Today in Digital Marketing - Shein's Counterfeit Crisis: The Cost of Copying Amazon

Starting point is 00:00:00 It is Friday, July 7th. Today, marketplace mayhem. Sheehan takes on Amazon and learns some hard lessons. Planning tips for when the holiday buying season comes earlier every year. Twitter's dynamic product ads are broken. And podcasting is 20 years old today. I'm Todd Maffitt. That's ahead today in digital marketing. Sheehan is taking on the biggest e-commerce company in the world, Amazon, by expanding its marketplace beyond fast fashion and venturing into categories like home appliances, electronics, gardening supplies, kitchen utensils, and so on. Until recently, the Chinese-owned e-commerce company relied on sourcing its own products through on-demand manufacturing. But now the company has followed Amazon's lead by opening its marketplace to third-party retailers. Business Insider notes that this move, though, might expose Shein to similar issues faced by Amazon's marketplace,

Starting point is 00:01:00 including counterfeit and copyright infringement problems. As a retailer known for its duplicates, Sheehan has faced numerous lawsuits from brands like Ralph Lauren, Oakley, and Dr. Martens that claim the e-commerce platform sells products that infringe on their intellectual property. Quoting the Business Insider report, Amazon has faced the same issues as it became an easy place for counterfeit businesses to set up shops. Thousands of customer complaints of detailed purchases that they thought were from authentic brands they trusted, but turned out to be copycat products. Last year, the e-commerce giant removed more than 6 million counterfeit items from its marketplace. Shein's problems

Starting point is 00:01:41 could get harder to manage as it grows, unquote. Bloomberg data shows that while consumer spending on Shein is still a fraction of Amazon's, the company has seen substantial growth in other areas. Last year, Shein surpassed Amazon and claimed the title of the most downloaded iOS app in the United States. With Christmas 171 days away, Meta has released its annual holiday planning guide to assist with your seasonal campaigns. The guide notes that consumers are starting Christmas shopping earlier and that three in four shoppers surveyed say they're looking for deals amid current economic conditions. Many shoppers now start their Christmas shopping journey as early as October, as planning ahead financially is more important than ever this year. Meta recommends brands plan a three-month runway leading up to Christmas. Meta also talked up its AI ad tools, which they say can improve targeting to active shoppers.

Starting point is 00:02:40 It says advertisers using Meta Advantage Plus saw 20% more conversions in Q4 last year versus the previous year. Meta also provides planners for major shopping campaigns, including guidance on timelines and examples of effective creative and influencer marketing initiatives. A link to download the guide is available in today's newsletter, which, by the way, there is a free version as well, where you'll get an issue every Friday, including today. Check the link in the show notes for that. Or you can search for Meta Holiday Planning Guide. Well, here's your sign to check any campaigns you're running on Twitter today, as there seems to be some technical issues with some ads on the platform. Several users are reporting seeing an image of Twitter's logo instead of the advertisement paid for by brands like Amazon, Sky TV, and the sportswear company On Running.

Starting point is 00:03:36 These affected ads display the advertiser's name and what appears to be the intended caption. But instead of driving directors to the advertisers' websites, these ads link to Twitter.com and the heading for the link reads DPA Placeholder, which we presume stands for Dynamic Product Ads. According to screenshots out there, some of the busted ads from Amazon

Starting point is 00:03:58 received more than 15 million views. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. You can now partner up with multiple influencers on your Instagram post. Previously, users could only collaborate with one account per post, but now users can include up to three collaborators on a feed post or a reel. All contributors will have access to organic insights

Starting point is 00:04:47 like view and like counts. It is worth noting that paid partnerships still need to use the paid partnership label process to comply with evolving laws on influencer marketing disclosure, rather than solely relying on this new multi-tagging feature. A couple of small Google updates for you. First, the company announced yesterday

Starting point is 00:05:09 it's planning to develop a complementary protocol to the aging robots.txt protocol, which has been in use for 30 years. Robots.txt is a simple text file in the root directory of a website that tells search engines what areas of the site are off limits. Search engines and bots don't have to honor the restrictions, but most do. This new version would provide some guidelines for AI bots. No immediate changes, but Google

Starting point is 00:05:36 says it'll hold discussions with the community in the coming months. And Google Calendar now lets users specify where they're working throughout the day. Features rolling out today, users can select working location as an event type in their calendar and choose a location. Could come in handy for those of you who work from multiple locations and want to keep your co-workers informed about your whereabouts are not so handy when you want to work from the beach on a Friday afternoon. So the coffee experiment, or lack of coffee experiment, it's actually going great.

Starting point is 00:06:14 So this week I stopped drinking coffee and I switched it up with like sugar-free energy drinks. One a day, I might add. And that's mostly because the cream that I put in my coffee because I can't think of black was like 160 calories. So hey, newfound calorie savings.

Starting point is 00:06:29 Don't feel any different, except for this is kind of weird coating on my tongue now. It's probably some horrible chemical. I don't want to talk about it. Anyway, that will do it for the week. Today in Digital Marketing is produced by EngageQ Digital on the traditional territories of the Stunamic First Nation on Vancouver Island. Our associate producer is the intrepid

Starting point is 00:06:49 Steph Godwin. Production coordinator Sarah Guild. Music licensing by Source Audio. Ad coordination by Red Circle. And you know, not many people know this, but our theme composer, Mark Blevis, was user number six on threads. His wife, though, can't get an account at all.

Starting point is 00:07:11 So Mark and his wife flew down to California, went outside the Meta headquarters and just started begging for an invite on the street. People going into Meta's headquarters. How do I know? I have the police report right here. It says she calls out to the man on the street. Sir, can you help me? Have a restful weekend. I'll see you on Monday. If my heart was a house

Starting point is 00:07:34 I'd let you move right in And we could settle down And never leave again Decorate the rooms Settle down, never leave again. Decorate the rooms with stories and songs. If my heart was a house, we could make it home. Oh, oh you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes.

Starting point is 00:08:19 You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca.

Today in Digital Marketing - Shein's Counterfeit Crisis: The Cost of Copying Amazon

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