eBay has said it will remove prominent third-party advertising and use its own promoted listings instead similar to Amazon’s approach in promoting its own products. Removing third party product listing ads will come into effect on 1 May 2017. In addition to the removal of third-party ads, eBay will display the ‘best Promotions Manager special offers from sellers’ in the search results on their mobile app.

The majority of marketers admit they haven’t got to grips with how to adequately tap into the way people use mobiles today, according to a new report. The study, from the Mobile Marketing Association and RadiumOne, interviewed with over 300 senior marketers, revealed that although the vast majority (80 per cent) agree the rise of mobile has significantly increased the amount of data and signals at their disposal.

Ocado released its trading statement for the 13 weeks up to Feb 26th. It predicts that sales will continue to grow as new and existing customers place more orders.  Looking at all the stats, shoppers placed an average of 252,000 orders a week in the first three months of Ocado’s financial year. However, the order sizes fell – by 1.6% to £110.84. Ocado puts the fall down to customers who joined its Smart Pass delivery subscription scheme who bought more frequently.

Fresh creative talent and access to new data skills are something the marketing industry have been calling for in recent years, but the co-chair of the Graeme Robertson Trust (GRT) has called for the marketers to do a better job of selling themselves if they want to attract the cream of the creative crop. Ahead of Big Book Crit next week, the UK-wide mentoring programme from the DMA-IDM Employability team, Cordell Burke (Joint Chair of the GRT) has called for “commitment from the industry, its tutors and students in order to continue the sector’s success.”

At any given time, according to the DMA’s latest Marketer email tracker 2017 report, shoppers have 379 unread email messages in their inboxes. Given the finding that 62 per cent of consumers have abandoned an email address because of the number of marketing emails they receive, email marketers are focusing on the need to make the messages that they do send more relevant to consumers. Most marketers agree on the central role of email marketing to their organisations: the report finds that 95 per cent say it is important or very important. But 42 per cent say that, at best, ‘some’ of their emails are relevant to customers, and only 9 per cent say all their emails are relevant.

Only 40 per cent of UK shoppers think their favourite retailers provide a good or great customer experience, and accurately anticipate their needs, according to new research. The research, commissioned by data-driven marketing technology company Zeta Global, asked over 3,000 UK adults about their shopping preferences and experiences. The study was conducted so that retailers can better understand what their customers expect in terms of service and experience, and how they can respond more effectively to their shoppers’ needs in a complex and constantly changing competitive retailer landscape.