电商发财致富新门路：卖眼球

    电子商务企业的生死存亡系于吸纳客户的成本，也就是它们为赚得一笔销售收入而花费的资金。电商和实体店的最大区别是，一旦有人进入实体店，他们就更有可能购买东西。毕竟，这位顾客主动走进了店铺，心甘情愿被俘虏。

    那么电商呢？一个更实惠、更好、更光鲜的选择仅在一键之遥。电子商务网站投入大量金钱和精力来吸引访客，但最终只能眼巴巴地看着他们一件东西也没买，就切换到另一个标签。

    据数字广告公司HookLogic首席执行官乔纳森•奥普戴克推测，在线转化率充其量只能达到令人沮丧的3%。他说：“访问这些网站的大多数人都没有购买任何东西，他们只是在各个站点之间不停地研究。”

    但这并不意味着零售商费尽心机争取而来的访客就不能实现货币化。如今，越来越多的电商都在设法使用跟在线媒体相同的方式来实现受众的货币化，那就是：打广告。

    三年前，在电商网站销售广告还只是一个谨慎的实验。零售商担心，这些广告会把访客引向别的地方，而不是把他们转换成自己的客户。现如今，奥普戴克表示，从沃尔玛(Wal-Mart)、塔吉特(Target)到西尔斯百货( Sears )，再到Sports Authority和玩具反斗城(Toys R Us)，大多数先进的电子商务运营商都建立了一支媒体销售和受众货币化团队。根据OC＆C战略咨询公司(OC&C Strategy Consultants)的一项最新研究，80%的美国零售商正在各自站点上使用背投广告、特色产品和赞助商链接来宣传商品。

    一种行之有效的方法是：零售商面向自身网上商店涵盖的品牌销售广告位。这种做法跟各大品牌为自己的产品购买超市货架里的显眼位置非常类似。总部设在纽约的HookLogic公司已经为它开发的广告产品募集了2,350万美元的风投资金，能够在零售站点内显示获得赞助的搜索结果。这家公司目前正在跟上述所有零售商合作，向利洁时公司(Reckitt Benckiser)这类客户销售广告位。比如，访客在沃尔玛网站(Walmart.com)搜索清洁产品时，首先映入眼帘的或许就是利洁时旗下的产品Lysol，网站会提示这是获得赞助的搜索结果——跟谷歌(Google)付费搜索广告服务非常类似。

    与此同时，商务软件公司Bazaarvoice也进入了这个行业，它2012年斥资4,300万美元收购了电子商务网络广告公司Longboard Media。与沃尔玛、eBay、达乐公司(Dollar General)和CVS连锁药店合作的Triad Retail Media公司声称，通过帮助零售商把品牌广告整合到它们的网站，它已经成为全球首屈一指的“零售商货币化机构”。

    OwnerIQ公司则是在一家零售商的访客离开网站后再向他们销售品牌广告。这样一来，“即使我不买任何东西，塔吉特百货也有钱可赚，”OwnerIQ公司首席执行官杰伊•哈贝格说。通过这种方式，在消费者离开一家电子商务网站之后，品牌商可以让他们在互联网上感受到无处不在的展示广告冲击。OwnerIQ公司目前拥有超过300家数据合作伙伴，计划在今年实现70%的收入增幅。这家公司日前披露称，它已经从现有投资人那里额外募集到了600万美元的投资，从而使它募集的资本总额达到了3,900万美元。这笔资金是这家公司今年初宣布的最新一轮总值500万美元风投募集计划的一部分。哈贝格表示，这家公司将使用现有资金加强技术和人才实力。

    访客货币化对于电商而言是一笔增量收入：一家产品销售额达到1亿美元的零售商可能会赚到1,000万美元的利润。它们已经开始投入资金来吸引访客。因此，如果它们销售价值1,000万美元的媒体广告，它们就能够赚取1,000万美元的利润。奥普戴克透露说，HookLogic公司客户的年收入在10万（小电商）到数千万美元（大电商）之间。现在，网上那些只逛不买的访客再也不会让电商一筹莫展——无论他们买不买东西，大大小小的电商们都已经想出了在他们身上赚钱的办法。（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    E-commerce businesses live and die by their customer acquisition costs — the amount of money they spent to bring in a sale. The big difference between that and physical stores is that, once someone enters a physical store, they’re far more likely to buy something. After all, the customer walked in, voluntarily making themselves into a captive audience.

    Online though? A cheaper, better, shinier option is just one click away. E-commerce sites pour tons of money and effort into attracting visitors, only to watch them toggle over to another tab without buying anything.

    Online conversion rates are a dismal 3% at best, according to Jonathan Opdyke, CEO of commerce advertising startup HookLogic. “Most people who visit these sites are not buying anything, they’re doing research, bouncing between sites,” he says.

    That doesn’t mean retailers’ hard-earned audiences can’t be monetized. Increasingly, e-commerce players are seeking ways to monetize their audience the same way online media businesses do: through advertising.

    Three years ago, selling ads on an e-commerce site was a cautious experiment. Retailers worried ads would simply send the shopper elsewhere, rather than converting them into a customer. Now, most sophisticated e-commerce operations – from Wal-Mart WMT -0.25% and Target TGT -0.77% to Sears SHLD 0.10% , Sports Authority, and Toys R Us, have a media sales and audience monetization team, Opdyke says. Eight out of ten US retailers now use display advertising, featured products and sponsored links to advertise the wares on their sites, according to a recent study by OC&C Strategy Consultants.

    One way it works: Retailers sell ad placements to the brands they carry in their online stores. It’s similar to the way brands pay for eye-level product placement on supermarket shelves. HookLogic, based in New York, has raised $23.5 million in venture funding for its ad product, which shows sponsored search results within retail sites. The company works with all of the aforementioned retailers to sell placements for clients like Reckitt Benckiser. So, a search on Walmart.com for cleaning products might list Lysol as the top result, with a note that the result is sponsored, similar to paid search ads on Google.

    Meawhile Bazaarvoice, a commerce software company, got into this business when it acquired Longboard Media, an on-site e-commerce advertising network for $43 million in 2012. Triad Retail Media, which works with Wal-Mart, eBay, Dollar General and CVS, claims it is the #1 “retailer monetization agency” in the world, by helping retailers integrate brand advertising into their sites.

    OwnerIQ sells brand ads to a retailer’s audience after they leave a retailer’s site. This way, “Target can make money even if I don’t buy anything,” OwnerIQ CEO Jay Habegger says. This way brands can hit shoppers with display ads across the Web after they’ve left a commerce site. With north of 300 data partners, OwnerIQ plans to grow revenue by 70% this year. The company today reveals it has raised $6 million in additional funding from its existing investors, bringing the total funds raised to $39 million. The funding is a part of the company’s most recent $5 million in new venture funding, announced earlier this year. Habegger says the company will use the existing funding to strengthen the company’s technology and staff.

    Audience monetization is incremental revenue for e-commerce players: A retailer selling $100 million worth of products might make $10 million in profit. They’re already paying to attract the audience, so if they sell $10 million worth of media, they make $10 million in profit. HookLogic customers can earn anywhere between $100,000 for a smaller site to tens of millions in new revenue per year for the bigger sites, Opdyke says. Now, online window-shoppers can browse away — stores have figured out a way to make money on them, regardless of whether they buy anything.