22Feb2012

Creating Value Through Strong Leadership

Economic and social values are often viewed as opposing goals that organizations are inherently expected to choose between. That said, any leader with an understanding of earnings along with the desire to survive and prosper must also understand the importance of creating a strong culture through social capital. In other words, while simultaneously selecting both economic and social value is a counter-conventional view, it is one well worth widening.

First and foremost, all leaders should be focused on strategy, performance management, and the culture and structure of their people. After all, it’s not what is done, but how it’s achieved that is a true measure of corporate culture.

Growth is organically tied to positive, customer-centered culture with an emphasis on building the capability to ultimately increase performance. Therefore, good goals must align with realistic expectations; making yourself accountable and vulnerable in earning the right to leadership.

The following leadership fundamentals, based off the Harvard Business “How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value” Webinar, are crucial in creating a sustainable business model that will drive shared success, overcome corporate obstacles and ultimately outlast competition:

Forge a Strategic Identity

  • Start with where you are and what you want to do.
  • Create a strategy that connects both head and heart.
  • Higher purpose and values deeply embedded.
  • “Inside out” approach – who are we, what are our capabilities, what do we believe in?
  • Search for appropriate opportunities.

Articulate a Sustainable Purpose for Your Company (so that people would notice if it ended)

  • Mult-dimensional aspect is beyond growing top line percentage.
  • Be true to purpose and vision/future.
  • Find adaptive identity that can change in different circumstances.
  • Constantly engage organization in dialogue (ask others how you’re doing).

Create a Community of Shared Purpose Out of Diversity

  • Build an extraordinary level of commitment.
  • Manage financial and culture risk: debt, growth, steady pace.
  • Enhance collaboration.
  • Create stronger networks and connections.
  • Make diversity a source of advantage.

Commit to Collective Leadership (we rather than “me”)

  • Drive career development: cross-functional/geographic.
  • Develop next-generation leadership (you’re only as good as your next generation).
  • Align the extended group.
  • Build a true team at the top.

Last but not least, leadership should serve an essential purpose, far beyond that of making money. A successful leader will have an inspiring sense of the organization’s full potential, while holding true the conviction that ends don’t justify means in mind. With all of the aforementioned disciplines in place, your organization’s leadership will be in a positive position to prevail. After all, no position gives you power – it’s who you are and how you handle adversity.

What do you think is the most essential attribute in sustaining a strong leader?

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22Feb2012

Apple App downloads near 25,000,000,000

iOS mobile app downloads approach 25bn.For those of you who lack the time or inclination to count that many zeros, that figure is 25 billion…yes billion! And, given that app downloads across all platforms are only scheduled to reach 44 billion by 2016, that figure represents the overwhelming share of the market.

At Ve Interactive, our mobile developers, who are especially talented when it comes to producing optimised iOS apps, have made a proud contribution to that number. They’re also super-capable on Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems, which are beginning to wrest away some of Apple’s market dominance.

It might surprise you that, among consumers here in the UK, Android has a larger share of the smartphone market than Apple. Google’s mobile OS has 36.9%, according to their latest survey, which covers the four weeks to 23 January 2012. Apple’s iPhone models, meanwhile, have 28.5% of all handsets in use.

With smartphones and tablets selling more quickly than laptops and desktops, mobile will soon take the lead in both the office and the home. It’s just a matter of time. The upshot? A global apps market worth $25bn by 2015 compared to $6.8bn in 2010 (MarketsandMarkets).

38% of businesses now provide employees with mobile solutions, in comparison to 26% the previous year. And 43% of businesses plan to better incorporate mobile into their work practices in the future. By 2015, half of the devices on corporate networks will be mobile devices (all GigaOm).

There’s no doubt that the increased mobility of the workforce is paying off for businesses. The use of mobile apps designed to help employees to complete their work increased productivity by 45% and raised operational efficiency by almost as much 44%, according to a recent Aberdeen study.

So, if you want to take advantage of these trends and mobilise your consumers or employees, get in touch with and find out what we can do for your business.

Check back later today for a blog from our US office…

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21Feb2012

The UK’s Recipe for E-commerce Success

Happy Pancake Day!It’s Pancake Day in the UK, so here’s some good news that proves online retail is anything but flat: Internet sales crêped up in January. According to a report by The Office for National Statistics, January e-commerce sales averaged £640.4m per week, representing 11.9% of all retail sales (excluding automotive fuel) and a year on year increase of almost 40%.

