Data privacy is a priority for online sellers, and for good reason: regulators in China, Europe and North America are interested, and iOS 14.5 has allowed many consumers to turn off data tracking, with negative consequences for businesses that have relied on granular advertising from Facebook. targeting.

With these and other factors in mind, Ben Parr, president and co-founder of ecommerce marketing platform Octane.ai, shared his ecommerce forecast for 2022:

• Personalization and zero-party data are becoming critical.
• Ecommerce encompasses web3 and NFTs, but what will it look like?
• Direct shopping is becoming more common.
• Slow but gradual improvement in the supply chain.

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If you’re branding an ecommerce startup, here’s a helpful overview; Parr even wonders if startups should start putting NFTs on their virtual shelves this year.

“I’m also excited to see brands use tokens for loyalty and rewards, a topic I’ve heard people discuss but not yet embraced.”

My prediction: we will be publishing many articles in 2022 with tactics for zero data collection. Google has temporarily postponed its plan to abandon third-party cookies until the second half of 2023, which means the ad technology landscape will undergo tectonic changes.

We have more articles written by experts with a 2022 forecast in the works, so stay tuned!

Thank you very much for reading,

Walter thompson
Editor-in-Chief, TechCrunch +
@yourprotagonist

Making sense of OpenSea at a valuation of 13 billion dollars

NFT Market OpenSea’s valuation has skyrocketed, but at $ 13.3 billion, its revenue multiple isn’t that high compared to other software companies, writes Alex Wilhelm in The Exchange.

“It looks like OpenSea’s new valuation is cheap compared to recent fundamentals, but a bit expensive considering how much its market has experienced booms and recessions.”

After talking for a year with marketing managers, here are my tips for CEOs

Image credits: Carol Yepes (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

It’s a great time to launch a startup, but if you’re trying to grow one, well, winter is coming.

We’ve already noted the impacts of new regulations on data and the growing consumer desire for privacy, but here’s another newspaper to throw at the bad news: As a percentage of company revenue, Marketing budgets fell from 11% in 2020 to 6.4% last year.

“This is the lowest proportion allocated to marketing in the history of Gartner’s annual Marketing Director Spending Survey,” the research company said.

Rebecca Lynn, Co-Founder and General Partner of Canvas Ventures, has had dozens of conversations with start-up founders in recent months.

In a guest TechCrunch + article, she covers “the downward pressure on the effectiveness of marketing dollars” and shares several strategies that are producing results – as well as some “crazy” ideas “that sounded ridiculous at the time.”

Mark Cuba-backed fintech Dave’s public offering puts PSPCs to the test

Image credits: Nigel sussman (Opens in a new window)

As a startup with relatively good financial performance, consumer financial services startup Dave could have bided his time for an initial public offering. Instead, he chose the SPAC route.

While the move brought benefits, the fact that a less-than-stellar PSPC enrollment cohort debuted at the same time also caused problems, said CEO and co-founder Jason Wilk.

“If I could have done it all over again, I guess it would have been the same price discovery and guaranteed capital without the associated PSPC name, just because it was unfair.”

5 marketing growth predictions for 2022

Image credits: PaoloBis (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Our latest guest column with forecasts for the coming year isn’t just prognosticating: Growth expert Jonathan Martinez shares several tactics start-ups can use to capitalize on these trends.

Among other topics, Martinez shared methods for gradually testing ads, his ideas on video ads and influencer marketing, and some thoughts on Facebook and iOS 14 privacy changes.

“I think we’re going to start seeing heavy investments from Facebook and other social media platforms to keep users on their platforms, where they will still have access to first-party data,” Martinez writes.

Where will our data go when the cookies disappear?

Image credits: Robert lowdon (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Digital advertising has changed a lot over the past year, and it’s set to change again when Google blocks third-party cookies from Chrome next year.

For publishers, that means ad money needs to be spent wisely on strategies that maximize ad monetization without relying on old ways, writes James Avery, founder and CEO of Kevel.

In an in-depth analysis of the changing advertising world, Avery discusses how publishers will need to prioritize first-party data to gather user insight, the importance of walled garden advertising solutions, and why unified IDs are not. viable in the long term.

Israeli cybersecurity startups post another record year in 2021

Image credits: Filographer / Getty Images

Israeli cybersecurity startups raised $ 8.84 billion last year, more than triple the amount raised in 2020 ($ 2.75 billion), according to YL Ventures’ State of the Cyber ​​Nation 2021 report.

“Cyber ​​security in Israel has become a polarized market that only accepts two types of startups: potential unicorns and real unicorns,” writes Yonit Wiseman, partner at YL Ventures.

VCs and Founders Extremely Bullish as Public Markets Issue Warning Signs

Image credits: VectorInspiration / Getty Images

Public software stocks have lost quite a bit of value so far this year, but startup valuations continue to climb, seemingly unaffected by the decline in market sentiment, writes Alex Wilhelm.

“The startups had the best hope that private investors were right to index strongly to nascent growth rates relative to other traditional private market metrics.

Otherwise, everyone will end up with part of the bag when subsequent rounds are not consumed at higher prices.