Amazon warns of a tough Q4 --- shares tumble.
Here's the real question that we have to wrestle with ... a generation of marketers have been raised online, where the greatest organic demand updraft in direct marketing history made us all look like we were brilliant.
Do we have any online marketers who know how to create demand when organic traffic declines?
The real magic is about to begin, as a few talented online marketers will figure out how to create demand, while everybody else continues to attempt to game an algorithm named Google.
Use the comments section of this post to list the online marketing leaders you think will be able to create demand. Or share with us how you will create demand without having the money available to do traditional marketing!
Have we now reached the point where online is "just another" channel, at about 3.5% of total retail sales (nationwide)? $34 billion in total e-commerce is nothing to sneeze at, of course.
ReplyDeleteKevin - I don't have their strategic plan in my back pocket, but I sure haven't heard from them in a while. Not a "whale" by any sense, but certainly my household has spent our share with them over the last year (destination/organic traffic). I'm a "lapsed" buyer, so switch on that snazzy segmented predictive algorithm and drop me a note with something irresistible.
ReplyDeletePete --- at some point, e-commerce will hit that magical point where it is "what it is".
ReplyDeleteAnd Matt, you hit on something --- e-commerce channels have a responsibility to generate demand outside of traditional advertising. That's not easy work, and it isn't easy to do that via e-mail!