An unquestionably difficult economic market has left many online merchants battered, but most are far from beaten. Internet retail has picked up another 2% of the total market, in the last 12 months, as part of an 8% rise over the last four years.

The UK is now Europe’s leading e-retail economy, and the second in the world after the USA, with annual sales estimated to be upwards of £68bn.

So here’s the UK’s recipe for e-commerce success:

1. Take 51m internet users and reduce to 32m online shoppers, then stir in an average basket-value of £137.

2. Whisk online sales growth rate until it reaches 16%, then add to mix.

3. Strain through a conversion rate of 3.9%, then flip and retarget your abandoning consumers with Ve Interactive email remarketing, until satisfied.

4. Sprinkle with m-commerce, to suit the tastes of the UK’s 22m mobile internet users.

5. Divide up into more than 1bn parcels and send to internet users spending £1500+ per year online.

So there it is, if you’re an online merchant in the UK, the figures stack up. If you want help increasing your share of the spoils with a patented Ve Interactive shopping-cart abandonment solution, or want advice on how to increase your conversion-rate with SEO, improved website design or through content and social media, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

From all of us at Ve Interactive, happy Pancake Day!

 

Posted in Business, Digital news, ecommerce, M-Commerce, Online shopping, Remarketing, Shopping cart abandonment, T-Commerce, Ve Interactive UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | View Comments
20Feb2012

The future is integration!

High-street shoppingThe rather dramatic news last week that major high-street-chain stores closed an average of 14 stores a day across Britain in 2011 (LDC figures) will come as no surprise to anyone aware of the recent debates in Westminster, regarding the Mary Portas campaign to revitalise the British High Street.

Readers of this blog, however, will also be aware of the concept of integration.

In other words, multi-channel retailing: a way to harness online and mobile to support bricks-and-mortar stores. Mobile in particular has tremendous potential to push people into physical stores, though geolocation and mobile vouchers redeemable in store.

Mobile itself is huge and this is its year, as well! Brits are already the top mobile shoppers in Europe, for the third year running, and M-commerce is set to soar by 53% in 2012. By using features like Vouchercloud’s opt-in app, for example, the user’s physical location can be used to provide deals and discounts in the stores that happen to be nearest to them.

By embracing technology like this, a positive push-and-pull effect can then be created. Add into the mix all-important marketing data, too, and a retailer gains insight into what motivates and incentivises those consumers to make purchases, allowing them to be super-responsive to trends in consumer spending.

And if life imitates art, as Oscar Wilde believed, integration has already happened in the arts world, as illustrated by the landslide success of the silent, black and white French movie, The Artist, at the BAFTAs recently, and the queues around the block for Leonardo da Vinci’s exhibition at The National in London!

There is plenty of space and demand for contemporary culture to co-exist amongst the mass-media and mainstream; it doesn’t need to be niche. It’s a false dichotomy to say it has to be one or the other, be it in the case of shopping on or offline, or in the arts. So as access-points multiply and access to information increases, perhaps we are actually moving towards an exciting symbiosis?

Posted in Business, CSR, Digital news, ecommerce, M-Commerce, Online shopping, T-Commerce, Ve Interactive UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | View Comments
17Feb2012

The Social Club

Social Media: Bringing the world together.With our Brazilian blogger samba-ing her way through the Carnival, Friday’s blog comes from London, where Social Media Week has taken residence, bringing with it over 150 knowledge-sharing events, spread all over the city. A fantastic example of the power with which social media can bring the world together, London’s #SMW12 is being mirrored across 20 cities, worldwide, including New York, Sao Paulo, Bogotá, Mexico City, Istanbul, Berlin, Moscow, Beirut and Hong Kong.

Such is Social Media Week’s success that, in just three years, it has grown to welcome more than 60,000 people to its events each year, with more than half a million others connecting online and through mobile. We’ve been to a number of events throughout the week and enjoyed the Livestream broadcasts of others from the office.

SMW’s theme for 2012 was ‘Empowering Change through Collaboration’. For us at Ve Interactive, that’s a mantra which resonates. As a truly worldwide business, with offices in Boston, Sao Paolo, Stockholm and Sydney, as well as our London HQ, we take full advantage of social media in welcoming colleagues and clients into the Ve community.

