Amazon.com ist das größte Online-Versandhaus der Welt. Seit seiner Gründung 1994 hat das Unternehmen mit seinen Innovationen das Konsumentenverhalten revolutioniert. Der Online-Konzern aus Seattle beschäftigt mittlerweile weltweit mehr als 88.000 Mitarbeiter. Seit 2008 hat sich der Umsatz des Unternehmens verdreifacht. 2012 wurden Erlöse von rund 61 Milliarden Dollar erzielt. Jetzt hat sich Unternehmenschef Jeff Bezos zum Ziel gesetzt, dass Amazon nicht nur größter Online-Shop der Welt bleibt, sondern auch größter Einzelhändler der Welt werden soll. Recht dünne Gewinne Jetzt hat sich Unternehmenschef Jeff Bezos zum Ziel gesetzt, dass Amazon nicht nur größter Online-Shop der Welt bleibt, sondern auch größter Einzelhändler der Welt werden soll. Recht dünne Gewinnemargen gehören zu Bezos’ Wachstumsstrategie: „Ich bin mir sicher, dass Kunden auch in zehn Jahren noch günstige Preise wollen.“ In Deutschland setzte in 2012 Amazon 6,51 Milliarden Euro (8,72 Milliarden Dollar) um. Der Umsatz ist dabei in den zurückliegenden zwei Jahren kräftig gestiegen: 2010 lag er noch bei 3,95 Milliarden Euro (5,29 Milliarden Dollar). Deutschland ist außerhalb von Nordamerika der bedeutendste Markt für den Online-Händler. In Großbritannien erzielte Amazon einen Umsatz von 6,47 Milliarden Dollar und in Japan von 7,80 Milliarden Dollar. In Nordamerika kam Amazon auf einen Umsatz von 34,81 Milliarden Dollar. Weiter wachsen könnte Amazon beispielsweise mit E-Books und Cloud-Computing. Laut einer Studie von PwC wird bis 2016 mit weltweiten Ausgaben für E-Books in Höhe von 15,87 Milliarden Dollar gerechnet, das ist mehr als doppelt soviel wie 2012. Dazu kommt, dass jedes Amazon-Kindle einen voll installierten Amazon-Account hat. Das bindet die Kunden – analog zu Apples iTunes-Store – an das Unternehmen und könnte Marktanteile sichern. Ebenfalls sehr erfolgreich sei das Cloud-Computing 2012 gewesen. Dabei stellt Amazon anderen Unternehmen Server zur Verfügung. So lief beispielsweise die Obama-Wahlkampf-Kampagne auf Amazon-Servern. Eine attraktive Alternative zum Direktinvestment in Amazon könnte ein Discounter von Vontobel sein (DE000VT7JBA5). Er weist einen Rabatt von 23,6 Prozent auf. Ist der Cap bei 220 Dollar bei Laufzeitende am 27. April 2014 nicht unterschritten, besteht zudem die Chance auf eine Seitwärtsrendite (Maximalrendite) von 7,6 Prozent (auf das Jahr gerechnet). Das Zertifikat ist nicht währungsgesichert. Risikohinweise finden Sie hier. Bildquelle: Amazon.de

Online and social media have grown rapidly and have become increasingly important. Not only can social media help public administrations and institutions to promote their organisation’s initiatives and objectives, they can also add to the fruitful dialogue with the public and even help to improve internal processes.

How can they do that?

A niche seminar "Social Media for Public Administrations and Institutions" on this will take place on 21st - 22nd March 2013 in Berlin.

• Learn how to cope with visible criticism and how to turn it into a fruitful dialog with your audiences
• Pick up strategies for achieving great effects with little effort
• Benefit from the interactive workshop session and develop your own social media mix

With the contribution of experienced social media and communication experts:

• Antoine Mallia, Information and Communications Officer, Web Editor, Communication Unit, DG Employment, Social, Affairs & Inclusion, European Commission
• John Shewell, Head of Communications, Brighton & Hove City Council, United Kingdom
• Nick Dawe, Digital Media Manager, UCL, Communications & Marketing, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom
• Carl Henrik Josephson, Senior Communications Expert and European Programme Communications Manager, Denmark

Further details about the programme, the speakers and the registration formalities of this “Social Media for Public Administrations” seminar you can find in the event info-brochure: http://www.euroakad.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/dateien/seminars/Social_Media_for_Public_Administrations_and_Institutions_PR.pdf

About the European Academy for Taxes, Economics & Law Berlin

 

The European Academy for Taxes, Economics & Law is an educational network for knowledge regarding the latest, relevant developments in Europe. Educational tools are specialised events for advanced learning and these vary from national and European seminars to workshops, panel discussions, in-house training, conferences and symposiums. These events provide the most current and relevant information with high practical relevance for authorities on the European, national, regional and local level and for private companies all across Europe.

