Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

July 31 2008, Colchester VT: MyWebGrocer has increased the number of new customer orders an average of 16% through its partnership with NetElixir for its participating retail grocers. NetElixir is the Pay Per Click partner that powers MyWebGrocer’s unique retail grocery acquisition program where retailers only pay for new customers that place a new order. This CPA based program takes the complexity and risk out of traditional customer acquisition programs for retail grocers.

“Our team has been working closely with NetElixir over the last year and right out of the gate they improved our internal efforts by 60%. This with their ability to build a dedicated team to support our Grocery CPA program 24-7-365 has given MyWebGrocer a significant advantage to our retailers who are competing against Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon’s massive PPC efforts.” Explained Alec Newcomb, Vice President of Business Development at MyWebGrocer.

“Our partnership drives significant efficiency in the search advertising management program for online retailers” explains Udayan Bose Founder & CEO of NetElixir. “The domain expertise of MyWebGrocer and search advertising optimization capabilities and technology of NetElixir would combine to generate disproportionate return on advertising dollars for our customers.”

About MyWebGrocer: MyWebGrocer was one of the first to launch online services for retail grocers in 1999. MyWebGrocer increases basket size, acquires new customers, retains current customers, and drives revenue in-store and online business for their clients. MyWebGrocer has the largest grocery advertising network in the country covering 85% of the US, earning their clients direct ad revenue. Some of their clients include Shoprite, Lowes Food Stores, Big Y, Food Lion and 80 other leading grocery chains. For more information please visit www.mywebgrocer.com or call 1-888-662-2284.

About NetElixir: NetElixir, Inc (www.NetElixir.com) is one-stop-shop for all search advertising management needs. NetElixir offers both technology and full-service 24×7x365 management of pay-per-click search marketing campaigns that help online retail marketers generate profitable and predictable returns from their search marketing dollars. NetElixir has helped more than 50 online retailers including NetGrocer, Vermont Teddy Bear, KSwiss, Luggage Online & Carpet One run consistently profitable SEM campaigns, through a combination of proprietary technology and sophisticated processes. For information regarding NetElixir’s search engine marketing solutions please contact Udayan Bose at udayan@netelixir.com or call at 609-356-5112.

July 29 2008, Colchester VT: According to Quantcast, MyWebGrocer’s network is now ranked in the top 2000 most visited sites based on monthly visitors. MyWebGrocer’s network has 956,865 visitors worldwide on a monthly basis.

“We have climbed into the top 2000 in under 3 months.” Explains Tim Kenney MyWebGrocer’s Chief Operations Officer, “Grocery shoppers are rapidly adopting web tools to plan their meals, look for specials, build their shopping lists, and increasingly complete their shopping online. We expect to be in the top 1000 very soon as we expand the network of participating sites and shoppers continue to drive up traffic. The increased website traffic is fueling the expansion of our advertising business. Our ad network offers a unique way to get timely information in front of users focused on grocery shopping. Each month an increasing number of large consumer packaged goods firms are using our network to reach consumers.”

MyWebGrocer’s advertising network is divided into two categories based on where the ads are displayed; the e-commerce side of retail sites, and the grocery chain’s home page. The e-commerce side of the site is specifically reserved for product brands sold at that location; the home page is open to advertising for products not necessarily sold by that chain. Ads on the e-commerce side display a list of items sold by that retail vendor. Ads on the home page can direct the customer to the manufacturer’s website or landing page. MyWebGrocer creates highly targeted advertising campaigns for consumer packaged goods firms and other businesses related to retail grocery.

Becoming one of the top 2000 most visited networks is beneficial for current advertisers on the MyWebGrocer network, including Kellogg’s, Upromise, and Kashi. As more people visit the network, the more exposure these advertisements will receive.

In my opinion, understanding web analytics sometimes feels like predicting the weather. There are some standards in place already. Like 90% chance of rain probably means it’s going to rain. But, more often than not, some level of disagreement exists. Metrics definitions, the validity of measurement and third party reporting/accreditation are sources of debate for web analysts, salespeople and advertisers. So, when everyone’s prediction differs, how do you know who’s right?

One of the buzz words that attempts to answer this predicament is transparency. Transparency means defining how you will measure something, applying industry standards when possible and being consistent.