There’s no doubting that the social space has the capacity to be of enormous value to businesses. But while some are realising that potential, many aren’t.

When it comes to social media, a seldom-asked question is “what are we trying to achieve?” There’s an expectation for businesses to be on Facebook, or to tweet, but there is often a lack of understanding as to why they’re doing it. This need not be the case. With a bit of lateral thinking, the possibilities are endless.

Take a moment to assess your options. Could Linked-In be a great recruitment tool? Could Facebook offer customer service which reduces call-volume? Could a blog help your global business come together as one?

Ve Interactive’s VeServices division has experience at making social media work for brands in innovative and interesting ways, so why not give us a call and find out how we can get social media working for you?

For our locations and their respective contact details, click here.

Posted in Business, Digital news, ecommerce, F-Commerce, London love, M-Commerce, Online shopping, T-Commerce, Ve Interactive UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | View Comments
16Feb2012

Alla hjärtans dag på nätet

Roses heartMer än hälften av den amerikanska befolkningen firar Alla hjärtans dag och spenderar ca $15 miljarder per år. Alla hjärtans dag är en guldgruva för alla berörda företag. Ungefär en av tre handlar sina presenter till Alla hjärtans dag på nätet, trots det är inte shoppingupplevelsen den bästa. Alla hjärtans dag shopparen vill att det skall gå snabbt! Tar det mer än tre sekunder för sidan att ladda upp är det många som avbryter sitt köp.

Hur och vad köper vi till våra ”hjärtan”?

-32 % handlar sina Alla hjärtans dag presenter på nätet.

-Det produceras ca 8 miljarder godishjärtan till Alla hjärtans dag. Om man skulle lägga alla dessa hjärtan på rad blir det som en godissträcka fram och tillbaka 20 gånger från Rom i Italien till Valentine i Arizona.


-2011 spenderade nordamerikanerna $681 miljoner på Alla hjärtan dag till sina husdjur. Det är mer än dubbelt i jämförelse med för 5 år sedan.

-Vi spenderar ca $1,7 miljarder på blommor, av dessa är 73% män och 27% kvinnor.

- 2010 odlades det fram ca 198 miljoner rosor för Alla hjärtans dag. 110 miljoner av dessa där kunden även ville att blommorna skulle levereras. Max antal dagar för önskad leverans var tre.

- Runt om i världen skriver vi och ger bort ca 141 miljoner Alla hjärtans dag kort.

- De som vi uppvaktar minst är våra kollegor och vänner. I genomsnitt lägger vi ca $6,30 på vänner, $4,97 på klasskamrater och lärare och $3,41 på kollegor och medarbetare.

-Män spenderar dubbelt så mycket som kvinnor på Alla hjärtans dag. $158,71 i jämförelse med $75,79.

-5 % av kvinnorna i Amerika skickar blommor till sig själva på Alla hjärtans dag

-53 % av kvinnorna i Amerika skulle dumpa sina pojkvänner om de inte fick någon present på Alla hjärtans dag

Valentine’s Day Online

More than half of the U.S. population celebrates Valentine’s Day to the tune of a whopping $15 billion a year, so it’s a real money maker for all of the businesses involved. But despite the fact that 1 out of 3 people will do their Valentine’s Day shopping online, prime e-commerce destinations are failing to deliver a fast user experience. The average leading Valentine’s Day destination takes 21 seconds to load. However, 57% of shoppers say they’ll bounce after waiting just 3 seconds for a page to load.

How are consumers spending on their sweeties?

32 % of consumers are doing their Valentine’s Day shopping online

-About 8 billion candy hearts will be produced for Valentine, that’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona 20 times and back again.

-In 2011 North Americans spent $681 on their pets. That’s more then double comparing to 5 years ago

-People will spend $1.7 billion on flowers, 73% are bought by men, 27% by women

-An estimated 198 million roses were produced for Valentine’s Day in 2010 and about 110 million roses, mostly red, will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period this year

-141 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged worldwide

-Colleagues don’t get much love, consumers will spend an average of $6.30 on friends, $4.97 on classmates and teachers, and $3.41 on coworkers

-Men spend double what women spend on Valentine’s day, $158.71 compared to $75.79

-15 % of American women send themselves flowers on Valentine’s day

-53 % of women in America would dump their boyfriends if they did not get them anything for Valentine’s Day

Posted in Business, Digital news, ecommerce, M-Commerce, Online shopping, Ve Interactive Nordic | Tagged , , , | View Comments
15Feb2012

Apple is America’s Valentine

While we all know Ve Interactive would seek victory in a world vote, Apple was just recently named America’s most loved brand, against Google’s glorious good will.

