Global Marketing News – 30th September 2015
Personal data requests will hinder online success in Germany
Two thirds of German internet users avoid using websites and online services if they ask for personal information, according to research by Bitkom.
Germans are reluctant to divulge their name, date of birth or email address online, due to fears that companies will misuse their data.
Almost 90% of Germans who avoided using online services such as social networks said the reason they did so was because they were afraid the sites would share their data with third-parties.
The majority of social media users also said that they had changed their privacy settings to be stricter.
Furthermore, around 80% of German internet users worry about being monitored online, want to avoid adverts, and consider websites to be untrustworthy.
Spanish ecommerce market dominated by global giants
Research from comScore has revealed that Spain’s ecommerce market is dominated by international giants.
Amazon was the most popular ecommerce site in the country, with almost 7 million people having bought from the site in July this year.
eBay came in second place, with almost 5 million unique shoppers during the same time period, followed by the Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba in third place.
The first Spanish site to appear on the list, El Corte Inglés, came in at number four.
Ecommerce forms only 5% of the total retail market in Spain, making it relatively immature.
Due to Spain’s large population size, however, it is the fourth biggest ecommerce market in Western Europe, bringing in around 16 billion US dollars a year.
Amazon launches Prime Instant Video in Japan
Amazon has launched its Prime Instant Video service in Japan.
Amazon’s Japanese Prime Instant Video service allows users to watch Japanese and American films, TV programmes and cartoons.
Prime membership costs 3,900 yen per year, equivalent to around 32 US dollars.
Amazon is also selling its Fire TV and Fire TV Stick products in the country to make video streaming easier for consumers.
Amazon is the second major international online video company to announce its entry into the Japanese market in recent months.
The online TV company Netflix launched in the Japanese market on 2nd September, its first foray into Asia.
Luxembourg joins Ecommerce Europe
Luxembourg has joined Ecommerce Europe.
Ecommerce Europe is an association representing over 25,000 ecommerce sites in Europe, with the aim of stimulating cross-border ecommerce.
As Luxembourg is so small and therefore has a very limited number of domestic ecommerce sites, its cross-border ecommerce levels are the highest in Europe, accounting for 65% of all online purchases.
Its extensive experience in facilitating cross-border ecommerce therefore adds a lot of value to the organisation.
The ecommerce market in Luxembourg expected to be worth 600 million Euros this year, up 13% on last year.
There are half a million online shoppers in the country, around 95% of the population, with the average online shopper spending around 2,440 Euros per year.
Online goat-selling not as successful as Indians had hoped
And finally, an unusual item kept popping up across ecommerce sites in India last week: goats.
The flurry of goat listings from sellers hoping to sell their animals were a result of Eid-al-Adha, a Muslim holy day celebrated by sacrificing goats and then eating them with the family.
One ecommerce site, OLX, had hundreds of goats for sale in the lead up to Eid-al-Adha, with prices ranging from 1 US dollar to 10,000 US dollars.
When CNN contacted many of these online goat-sellers, however, they found that none of them had had any success in selling their goats.
One buyer succinctly surmised the problem: it is difficult to tell the health of a goat just by looking at goat pictures online.
With the health of the goat being important to Muslims, this may explain why online goat-selling was the success that many sellers hoped it would be.
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