Episode 13 - Google & Amazon News

As an eCommerce merchant you have to pay attention to Amazon and Google.  Google is likely one of your top traffic channels.  Amazon is either enemy or partner #1 or perhaps they’re your top frenemy.  In this episode we dive into recent Google and Amazon news and what it means for your business.  Here are some of the highlights:    Google: - Google Shopping - Google will roll this out on the display network, calling it Retail Shopping on Display.   -  Google Shopping Q1 2017 year over year growth outpaced Q4 Year over year 21% vs. 19%.  - Google Shopping/PLAs now 75% of non-branded retail clicks.   - Google shopping spend grew 32% in Q1 for year over year - Google AdWords phone and desktop spend increased 51% and 12%, respectively, while tablet spend fell 23%. - Similar Audiences for Search & Shopping  - Demographics for Search - YouTube TV - similar to sling box.   - Original content via YouTube Red.  6 Shows including shows feature Ellen, Kevin Hart, and Ryan Seacrest.   - 18-49 year olds spend more time on YouTube in prime time than watch the top 10 TV shows combined.   - YouTube Scandal - big brand ads placed next to neo nazi and jihadist content.  5% of top advertisers pulled ads.       Amazon: - Q1 earnings - Sales grew 23%. $35.7 billion in sales, $8billion in growth.   - AWS grew 42% to $3.66B  - Subscription services $1.94 Billion mainly Amazon Prime - 49% YoY -  Making prime sticky with original content - Manchester by the Sea won two oscars.  Best actor - Casey Affleck and Best Director. - Purchased the rights to Thursday night football  - Amazon Prime is closing in on Costco in terms of members.  Now roughly 80 million prime users in the US.  37% growth since last year.  In March of 2017 costco has 88.1 million members.   - Amazon Fresh pickup  - Amazon Go Store