The bitten Apple beat out all of America’s top 60 companies on the criteria of social responsibility, emotional appeal, products and services, workplace environment, financial performance and vision and leadership with of total score of over 85/100. This score set the record for the highest in history of the entire Harris Interactive study.

Other notable nominees included Google, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Whole Foods Market and The Walt Disney Company just to name a few. These companies clearly possess similar visions in their value of innovation and leadership, thus fostering fierce competitive advantages over other industry leaders.

Studies like these are steady reminders of the proper way to establish and execute a successful business. They let us look twice at the little things that go such a far way, such as the commitment and honor involved in social responsibility.

Ve Interactive can relate to this trait with our own trusted partnerships in Concern Universal, Race Online, I Value the Arts and Global Entrepreneurship. Our other offices are already inquiring new opportunities to give back alongside local charities and organizations that will benefit from our alliance.

After all, we feel that reputation equity can be evaluated best by association with other industries and leadership efforts. Without helping others out, there is less of a value in what you’re achieving, any and everywhere in life.

What do you think is the most compelling criteria in the mix of this most-loved competition?

 

 

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14Feb2012

The Age of Big Data

valentines cardHappy Valentine’s Day! It’s also the first anniversary of the opening of our fabulous office in Boston, USA. #smooch

We didn’t know what to buy our friends at Ve Interactive North America? Apparently the first anniversary is a paper anniversary, but that’s hardly appropriate for a digital company like Ve (and an environmentally conscious one at that!) On top of this, the florist that sells gas/petrol had run out of those intriguing blue flowers this morning.

It’s been a year of TransAtlantic love, with our Boston crew producing sensational results. The year ahead is set to continue in this exciting vein too, because it has been predicted by the New York Times to be ‘The Age of Big Data.’ The paper went on to explain that in order “to exploit the data flood, the United States needs 140K-190K more workers with deep analytical expertise and 1.5 million more data literate managers.” Looks like our Boston crew’s going to be super busy!

This exciting revolution in data driven discovery is crossing all sectors from business, to academia and government, the result of the interactions of billions of computer users, GPS devices, cell phones and even medical devices. And Ve Interactive across the globe is busy helping our clients harvest their actionable data to identify customer needs and to better provide services. We tracked a billion records in December 2011 alone.

Sources like online transactions, social media traffic and GPS coordinates now generate over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, and with the growth of subscribers in emerging markets expected to exceed 100 percent annually through 2015, the information captured from all these varied sources can be used for the benefit of global populations and international development.

Global Pulse for example is a UN initiative aimed at bringing together expertise from the public, private, development and academic sectors to develop approaches for harnessing data for policy and action. The San Francisco-based Global Viral Forecasting Initiative (GVFI) uses advanced data analysis from internet data to identify locations, sources and drivers of outbreaks before they become epidemics, and the insight produced by mining mobile data offers the possibility of philanthropic benefits, preventing crises and targeting foreign aid to the populations that need them most.

For all the exciting benefits, the creation of an open data commons however does raise legitimate concerns over privacy and confidentiality that need to be addressed, so that legislation protects the end users without stifling innovation. And all players must see material benefits and incentives in sharing data that outweigh the risks.

As a Data Driven Services company, Ve Interactive is delighted to be playing a part in this exciting revolution. As it’s Valentine’s Day however, please note that we said Data Driven Services. Not Dating Services! That said, if you’re ISO an attractive, award-winning shopping cart abandonment and remarketing solution (with GSOH) for LTR. Get in touch!

Posted in Business, data, Digital news, ecommerce, F-Commerce, M-Commerce, Online shopping, Remarketing, Shopping cart abandonment, T-Commerce, Ve Interactive North America, Ve Interactive UK | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | View Comments
13Feb2012

Figure-hugging: Valentine’s Day by numbers

Happy Valentine's Day from Ve InteractiveIt’s that time of the year again and love is well and truly in the air at Ve Interactive. For the past few weeks, our clients have been busy convincing online shoppers all over the world to push the boat out and buy that extra-special gift for their belle or beau, to make it a Valentine’s Day to remember. The Ve Ladies have stepped up the pressure internally, too.

