Is the “Paradox of Choice” Ruining Your eCommerce Site?
According to the paradox of choice idea, offering too many choices can stress out customers, reduce conversions, and detract from business. The “paradox of choice” phrase comes from a marketing book and a Ted Talk by Barry Schwartz, a well-known psychology professor. On the surface, having plenty of choices seems like a very positive thing. Dr. Schwartz thinks this idea often backfires because people get so overwhelmed by having a great number of choices that they may fail to make any decisions at all. Online shopping offers consumers an almost unlimited range of choices. Recently, businesses have taken a look at eCommerce marketing to find out if having so many options benefits buyers and sellers as much as they might have thought. As with most marketing questions, it can depend upon the business, market conditions, and unique marketing strategies. Can offering fewer choices make eCommerce marketing more profitable? The recent experience of many restaurants can illustrate the idea that offering fewer choices might provide businesses with benefits. Though they’re not typically thought of as traditional eCommerce businesses, a lot of dine-in restaurants had to publish online menus and offer to-go orders because of social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic. To simplify ordering and eCommerce web development, they considered the fact that a few items generally generated most of their profits and sales. Thus, they often trimmed menus and featured only their most popular meals. More than a few restaurants decided to maintain their limited menus even after they reopened because they found smaller menus move improved efficiency more than it turned away customers. During the outbreak, restaurants needed to run as efficiently as possible for a number of reasons, including restrictions on capacity and problems with supply chains. As time passes and things return to normal, some of these places may add back more items to their menus. However, while they need to remain very lean and agile to cope with the outbreak, many have decided that reducing frills and choices solves a lot of problems. Particularly for businesses that need to trim budgets and run as lean as possible, the notion of offering fewer items has obvious merit. How fewer choices might increase conversions To see why limiting options won’t always reduce sales, consider one study from a Columbia University psychology professor. Dr. Iyengar set out a tasting table in a grocery store with 24 different jam flavors. That table attracted 60 percent of the shoppers who passed by. Later, she reduced the selection to to only six flavors and attracted only 40 percent of the customers. At the same time, she enjoyed conversion rates of only three percent when she offered 24 flavors and thirty percent when she only offered six. Even though she attracted fewer tasters to the table, she sold a lot more jam when she limited choices. In response, Dr. Iyengar agreed with Dr. Schwartz’ idea that offering too many options might lead to information overload. She believed more customers turned away because so many choices made them feel fatigue or even stress. How does the paradox of choice impact online sales? An Amazon marketing agency might also keep this in mind when deciding on how many products to offer or even if Amazon will provide the best platform to focus on. Who hasn’t started shopping on Amazon at one time or another and found so many options that nothing ever got ordered at all? According to BigCommerce: Amazon already sells more than 12 million products. Amazon lists over a million products in the home improvement category alone. At the same time, some channels enjoy fairly low conversion rates. For instance, only two percent of Echo owners have used their device to order products. Maybe this audio-only device doesn’t lend itself so well to an eCommerce platform with so many choices. DTC companies and distributors may want to also consult with a Shopify agency to see if they would have a better opportunity marketing with their own distinct shop. Most third-party sellers also use other platforms, so testing more than one option appears prudent. Even then, new sellers should probably consider starting with only a few products. As they grow, they might slowly and carefully expand their offerings and even remove some low-performing products. Finally, trying to become all things to all people can make it difficult to remain efficient. Meanwhile, offering a few, well-chosen options makes it easy to deal with inventory, customer service, and sometimes even eCommerce web development. Businesses with fewer products might not attract as many prospects. Still, if they can balance a lower number of visitors with high conversion rates, lower operating costs, and fewer hassles, maybe they can use this tactic to increase profits. What can the paradox of choice tell you about your customers? Of course, some companies thrive by offering lots of interesting choices. For instance, having lots of creatively named ice cream flavors has appeared to serve Ben & Jerry’s very well. Lots of fans of this company can’t wait to taste the latest creation. Still, Dr. Schwartz cautioned that providing too many choices might lead people to take shortcuts that will prompt them to pick something that they believe is good enough instead of taking more time to find the best solution. He also said people with too much freedom of choice may have extremely high expectations and that increases the risk of disappointment. Perhaps offering lots of flavors works for Ben & Jerry’s because selecting ice cream doesn’t require a big investment. Also, the company’s been very creative about their release strategy and devoted themselves to building customer trust. With the jam experiment, customers were first introduced to an unfamiliar brand. A more expensive and durable kind of product may also take a bigger risk. Is less more for eCommerce marketing? The choice of how many products to offer and which online platform to use can depend upon many factors. These might include the type of product, overall marketing goals, and the