With that in mind, I have defined the most common online metrics. Let the clarification begin!

Rachel
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Clicks: A metric which measures the reaction of a user to an Internet ad or linked editorial content. There are three types of clicks: click-throughs, in-unit clicks and mouseovers.

Click-through rate (CTR): The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.

It is important to understand the limits of click-through rate as the sole metric by which an advertisement’s effectiveness is measured. CTR measures the percentage of people who clicked on the ad to arrive at the destination site, but does not include the people who arrived at the site later as a result of seeing the ad. CTR is a measure of the immediate response to an ad, but not the overall response to an ad.

Clicks had more value when Web site traffic was accepted as a measure of success regardless of where users went after they landed on the site. The trend towards profitability, along with advanced tracking capabilities, has resulted in less interest in click-through rates and more interest in conversion rates.

Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who take a desired action.

Examples of desired actions include sales, registrations, downloads, and virtually anything beyond page browsing. A high conversion rate depends on several factors: the interest level of the consumer, the attractiveness of the offer and the ease of the action to name a few.

The interest level of the consumer can be maximized by reaching the right visitor, in the right place, and at the right time.

The attractiveness of the offer depends on relevancy, includes the value proposition and how well it is presented. Small, impulse items (like groceries) typically have a higher conversion rate than large, shopping items.

The consumer’s ease in completing the desired action is largely dependent on site usability, intuitive navigation and fast loading pages.

Demographics: Common characteristics used for population or audience segmentation, such as age, gender, household income, education, marital status, etc. A network with a strong demographic that is in line with an advertiser’s desired target audience will be more effective than a broad national network.

Impression: A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed. Ad impressions indicate how many times an advertisement is seen in total.

Page View: A request to load a single HTML page. Page views indicate how many times a webpage is seen in total.

Search Engine Optimization: The process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a Web search. For more information on SEO and Google, check out Google Papers , a list of publications and white papers written by Google employees.

Stickiness: The amount of time spent at a site over a given time period.

Unique Visitors: Individuals who have visited a site or network at least once in an allotted time frame, often a 30 day period.

Most measurements of unique visitors are estimates. Sites often calculate unique visitors based on IP address information and through cookies. However, many factors may skew the results.

Traffic rating companies typically calculate unique visitors by monitoring actual usage of a group of volunteers (called panel data), then applying the results to a network’s population. Some, notably Quantcast , use direct publisher data and panel data.

NBC 10 Lori Takes on Your Job!

Check out this video of the news broadcast where reporter Lori Delgado takes on Gayle Boag’s job as a personal shopper at the ShopRite of Synder!

Gayle passes on her personal online grocery shopping knowledge onto Lori. Lori must then fulfill the orders coming in from ShopRite’s online shopping application powered by MyWebGrocer.

Video:(c) 2007, WCAU. All rights reserved.

Cheers!
Courtney

New Launches: Central Markets, Piggly Wiggly South Carolina, Stepherson’s, Met Food, and Pioneer Supermarkets will all be launching their co-branded MyBaby.com sites within the next few months. MyBaby.com increases customer acquisition and builds online communities. MyBaby.com targets moms and enables conversations amongst customers. Moms control 1.7 trillion dollars in US spending annually, and 80% of all household spending!

Tip of the Month: Online Grocery Shopping Best Practice
To ensure the success of your online grocery shopping application, in-store marketing and innovative ideas are crucial. Lowes Food’s online grocery shopping application, Lowes Foods To Go, is having great success. This success can be contributed in part to their flat monthly fee option. Online users have the choice of paying a monthly fee to order groceries as many times a month as they would like! This is a great convenience for online users. Whether it’s one or five orders a month users only have to pay their monthly service fee.

Industry News: Email and Your Consumers
In a recent survey conducted by Exact Target “nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they had made a purchase because of a marketing message received through e-mail”. Consumers in our market today prefer email…read more.

New MyWebGrocer Features: Order Express
MyWebGrocer has developed an even more convenient way for your customers to do their online shopping: Order Express. Customers are sent a specialized email once a designated amount of time has passed since their last order. This email is personalized, and shows what the customer previously purchased. They also have the option to purchase some or all of the items again, and the capability to add more items and special notes! Just a click from their personalized email sends their order to the store. Online grocery shopping just became more convenient! Get a demo now!