According to an IBISWorld survey, US consumers are expected to spend more this year than on any other Valentine’s period in the last decade. The average spend is set to rise 8.5% year on year, with men outspending women by $169 to $86. And, on the day itself, $17.6bn will be handed over both real and virtual counters; an increase of 12% on last year.

Of that total, 19.3% ($3.4bn) will be processed by ecommerce platforms. More than half of US tablet-users will switch on their device to research products and compare prices, redeem coupons, look up retailer information and purchase gifts. And 41.4% of smartphone users plan to do the same.

Nous adorons les statistiques:

  • 60% of Valentine’s Day gifts are purchased in the five days leading up to February 14th (NextJump).
  • Restaurant spending is expected to rise by 6.1%, more than any other sector.
  • $80 vs. $60: The cost of a dozen red roses around Valentine’s Day, against the rest of the year.
  • 11% of people will split the bill (Zagat).
  • $0 – The cost of this blogger’s advice in an article entitled “Save Money: Break Up Before Valentine’s Day”.

Finally, for those of us whose relationships haven’t quite stood the test of time, there’s neverlikeditanyway.com; a website that declares itself as the place “where once loved gifts from once loved partners get a second chance.”

No matter whom you’re spending with, or what you’re doing, we hope you have a fantastic day!

Posted in Business, ecommerce, M-Commerce, Online shopping, Remarketing, Shopping cart abandonment, T-Commerce, Ve Interactive UK | Tagged , , , , , , | View Comments
10Feb2012

Ve em ritmo de carnaval!

carnivalÉ fevereiro, é sexta-feira e em breve ouviremos a sirene tocar 18horas da tarde. Noites de sexta-feira costumávamos fazer planos pessoais, mas agora se tornou  Ve noite! E então… é quase o fim da semana e apenas uma semana do carnaval brasileiro. O que significa que por aqui  as pessoas já estão planejando (sambando em suas mentes!)

O Clima de Carnaval está no ar. Para muitos ainda uma incógnita sobre qual vai ser destino carnavalesco, ou qual fantasia usar e onde encontrar as melhores ofertas. Esta é uma época de pico para o turismo (uma das mais caras também!) E para aqueles que pretendem certificar-se de que irão conseguir as melhores promoções, o melhor é comparar e comprar on-line, e falando nisso…. Ve Interative reconhece a urgência de uma estratégia de recuperação de carrinhos abandonados on-line, ainda mais agora, com o boom dos meios de comunicação  das redes sociais e o M-commerce e em tempos de carnaval!

Cada oportunidade é única e importante, por isso estamos muito satisfeitos em ser líderes de mercado não só na Inglaterra, mas no mundo, reconhecida e premiada em nossa indústria com nossa solução de conversão de carrinhos abandonados. E estamos em São Paulo, entusiasmados com as nossas relações comerciais que temos construído na América Latina. E o carnaval por aqui será assim como as oportunidades, realmente colorido!

Boa sexta-feira para todos!

Feel the rhythm of Carnival!

It’s February. It’s Friday and soon it will be the 6 o’clock whistle. Friday evenings used to be about making personal plans, but it’s become Ve night! So it’s nearly the weekend and just a week away from the Brazilian carnival too. Which means that the people here are planning (and dancing in their minds!)

Carnival talk is in the air. There’s a buzz about which destinations, which costumes, what deals and where to find them. It is the peak season for the holiday industry (the most expensive time of the year too by the way!)  And with travellers wanting to make sure they will get the very best deals by doing comparison shopping online, Ve Interactive recognises the urgency for addressing online abandonment in merchants’ online shopping carts, even more so now, with the boom of social media and M-commerce. And now Carnival!

Every single opportunity is important and we are delighted to be market leaders not just here, but worldwide, with our industry-recognised online abandonment and remarketing solutions. And speaking from Sau Paulo, we are especially excited by the relationships we are quickly building in Latin America. The carnival as well as the opportunity here are both truly colourful!

Happy Friday to everyone!

Posted in Business, Digital news, ecommerce, Entrepreneurialism & mentorship, F-Commerce, M-Commerce, Online shopping, Remarketing, Shopping cart abandonment, T-Commerce, Ve Interactive Brazil | Tagged , , , , , , , , | View Comments