Global marketing news – 28 July 2016
Amazon to test drone deliveries in UK
The British government is working with the online retail giant Amazon to begin the testing of drone delivery services in the country.
Although Amazon is paying for the testing to take place, ministers have said that they wish to create an environment where delivery drones can be used safely beyond 2020.
The programme will primarily look into the safety of the robotic aircraft, particularly when in flight and beyond the “line of sight”.
Amazon says that the programme has been set up in the United Kingdom due to the more relaxed aviation rules there, which mean that more realistic testing can take place.
It hopes that if the testing succeeds, it will be able to make delivery times of around half an hour a possibility, using drones capable of flying at around 50mph, up to 10 miles from a base location.
Flipkart buys Indian fashion site Jabong
Flipkart’s Myntra unit has acquired the online fashion site Jabong for 70 million US dollars.
The acquisition means that Flipkart can now strengthen its fashion and lifestyle segment, further increasing its competitiveness against companies like Snapdeal.
Jabong has reportedly been looking for a buyer for some time, and will now be able to add over 1,500 international high-street brands, with over 15,000 styles from more than 1,000 sellers to Myntra.
Meanwhile, Romain Voog, CEO of Jabong’s parent company GFG, said the sale was “a milestone in its strategy to refocus and invest in core markets”.
Ananth Narayanan, CEO of Myntra also added that its “acquisition of Jabong is a natural step in the company’s journey to be India’s largest fashion platform”.
Global digital travel sales to rise 13% in 2016
eMarketer has released a report estimating that global digital travel sales will rise by over 13% in 2016.
The increase means that the sector will be worth 565 billion US dollars annually.
Whilst North America will be the largest market this year, accounting for over 190 billion US dollars, its place at the top is expected to be taken by the Asia-Pacific region due to its high growth levels of over 26%.
These high levels in the far east are primarily due to the fast expansion of digital travel commerce in China.
Meanwhile, worldwide growth is expected to continue through to 2020 as well, with digital travel sales set to be worth 817 billion US dollars globally that year.
Nearly 4 billion people still not online
According to The ICT Facts & Figures 2016 report, nearly 4 billion people around the world still remain cut off from the internet.
Even with falling prices for connectivity services, over half the world’s population currently struggle to connect to the web.
Internet users in developing countries lead the way, making up 2.5 billion of all users globally, whilst users in developed countries only account for 1 billion.
With an 81% penetration rate, those in developed countries stay way ahead of the penetration rates of 40% and 15% in developing and non-developed countries, respectively.
One of the least developed regions, Africa, is showing high growth, however, with several forecasts predicting that mobile traffic there will increase by 2,000% before 2020.
Online shopping now more popular on mobile than desktop
And finally, 45.1% of web shopping now takes place through mobile, according to a study from Demandware.
Significantly, this is the first time mobile has edged out desktop, which accounted for 45% exactly.
The study also revealed that by the end of next year, phones will account for a larger 60% of ecommerce page visits, while according to ComScore sales made on mobile devices online have more than doubled since 2013.
Due to easy access to online shopping on smartphones, and technologies like Apple Pay increasing ease of payment, this advance looks extremely likely.
However, the study found that completion rates are significantly lower on mobile than the combined rate on other platforms, with mobile-checkout rates being 11% lower.
Webcertain’s global marketing news bulletins are daily 5-minute videos, providing marketers with the latest international digital marketing news in an easy-to-digest format.
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Gemma Houghton
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