A M B E R ❤

From Instagram traction to pavement advertising attraction, check out the Top 5 things I stumbled upon this week!

1. I love this PHONE BLOKS idea from Dutch designer Dave Hakkens – mobile industry disruption and true, practical personalisation.

3. Everyone is on instagram and every brand is trying to figure out ways to engage and convert followers. I think the gaming elements of instagram are exciting and there’s tons of brands experimenting with more than just giveaways. Australlian boutique hotel 1888 is giving a free stay away for anyone with over 10k followers, giving each follower a value of $40.

4. Fun visual ad from Brothers Landscaping. A fusion of street and community is a nice way to spread the love! We had a lot of people take a heart from our FLASH TRASH poster that went up around San Fran last year.

5. Walk down Shoreditch High Street and you’ll no doubt stumble across some guerrilla advertising. Mainly stencils that are put down before a ‘flash clean’ so the pavement is branded with a message. Sea World did some fun ads like these using stencils and water which lasted for a while in the sunshine but what about a stencil you only see when it rains? Emerging from a HomeDepot Forum it’s never wet…perfect for a weather centric brand to define it’s marketing message.

If you don’t make things happen then things will happen to you. #amberattitudes

Last year E-commerce sales worldwide surpassed $1 trilion, Amazon made up 5% of those sales. The e-tail giant’s focus on speed and customer service has led it to become the most trusted retailer in the world. So what 5 thing’s should all e-com and retailers be aware of….

1. Amazon Prime ( the company’s $79 per year, second day delivery programme) last year made up a third of Amazon’s US profits. via member fees and their purchases.  ‘Once you become a prime member your human nature takes over and you want to leverage that $79 a month as much as possible, buying across all categories more regularly’

2. Amazon’s 89 Global logistics centres sit as locally as possible to urban areas, and are fitted with machinery that enable it to ship a product in less than 2.5 hours. This speed of delivery and built up consumer trust, enabled Amazon to process 306 items per second during last year’s holiday season.

3. AmazonFresh a same day grocery delivery service ( available in Seattle and California) is the foundation of a broader roll-out of the holy-grail of shipping- same day delivery. Bezos developed a service that would work- not because he suddenly wanted to become a full-service grocer, but because of how often people buy food.

4. Third-party sellers now make up 40% of Amazon’s product sales. With Amazon generally taking 20% commission on each transaction, these sellers are incentivised to use Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) rather than drop-shipping.

5. As Amazon continues to evaluate the best way to deploy the bots from their $775 million buyout of Kiva Robots last year, could their continued drive to logistics monopoly lead to their next purchase being say UPS or USPS?

Pretty soon retailers with their online business are going to be faced with a choice. You’re not going to be able to compete with Amazon so you’re going to have to consider partnering with them and leveraging their network. Read more in the latest issue of Fast Company.