the way appeared first on Mobile Marketing Magazine.

The Swedish furniture giant is going to launch an app which will make use of augmented reality (AR) to provide visualisation and also enable customers to buy products wherever they are.

Customers will be able to capitalise on the AR technology by inputting room dimensions into the app and choosing from different product styles that they think will suit them. Then they can use their mobile device to ‘place’ the item and visualise how it would look. If they’re happy, the customer can then order the product via the app.

It is a completely new experience,” Barbara Martin Coppola, chief digital officer at IKEA, told Reuters, which first reported the news. “The app is combined with the store experience, with the online experience.”

The app will be launched in France and the Netherlands first before being out in the rest of Ikea’s top eight markets – including the UK, US, Germany, and China – by the end of the year.

Ikea’s first run at an AR app came in 2017 when it introduced the ‘Ikea Place’ app. This app, built on Apple’s ARKit, automatically scaled thousands of products to people’s rooms for their visualisation, but did not provide the option to buy. In March 2018, the app arrived for Android ARcore-compatible devices.

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