News E | Vol.13
In this week’s News | E, we stand with Boxed on their Pink Tax campaign to eradicate gender-based pricing. TikTok’s foray into shoppable advertising has everyone talking as we see the lines blurring between e-commerce and social media.
How Boxed saved women millions by eliminating the “pink tax” - Fast Company
“In 2016, Boxed, an online wholesaler, decided to try something different. It identified a particularly nefarious category of discrimination–personal care products, where the difference in price between men’s and women’s offerings typically averages 13%–and reduced prices for gender parity."
According to Boxed, in comparison to men,
Women pay 108% more for disposable razors,
10% more for body wash
8% more for deodorant
5% more for shaving gel
"We looked at the products on our platform and saw pretty significant cost variances for those pink tax items, and decided to discount them so that they were equal on a per unit or per ounce basis," says Nitasha Mehta, Boxed's director of marketing. Boxed is the first retailer whether it is online or offline to take a stand against price discrimination. It also reduced the list price on female hygiene products in states where they are taxed to compensate for the unfair tax treatment. In March 2019, nearly three years after launching the Boxed's Rethink Pink campaign, it reached a total of $1 million in offset discounts redistributed among customers.
Social Video App TikTok Is Steady-Stepping Into Shoppable Ads in the U.S. - AdWeek
"Currently, TikTok offers brands in-feed video ads that show up between user-generated content along with branded hashtag challenges, in which brands or creators encourage users to make their videos using a promoted hashtag, and brand takeover ads, where a full-page ad appears when a TikTok user first opens the app."
TikTok is building out more advertising options to make its platform more appealing to a broader set of marketers. The new self-serve biddable ad platform could available as soon as this summer, Adweek previously reported, and there is interest from both media planners and the platform in making more inroads with direct-response marketing options. The “shop now” option encouraging consumers to buy products right away is just one-way direct-response marketing could look.
The Line Between Social Media and E-commerce is Beginning to Disappear - Fashionista
“With mobile shopping, peer-to-peer e-commerce and influencer marketing continually on the rise, social commerce is finally becoming the next wave of retail.”
Online buying habits are changing, thanks to the continual rise of mobile shopping, peer-to-peer commerce — Poshmark and influencer marketing. "It's disrupting on both sides," says Poshmark founder and CEO Manish Chandra. Consumers are putting their closets online and for sale, but these brands can mature and become the next Michael Kors or Versace.