10 Amazon Algorithm Hacks to Accelerate eCommerce Marketing
Amazon’s algorithm cares about relevance, conversions, and customer experience. Here’s how to boost your eCommerce marketing to get Amazon pages right. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, TechCrunch announced that Amazon had already taken over about half of the entire eCommerce market. During the outbreak, eCommerce spiked. Larger and recognizable online brands gained the lion’s share of that boom, so it’s easy to imagine that Amazon has retained or even increased its position as a market leader. If, like so many others, you’ve decided that joining Amazon is a lot easier than trying to beat them, make sure you employ the best tactics to gain as much visibility and as many sales as possible. Begin by understanding how the algorithm works and the Amazon marketing hacks you can use to benefit from that knowledge. Ten Amazon marketing hacks to help ensure your products gain exposure Actually, Amazon only has three core ranking factors. They based these upon their intimate knowledge of what it takes to sell well on their platform. Improving these will help you gain more visibility and earn higher revenues: Conversion rates: Higher total sales and higher sales per visit can help win favor from the Amazon algorithm. Of course, more sales and profits benefits you as well. Relevancy: Amazon needs to see product pages as relevant to searches and also-bought and also-viewed suggestion boxes. People who want what you’re offering will be able to find you, further increasing your chance of making sales. Retention and customer experience: Having repeat customers, a good number of mostly favorable reviews, and a low defect rate can help you find favor with Amazon’s ranking scheme. They’re signs that you’re satisfying first-time buyers well enough to turn them into loyal customers. Of course, most businesses set eCommerce marketing goals that will help them attract and retain customers. To use Amazon marketing services to meet these goals, consider these ten tested tips: Optimize product listings: Clear images, engaging, informative text, and a completed product page can keep customers on the page longer. They’re more likely to consider you credible enough to buy from. Bounce rate, time spent on page, and of course, sales all factor into the algorithm. Encourage social interactions: Make sure customer questions get answered and try to encourage reviews. You should never pay for reviews, but you’re certainly free to ask for them. Having more social interaction also gives you user generated content that can feed Amazon’s algorithm and even help you rank well in other search engines. Price right: Amazon makes it incredibly easy for shoppers to compare prices. You need to make certain you’re either competing on price or making it clear why some aspect of your product makes it worth more than seemingly similar products that cost less. Craft good titles: Optimize your product title by including search terms and product and brand names. You should strive to maximize both clarity and relevance. Your title needs to encourage buyers to click while also letting the search engine understand the nature of your product. List product features: If you list your product features with bullet points and additional search terms, you’ll make it both user- and search-friendly. A list makes it easier for buyers to quickly figure out if your product meets their needs. Fill in the specification section: Amazon provides this section for such important information as size, weight, and color. Completing it provides customers with information in a fairly standardized form that they’re used to. It also shows Amazon that you’re diligent. Carefully consider categories and subcategories: Some people browse by category and subcategory. By choosing the right ones, you’ll have a better chance to get found both by searchers and browsers. Spend time choosing search terms: You can find some research tools that will help you uncover the types of search terms that shoppers may use to find products like yours. Avoid frivolous or subjective terms while including as many potentially relevant terms as possible. Provide excellent customer service: While Amazon cares about sales and conversions, they also care about returning customers. Your attention to quality, prompt shipping, and other aspects of customer service should help you enjoy better reviews, repeat customers, and a better rank. Become an Amazon Prime seller: Amazon Prime members now outnumber non-Prime shoppers on the site. Naturally, they give more exposure to Prime sellers. You need to apply and in some cases, work your way up to getting accepted into the program as a third-party seller. Why spend time on your Amazon product listings? While Amazon has plenty of shoppers, it also attracts fierce competition. It might seem like you need to spend a lot of time in your product page to get it right. Many sellers invest in an eCommerce marketing agency to help them get started. After all, a well-crafted product page can complement your excellent service and high-quality products to keep producing sales for years in the future. As you work to improve the way that Amazon’s algorithm views your pages, you will also improve your chances to sell more products and grow your business.
