 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
There are no sales guys and zero face time with the customer. Hence, no scope to study buying signals. However, customers still reveal a lot through their ‘digital’ body language – browsing, clicking, scrolling, filtering, etc.Identifying a pattern in their behavior, and leveraging it is not an uphill task. In fact, there are some specific kinds of online visitors any ecommerce website usually gets. The infographic below will describe you various visitors that as an ecommerce store you will receive. Plus, their digital body language, their whole journey of shopping....
Online shopping has become a multibillion-dollar revenue stream--not to mention it has completely turned the path to purchase on its head.
What retailer doesn't want a piece of that growing pie? This is where multichannel marketing comes into play. Any successful online marketing strategy, however, begins with understanding--and then catering to--consumers' various shopping patterns and preferences.
To start you on your way, here is a glimpse into the online purchase habits of the modern-day shopper.....
Mobile changes everything. We all know that’s true, right? Did you also know that mobile really doesn’t change anything at all? I’m serious. Hang in there for a moment, and I’ll explain what this is all about.
Specifically, it all comes down to how your customers use mobile. It’s pretty clear that mobile changes customer behavior pretty radically. Yet, at the same time, mobile doesn’t change customer behavior at all.
What’s also new is the speed with which they’ve adopted these behaviors. Responsive design and in-app advertising can help ensure you appear whenever customers go looking for a solution, wherever they happen to be....
“IBM’s research found a few areas where retailers may have some interesting opportunities,” said Kali Klena, global retail industry leader for IBM’s Institute for Business Value, San Mateo, CA. “First, there is a growing gap between shoppers’ enjoyment of digital shopping — online and mobile — and their last purchase behavior.“
Said another way, some retailers are delivering more enjoyable digital shopping experiences than others,” she said. “This indicates an opportunity for retailers to look at their digital shopping offerings and be sure they are truly tailored by channel....
“Amazon may not actually be the lowest-priced seller of a particular product in any given season,” the report reads, “but its consistently low prices on the highest-viewed and best-selling items drive a perception among consumers that Amazon has the best prices overall — even better than Walmart.”
The study was part of a white paper Boomerang released on Tuesday to bring attention to the idea of price perception in e-commerce. The startup has created a “price perception index,” which it described as “a numerical pricing model that captures customer psychology of price perception. It does so by providing a tangible statistic of how a company’s products…are priced, relative to the competition, weighted by customer interest.”...
Via Douglas G Hall
Consumers today conduct a great deal of research about the products they are buying and brands are being asked to fulfill a multitude of informational needs.
Argos, a UK-based consumer goods and ecommerce retailer, is exceptional in that they maintain an active presence operating across a large range of touchpoints, both digitally and via traditional media. This case study takes a close look at how Argos reaches, influences, and engages consumers as they go through their purchase journeys....
2014 was the year we started to hear a lot about the implementation of the Internet of Everything. But 2015 will be the year it really goes mainstream. From SmartTVs to smart heating systems, like Nest, to the growth in wearables, we have seen more and more products becoming connected to the web. In September, The Guardian predicted that the upcoming Apple Watch was going to power the Internet of Everything and with the massive amounts of news coverage the Apple product received without even being released, it looks like 2015 will be its year.
For retailers, turning their entire retail shops into smart spaces is one way they are completing the circle between online and offline and pulling people into their stores. Using beacons, geolocation, push notifications and mobile apps, retailers are able to send personalised, hyper relevant and micro localised messages to their customers in-store. With more and more retailers using beacons and more customers now aware of the technology, sales are set to increase and revenues will see uplift from greater use of this up and coming technology. The challenge will be for companies to make the technology a seamless experience for customers and work on integrating it into their overall marketing strategy.
Department stores and mega-malls were among the main places for Americans to meet, socialize and, of course, shop. That’s all changed.
Department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers registered another lackluster holiday shopping season, while online sales have remained upbeat since Cyber Monday. As more consumers spend a larger share of their dollars online, does this signal the days of shopping at department stores and shopping malls are numbered?
Cyber Monday sales this year were up 8.7 percent compared with 2013, led by a sharp increase in mobile transactions according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Sales over mobile devices jumped 29 percent . That’s a sharp contrast with the mostly bad news for brick-and-mortar stores, which saw about 6 million fewer shoppers over the Thanksgiving weekend, with overall spending down about 11 percent , according to the National Retail Federation....
