Holiday Online Sales Up An Encouraging 1% For Black Friday, ComScore Says

November 30, 2008

Online holiday spending climbed 1 percent for the crucial Black Friday shopping day and 2 percent when combined with Thanksgiving itself, comScore reported Sunday.

Cyber Monday. Here is an online promotion at Sears

Next up: Cyber Mnday. Here is an online promotion at Sears

The finding offers some hope to merchants who saw a 4 percent decline in consumer e-commerce for the first 28 days of November and feared a soft spending environment because of the downturn.

Black Friday saw $534 million in one-day spending, an increase from $531 million last year. Online shopping on Thanksgiving was up 6 percent compared with a year ago.

“Early reports suggest that Black Friday sales in retail stores were slightly better than anticipated in this depressed retail climate, and that performance apparently extended to the online channel,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.

The e-commerce monitoring firm said it was turning its sights to “Cyber Monday,” the first working day following the Thanksgiving holiday. Cyber Monday has often been an accurate bellwether for the overall holiday season, the firm said.

Last year, Cyber Monday online sales were up 21 percent.

Comscore predicts online retail sales will be flat this year for the holiday months of November and December after climbing 9 percent for the January to October period.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

MerchantCircle Sees Ad Uptick In Fourth Quarter, Predicts The Demise of Yellow Pages Advertising

November 28, 2008

Entrepreneur Ben Smith hopes to steer his company, MerchantCircle, through a downturn that could leave permanent scar on the advertising market.

Online banner ads may disappear in frst quarter, says MerchantCircles Ben Smth

Online banner ads may disappear in frst quarter, says MerchantCircle's Ben Smth

The chairman and co-founder says the key is to protect the company’s cash and to understand the changing dynamics of the market place. MerchantCircle helps local businesses promote themselves online.

So far, “we’re actually seeing an up-tick (in online advertising) in the fourth quarter,” he says. But that may not last. “January, February and March are likely to see a complete disappearance of banner and general advertising.”

That has led the company to encourage small business clients to increase the use of online coupons offering price breaks and special deals to consumers.

The downturn also could accelerate a shift away from more expensive Yellow Page advertising to less expensive online ads. It’s a shift Smith has been banking on. “That’s the big bet we’ve made,” he says.

In the mean time, MerchantCircle is sketching out a defensive strategy. Even if revenue is cut in half, the company has enough cash to survive, he said. “We’re looking at the numbers at lot closer.”

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Shake Up In Tech Advertising Market: Federated Media Slashes Blogs Ad Rates; Looses Star Blogger To IDG’s TechNetwork

November 28, 2008
Federated Media CEO John Battelle lost one of its best blogger to IDG's ad network

Federated Media CEO John Battelle lost one of his best blogger, GigaOM, to IDG's ad network

A shake up is brewing in the cozy world of technology blogs advertising.

Federated Media Publishing – an ad network which delivers advertising to some of the most prominent tech blogs around like TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, Ubergizmo, VentureBeat, Technologizer or Silicon Alley Insider – has “slashed” its ad rates 35%.

Despite deep cut rate, advertisers are hard to find

To add insult to injury, the San Francisco startup is now having a hard time attracting enough advertisers to fill its network of blogs, despite a recent “holiday promotion,” leaving blogs with stories without accompanying ads and cutting even deeper into the blogs’ revenues.

Having seen the writing on the wall, blogger Om Malik decided to split with Federated Media, to partner with IDG TechNetwork, formed last March by large technology media company IDG, publisher of InfoWorld, PCWorld, MacWorld, CIO, etc. This new media network of independent technology publishers will sell ads for Om’s 7 blog properties (GigaOM, Earth2Tech, jkOnTheRun…).

At these low advertising prices, the $100,000 question for Federated Media today is, who’s going to be next to leave the boat?

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Finland Makes Big Push For Nationwide Broadband With The Government Paying A Third Of The Cost

November 28, 2008

The government of Finland said this week that it will pick up a third of the cost of bringing high-speed broadband to the country by 2015.

Finland wants households to have 100 Mbps connections

Finland wants households to have 100 Mbps connections

The decision comes as developed nations throughout the world put more resources behind connecting homes and businesses to fast online connections. And it contrasts to broadband initiatives in the U.S., where lack of policy support during the Bush Administration allowed the country to fall behind other leading nations in the speed and pricing of high-performance Internet links.

The Finish government said it would raise 66 million euros from a frequency auction to pay its share of the 200 million euro cost of the nation’s six-year plan.

The goal is to provide households with broadband speeds of more than 100 megabits a second.

A study by the transport and telecommunications ministry projects 95 percent of the country will be covered by 2015. By 2010, all Internet users are expected to receive at least 1 Mbps.

The government has to seek EU support for the program.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Search Advertising May Be More Resilient Than Expected; Ad Market Exec Sees Microsoft Going After Yahoo Again

November 28, 2008

Many companies are nervously forecasting weak holiday business and even worse first quarter sales as the economy navigates the recession.

But not all markets are equally dire. One stand out continues to be the online search advertising market.

Microsofts improved its search ad algorithms, says Christopher Lien

Microsoft's improved its search ad algorithms, says Christopher Lien

“We’re not seeing a pull back in e-commerce-oriented advertising among our clients,” said Christopher Lien, co-founder and CEO of Marin Software, a developer of software and services for search advertisers. “It surprised us.”

Lien says his customers complain of a lack of visibility in the economy. But most have 2009 search advertising budgets that are flat with this year’s or slightly down. These budgets could change depending on the pace of sales in December, but so far they haven’t, he says.

