OpenAI content deal will enhance ChatGPT with the ability to show real-time content with links in response to queries. OpenAI quietly took steps to gaining more search engine type functionality as part of a content licensing deal that may have positive implications for publishers and SEO.
Content Licensing Deal
OpenAI agreed to content licensing with the Financial Times, a global news organization with offices in London, New York, across continental Europe and Asia.
Content licensing deals between AI organizations and publishers are generally about getting access to high quality training data. The training data is then used by language models to learn connections between words and concepts. This deal goes far beyond that use.
ChatGPT Will Show Direct Quotes With Attribution
What makes this content licensing deal between The Financial Times and OpenAI is that there is a reference to giving attribution to content within ChatGPT.
The announced licensing deal explicitly mentions the use of the licensed content so that ChatGPT could directly quote it and provide links to the licensed content.
Further, the licensing deal is intended to help improve ChatGPT’s “usefulness”, which is vague and can mean many things, but it takes on a slightly different meaning when used in the context of attributed answers.
The Financial Times agreement states that the licensing deal is for use in ChatGPT when it provides “attributed content” which is content with an attribution, commonly a link to where the content appeared.
This is the part of the announcement that references attributed content:
“The Financial Times today announced a strategic partnership and licensing agreement with OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence research and deployment, to enhance ChatGPT with attributed content, help improve its models’ usefulness by incorporating FT journalism, and collaborate on developing new AI products and features for FT readers. “
And this is the part of the announcement that mentions ChatGPT offering users attributed quotes and links:
“Through the partnership, ChatGPT users will be able to see select attributed summaries, quotes and links to FT journalism in response to relevant queries.”
The Financial Times Group CEO was even more explicit about OpenAI’s intention to show content and links in ChatGPT:
“This is an important agreement in a number of respects,” said FT Group CEO John Ridding. “It recognises the value of our award-winning journalism and will give us early insights into how content is surfaced through AI. …this partnership will help keep us at the forefront of developments in how people access and use information.
OpenAI understands the importance of transparency, attribution, and compensation…”
Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI directly referenced showing real-time news content in ChatGPT but more important he referenced OpenAI exploring new ways to show content to its user base.
Lastly, the COO stated that they embraced disruption, which means innovation that creates a new industry or paradigm, usually at the expense of an older one, like search engines.
Lightcap is quoted:
“We have always embraced new technologies and disruption, and we’ll continue to operate with both curiosity and vigilance as we navigate this next wave of change.”
Showing direct quotes of Financial Times content with links to that content is very similar to how search engines work. This is a big change to how ChatGPT works and could be a sign of where ChatGPT is going in the future, a functionality that incorporates online content with links to that content.
Something Else That Is Possibly Related
Someone on Twitter recently noticed a change that is related to “search” in relation to ChatGPT.
This change involves an SSL security certificate that was added for a subdomain of ChatGPT.com. ChatGPT.com is a domain name that was snapped up by someone to capitalize on the 2022 announcement of ChatGPT by OpenAI. OpenAI eventually acquired the domain and it’s been redirecting to ChatGPT.
The change that was noticed is to the subdomain: search.chatgpt.com.
This is significant news for publishers and search marketers ChatGPT will become a source of valuable traffic if OpenAI takes ChatGPT in the direction of providing attributed summaries and direct quotes.
How Can Publishers Get Traffic From ChatGPT?
Questions remain about attributed quotes with links in response to relevant queries. Here are X unknowns about ChatGPT attributed links.
Does this mean that only licensed content will be shown and linked to in ChatGPT?
Will ChatGPT incorporate and use most web data without licensing deals in the same way that search engines do?
OpenAI may incorporate an Opt-In model where publishers can use a notation in Robots.txt or in meta data to opt-in to receiving traffic from ChatGPT.
Would you opt into receiving traffic from ChatGPT in exchange for allowing your content to be used for training?
How would SEOs and publisher’s equation on ChatGPT change if their competitors are all receiving traffic from ChatGPT?