When was the last time you paid the full retail price? According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal (Attention, ‘Discount Junkies’) about 15% of shoppers generally pay full price for items and don’t bother searching for sales. At the other extreme, a fifth of online shoppers are considered true “discount junkies,” people who make purchases only when offered discounts.
Discount shoppers are clearly reluctant to spend on premium brands if value is missing. In fact, in C. Britt Beemer and Robert L. Shook’s book “It Takes a Prophet to Make a Profit: 15 Trends that are Reshaping American Business” published back in January 2001, Trend 6 states:“Consumers Are Reluctant to Pay Full Retail Price”
Their research showed that more than 85 percent of all consumers in America shop for merchandise on sale. For those who pay full retail, 44 percent said they did so because they didn’t have time to shop. In addition, they discovered....
There was a time when group buying virtually snatched the popularity away from all other e-commerce models. But that day is long gone. Today, group buying is anything but sought after.
The falling popularity of group buying as an e-commerce model both saddens and surprises me and I never stop wondering what actually went wrong.
In this article, I attempt to piece together all the findings that my research in this area has led to. I do hope once the dots are all connected, the reason behind group buying and its fall from popularity won’t remain a mystery to us....
As shopping shifts to the web and mobile, retailers need to be increasingly mindful of the different e-commerce channels and how their services and sites stack up against those of competitors, and the industry at large.
A few key performance indicators, or KPIs, allow retailers to benchmark themselves in specific areas of online commerce. Identifying the right areas for improvement can help businesses adjust and capture a larger share of the e-commerce and retail market.
Many local retailers think that the rise of digital has lead to a downturn in business, suggesting that they can’t compete with the online shopping experience.
But according to a recent study commissioned by Google, digital can in fact enhance your business, if used properly.In ‘The 3 New Realities of Local Retail’ Google outlines three key findings:- Digital drives in-store traffic- Smartphones are in-store shopping assistants- Omnichannel shopping deserves omnichannel measurement....
With 2015 lurking around the corner, it’s time to ensure your ecommerce site is ready to tackle the challenges the New Year will bring to e-retailers.
This is going to be a significant year for online retailers as the concept of ecommerce recently turned 20 (if you consider the age of internet payment processing systems). Bigcommerce predicts global B2C ecommerce market will hit record growth in 2015, with revenue of around $2 trillion. According to a study conducted by Emarketer.com, Asia-Pacific is likely to become the top region for ecommerce sales in 2015, followed by North America and Western Europe.
|
Apple Pay makes up more than $2 out of $3 spent on purchases using contactless payment across the three major US card networks. I agree with my colleague Sucharita Mulpuru that this is likely a big chunk of a small pie, considering the lower maturity of the mobile contactless ecosystem in the US. It's always better to look for absolute value. In this regard, PayPal processed $46 billion in mobile payment volume in 2014, up 68% over 2013.
Should marketers care about mobile wallets? Yes. Mobile wallets are not just about mobile payments. Consumers want a better shopping experience. Offering faster or more-secure payments is not enough; wallet providers will have to solve real pain points, such as giving consumers the ability to see what’s on stored value cards at any moment in time, access loyalty points, or automatically receive digital copies of payment receipts. In particular, 57% of US online adult smartphone users are interested in having access to loyalty program points and rewards within a mobile wallet. Access to loyalty rewards from brands is the most wanted feature from consumers, and it's the one least integrated in mobile wallets today....
Lately, with the onslaught of ecommerce boom in this country, for SMBs and present online retailers, the concern has shifted from “how to launch an online store” to “how to launch an efficient online store.
Ecommerce solution providers, like us- Zepo, are always digging for innovative approaches with which online selling could be made easy. So, we recently compiled the list of elements which although being crucial to an online store are often neglected.
Please find them below but let explicitly clear that they are in no particular order....
Consumers are shifting spending online, with 71% of surveyed consumers in UK and 61% in US, doing more than half their 2014 holiday shopping online, according to research by Wipro Digital.
This is a significant increase from 2013, when 45% in UK and 36% in US reported doing the majority of their shopping online.
This trend is set to continue with half of the surveyed consumers in US and UK saying that they plan to do more shopping, online in the 2015 holiday season, as compared to just 6% in UK and 4% in US who plan to increase their in-store shopping...
In a world where the importance of mobile optimization is being increasingly vocalized, brands are still experiencing a low number of online sales and conversions through mobile products. A new study from Opera Software, however, aimed to better explain the shopping behaviors of consumers while browsing and buying through mobile and desktop devices.
