Shopping Media selected as one of the most promising emerging technologies for brand advertisers
San Francisco, CA – April 5, 2011 –– RichRelevance®, the leading provider of dynamic e-commerce personalization for the world’s largest retailers, today announced that CEO David Selinger has been tapped by a panel of industry thought-leaders to showcase Shopping Media as part of the ad:tech San Francisco Startup Spotlight series. Selinger’s session features a live walk-through of the ways that Shopping Media and RichRelevance’s enRICH for Brands offering can deliver superior results for a CPG ad campaign on leading retail web sites including Target, Sears and Overstock.com. The session takes place on April 13 at 12 p.m. PT at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco and is open to all ad:tech attendees.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on a newly launched program, Palindrome Advisors, that aims to match an elite group of leaders in technology and other industries (media, advertising, entertainment, government, education, sports, hospitality, and finance) with nonprofits that need their help—all based on aligning advisor skillsets to just the right social service organization. What I 
like most about this group (and why I’ve signed up as a Founding Member) is that it isn’t just about board members giving back through financial contributions…it’s about true time and emotional investment in a cause. Palindrome helps ensure success by qualifying the match on both sides and providing community resources that drive long-term relationship success. By taking the Palindrome “Pledge,” I’ve promised to commit myself to a non-profit by serving on the board for at least one year as well as participating in the Palindrome community (something I do already :-))
According to the Aberdeen Group, every eCommerce Manager in the land would gladly take a 7% increase in conversion, an 11% increase in page views and a 16% increase in Customer Satisfaction.* These are metrics that online retailers already spend much time and effort optimising. So imagine how frustrating it can be when a whole team and its efforts are derailed by literally 1 second of additional page load time. That one second can completely reverse the desired metrics above.
Once shunned by online retailers, ads by big brands are starting to appear on retailers’ web pages. And the ads are personalized to shoppers.
I attended the inaugural Internet Retailing Expo event this week with half my attention devoted to spotting new business opportunities and the other half as a delegate, listening to see what is moving and shaking in UK e-commerce. A very interesting twist for this event was its location and timing. As a venue, the Birmingham NEC opens up easier access to more of the retailers based in the north of England—where reduced warehousing and distribution fees attract more and more online companies. The event timing enables retailers to more readily define their goals and projects for 2012 by gleaning deeper insights into key projects on their roadmaps. For companies operating on a more fiscal rotation, it represents a last chance to change or influence future direction.
When it comes to collaboration between retailers and brands, uneasy tension has been the status quo. For example, the fight for shelf space between retailer’s private-label brands and CPG branded products brings out such thoughts as “co-opetition.”
But according to a recent article in Variety, an unprecedented level of deal-making with Hollywood studios has swept up not just e-tailers like Amazon.com, Overstock.com, but also traditional retailers like Target, Walmart and Toys R Us “in the battle to nail down exclusive product pacts.”