Global Marketing News – 12th October 2015
Ted Baker fuels global growth through ecommerce
The clothing retailer Ted Baker has seen a staggering 64% increase in its ecommerce sales since it launched sites targeting Australia and Canada.
This equated to a 20% increase in its overall sales, bringing in almost £170 million in the first 6 months of this year.
The company attributed the surge in online shopping to the launch of its Australian and Canadian websites, as well as mobile optimisation and improvements to the websites’ navigation and design.
Ted Baker also saw strong ecommerce growth in Europe and North America, where ecommerce profits grew by 56% and 141% respectively.
A spokesperson from the company said that its ecommerce efforts were performing “very well” and that it was “encouraged” by the strategy’s success in its target markets.
WeChat launches Heat Map smartphone tracking feature
The Chinese social messaging app WeChat has just launched a new feature that tracks where users are.
Dubbed WeChat Heat Map, the feature takes location information from smartphones and superimposes the data onto maps, allowing users to see areas of high population density.
Areas with lots of people are marked as red, whereas areas with less people are marked as green.
The principle behind the app is that people will be able to identify and avoid very busy areas.
There are concerns, however, that the data could be misused by the Chinese government to spy on people’s whereabouts and crack down on public protests.
An unexpected influx of people in one area could allow the government to infer a protest is taking place and send a mass WeChat message telling people to avoid the area.
WeChat is the most popular social messaging app in China, with a staggering 600 million monthly active users.
Digital radio hugely popular in Chile
The vast majority of Chilean internet users listen to the radio online, according to research by Audio Ad and Oh! Panel.
Almost 90% of Chilean internet users do so, with two-thirds listening to their favourite shows every week.
This means that online radio is more popular in Chile than any other Latin American country. Colombia came in second place, where just over three-quarters listen to the radio online. In Mexico and Argentina the figure was more like 7 in 10, and in Peru only a third listened to online radio.
Chileans also listened to online radio for longer than any other country. The average weekly time spent listening to digital radio in Chile was 5 hours, compared to a Latin American average of 4 and half hours.
Beauty site Miora receives investment
The online beauty company Miora has received 4 million US dollars in investment.
Miora, which was launched earlier this year and targets Spain, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Colombia, allows users to buy beauty products and make bookings from local beauty salons.
Around 750 salons have already signed up to the website, with the company saying it hopes to offer greater choice and convenience for customers.
The Spanish and Latin American online beauty industries are relatively immature, with a spokesperson from Miora saying: “For the moment there is almost no competitor in these markets besides Spain.”
Port2Port receives investment to develop wine website
And finally, the online wine retailer Port2Port has received investment to further develop its online platform.
Port2Port is South Africa’s first online wine portal and was launched in January of this year.
The website allows users to browse and buy quality wines and whiskeys online, and also includes detailed flavour descriptions, pairing suggestions, product reviews and regular newsletters. It also aims to educate users about how wines are made and about different styles of wine.
Port2Port also has a presence on social media, where it trying to build up an online community of South African wine-enthusiasts.
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