Use These Tactics to Advertise Like Chewy.com
DTC brands are known for their clever, original, and on-trend ads. Read what we can learn from the pet product marketing tactics Chewy.com uses to connect with audiences. In a few short years, DTC (or D2C) brands have gone from a novelty to an essential part of the lives of most consumers. Emarketer forecasts that DTC sales will account for $17.75 billion of total ecommerce sales in 2020, up 24.3% from the previous year. Many of the newer DTC brands who have become household names have used highly memorable and creative direct to consumer marketing approaches to gain traction. One such example is Chewy.com, a DTC pet brand. Let’s take a closer look at how Chewy.com advertises, and what we can learn from their pet product marketing approach. Using a Savvy DTC Ad Strategy to Build Market Share This Chewy.com ad cleverly targets the new parent demographic. One of the primary benefits of Chewy’s direct to consumer marketing model is convenience — it delivers toys, chews, food, and treats directly to a consumer’s home, in a box. For new parents, saving a trip to the local brick and mortar pet store is a significant draw. Chewy’s ad shows how its service can ease the burden of new parenthood, often one of life’s most overwhelming experiences. Chewy’s ad is smart for another reason: It targets a large and growing demographic. Pets are often regarded as “training babies” by millennials, who are delaying the rituals and milestones of adulthood longer than earlier generations. Because younger people humanize their pets and treat them as family members, they are more willing to pay for premium products and services. Focusing on the “new parents with a dog” market is a smart move for Chewy.com, given their passion and willingness to spend. Chewy’s ads also make an economic case familiar to DTC or D2C brands. This ad stresses that all the products offered by Chewy are not only cheaper than those found in a brick and mortar retailer, they also come with free shipping. It’s a powerful ad because today’s “pet parents” want to do more for their animals, but they may be constrained by lack of income (a particular problem for younger pet parents). Chewy’s ad maintains that it’s possible to buy the best for your animal by opting for their low overhead DTC model. Chewy.com also released ads focusing on the ease of the delivery and exciting experience of “unboxing” a collection of dog food, treats and toys; an ad showing how Chewy.com customer service reps can assist with helping find food for dogs and cats who are “picky eaters”; and ads that feature specific owners and their dogs, all enjoying Chewy.com boxes. All of the ads are upbeat, brief and colorful and feature lots of testimonials and images of happy pets. Additionally, all of the company’s pet product marketing messages highlight at least one aspect of Chewy.com DTC value proposition: Cheaper products, easy delivery, the boxing experience, etc. Experience-based Advertising and Pet Product Marketing, Chewy-style Chewy operates on the premise that consumers only share two types of experiences online: Great ones and terrible ones. So Chewy, obviously, strives to generate the former. The company has drawn notice for sending flowers and condolences to a customer who called to cancel an order after a pet’s unexpected death. The customer was stunned and appreciative and later shared the story on social media. Chewy is also known for sending handwritten notes addressed directly to its customers’ pets — a whimsical touch that plays extremely well in an era when most of us humanize our animals. The Takeaway for Pet Product Marketing DTC brands seeking to build awareness, attract new audiences, and engage with their existing customers would do well to consider Chewy’s direct to consumer marketing, DTC advertising, and customer service model. Chewy’s ads are not high concept; instead, they hammer home the core value proposition of the company’s DTC model and show plenty of happy and excited pets. At Bigeye, we have the experience and expertise to create top drawer DTC ad campaigns such as those created by Chewy.com. Contact us today for more information about how we can help you reach your goals.
10 eCommerce Marketing Tips to Improve Customer Service
Improving customer service means improving eCommerce marketing in order to retain and attract customers. Learn to improve customer service with these tips. In recent months, eCommerce has enjoyed an incredible boom. At the same time, consumers also have plenty of choices and the means to research them. While online shoppers tend to demonstrate loyalty to brands they love, a poor experience will encourage them to try another internet shop. That’s why you need to prioritize customer service as a key part of your eCommerce Marketing strategy. Consider these key stats from HubSpot that illustrate why you need to invest in high-quality customer service: American shoppers who say customer service factors into their shopping choices: 90 percent American consumers who say they’ve switched companies in the past year because of poor customer service: 49 percent Mostly, it can cost between five and 25 times as much to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Even if you’ve hired a high-quality consumer marketing agency, worked hard to develop your brands and packaging, and done everything else right, poor customer service experiences can keep prospects from making their first purchase and just as bad, prevent a first-time buyer from making a second purchase. Ten eCommerce Marketing Suggestions to Improve Customer Service You can benefit by investing in some fairly simple and affordable enhancements to your customer service. This is true if you market other company’s brands or rely upon direct to consumer advertising. Consider these tested tips to help show prospects and customers that you care about their experience both before and after you make a sale. Create a knowledge Base: You can find plenty of software and plugins that will make it simple to add an online knowledge base to your eCommerce site. You might start by answering the types of topics that customers frequently ask you or your existing customer service people. Show transaction history online: Giving customers the ability to login and see their ordering, billing, and shipping history online will help eliminate a lot of questions and misunderstandings. Create how-to videos: Posting videos that explain how your website or even some of your products work will