Google unveiled four Display & Video 360 updates during IAB NewFronts 2024 on Monday morning, while the YouTube evening reception failed to make any news during their Monday evening event.
Why did Google hold one NewFront event on Monday morning and YouTube hold another one on Monday evening at the 2024 IAB NewFronts?
There’s a classic strategy for maximizing your retail shelf space that involves product segmentation to get more space allocation (minimizing your competitors’ space on retail shelves).
Procter & Gamble (P&G) has used this strategy for more than a hundred years, which is why it has multiple brands of laundry products (including Ariel, Cheer, Era, and Tide).
The marketing executives at Google and YouTube may have segmented the audience that attends IAB NewFronts into two groups: one focused on connected TV (CTV) and another on social video.
The Right Time To Unveil How Google Display & Video 360 Has Evolved
However, when people now say they “watch TV,” it means different things than it did in the past. Today’s viewers seamlessly jump from hit shows to creator content on their CTVs. Heck, they’re even watching YouTube Shorts on their smart TVs.
Audiences are fluid, so reaching them now means showing up when and where they watch the video content they love instead of appearing on the large-screen television during prime time in the family room.
This explains why the Google NewFront seemed to be the right time and place to unveil how Google’s Display & Video 360 has evolved to help marketers and media agencies adjust their strategies and video ad buys to reach their audiences across streaming content.
A Nielsen Media Mix Modeling (MMM) meta-analysis of 15 U.S. consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, commissioned by Google, found that marketers using unified media buying through Display & Video 360 achieved a significant advantage. They saw a 120% higher return on ad spend (ROAS) compared to third-party video bought directly and an 18% higher ROAS than linear TV.
4 Updates For Google Display & Video 360 Updates At NewFront
At the Google NewFront event on Monday morning, Kristen O’Hara, the VP of Agency, Platforms & Client Solutions at Google, provided four updates that were amplified by a dozen other speakers.
“We’re strengthening strategic relationships with streaming partners like Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. For example, our integration with Disney’s Real-time Ad Exchange (DRAX) lets you tap into their vast inventory and reach at scale.”
In response, Pete Chelala, the VP of Programmatic Advertising Sales at Paramount, said:
“Paramount specializes in creating content fans love on the platforms they can’t live without. Partnering with Google ensures that our clients can access Paramount Advertising’s premium inventory seamlessly through Display & Video 360.”
And Jill Steinhauser, the senior vice president of Ad Sales Revenue and Planning at Discovery Communications, added:
“We’re thrilled to bring MAX’s diverse content to Display & Video 360. This allows advertisers to programmatically reach audiences at scale, unifying their media in one place.”
Introducing Instant Deals Tool For Marketers
To move as quickly as streaming audiences are these days, agencies also need more flexibility. So, the second announcement featured a couple of new products.
O’Hara said:
“We’re introducing instant deals – a new tool for marketers to configure customized deals with top publishers right from the Display & Video 360 interface, skipping the complex negotiation process.”
She explained, “This buying method is already available today for high-impact reservation YouTube placements, like YouTube Select and Masthead. And soon, agencies will be able to access those same placements with non-guaranteed deals for even greater budget flexibility. Plus, instant deals are expanding beyond YouTube to major publishers like Disney.”
O’Hara continued:
“We also know managing yearly commitments across multiple publishers and deal types can be a tangled mess of spreadsheets. This is why we’ve built a tool called commitment optimizer in collaboration with our agency partners to streamline the process of managing commitments. Input your deal terms and goals, then Google AI intelligently optimizes the mix of guaranteed and non-guaranteed inventory for flexibility as well as reach.”
Agencies that have been testing the commitment optimizer are already driving results, expanding access to premier deals to five times more clients.
For example, Clare Ritchie, the senior vice president and global head of Programmatic & Inhousing at OMG, said,
“Our co-development initiatives with Display & Video 360 enable OMG to deliver custom technology solutions that help our clients achieve better results.”
