ECOMMERCE: It’s a common revenue generation model, but one that seems to have taken some time for other tech platforms reliant on the community to develop. The 10-year-old Twitter and 5-year-old Snapchat are still experimenting with monetization strategies and Pinterest, going on seven years, only adopted a similar sales model to Product Hunt’s with Buyable Pins last summer.
BRAND: Small businesses find this the most difficult part of gaining traction with their brands, and most give up within five years of opening according to research. But this guide is going to help you with that. You are going to learn about some of the major mistakes that small businesses tend to make so you can survive your first year of entrepreneurship.
ECOMMERCE: Wal-Mart projected second quarter earnings between 95 cents a share and $1.08 a share. The upshot here is that Wal-Mart isn't being Amazon-ed like the rest of retail. Perhaps the retailer's grocery business provides some defense against e-commerce. However, Wal-Mart has been investing heavily in its e-commerce operations because it knows it has to close the digital loop to keep customers.
DATA: Three product niches—activewear, CPGs and consumer electronics—have accounted for 57 percent of all ads L2 observed on Snapchat Discover, its channel for publishers, from Jan. 15 through Feb. 15. For activewear, Nike has led the way; for CPGs, Little Debbie has been out in front of the pack; and for consumer electronics, General Electric has led the charge.
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BRAND: “Inside the good results of last year, I thought (Victoria’s Secret) results weren’t to expectations,” Wexner said. “I know I’m a hard grader. ... As good as the performance was, I thought Victoria’s Secret was stalling out.” The business, which Wexner now oversees first-hand, has been reorganized from separate divisions for Victoria’s Secret stores and its direct sales business to a three-pronged structure of Victoria’s Secret, Pink and Beauty, with direct sales within each.
MEDIA: When Style.com shuttered in April, one of the biggest questions among industry folk was what would happen to its longtime editor-in-chief, Dirk Standen. Initially he made a move to W where he took on the role of digital creative director, but by August, Condé Nast made a surprising announcement: Standen had been appointed editor-in-chief of 23 Stories, the in-house branded content studio established in January 2015.
BRAND: The Chicago-based company has attracted 100,000 users since launching in September, accruing 500,000 photos from consumers, many of whom pose with brands. Here's why they selfie up with marketers: They get paid up to $1 when they upload a picture with a brand in it after Pay Your Selfie posts a request for such photos.
MEDIA: Outside of CTV, programmatic for television doesn’t yet operate at the same level of traditional digital. While Programmatic TV platforms provide enhanced targeting and delivery speed, they also make due with a smattering of targeting data that is far less precise than traditional programmatic.
Last Word: Product Hunt's Spin on eCommerce
An analysis of today's top gear and tech blogs will look entirely different than what you see above. The number one destination (top right) for the majority of them is Amazon.com, thanks to potentially lucrative deals that sites do with Skimlinks.com, a tool that allows ad-based sites to monetize their product features. Amazon gets considerable traffic from independent gear blogs like Uncrate and its little brothers: Gear Patrol and Cool Material. Whereas, Gizmodo benefits from a custom affiliate system through Nick Denton's deals.Kinja.com platform.
Often, independent gear blogs send tons of traffic to Indiegogo and Kickstarter to stay ahead of the next site that wants to feature the latest and greatest. Product Hunt's traffic flow is altogether different. Their profile shows that, although Product Hunt is somewhat seen as "media", 11% of traffic is from tech's elite platforms: LifeHacker, Medium, TNW, and TechCrunch. They are covering products that are featured (and soon to be sold) on Product Hunt. You can't ask for a better pipeline of new users. Gear Patrol and Cool Material have both optimized for search traffic - receiving 45.72% and 21.4% of their traffic from Google, respectively. In comparison, most of Uncrate's traffic is direct / organic which is a great accomplishment for a purely editorial platform.
Product Hunt has the privilege of being both the start and the destination, depending on the reader's preference. That's a lot of free traffic. And the purchase process is as good as it gets for impatient people. Most of your data is saved thanks to your Twitter login. Their Stripe checkout is seamless. It pulls up your history of saved cards, allowing for one-click purchasing.
With an estimated 7M monthly visits with 11.01% referral traffic, Product Hunt has a unique opportunity to become the destination for native sales of the quirky tech-related products that they are known to feature. But with today's eCommerce launch, the shift to featuring even more hard goods (versus software and Kickstarters) is inevitable.
