rokix: Shoppers dig mobile optimized sites; kickass startups AND the ...

Shoppers dig mobile optimized sites; kickass startups AND the secret to more Twitter followers?it?s Skimming the News!

Posted by Sarah on October 19, 2012 in The Skim

It?s been another busy week for team Skimlinks! Our Senior Merchant Manager, Jenny Williams, gave a talk on how to build better merchant relationships at the A4U Expo whilst one of our Co-founders, Joe Stepniewski, presented his expertise on hacking the purchase funnel at the Dublin Web Summit. More about those events coming soon!
In industry news, Commerce Sciences allows online retailers to customize the shopping experience to individual visitors, our friends Refer.ly raised $1million, TinyCo is spreading the affiliate revenue love to mobile developers and customers dig mobile optimized sites. If you?re a travel affiliate, a small business or just want to know the secret behind getting more followers on Twitter then scroll on down to our tips section! ?Hope y?all have a good weekend?it?s Skimming the News!

News

Customers Respond to Sites Whipped into Mobile Shape via eMarketer
Customers appreciate mobile optimization- two-thirds of US adult smartphone internet users said they were more likely to make a purchase on a mobile-optimized site. ?Likewise the survey, conducted on behalf of Google, ?found that three-quarters of the respondents were more likely to return to the site. As this article points out, ensuring your website is into mobile shape should be a no-brainer! We?re already up to speed- did you know that Skimlinks is 100% mobile optimized? Check out ?our mobile one-sheeter!

Unintended Consequences of Holiday Price Matching via LinkedIn
One rising trend this holiday season is price-matching. More retailers than ever are offering their customers a price match guarantee, often matching online prices via sites like Amazon.com. There?s an extra treat for shoppers in this proposition, though. With the price landscape flattening out, retailers will be left to compete on- Service. Truly a win-win for consumers, we are eager to see how this plays out this holiday season!

YC-Backed Refer.ly Raises $1M To Bring Affiliate Commerce To Everyone via Tech Crunch
Congratulations to our friends Refer.ly?they?ve raised $1 million dollars in seed funding! Refer.ly allows users to earn affiliate commissions by recommending products to their friends. You can create a curated page of themed products and keep your commissions or donate them to charity. They plan to ?go big or go home? with the funding, according to CEO Danielle Morrill. The investment is coming from New Enterprise Associates, Ignition Partners, 500 Startups, Jeff Lawson (CEO of Twilio, where Morrill was the first non-founding employee), and more. Again, congrats team Refer.ly!

TinyCo shares 50 percent of affiliate revenue with mobile developers via Venture Beat
Mobile developers are now able to make money by embedding ads for TinyCo?s games into their own gaming content. TinyCo will share 50% of the affiliate revenue as a reward for driving users to their games. TinyCo?s business director, Andrew Green said that during tests, the company found their Tiny Partners affiliate programme reached a 12.3% conversion rate compared to just 3.5% with expensive banner ads. The developers feel more valued, too, as demonstrated by Dave Yonamine, CEO of Mobility Ware who explains ?we were treated like a partner, not just a vendor?. That?s what we like to hear!

Innovation Endeavors-Backed Commerce Sciences Lets E-Commerce Sites Personalize Offers, Coupons, And More For Each Website Visitor via Tech Crunch
The e-commerce startup Commerce Sciences have launched an exciting new feature, ?one-click personalization?, which will allow online retailers to tailor the shopping experience to individual website visitors. The feature is an addition to the Personal Bar- the shopping companion bar which places retailer-specific functions such as site search, checkout and coupons on it?s toolbar. With one-click personalization, the retailer is able to customize the Personal Bar to each visitor. Examples given in the article are showing an introductory offer to first time visitors and instant discounts or free shipping for deliberating shoppers.

Tips

Targeted Offers Increase Holiday Sales via Independent Retailer
Shoppers are bombarded with deals everywhere- online and offline. So how can small retailers ensure their deals stand out from the crowd? As Independent Retailer points out, it?s all about adding value to your deals by providing the right offer at the right time. With informative tips such as offering rebates in order to capture valuable data on your customers and suggestions for targeted promotions, this article has all you need to start increasing your holiday sales.

Travel affiliates: Prepare for the January rush via A4U
Attention travel affiliates! Colin Carter from Weather2Travel.com shares his 10 tips to help maximize the January rush. They including being flexible with your strategies, networking and user testing. More importantly, Colin advises that you engage with affiliate networks in order to find out more about merchants and products. Feel free to shoot over any questions to support@skimlinks.com- we?re always more than happy to help out!

Twitter Study Reveals The Secret To More Followers via The Blog Herald
Luckily it?s simple- the secret to more followers is to tweet more! A study conducted by Beevolve found that people who send 15,000 tweets or more tend to have on average between 100,001 and 1 million followers compared to 51-100 followers for those who have tweeted 1 and 1000 tweets. Of course, celebrities are one of the exceptions to this rule. The study also found that the average Twitter user is 28 years old, female and English is their first language. Do ?you agree with this study? What are your secrets? Feel free to spill the beans in our comments!

?????????????????????????????????????