Privacy-Forward Audience Solutions
The third announcement at the Google NewFront event promises to help the advertising industry reach audiences accurately while respecting people’s privacy.
Google has encouraged advertisers to invest in first-party data for years.
Google’s Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation (PAIR) solutions provide a way for advertisers and publishers to reconcile their first-party data securely. This enables marketers to show relevant ads to high-intent audiences, like past purchasers, while protecting privacy.
To date, PAIR has delivered strong results for advertisers like Omni Hotels. According to LiveRamp, PAIR audiences provide 11% incremental reach compared to cookie-based lists.
O’Hara said:
“To further scale this privacy-forward solution, we’re collaborating to build open standards and contributing the PAIR protocol to the IAB Tech Lab. This will enable ad tech companies – and the industry as a whole – to adopt privacy-forward audience solutions that benefit everyone.
Shailley Singh, the executive vice president of product and chief operating officer of IAB Tech Lab, observed:
“It’s a big step towards making privacy-enhancing technologies mainstream in the programmatic supply chain.” He added, “We’re eagerly looking forward to ushering the PAIR protocol into an open industry standard.”
Seamlessly Integrating Generative AI Into Display & Video 360
The fourth announcement at the Google NewFront event focused on Google AI.
O’Hara said:
“The rise of programmatic advertising brought efficiency to media buying, but it’s time to evolve even further. We’ve heard from marketers and their media agencies that they expect a simpler, more intuitive DSP experience. So, we’re continuing to make Google AI an essential part of Display & Video 360, seamlessly integrating it into your workflows and bringing generative AI capabilities.”
She added:
“One of the first places you’ll see generative AI show up as a helpful collaborator in Display & Video 360 is in setting up your audience strategy with a feature called audience persona. Describe your ideal audience, and audience persona instantly generates a combination of audience segments that matches your goals.”
This tool enables agencies to select the right audiences from thousands of options while helping them uncover new, high-potential audiences. It improves unduplicated reach and delivers better results for their clients.
And even though Google AI offers suggestions, advertisers always have the final say. They can easily edit the generated selection, giving them full control over their campaigns.
Audience persona is expected to launch this summer, starting with Google’s audience and demographic segments.
“Of course, not all customers within an audience segment bring the same value to your business,” O’Hara acknowledged. “That’s where custom bidding comes in.”
This capability lets advertisers indicate their highest priorities within Display & Video 360. Then, Google AI uses these custom signals to focus on the impressions that deliver the results that an advertiser wants.
She said:
“Custom bidding now includes brand awareness and engagement objectives, so you can optimize for behaviors like ‘time on screen.’ We soon plan to add CTV-specific signals like genre as well.”
O’Hara concluded:
“Transparency is a key responsibility for Display & Video 360 as marketers harness the helpfulness of AI. This is why we’ve launched experiment center, a tool that lets you take control, test strategies and optimize the way you use Google AI for maximum impact.”
The tool’s dashboard offers top-line insights, enabling quick, data-driven decisions. The experiment center goes beyond tracking just conversions, providing a comprehensive view across the entire customer journey – from awareness to consideration and action.
It provides a new way for advertisers to see how their latest AI-powered strategies compare to their previous approaches and understand the impact of consolidating their video streaming buys on a single platform.
Youtube Evening Reception Failed To Share Any News
So, I was expecting YouTube to unveil umpteen updates to their digital video strategies during their evening reception. However, YouTube didn’t share any news or presentations during the closed event for customers.
Why not?
Well, it’s worth noting that this year’s YouTube Brandcast event, part of the broadcast upfront week, is scheduled for May 15, 2024 at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall.
This is probably where YouTube plans to share a plethora of strategic insights with television network executives, major advertisers, and the media at the beginning of an important advertising sales period.
VidCon Anaheim 2024 will take place from June 26–29, 2024 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Over 55,000 attendees are expected to pack the Community, Creator, and Industry tracks. Stay tuned for more breaking news and important developments at this event.