At Webtrends, we work closely with brands to test their online content, discover what performs best, and target those results for an ongoing increase of conversion and revenue. With over 10 years of experience in optimization, we understand that a good test plan requires a foundation for good hypotheses. When beginning to test, developing a hypothesis can seem like a tedious first step, but it is essential to developing tests that actually move the needle. By testing against what you think will happen, you will prove or disprove assumptions and uncover new truths. A hypothesis: Helps you understand and clarify the goals of your web site. Focuses the test criteria to what is important. Allows for an iterative pool of test ideas. In order to develop a hypothesis that will help you build meaningful tests that drive conversion lift and insightful learnings, we recommend walking through the following seven steps. 1. Set goals: How does the page drive business value? Every page has a goal, but have you mapped what that is? How does each page build on the others to drive conversion? What business value are these pages trying to deliver? For the pages you want to test, start by identifying the conversion goal. Your testing will uncover whether you can meet this goal—or exceed it. 2. Observe: Is your page meeting the goal? Testing begins by taking a baseline measurement of how well a page is meeting its goal. You can review visitor behaviors on that page through analytics. Look for which actions visitors are taking. Map where they are coming from to the actions they take. And then ask, are these actions meeting our conversion goals? 3. Investigate: Why is the page not meeting its goal, and what’s in the way? This is a good time to reset the assumption meter. Investigate visitor profiles and needs, and which functions the site should perform to meet those needs. Is there any friction on the page? Is the page layout or language helping visitors understand how to convert to the next step, or are they making conversion difficult? Use your resources to understand these barriers. Analytics, click stream, conversion data and heatmaps can all shed light on blocks to conversion. Experienced optimization experts can help shed light on these barriers, and provide guidance on how to overcome them. 4. Propose: Structure your hypothesis with an action/reaction statement.  Write this down: “If I (do this), then (this) will happen.” As an example, “if I change the offer copy to focus on product benefits, rather than features, then more visitors will sign up.” This seemingly simple but methodical framework will formally frame your ideas, and reveal what you know about your web site—and what you still need to know. Use the insights gained during your investigation process. 5. Design: Focus your test to support or reject your hypothesis – only. The test part of the hypothesis is, ” If I (do this)” and the expected result part of the hypothesis is, “then (this) will happen.” Make sure that your test content and the conversion metrics you are tracking directly tie to your expected result. If they do not, they will only distract from your insights. Testing tip: Test simple, but test big. 6. Measure: Sit back and let the data roll in. Be sure to run your test until the results are statistically significant. An experienced testing team and good testing tool will help you predict how long the test will take and identify when significance has been reached. Major content differences are more likely to elicit more dramatic visitor responses (and a greater divergence of conversion lift) than smaller differences.  And large differences in visitor response rates require dramatically less time to reach statistical significance. 7. Analyze: Failure is not an option. Remember, you cannot fail. Your test is based on an informed hypothesis, and will show you whether you should accept or reject that hypothesis. Valuable insights can be derived even when a negative conversion lift, or no lift, occurs—as this is the response to your hypothesis, and you just learned something about your customers and how your web site drives business. You can take these valuable new insights and apply them to the next test, and the process starts all over again. Build a new hypothesis and continue down the path of optimization. When you learn what works, you continue to increase conversion over time. Case study: online or downloaded training courses? A global software company wanted to track the engagement levels of their training courses. The current method for providing training was through downloadable Power Point (PPT) presentations, which kept the company from tracking training progress. They wondered if offering training content online would increase customers’ willingness to complete training programs, and hypothesized that it would. The company investigated the page usage patterns of presenting online-based training vs. PPT-based training. Conducting an A/B test comparing the two course delivery methods, they proposed the hypothesis, “If training is presented online, then conversion and engagement rates increase.” Did tests show an acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis?  After just eight days, tests revealed that the control page (online content) had a conversion rate of 40.30%, compared to the challenger page (PPT content) of 36.20%, a difference of -10.17%. Engagement rates were also in favor of the control page: 23.50% vs. just 11.53%—a huge difference of 103.86% between online vs. PPT training. While there was a more favorable outcome for online training methods, analysis provided the company with an additional discovery. Whether customers begin training online or after downloading courses, a majority of them are choosing not to move forward with training. And that presents another opportunity for testing and optimizing. Testing is hypothesis driven – every time Whether you want to know something simple—if a green call to action button gets better results than a red button—or something more complex—if online courses are more engaging than downloadable courses—the test always starts with a hypothesis: “If I (do this), then (this) will happen.” It’s both the beauty and challenge of optimizing your digital properties so they meet the goals that bring business value.

Das Jahr 2013 startete erfreulich für Aktionäre und Anleger: Die internationalen Aktienmärkte legten knapp 5% zu, wobei aus Sicht der Euroinvestoren aufgrund der Schwäche des Dollar eine Rendite von ca. 3% übrig blieb. Der Deutsche Aktienindex stieg nicht ganz so dynamisch und brachte den Anlegern rund 2% Rendite. Der GOOD GROWTH FUND entwickelte sich mit …

Prognosen sind ein undankbares Geschäft. Doch gerade Vermögensverwalter stehen unter dem Erwartungsdruck ihrer Kunden, zukünftige Ereignisse und Börsenwendepunkte zu antizipieren, um so vor allem bei Aktieninvestments Risiko und Rendite zu optimieren. Darum freue ich mich sehr, als Mitglied des Investmentbeirats den GOOD GROWTH FUND bei den Anlageentscheidungen unterstützen zu können. Die meisten Auguren geben sich …

Gemeinsam mit den Datenexperten von Tetralog Systems entwickelte das GOOD GROWTH INSTITUT in 2012 eine Studie, um herauszufinden, ob Nachhaltigkeitsfonds grundsätzlich geeignet sind, um konventionelle Anleger-Depots im Hinblick auf Rendite oder Sicherheit zu verbessern. Von den für die GOOD GROWTH Studie herangezogenen 100 Investmentfonds mit Nachhaltigkeitsanspruch sind im Wesentlichen 30 Fonds für die erreichte Risikoreduzierung …

Eine Übersicht über psychologische Instrumente des Pre-Employment-Screening und der Verweis auf einen Dienstleister in diesem Bereich mit einem transparenten Leistungsangebot, bei der der Kunde im Personalbereich auch arbeitsrechtlich immer auf der sicheren Seite bleibt!

Aktuelle Überlegungen, warum nachweislich hoch wirksame Instrumente nicht so genutzt werden, wie man es erwarten sollte ...