Alibaba vs Amazon: the battle is on.

TL;DR:

• Alibaba’s seller platform is now open to American companies.
• Marketers are getting lucky now that AMP stories are being pushed on Google Image search results.
• Conviva’s Instagram benchmark report offers key takeaways for how brands can get their Instagram stories seen.

Alibaba Open For American Business

Only days after Amazon has shut down operations in China. E-commerce giant Alibaba announced that it is opening its platform for American businesses. Previously, US-based companies could only make purchases from Alibaba. Now, they will also be able to sell their products on the platform, both internationally and within the US.

That’s a big deal! Because one-third of Alibaba customers are American — and because the e-commerce B2B market is worth nearly 24 trillion US dollars. That’s six times the size of the B2C e-commerce market. (Say it with us… that’s a lot.)

This move by Alibaba to open up to America is part of a well-planned global expansion strategy.

Why is it worth selling on Alibaba? Well, they have a reputation of offering significant assistance to the merchants on their platform in increasing sales. Their business model is smart: everyone on the platform works together toward a common business goal. That’s why they openly share their platform data with their merchants.

The game for global e-commerce domination between Amazon and Alibaba has taken off. It’s only a matter of time before we see who emerges as the winner.

Engaging Customers with AMP and Google Image Search

You’re probably familiar with Snapchat stories and Instagram stories. We can all agree that they’re a highly powerful social medial marketing tool. And if you’re up to date with all things Google, you might also know about AMP stories. These are Google’s version of the “story” trend, which has all of the same story qualities you know and love, like being mobile-friendly, having tap-through functionality, and options to add text and graphics.

The difference is that AMP stories are now being pushed in Google Image searches, which make up about 30% of all Internet searches. (That’s a lot.) If somebody searches for an image and gets a result that’s part of an AMP story, they can swipe up and get dropped into the story — full-screen.

This is a major marketing boon for visual industries like food, travel, and fashion. Your potential customer is likely to be Google image searching often. If you play it right, these people might then be engaging with your content in one of the most immersive and engaging ways out there right now: stories.

Succeeding with Instagram Stories

In other story-related news, Conviva just published its yearly Instagram benchmark report based on an analysis of 300 top Instagram accounts and 13,000 stories.

According to the report, one in two Instagram users engage with stories on a daily basis. (That’s a lot.) Story engagement is at an all-time high across all industries. Sports lead with an 86% completion rate. But the fastest-growing industry is brands, proving that Instagram stories are a great tool for brands to reach their customers, who love the format.

While you might think of stories as a type of short-form content, it’s actually beneficial to make them a bit longer. You’ll get the highest reach by posting stories with between 15 and 25 frames — and never below six.

The best time to post stories is between 9 and 10 in the morning, when you’ll get the best combination of reach and completion rate. Our best guess is that this is because there is less competition at that time.

Finally, it’s highly recommended that you put your reply settings on, which will improve your reach by a significant 3.2 percent.