Reading List - Week of November 14

Ladies and Gentlemen, looks like the Holiday season is around the corner yet again, and everybody is gearing for it! Tech and eCommerce companies are launching new tools and features to help online retailers in what is for most retailers a key moment of the year. Pinterest offers a new video ad format; Shopify introduced Shopkey, a tool to better promote products on social media; Facebook revealed a new analytics dashboard; Apple is working hard to compete on intelligent personal assistant. And the icing on the cake? Cross-border payments won't be an issue any longer thanks to Alternative Payments. So, who's excited for the Holiday season now?!

Welcome to Shopkey, The New Tool From Shopify

Source: Betakit

Shopify users can now have access to a new tool to better promote their products on social media. The Canadian eCommerce software company, has introduced this week, Shopkey, an iOS keyboard which will give retailers an easy way to check inventory supporting promotion in social media posts. Thanks to a tracking tag, online retailers will also be able to see which social media channel products are ordered from. Based on that information, the coordination of marketing and digital strategies will become even easier for online retailers.

Facebook Introduces a New Analytics Dashboard

Source: VentureBeat

It's not a secret anymore, marketing analytics is extremely important for any online store. It allows retailers to get a better vision of conversion funnels and to better understand how their clients behave. Some online retailers are already using Facebook, to promote their products and engage with their clients. That's great! In order to better track the performance of Messenger bot, Facebook has launched a new analytics dashboard. The dashboard will show the number of messages sent and received, the number of blocked messages, and the number of people who engage first with a bot before chatting to a real customer representative. It’s definitely a useful tool for online stores.

No More Cross-Border Payment Issues

Source: eCommerceNews

Online retailers and shoppers often face the the problem of cross-border barrier issues. It's always frustrating for a client to not be able to pick a specific currency or to select a different language when going through the checkout. It's event more disappointing for an online retailer to see abandoned shopping carts cause by this issue. But good news! Alternative Payments, a financial service company, has launched a payment widget which will automatically locate the consumer and then displays the appropriate language, currency and payment options to simplify the online purchase.

Apple Wants Siri to Participate in Your iMessage System

Source: TechCrunch

Apple wants to catch up with Google on the intelligent personal assistant technology. Indeed, Apple expects to implement Siri into its own messaging platform, iMessage. By enacting Siri in the iMessage system, users will be able to ask Siri to check their respective calendars before scheduling a meeting, invite multiple friends for lunch based on their own availabilities, and do person-to-person payments. Right now, Apple is still working on the patent. Competition is fierce.

A New Video ad Format for Pinterest

Source: InternetRetailer

Pinterest is not just a social network used to share home decor ideas and silly cat pictures! It is a powerful advertising tool for online stores. It's not just a pure coincidence if Pinterest has announced this week a new format of its ad video called "Explore". So how does it work? Based on user's preferences and what they have already pinned on their walls, Pinterest will create a personalized playlist of video ads. Once one ad is watched, the next one will be automatically played. Home Depot and Macy's are already testing this new feature. With more than a third of retailers planning to increase their budget on video ads next year, digital advertising has never been so trending.