In the old days, TV newscasters would say, “Don’t touch that dial” or “Film at 11.” But neither of these statements makes any sense today. These days, CTVs don’t have dials, and digital cameras don’t use film.
So, just as we’ve had to adjust to these changes in the way we watch TV, we’ll also need to adjust to the new way that Google and YouTube package and communicate their video strategies.
“We want to help advertisers simplify their accounts and focus on keywords that drive results.”
Advertiser Options & Recommendations
You can unpause automatically paused keywords, though Google recommends only unpausing keywords that will receive impressions in the coming weeks.
Unpaused keywords will be automatically paused again if they fail to generate any impressions over the next three months.
Google’s email reads:
“If you decide that a paused keyword is necessary for your campaign, you can unpause it. However, we strongly recommend that you only unpause keywords that you believe will receive impressions in the coming weeks. Unpaused keywords will be automatically paused again if they don’t receive any impressions over the next 3 months.”
Why SEJ Cares
By automatically pausing low-activity keywords, Google aims to declutter advertiser accounts and encourage a more focused approach to high-performing keywords.
However, some advertisers may find value in maintaining low-activity keywords for various reasons, such as capturing long-tail searches or aligning with specific marketing goals.
What This Means For Advertisers
This change means advertisers need to review and refine their keyword strategies.
With Google Ads set to pause low-activity keywords automatically, advertisers must be more proactive in identifying and prioritizing high-performing keywords.
This may involve revisiting campaign goals, adjusting bidding strategies, and ensuring that keyword lists are up-to-date and relevant.
Use this update to reevaluate keyword strategies and consider new, relevant keywords with potential.
If you’re an ecommerce brand or retailer, then promoting your products through Google Shopping Ads is likely a large part of your performance marketing strategy.
But in today’s competitive market, how can you make sure you’re getting the most return on your ad spend?
Join us on May 8 for a live panel discussion with ecommerce experts on how to improve your campaigns and elevate your paid ad strategy.
In this engaging session, Bryan Butler, VP of Sales and Marketing at SearchLogic, Joshua Young, Director of E-commerce and Marketing at Mezlan, and Ben Riggle, North American Managing Director for Channable will share innovative ways to:
Craft compelling product listings using Google Merchant Center Next.
Strategically bid on keywords.
Leverage audience targeting to reach the right customers at the right time.
Measure your success using best-in-class metrics.
You’ll leave this webinar with a better understanding of how to:
Reduce Costs While Maximizing ROI: Learn ways to effectively enhance the cost-effectiveness of your campaigns and increase ROI on Google Shopping Ad Spend by utilizing the entire Google Ads ecosystem.
Target New Shoppers With Keyword Bidding: Expand your reach to new potential customers through strategic keyword bidding strategies, while maintaining engagement with your existing audience.
Seamlessly Set Up Google Shopping Feeds: Discover how to leverage Google Merchant Center Next, including advanced product bucketing techniques, to ensure flawless setup and optimization of your Google Shopping feeds.
Are you ready to start leveling up your ecommerce strategy through Google Shopping Ads?
Sign up now and access expert tips and insights to help you to improve your Google Shopping Ads campaigns and leverage the changes that Google has announced for its merchant center.
Plus, save your questions for the live Q&A session at the end of the panel, where you’ll get to ask the experts directly.
Can’t attend the live event? Don’t worry – simply register here, and we’ll send you a recording after the webinar.
Yoast SEO 22.6 is out today! This release has many performance and quality-of-life fixes to improve your favorite SEO plugin. Plus, we’re asking you to update your PHP versions. Find out what’s new in this post!
Performance enhancements
We’ve upgraded the processing of user metadata in this release, leading to improved performance, especially in generating author sitemaps. Specifically, we now prevent storing non-integral user metadata, making your database leaner and smaller, especially for websites with many backend users. This also means faster, more efficient sitemap output, making your content quicker to index by search engines. It’s a behind-the-scenes enhancement with front-line benefits: better SEO visibility and quicker content discovery for all your author pages.
