Monday Tipsheet: Target’s ‘Sloppy’ Security Firm | Pinterest Drives 10.9% | Top Shop Apps
“Target’s Payment Security Firm ‘Sloppy’ “ by Jennifer Bjorhus at Star-Tribune. “Trustwave Holdings gave Target Corp. the green light on payment card security last September, just weeks before malware installed on the retailer’s networks began sucking up customer information in a mega data heist. It’s a rough position for a company that built its brand reputation selling payment compliance and security to some of the country’s largest corporations. But it’s not the first time Trustwave’s been there.” Read more
“Report: Pinterest Drives 10.9% of Its Traffic to Retailers’ Sites” by Krystina Gustafson at CNBC. “Pinterest, which at four years old is still in its infancy compared to social sites such as Facebook and YouTube, is driving the greatest percentage of its traffic to retailers’ sites, at 10.9 percent, according to the study. Facebook directs 5.3 percent of its traffic to shopping sites, YouTube 3.8 percent and Twitter 2.8 percent.” Read more
“Shopify: Facebook Is No. 1 for Social Commerce” at eMarketer. “According to Q3 2013 polling, Facebook drove nearly two-thirds of social media visits to Shopify-operated stores and claimed about 85% of all orders from social media—a year-over-year increase of 129%. However, Facebook was not the leader when it came to average order value—not even landing in the top three…Read more
“Safeway/Albertsons Merger Goes to Shareholders and FTC as Key Deadline Passes” by Heather Somerville at San Jose Mercury News. “Thursday night, the window during which Safeway could solicit a better offer, closed and Safeway said Friday morning that no one else was interested in buying the grocery chain. With that deadline behind them, the companies can now put into motion the buyout plans they first announced March 6, combining the century-old Safeway chain with Cerberus-owned Albertsons stores.” Read more
“Consumer Reports: Top 5 Shopping Apps” at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Pounce: See a must-have product advertised in a circular or catalog? Just snap a photo of it and this new tool lets you “pounce” on the item — that is, buy it via the app, directly from the retailer. It currently works for Ace Hardware, Babies R Us, Staples, Target and Toys R Us.” Read more
“Amazon Raising Fees for Sellers, Could Increase 150%” by Ina Steiner at EcommerceBytes. “The new fees take effect on May 16, 2014, and because of Amazon’s price parity policy, sellers who consider raising prices to cope with the higher fees say they’ll have to raise prices across all the venues on which they sell, including their own websites.” Read more
“Retailers lure Pinterest clickers with design help” by Kelli Grant at CNBC. “As stores such as Home Depot and Lowe’s have found, consumers like to bundle products and installation, reasoning that the process will be easier with a big-name brand than an independent contractor, said Jaime Katz, an industry analyst at Morningstar. “You get more people in for more things,” she said. “It just drives traffic.” Read more
“Meijer awards media business to Doner” by Wendy Parish at Marketing Dive. “Doner, also Michigan-based, will be handling buying and planning for the estimated $30-million account. The agency will be replacing Empower MediaMarketing from Cinncinati.” Read more
“YouTube to Offer Advertisers Some Guarantees” by Suzanne Vranica at WSJ. “In a renewed effort to lure a bigger share of the advertising dollars that now flow to major TV networks, Google’s YouTube is making a number of concessions long sought by marketers, ad executives say. Most prominently, in discussions ahead of this spring’s TV ad-selling season, YouTube has told marketers it will offer audience guarantees to advertisers that make advance commitments.” Read more
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