Opera Software’s report compared traffic and conversions through different platforms for each day of the week, and their research produced a few interesting discoveries. First off, while the holidays are always thought of as the most popular time of the year to shop online, Opera found that June was the month which experienced the highest global volume of traffic to mobile shopping sites. On a weekly basis, it appears that mobile traffic to ecommerce sites spikes on Sundays, while desktop traffic is highest on Mondays.
Overall, shopping traffic tends to be more consistent and strong on weekdays; however, Friday experiences the lowest number of mobile visits. The company explains this phenomenon with a notion that shoppers tend to research and browse on their mobile devices on weekends, but add the the actual purchasing of the item to do their to do lists during the week....
Cashback industry leader eBates had a phenomenal year, returning $98,339,477 to consumers. Consumers are now embracing cashback programs and merchants are seeing the benefits of this powerful marketing strategy in driving sales. The future strength of the cashback industry is further reflected in the purchase of eBates for more than $1 billion by Japanese conglomerate Rakuten.
Macy’s has announced they will shut down 14 stores as part of a restructuring effort, citing a shift in how consumers shop. The retail giant notes that this is part of a broader plan to meet consumers where they are: online.
The closed stores will mean a reduction of 1,343 jobs and should be completed within the next few months. The news has the average layperson assuming the worst of the brand, but Macy’s is no JCPenney, no, this is a simple effort that is common for large brands. These closures represent only a fraction of the brand’s 790 stores across America....
The value of eCommerce in the US is expected to climb 15.5% this year to US$304.1 billion. What does this tell us about the changing shopping habits of Americans?...
Before you’re going to (re)design your eCommerce store – either by starting from scratch or using an online shop builder – it’s crucial to take a look at other successful eCommerce designs that got their audience engaged through interactive user interfaces, eye-catching visuals, and good usability.
To help you make your upcoming eCommerce project outstanding, here I’m going to analyze 10 amazing eCommerce websites that I believe are worth seeing. May be, not all of them are perfect for you, but I’m sure you’ll learn a thing or two from each of them. Also, check this article for more Shopify reviews. Let’s go through them one by one!...
While recovering from the holiday rush, retailers can look back at this season’s trends to discover new ways to fuel customer engagement and drive loyalty in the next year. Using real-time analytics, SAP uncovered a wealth of insights about consumers’ attitudes and desires that retailers can use all year long.
We have found that simply listening to what people are already saying provides powerful insights into their attitudes and behaviors. And consumers had plenty to say this holiday season: Shoppers shared their opinions and chronicled their actions with more than 28 million mentions online, an 8% increase over last year, according to SAP analytics.
Holiday shoppers tweeted more than 28 million mentions about their gift purchases- up 8% YoY via @SAP_Retail
Using social media analytics, we combed through the social chatter this holiday season to discover what consumers said – and what they actually did. We found some interesting trends, revealing consumers’ changing tactics and suggesting retailers must respond with different strategies of their own....
Most retailers are familiar with “shopping bulimics” – the consumers who make purchases and promptly return their merchandise. Retail consultant Kurt Salmon told the Wall Street Journal in an article last year that one third of all Internet transactions result in returns. While this might not be the best-case scenario for retailers, some of whom lose millions a year on returns, it’s important to note that consumer behavior often dictates best practices for retailers.
Just as marketers will seek out many channels to connect with potential buyers, retailers are also embarking on omni-channel retailing to offer transaction options with the maximum number of consumers. Recent studies have shown that despite offering free shipping on returns, which has driven up online sales, retailers can leverage more pull with consumers who buy online and want to return their products in person to the physical store....
To understand how the best sell on social and earn a positive ROI on their social investment, we researched 100 of the top social selling e-commerce brands on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. For two weeks, we recorded each of their posts across six dimensions: 1. type (video, image, or text), 2. purpose (promote product or brand building), 3. copy, 4. whether it was linked, 5. whether it was original or user-generated content (including retweets and repins), and 6. posting time.
We then compiled this data and analyzed it for patterns. Here’s what we found to be the best practices for social posting that drives sales
Eyeballs have been shifting aggressively to mobile in recent years but the bucks - at least for ecommerce - remained anchored to the desktop. That is now changing according to a new study by Criteo.
The advertising optimization platform analyzed individual transaction data covering over $130 billion of annual sales across more than 3,000 online retailers and travel advertisers recently and discovered that across its extensive network mobile now accounts for almost 30 per cent of ecommerce transactions.
And the company predicts that it will reach 50 per cent in the US in the near term.Criteo also outlines what it sees as five new mobile shopping trends....
|
Seeing digital buyers' footprints.