A better understanding of Arabic and Hebrew
Detecting your keyphrases intelligently in your content is essential to how Yoast SEO functions. We’re always looking for ways to enhance this critical process.
In Yoast SEO 22.6, we’ve improved the keyphrase detection in SEO titles for Arabic and Hebrew. For example, when the keyphrase is باندا حمراء and the SEO title starts with الباندا الحمراء, we now recognize this as an exact match and give a good result for the keyphrase in SEO title assessment. This will make it easier for you to write better content in those languages.
Update your PHP versions!
WordPress is changing the minimum requirements for PHP, and Yoast SEO is following suit. To remind users still working with soon-to-be outdated versions of PHP, we’ll notify them in the dashboard. Upgrading your PHP versions comes with many benefits — not to mention a safer, modern environment. We are dropping support for PHP < 7.4 starting November 1st, 2024, so you have time to update in your own time.
Update to Yoast SEO 22.6
That’s Yoast SEO 22.6 for you. It’s a small but able update that will make the plugin perform better and bring more stability. Don’t forget to update. And don’t forget to upgrade your PHP versions while doing it. See you at the next update!
Appeasing the advertising algorithms on social media and Google has always been a mix of art and science – but there are plenty of rewards, not only in terms of active engagement but also in terms of lowered ad costs.
So far, AI tools have proved useful as an algorithm-cracker for the biggest digital marketing and ad agencies.
The problem is that small businesses and boutique agencies are still working to find the entry point with AI to pinpoint the recipe for ad success – from creation, targeting, testing, and reporting. This raises some thorny questions:
What are the key AI tools marketers should be using?
How can they be used between creative, ad deployment, and measurement?
How much should a business plan to invest in AI tools?
Is this more or less expensive than traditional advertising strategies?
I recently interviewed Logan Welbaum, an ex-Google and Meta employee who worked directly with the ad platforms at both companies.
Today, he is the founder and CEO of Plai, a Y Combinator-backed platform focused on advertising automation.
Welbaum has a precise understanding of social media ad algorithms and, specifically, how AI can be used to optimize ad strategies in line with them.
Image from Logan Welbaum, April 2024
Below is a lightly edited transcript of my questions and Logan Welbaum’s answers.
How Google And Meta Leverage User Interaction Data
Greg Jarboe: “From your experience at Google and Meta, how were large companies utilizing AI for ad optimization? What key functionalities did these solutions offer?”
Logan Welbaum: “Platforms such as Google and Facebook leverage user interaction data to optimize their ad serving. Their AI technologies offer advertisers the highest level of performance for their advertising campaigns.
Their approach is different from that of ad agencies and Plai, which own inventory data and optimize campaign creation. They offer features that allow for the uploading of additional data and the targeting of more specific audiences, because the inclusion of more data and signals enhances the performance of their AI systems.”
How Can Small Businesses Leverage AI-powered Solutions?
Jarboe: “How can smaller businesses, without the resources of large corporations, leverage similar AI-powered solutions for their advertising needs? Are there affordable, accessible options available?”
Welbaum: “Understanding ad metrics and following changes in social media ad algorithms requires experience. Plai trains our AI model to learn our experience in digital marketing and observation from our existing campaigns, so that it can assist small businesses.”
Jarboe: “Beyond basic automation, what unique functionalities can AI offer smaller businesses in ad creation, targeting, and measurement that traditional methods lack?”
Welbaum: “Ultimately, AI can save small businesses and agencies time and money. AI allows them to generate and analyze ad content in a much shorter amount of time and with fewer people than it would normally take. AI can build detailed plans and lists for targeting and help track the success of a campaign.
With Plai, small businesses can use our tools to launch things like video or Facebook ads in seconds and keep track of each ad’s progress all the way through its lifecycle. Our tech is a text-to-advertising approach, so a small business can just plug in their criteria and Plai will generate an ad with relevant keywords and images or videos.”
