Coffee Talk

Good morning everyone! We hope you enjoyed your week and are ready to get back on the grind. What’s the latest news from the world of information and technology? Stick around and join us for our December 21st edition of Coffee Talk.

Christmas is only a few days away, so we hope you’ve done all your holiday shopping. If you haven’t, fear not, there’s still time. While department stores and Amazon.com may be your best friend in a pinch, online startup Jet.com, is making a strong run at major competitors like Amazon and Wal-Mart.

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via Business Etc

Launched in July of this year @(2015), Jet has shown significant growth through the last two quarters; “Jet shoppers bought more than $33 million in goods through Jet in October, up from around $10 million in August.” – Jason Del Rey, Re/Code>

How has it all been possible?

Jet’s founder [Marc] Lore believes his company offers something different: A unique discounting structure that rewards shoppers when they put more items in their checkout basket. Orders that contain multiple items, ideally located in warehouses close to their delivery address, are more efficient and cost less to process. That allows Jet to pass along those savings to the customer.

Jet CEO, Marc Lore. Image via WSJ

The e-commerce market in the U.S. amounts for about 300 billion dollars annually, but only account for about 10% of retail transactions. Again, if you haven’t heard of Jet by now, you will soon.

The company’s marketing head, Liza Landsman, said the company will spend, on average, $20 million to $25 million in marketing each month, but will mostly rely on digital ads during the holidays and ramp up TV advertising again in the New Year.

I guess the saying is true…strike while the iron is hot.

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via Getty Images/CNN

Speaking of last minute gifts, we know it’s difficult to shop for some of our friends and family members. Some of them have everything they need and others never give a conclusive answer. While we can’t tell you what gift to get, we can tell you what not to.

CNN released, #Fail: Top Tech Flops of 2015, featuring a few ideas that would make for terrible gifts this holiday season — Hoverboards, Google Maps, Volkswagen (emissions tech), and more.

What item tops the list? You’ll have to click the link to find out.

Lastly, a gift for digital marketers: What We Googled In 2015

In the latest Google news, the tech giant revealed the top search queries made in 2015 from trending topics to random inquiry. Check out the list to glean vital information regarding your industry, insight into your target audience, and spot upcoming trends for 2016.

That’s all folks for our December 21st edition of Coffee Talk. Be sure to join us next week for our December 28th edition featuring more news.

*Bonus: Find out which smartphone Forbes contributor Jay McGregor deems the best of 2015.