Data privacy is a priority for online sellers, and for good reason: regulators in China, Europe and North America are getting interested, and iOS 14.5 has allowed many consumers to disable data tracking, with negative consequences for companies that depended on Facebook’s granular ad targeting.
Keeping these factors and others in mind, Ben Parr, president and co-founder of ecommerce marketing platform Octane.ai, shared his ecommerce predictions for 2022:
- Customization and third-party data becomes critical.
- E-commerce encompasses web3 and NFTs, but how will that be?
- Live shopping becomes mainstream.
- Slow but gradual improvement in the supply chain.
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If you manage the brand of an ecommerce startup, this is a useful overview; Parr is still weighing whether startups need to start putting NFTs on their virtual shelves this year.
“I’m also looking forward to seeing brands use tokens for loyalty and rewards, a topic I’ve heard people discuss but haven’t embraced yet.”
My prediction: We will publish many articles in 2022 with tactics for collecting zero-party data. Google has temporarily postponed its plan to discontinue third-party cookies until the second half of 2023, meaning that the ad technology landscape will undergo tectonic shifts.
We have more posts written by experts with 2022 predictions in progress, so stay tuned!
Thank you very much for reading,
Walter Thompson
Senior Editor, Ploonge+
@your protagonist
Understanding OpenSea at a $13 Billion Valuation
Image credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in new window)
OpenSea’s valuation of the NFT market soared, but at $13.3 billion, its revenue multiple isn’t very high compared to other software companies, writes Alex Wilhelm in The Exchange.
“It looks like the new OpenSea review is cheap compared to recent fundamentals, but a little expensive when you consider how much its market booms and busts.”
After talking to marketing leaders for a year, here’s my advice for CEOs
Image credits: Carol Yepes (opens in new window) / Getty Images
This is a fantastic time to launch a startup, but if you’re trying to create one – well, winter is coming.
We’ve already seen the impacts of new data regulations and consumers’ growing desire for more privacy, but here’s another record to ignite the bad news: As a percentage of company revenue, marketing budgets have dropped from 11% in 2020 to 6.4% last year.
“This is the lowest proportion allocated to marketing in the history of Gartner’s Annual CMO Spending Survey,” the research firm said.
Rebecca Lynn, co-founder and general partner of Canvas Ventures, has had dozens of conversations with early-stage founders over the past few months.
In a Ploonge+ guest post, she tackles “downward pressure on the effectiveness of marketing dollars” and shares several strategies that are producing results – as well as some “crazy” ideas “that seemed ridiculous at the time”.
Fintech Dave’s public offering, backed by Mark Cuban, puts SPACs to the test
Image credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in new window)
As a startup with relatively good financial performance, consumer financial services startup Dave could have given its time to an IPO. Instead, it chose the SPAC route.
While the decision brought benefits, the fact that a cohort of less-than-stellar SPAC listings debuted at the same time also brought some problems, said CEO and co-founder Jason Wilk.
“If I could have done it all over again, I think it would have been the same price discovery and guaranteed capital without the SPAC name associated with it, just because it was unfair.”
5 growth marketing forecasts for 2022
Image credits: paolo bis (opens in new window) / Getty Images
Our latest guest column with predictions for the coming year isn’t just a prediction: growth expert Jonathan Martinez shares several tactics early-stage companies can use to capitalize on these trends.
Among other topics, Martinez shared methods for incrementally testing ads, his thoughts on video ads and influencer marketing, and some thoughts on Facebook and iOS 14 privacy changes.
“I believe we will start to see heavy investments from Facebook and other social media platforms to keep users on their platforms, where they will still have access to primary data,” writes Martinez.
Where will our data go when cookies disappear?
Image credits: Robert Lowdon (opens in new window) / Getty Images
Digital advertising has changed a lot in the last year and is expected to change even more when Google blocks Chrome’s third-party cookies next year.
For publishers, this means advertising dollars must be spent wisely on strategies that maximize ad monetization without relying on old-fashioned methods, writes James Avery, founder and CEO of Kevel.
Taking a deep dive into the ever-changing ad world, Avery explains how publishers will have to prioritize their own data to gather user insights, the importance of walled garden ad solutions, and why unified IDs are unsustainable in the long run .
Israel’s cybersecurity startups record another record year in 2021
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Israel’s cybersecurity startups raised a staggering $8.84 billion last year, more than triple the amount they raised in 2020 ($2.75 billion), according to the State of the Cyber Nation 2021 report of YL Ventures.
“Cybersecurity in Israel has become a polarized market that accepts only two types of startups: potential unicorns and real unicorns,” writes Yonit Wiseman, associate at YL Ventures.
VCs and founders are optimistic at best as public markets flash warning signs
Image credits: VectorInspiration / Getty Images
Public software stocks have lost some value so far this year, but startup valuations continue to rise further, seemingly unaffected by declining sentiment in the markets, writes Alex Wilhelm.
“Startups hoped that private investors were right to strongly index nascent growth rates against other traditional private market metrics.
Otherwise, everyone will be holding some part of the bag when later rounds are not consummated at higher prices.”