Global Marketing News – 8th October 2015
Japanese government attempts to cut cross-border ecommerce
The Japanese government has introduced a new rule meaning that Japanese consumers must now pay taxes on goods such as music downloads and e-books bought from foreign websites.
The tax currently stands at 8%, and this will rise to 10% in April 2017.
Previously, the tax only applied to purchases bought from Japanese websites.
The Japanese government hopes that by also applying the tax to foreign websites it will encourage shoppers by buy from Japanese sites.
Japanese businesses have welcomed the move, saying it means they are now competing with foreign businesses on a level-playing field.
Some international companies have expressed their disappointment, however, saying that it shows that the Japanese government is trying to limit cross-border purchases.
In 2012, Japanese consumers bought 35 billion Yen’s worth of e-books and downloaded 23 billion Yen’s worth of music from foreign retailers, equivalent to around 290 million and 190 million US dollars respectively.
Sources of European fashion website traffic revealed
Research by TextMaster and Similar Web has revealed where traffic to fashion websites in Europe is coming from.
The study found that search traffic was most popular in the UK and France, where it accounted for 42% and 39% of all traffic to fashion websites.
In contrast, direct traffic was most popular in Germany, where it accounted for 36% of all traffic.
Referral traffic was fairly similar across all countries studied, accounting for around a fifth of all traffic.
Display ads were most effective in Italy, where they accounted for 11% of all traffic to fashion websites. In Germany, the UK and France display ads were much less effective, accounting for only around 5% or less of traffic.
Traffic from social media was similarly low, and traffic from emails was negligible.
Looking at the fashion websites themselves, the research revealed different preferences across the countries.
Zalando was the most popular fashion website in Germany and Italy, with Next taking the top spot in the UK and La Redoute coming top in France.
Safe Harbour data protection principle “invalid”
The Safe Harbour principle, which governs data transfers between the European Union and the US, has been declared “invalid” by the European Court of Justice.
Safe Harbour stated that US companies receiving data from the EU could self-certify themselves as having data protection safeguards in place.
The European Court of Justice decided that this was wrong and that EU companies must take steps to ensure that US companies are indeed taking data protection measures.
The ruling means that big US companies such as Facebook may be required to stop all data transfers from the EU until they draw up contracts formally stating what data protection safeguards they will be implementing.
Snapdeal launches online-to-offline platform Janus
The Indian ecommerce giant Snapdeal has launched an online-to-offline platform called Janus.
Janus brings together all aspects of the ecommerce journey, allowing users to order products online and collect them in-store. It should also allow users to try-on and customise items.
With Janus being launched in 70 different Indian cities, Snapdeal hopes that it will speed up delivery times.
Snapdeal is one of the most popular ecommerce sites in India, with a 35% share of the Indian ecommerce market.
The Indian ecommerce market is predicted to be worth 60 billion US dollars by 2020, making it a lucrative market for global brands.
Majority of Swedish teens use tablets and smartphones
And finally, the vast majority of children and teenagers in Sweden use tablets and smartphones, according to research by IIS.
Around 80% of children aged 2-10 used a tablet, with usage peaking at age 8 and then gradually declining. In teenagers aged 17-19, this had fallen to 56%.
Furthermore, 94% of teenagers aged 11-16 use a smartphone, with this figure rising to 100% of those sampled when looking at 17-19 year olds.
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Cal O'Connell
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