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May 10, 2017

As an eCommerce merchant you have to pay attention to Amazon and Google.  Google is likely one of your top traffic channels.  Amazon is either enemy or partner #1 or perhaps they’re your top frenemy.  In this episode we dive into recent Google and Amazon news and what it means for your business.  Here are some of the highlights: 
 
Google:
- Google Shopping - Google will roll this out on the display network, calling it Retail Shopping on Display.  
-  Google Shopping Q1 2017 year over year growth outpaced Q4 Year over year 21% vs. 19%. 
- Google Shopping/PLAs now 75% of non-branded retail clicks.  
- Google shopping spend grew 32% in Q1 for year over year
- Google AdWords phone and desktop spend increased 51% and 12%, respectively, while tablet spend fell 23%.
- Similar Audiences for Search & Shopping 
- Demographics for Search
- YouTube TV - similar to sling box.  
- Original content via YouTube Red.  6 Shows including shows feature Ellen, Kevin Hart, and Ryan Seacrest.  
- 18-49 year olds spend more time on YouTube in prime time than watch the top 10 TV shows combined.  
- YouTube Scandal - big brand ads placed next to neo nazi and jihadist content.  5% of top advertisers pulled ads.  
 
 
Amazon:
- Q1 earnings - Sales grew 23%. $35.7 billion in sales, $8billion in growth.  
- AWS grew 42% to $3.66B
 - Subscription services $1.94 Billion mainly Amazon Prime - 49% YoY
-  Making prime sticky with original content - Manchester by the Sea won two oscars.  Best actor - Casey Affleck and Best Director.
- Purchased the rights to Thursday night football 
- Amazon Prime is closing in on Costco in terms of members.  Now roughly 80 million prime users in the US.  37% growth since last year.  In March of 2017 costco has 88.1 million members.  
- Amazon Fresh pickup 
- Amazon Go Store