Last week was a good one for tech stocks in general, but the traditional start to the holiday season put online retailers like Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) and omni-channel players like Apple (AAPL), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) in focus.
Its Thanksgiving Again: And Again, iOS Miles Ahead of Android
In what has become a recurring pattern now, separate data from Adobe and IBM indicate that Apple customers will continue to outspend Android customers this holiday season. Adobe online shopping reports, which cover more than 70% of all online transactions with the top 500 U.S. retailers, shows that Apple customers generated 4X the sales revenue their Android counterparts did on Black Friday. I
BM data is more comprehensive: average order size for iOS was $121.86, better than $98.07 for Android users, iOS users accounted for 34.2% of total online traffic, higher than Android’s 15%, and iOS users accounted for 21.9% of total online sales much higher to Android’s 5.8%.
Online Sales Head for Record Season
This holiday season promises to be the best in three years according to the National Retail Federation. Online retailers like Amazon and eBay saw sales jump 24% and 27%, respectively, according to ChannelAdvisor. And this is despite the fact that Amazon deals started a week earlier and the company already dealt with a 19% increase in volumes in the previous weekend. And the fun continues: for those who may have missed the rush in the last few days, Amazon has fresh deals for Cyber Monday.
Additionally, traditional retailers like Wal-Mart and Target have seen a surge in online sales: for Wal-Mart, Thanksgiving Thursday was their second biggest online sales day ever, while for Target, it was their biggest online sales day ever. Best Buy was unlucky as the site couldn’t handle the onslaught of mobile users, which had it crashing repeatedly. More jobs, a stronger economy, declining oil prices and an ever-growing number of deals from an ever-growing number of players are pushing sales this year.
Facebook Launching Privacy Basics
Facebook’s (FB) new tool Privacy Basics, set to launch on Jan 1, is not a change in its policies, but rather a better way of explaining them to users. So it tells users what information others see about them and how things like tagging and timeline posts work, and also how to control the ads and other content they see in their news feed.
While the Buy button isn’t available yet, the tool also explains what data will be collected when anyone uses it to make a purchase: credit/debit card number and other card details, account and authentication information, shipping/billing address and other contact information. Oh, and the tool also explains that Facebook uses GPS, Bluetooth or Wi-fi signals to determine the location of devices so it can “tailor” services to the users’ specific needs, such as pushing information and providing access to local events and offers and passing on their location information to friends.
But befriending users is not the only benefit: if users can determine the content they see in the news feed, small businesses could get lower exposure on what they share for free and so be driven to paid models. Not everyone will shift of course, but considering the number of small outfits already on Facebook, there could be a positive impact on its top line.
Yahoo Finds New Way to Monetize Flickr
Yahoo (YHOO) has a treasure trove of photographs on Flickr that the company is now thinking of selling for up to $49 a piece. A lot of the pictures come from Creative Commons, which stores both pictures and writings from a large number of users. Contributors can specify whether their work can be used for commercial purposes and they usually also get accreditation in derivative works.
What has put out some contributors is Yahoo’s announcement that it would keep all of the proceeds from selling the 50 million Creative Commons photographs. The company is, however, within its rights and is paying artists 51% of proceeds for works not covered by Creative Commons licenses. While some artists have expressed their annoyance, others have removed their work from Creative Commons. Seems that’s all it takes to start making money from them (or re-acquire the right to decide whether you want to).
|
Company |
Last Week |
Last 6 Months |
|
AAPL |
+2.12% |
+31.51% |
|
FB |
+5.36% |
+22.75% |
|
YHOO |
+1.37% |
+49.32% |
|
GOOG |
+0.81% |
-3.23% |
|
GOOGL |
+0.57% |
-3.95% |
|
MSFT |
-0.25% |
+16.78% |
|
INTC |
+4.66% |
+36.35% |
|
CSCO |
+2.83% |
+12.26% |
GOOG = Class C shares (new, non-voting)
GOOGL = Class A shares (old, 1 vote per share)
Other stories you might have missed–
Corporate
Apple Does A Good Deed Heading Into The Holiday Season
Legal/Regulatory
China Requires Microsoft To Pay Back Taxes
Netflix Sues Yahoo CIO: Yahoo CIO Michael Kail has been sued by Netflix for what it alleges to be a breach of fiduciary duty during his tenure at Netflix as its VP of IT operations. The company has accused Kail of receiving 12-15% of the $3.7 million that Netflix paid to two IT service companies, VistaraIT and NetEnrich in commissions.
New Technology/Products
Android Pay, Especially for China: China Business News has reported that China UnionPay, the largest card distributor in China and second largest payments network in the world behind Visa is developing a new mobile payment service called Android Pay. The service is expected to be available in the third quarter of 2015.
UnionPay recently announced that it would support Apple Pay, which is a similar payments service also based on near field communications (NFC) technology. Android Pay may be expected to launch with a larger number of partners and greater support from Chinese regulators since its being developed by a local player. Android dominates the Chinese mobile market, so a payments service supporting transactions from Android devices could be a big positive. Not much more is known right now, but the next year or so could prove very interesting for Google Play store sales.
Twitter Announces New Tool Called Offers: Twitter’s new tool allows advertisers to post promos and offers inside a user’s tweets whether the user is following the relevant merchants or not. Users can avail of the offers by providing their debit/credit card details and can also avail the offer inside a store by using the same card. The tool is currently available in the U.S. but could be rolled out to other regions soon.
Amazon Gets Into the Services Business
Yahoo In Race To Become Safari’s Default Search Engine
Analyst Opinion
Analyst More Bullish on Apple Holidays, Watch: A Stifel Nicolaus analyst raised his 2015 revenue and earnings projections based on his estimate of 19.6 million Apple Watch devices (6% penetration of the iOS device market) that he expects will be sold next year. He also raised the price target from $115 to $130.
Piper Optimism Drives Amazon Shares: A Piper Jaffray analyst reiterated his overweight rating on Amazon shares and raised the price target from $350 to $400. The optimism stems from the analyst’s belief that the week-early Black Friday offers from Amazon will make a difference. Moreover, he expects Amazon to maintain share in the fast-growing and highly-competitive ecommerce market. He also views positively Amazon’s other initiatives including AWS and its venture into services.
Some Numbers
PC Shipments Decline Moderates Per IDC
Apple Raises Prices in Russia: A devaluation in the ruble, which has dropped 30% versus the dollar since January this year, forced the iPhone maker to raise prices. In the first nine months of the year, Apple generated $1.32 billion from its iPhone, ahead of the $1.19 billion that Samsung generated from smartphones. Apple’s price hike could impact sales and market share, particularly since the announcement came just after Samsung announced a price cut.
Google Revs Up Advertising Engine: Google has rented Times Square’s largest billboard – the Mitsubishi Electric screen with super-high resolution from Nov 24 to Jan 31. The New York Times estimates the cost at $2.5 million for a four-week period, so Google will be spending around $5 million to showcase its wares at the prime location through the holiday season.
Google Shopping Points to Hottest Gifts This Season: Mining Google Shopping trends shows that while game consoles and tablets remain most-searched gift items, there is the growing demand for wearable technology like wrist bands and apparel like Canada Goose jackets (searches up 140% since October), hunter boots (up 46%) and track pants (up 39%). Also, Ouija boards could be back in demand this year (up 300%).
Google also said that shopping searches from smartphones were up 3.5X since October compared to the same period last year. Google shopping may not be only or best place to study holiday trends, but it isn’t something to be ignored either (online shopping analytics firm Custora as quoted by Forbes says that 42% of web sales still start with a Google search).
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