Jarboe: “Can you elaborate on how your platform specifically uses AI to address the needs of smaller businesses in ad creation, deployment, and measurement?”
Welbaum: “Taking Google Ads as an example, Google Ad Manager gives customers full control over a campaign but requires experience and knowledge to create a performing campaign. On the other hand, they have a product like Smart campaigns for those with little experience in digital marketing, but it lacks control and transparency.
Plai utilizes AI to guide small businesses to create a performing campaign. This allows advertisers to save time and reduce mistakes, but also gives control if they want to update AI’s recommendations.
Similarly, in terms of measurement, Google Ad Manager offers a comprehensive view of a campaign through an extensive array of metrics, whereas Smart campaign provides a more limited set of metrics. Our AI analyzes all available metrics, interprets them, and then delivers actionable insights in language that doesn’t require any digital marketing expertise.”
What Are The Challenges For Small Businesses Arising From Social Media Ad Algorithms?
Jarboe: “What are the key challenges small businesses face when navigating social media ad algorithms? How does Plai utilize AI to help them overcome these challenges?”
Welbaum: “SMBs want to grow revenue and run their businesses. Ads that are relevant and creative perform better and win and SMBs a cheaper ad cost because of it.”
Jarboe: “Can you provide concrete examples of how smaller businesses have achieved success using Plai’s AI-powered advertising solutions? What metrics demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach?”
Welbaum: “Plai customers have seen 90% decrease in ad-cost as well as 105% higher click-through rates than the industry standard. Not only do Plai customers spend less on ads and see better click-through results, but the platform also allows them to generate ads more quickly and effectively, reaching their desired target audience ultimately generating more business.”
How Will AI-Powered Advertising Tools Evolve In The Next Few Years?
Jarboe: “In your opinion, how will the landscape of AI-powered advertising tools evolve in the coming years? What new functionalities can we expect?”
Welbaum: “Ad creative will improve dramatically for brands of any size with any budget.”
Jarboe: “While AI offers significant advantages, are there any potential drawbacks or limitations smaller businesses should be aware of when employing AI for advertising?”
Welbaum: “We automate everything from a single prompt, but we still provide features and options for customers to take over and control or make edits. Still having that control is essential.”
How Can Small Businesses Prepare To Integrate AI Into Marketing Strategies?
Jarboe: “Looking ahead, how can smaller businesses best prepare to fully integrate AI into their overall marketing strategies?”
Welbaum: “Small businesses can prepare to implement AI into their marketing strategies through the creative process and general optimizations – these two elements of advertising will naturally be a first step for AI to fit within SMBs.”
Jarboe: “ChatGPT, while impressive, represents just one facet of AI. Can you elaborate on other AI applications beyond language models that can be beneficial for smaller businesses in advertising?”
Welbaum: “Recommendation algorithms, such as Amazon’s ‘customers also bought’ feature, serve as one example. Plai has a wide range of clients. This enables our model to identify successful strategies among a subset of customers and then recommend those insights across our entire customer base.”
Jarboe: “How important is it for smaller businesses to possess a basic understanding of social media ad algorithms to effectively utilize AI-powered advertising tools?”
Welbaum: “SMBs want to grow revenue and run their businesses. Ads that are relevant and creative perform better and win and SMBs a cheaper ad cost because of it.”
AI Is Leveling The Playing Field In Advertising
When it comes to advertising, AI offers significant advantages – and it’s not just for big businesses.
With advertising platforms leaning into AI technology, incorporating it into your process can help you navigate their algorithms. Automated campaigns are just part of the equation. AI can power more efficient analysis and unlock new customer insights. As the technology improves and more platforms and service providers lean in, it will become more accessible.
Incorporating AI into your marketing approach can help you stay competitive as a small business.
Every week we publish a rundown of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce and omnichannel merchants. This installment includes updates on drone deliveries, AI, social commerce, composable commerce, fulfillment, and cross-border payments.
Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.
New Tools for Merchants: April 29
Amazon drone delivery is coming to Arizona.Amazon is expanding its Prime Air drone deliveries to the west valley of metro Phoenix, Arizona. Drones will deploy from facilities next to a same-day delivery site in Tolleson, a suburb. The smaller site is a hybrid: part fulfillment center, part delivery station. Amazon is working with the FAA and officials in Tolleson to conduct the deliveries. Amazon is also running flight tests for its new MK30 drone with advanced safety features, quieter mechanics, and enhanced distance.
Amazon Prime Air drone.
HubSpot launches features and updates. At its Spotlight showcase, HubSpot announced Service Hub and Content Hub, Commerce Hub globally, and new AI features. Service Hub, powered by HubSpot AI, provides a help desk with real-time ticket updates, omnichannel conversations, routing tools, and more. Content Hub includes AI content creation, content remix, brand voice, and audio tooling. Commerce Hub includes local payment methods, QuickBooks integration, and enhanced tools for invoices, subscriptions, and payments.
FastSpring and Ebanx expand payments for digital products in Brazil.FastSpring, a merchant of record for global SaaS and software companies, and Ebanx, a global payment provider for rising markets, have partnered to enhance users’ payment experience within FastSpring’s product suite in Latin America. FastSpring’s platform will integrate with Ebanx’s Pix payment processing capabilities, enabling global SaaS, software, video game, and digital product companies to offer Pix payments to Brazil-based customers.
CedCommerce launches TikTok Shop connector for Shopify sellers.CedCommerce, a multichannel ecommerce enabler, has launched a TikTok Shop Connector for Shopify sellers. This connector syncs Shopify stores and TikTok Shop, providing sellers with a tool to synchronize product catalogs, manage inventory levels, and import orders directly into the Shopify store. Merchants can list products in bulk with a single click, maintain control over inventory levels, simplify order processing and fulfillment directly from the Shopify interface, and more.
CedCommerce
FedEx partners with Zonos to tackle customs challenges for U.K. and E.U. retailers.FedEx Express has partnered with Zonos, a provider of cross-border technology, to enhance the global online shopping experience by creating transparency on customs processes and charges. Zonos’s automated solutions inform shoppers of the total cost of purchases, allowing them to pay all duties, taxes, and fees at checkout. Additionally, the collaboration offers solutions to automate compliance for cross-border tax scheme collection and remittance and the E.U.’s Import Control System 2 requirements.
WordPress VIP releases VIP API Mesh for composable experiences.WordPress VIP, a provider of enterprise WordPress and part of Automattic’s suite of brands, has announced VIP API Mesh, powered by TakeShape. API Mesh ties multiple backend systems with a composable frontend. According to WordPress VIP, API Mesh helps organizations build customer experiences faster, reduce costs, and increase performance — providing faster and more diverse system integrations, deep integration with the WordPress Block Editor, and built-in caching, indexing, retry logic, and troubleshooting.
Firework releases Instagram Uploader for social content and ecommerce integration.Firework, a video commerce and engagement platform for brands and retailers, has launched Instagram Uploader, a tool to transform social media content into shoppable video hosted on a brand’s own website. The Instagram Uploader integrates Instagram with the Firework portal, allowing brands to convert existing Instagram stories, posts, and reels into shoppable video experiences. The tool also gives retailers a new way to repurpose user-generated content on Instagram.
Firework
Brightwell launches cross-border payments platform Latitude. Global payments technology company Brightwell has launched Latitude, a platform that enables businesses to deliver cross-border payments to their customers tailored to their specific currency, location, and payment method. Customers receive a personalized URL link with multiple payout and currency options, giving them flexibility and transparency into the reimbursement process and choice of how they are paid. Brightwell states Latitude is a fully managed program with no code needed.