Longer term, many large advertisers have yet to use search advertising or are just beginning to enter the market. “I remain quite bullish on paid search” over the long term, he said. “I think of paid search as being in the second inning.”

Because of the opportunities in the market, Lien predicts Microsoft will make another pass at Yahoo. Microsoft needs the volume of Yahoo search to better compete with Google – and to capitalize on the improvements it has made in ad conversion rates on MSN/Live Search.

“They’ve really made some strides with their search monetization algorithms,” he said. “I don’t think they get enough credit for it.”

Microsoft offered as much as $33 a share for Yahoo earlier this year and now says it is uninterested in the online portal. Yahoo initially rejected the bid, but now has shown signs it is willing to reconsider.

“I think the personalities need time to settle down,” said Lien.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Apple One-Day Sale Underwhelms; Prices Fall 4% To 8% On Small Handful Of Products Including IPod And IMac

November 28, 2008

Apple kicked off a one-day after Thanksgiving sale on Friday with modest price cuts of 4 percent to 8 percent on a handful of iPods and Mac computers.

Apple cuts MacBook 8% and iMac 4%

Apple cuts MacBook 8% and iMac 4%

Absent from the sale were many high-end computers and iPods – and the closely watched iPhone. Other gear displayed in the Apple stores, including the Apple TV, was discounted.

Apple insisted the event would last only Friday both at its retails stores and online. Here are the price breaks:

*20-inch iMac cut 4 percent to $1,148;
*13-inch MacBook cut 8 percent to $1,198;
*8GB iPod Nano cut 7 percent to $138;
*iPod Classic cut 8 percent to $228;
*8GB iPod Touch cut 5 percent to $378.

Happy holidays.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Black Friday Sales: Don’t Rush, It Will Last Until Saturday And Perhaps Longer

November 27, 2008
Best Buy started Thanksgiving sales earlier this week. It will end Saturday; or not.

Best Buy started Thanksgiving sales earlier this week. It will end Saturday; or perhaps not!

The Friday after Thanksgiving – called “Black Friday” – used to be day when consumers could find the year’s best deals, greatest markdowns and discounts.

Well, that’s until this year, when struggling retailers are stretching Black Friday sales through Saturday and sometimes the entire week-end!

And be certain that if this first holiday week-end sales are worse than expected, retailers will try again… next week-end!

Desperate retailers killed the Black Friday tradition with Thanksgiving Weekend Sales

Leapfrog's digital pen sales for $20 at Target, $40 less than the manufacturer's own online store

Leapfrog's digital pen sales for $20 at Target, $40 less than the manufacturer's own online store

So unless you’re zeroing in on a “doorbuster” that might run out if you don’t show up at 5AM when the store opens, you might as well relax and wait until mid-day or Saturday.

Or better, get it online NOW as most of the “lowest price ever” items – doorbusters included – are also available on the retailers’ web site.

For sure, this Black Friday will be a much quieter one than usual as a lot of the items on sales were already available online since early this week and for another couple days. Sounds a lot like “Black Week” to me!

My favourite Black Friday deal? Leapfrog’s digital FLY pen for only $29 at Target; $60 on the manufacturer’s online store. And the good thing is I can even buy it now online!

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Google Said To Have Cut 3,000 Contract Workers And 300 Full Timers

November 26, 2008

Wall Street analyst Trip Chowdhry said Google cut about 30 percent of its 10,000 contact workers and 300 full-time employees to cut costs.

Is there more open space at the Googleplex?

Is there more open space at the Googleplex?

Chowdhry, of Global Equities Research, said in a research note that as of the end of the third quarter, 3,000 contract employees were let go. Google also closed regional offices in Michigan and Colorado, he said.

The story was reported on the Barron’s Tech Trader Daily blog.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Online Ad Slump To Push Advertisers Away From Brand Campaigns

November 26, 2008

The economic downturn will push online advertisers away from brand-building campaigns and toward more action-oriented marketing programs.

Online advertising to be under pressure, says ContextWeb

Online advertising to be under pressure, says ContextWeb

“I think advertising will be under a lot of pressure,” said Jay Sears, executive vice president at the online ad exchange ContextWeb.

Expectations are that the growth of online advertising will slow some even as budgets continue to shift from offline to online programs, he said.

The effect will be that that advertisers move away from branding campaigns to efforts designed to provoke some consumer action, such as driving people to a store or dealership, he said. These campaigns can spark a more immediate payback.

Advertisers also will seek more data from agencies, publishers and exchanges, such as breakdowns of where their ads were most successful.

Sears said he expects ad volume to be up next year on ContextWeb’s ADSDAQ exchange, but didn’t say by how much.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Blu-Ray Players Dip Below $200 For The Holidays

November 26, 2008

In a sign of the times, Blu-ray disc players are getting the axe – the price-cutting axe that is.

Bust Buy offers this Insignia model for $169.99

Bust Buy offers this Insignia model for $169.99

Prices for this once-premium item are falling to $199 for the holiday season as vendors and retailers hope to spark sales. Blu-rays produce high-definition video because they can store almost six times as much data as a DVD.

Among the retailers breaking the magic $200 barrier is Fry’s, which launched an advertisement for a Wednesday-only sale of a Panasonic model at $199. Costco is selling a Philips unit for $199.99, and Best Buy has an Insignia for $169.99.

Researchers say the holiday season could be a difficult one for consumer electronics companies. A third of consumers who were interested in flat-screen televisions now say they are unlikely to buy one, said NPD Group, in a recent survey.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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