A shorter shopping window complicates retail’s already challenging holiday season

Invalid traffic (IVT) in open programmatic advertising averaged 17% globally across the desktop web, mobile web and mobile apps in this year’s second quarter, according to the latest report from fraud prevention/analytics firm Pixalate. The desktop web had the highest average IVT rate, at 21%, followed by the mobile web at 16% and mobile apps at 13%. Overall, 57% of invalid clicks were generated by click farms and datacenter IVT. On mobile apps, 20% of all invalid clicks were generated by click farms.

In a world in which digital marketing continues to grow, a new brand is still mailing a catalog for the first time every month. That’s not the strange part, however. What is strange is WHO is mailing these catalogs: e-commerce retailers. Amazon, Wayfair, One King’s Lane and Everlane are just a few examples of formerly online-only brands that took the leap into the catalog sphere. Ironically, one such catalog I received in the mail is called “OnlineShoes.com”! Furthermore, brands which have traditionally sold through brick-and-mortar stores are increasingly adding catalogs to drive traffic to both their website and stores. In many cases, these brands have discovered that by adding a catalog to the marketing mix, customer value increases fourfold! According to the Direct Marketing Association, close to 90 million Americans currently purchase from a catalog. Interestingly, nearly 60 percent of them are women. So why do catalogs still work in a digital world? Check out our recent blog to learn more at: https://www.jschmid.com/blog/designed-for-growth-the-catalogs-resurgence/

Google has officially begun to phase out third-party cookies by implementing a default browser feature called Tracking Protection. When activated, it will cut off a website’s access to third-party cookies. The browser feature began rolling out randomly to 1% of Chrome users globally today, marking the year’s first notable step toward privacy for consumers and third-party cookie deprecation for the industry. Marketers will adapt. “While it’s an adjustment for everyone, it’s actually a valuable move,” said Anthony Yell, Razorfish chief creative officer. “It might take some adjustment to communicate as effectively in a world with cookies, a world without cookies is a wonderful thing.”