Faire introduces Open with Faire Academy for wholesale merchants.Faire, a marketplace platform to connect retailers with wholesalers, has released Open with Faire Academy, an online guide to opening a store. Open with Faire Academy was created with input from Faire retailers as a one-stop resource hub to help entrepreneurs with the fundamentals of opening a retail store. From creating a business plan to getting funding to finding a location, aspiring retailers can access on-demand resources from the Faire community.
TikTok launches Preowned Luxury category.TikTok has announced the launch of the Preowned Luxury category on TikTok Shop. The category will enable used fashion providers to reach a new audience, enabling followers to browse and purchase authentic luxury fashion without leaving TikTok. The Preowned Luxury category will launch in partnership with five brands: Luxe Collective, Sellier Knightsbridge, Sign of the Times, Hardley Ever Worn It, and Break Archive.
Stripe announces 50 new features and updates, including AI-powered payments.Stripe has announced over 50 new features at its annual user conference last week. Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite enables businesses such as OpenAI, Slack, and River Island to build a high-performing checkout flow, using AI to determine which payment methods to show for any given customer. Stripe has launched AI-powered features such as Radar Assistant to combat fraud and upgrades to Connect, now with 17 embedded components, including 10 for payments.
Abandoned cart recovery can be a goldmine for ecommerce marketers, but not how one might think.
In 2024, ecommerce shopping cart abandonment rates among U.S. adults hover around 70%, according to the Baymard Institute. It’s a big opportunity.
Baymard suggests focusing on design, noting that “if we focus only on checkout usability issues which we…have documented to be solvable, the average large-sized ecommerce site can gain a 35% increase in conversion rate though better checkout design.”
For the overall U.S. and E.U. ecommerce industry, that 35% increase is about $260 billion in additional revenue.
Beyond Design
The problem is that usability and design haven’t solved abandonment thus far. Ecommerce cart abandonment rates have been essentially flat since 2018 and have risen since 2006.
Ecommerce managers have been unable to solve the shopping cart abandonment problem, or the rate does not have the impact on sales we think it might.
What if shopping cart abandonment is normal for ecommerce, and the real opportunity rests in treating folks who abandon carts like warm leads instead of lost opportunities?
That does not mean that online merchants should ignore design or conversion optimization; rather, it implies an opportunity to market to shoppers who didn’t complete the checkout process.
Cart Recovery Email
A cart abandonment email sequence is perhaps the most popular and effective way to recover the sale. Ecommerce platforms such as Shopify and BigCommerce include those emails as default features.
Familiarity, however, may be a problem. It may be too easy to turn on the feature without optimizing it. A better practice could be identifying the shopper as early as possible and creating an automated behavior-based email to convert.
The steps could be:
Capture the shopper’s email address as soon as possible,
Understand when to send the first cart recovery email message,
Know how many messages the series should include,
Optimize and personalize the message content.
Merchants should test and optimize each step for their audience and setup. For example, some marketers send the first recovery email 90 minutes after the abandonment, but others prefer 30 minutes or less.
Retargeting Ads
Another recovery tactic is to retarget cart abandoners with advertising. Retargeting ads should complement the abandonment email series. When the series begins, it should add the shopper to a retargeting campaign. This requires automation to launch a retargeting campaign and then turn it off.
The campaign should run on Google and Meta and in programmatic email via services such as LiveIntent. The goal is to remind shoppers of the abandoned items.
As always, testing and iterating is the key to remarketing success.
Text Messages
After email, the most powerful ecommerce communication tool is text messaging. Text messages are now the preferred transactional communication channel for many shoppers.
A typical online buyer prefers text-based order and shipping notifications. Marketers can use that affinity to remind shoppers via text about abandoned items. Make the message as transactional as possible and avoid repeated messages.
Better Recovery
Since 2006, ecommerce cart abandonment rates have risen from about 59% to 70%, peaking at almost 72% in 2012 with the rise of smartphones before leveling off.
Yet cart abandonment is an opportunity. Without neglecting design, merchants can improve their recovery efforts with coordinated email, retargeting ads, and text messages.