help answer questions, increase customer satisfaction, and probably even drive sales. Create a scalable team: While a lot of these steps can help reduce the number of customer service reps you need, make sure you can handle peak demand. Offer live chat: According to Forrester, typical live chat sessions can cost up to 30 percent less than comparable phone calls. Some software allows you to use pre-written macros to answer frequent questions, and often, agents can handle more than one chat session at a time. Develop a multi-channel customer service strategy: Besides offering support on your website, you can also consider it on social media channels. This way, you meet customers where they spend a lot of time. Also, by giving an irritated or anxious customer a place to send a message you may prevent them from venting in a public post. Use help desk software: Not only can this software help track touch-points, it can also keep different service channels integrated. For instance, you can keep a record of interactions from social media and your website stored in one place. Offer a 24-7 voice system: Even if you can’t possibly keep somebody online 24 hours a day, you can still take messages that get routed to your held desk software for responses during the next business day. Even in this age of social media messaging and live chat, some folks still like to speak with a live person. Keep your FAQ updated: Once you get your customer service rolling, you should find that some questions occur more frequently than others. Having those clearly addressed in a simple FAQ should head off a lot of contacts and customer frustration. Track and measure customer service: If you want to keep improving, you need a way to measure your progress. In addition to tracking the number and types of request, you may want to send out surveys after a contact to give customers a chance to provide feedback. Even if you initially only provide limited options for customer to get in touch, it’s important to ensure that confused or dissatisfied people have a way to get their concerns addressed. Any growing eCommerce business must attract and retain customers. Poor customer service experiences will turn away customers, even for companies who do a lot of other things right.
How Casper’s D2C Method Has Customers Resting Easy at Night
Casper’s DTC product marketing agency success: Authority content, social influencers, a fun brand, and a high-quality product. When it comes to out-of-the-box selling techniques, you have to take note of Casper as a prime example. After all, they were one of the first companies to literally have their customers take mattresses right out of the box it was delivered in. While they’ve struggled with profitability, this D2C and digitally native mattress company has excelled at increasing revenue and brand recognition. Casper had a plan for moving their bottom line to the black too, though that’s been somewhat hampered by the coronavirus outbreak. Still, any product marketing agency can glean some valuable lessons by studying Casper’s model. How Casper Changed D2C Marketing for Mattresses Even though most folks spend at least one-third of their lives in bed, few consumers find mattress shopping very engaging. You’ve usually got to learn about and choose options between plush and firm, plus you need to decide between traditional, memory foam, hybrid, gel, and more. Even though most people only replace their mattress once or twice every decade, high-quality choices can range between several hundred to a few thousand dollars. So while most consumers don’t pay attention to mattresses often, they tend to spend some time considering this occasional purchase well. This can add up to a customer experience that’s often somewhat boring and stressful at the same time, which may explain why lots of consumers probably don’t replace their mattresses as often as they should. Since most mattresses are also large and bulky, customers may also have to consider the difficulty of moving it themselves or paying even more money for delivery. Mostly, consumers have to go to all of this expense and trouble for something that they generally cover up with a sheet and forget about until they decide they need to buy a new one. For most consumers, shopping for a mattress may feel more like a chore than an adventure. What’s different about Casper’s direct to consumer advertising and marketing? With its direct to consumer advertising, Casper changed this experience from a typically poor one to something that its target market, millennials, wanted to associate themselves with. Instead of having consumers go to a furniture or dedicated mattress store to consider dozens of different options and make a purchase, Casper set out to convince customers they had perfected the perfect mattress for everybody. At first, they just started with the Original model. In turn, people could simply order by that one product on the internet and get it delivered in a box to their door. Instead of thinking of getting a somewhat modestly priced mattress delivered in a cardboard box as inferior, Casper set out to make consumers perceive their model as fun, progressive, and sensible. To be fair, according to Forbes, the company’s two founders lived on the fourth floor of a walkup apartment when came up with the delivery-in-a-box idea. Instead of struggling to get a mattress home or adding to the expense by paying movers, customers could simply have their purchase mailed to them. That worked out both easier and cheaper. Casper’s D2C marketing hacks: digital and print content Mostly, any consumer marketing agency should take note of the way that Casper employed content marketing to position themselves not just as an online mattress brand but as authorities in the entire sleep industry. Besides blog, social media, and video posts, they also created their own magazine, Woolly. According to the magazine’s about page, it focuses upon wellness, comfort, and modern life. The publication’s not specifically about mattresses or even sleep but contains satire, modern art, essays, and advice. It attracts the sort of audience that the company believes would also consider sleeping on a Wooly mattress but certainly isn’t the digital version of a Casper infomercial. Woolly has been described as authentic and creative, probably exactly the way that the Casper brand wants to position itself. Casper’s advertising to their target market The company’s also supported it’s visibility by courting social influencers and celebrities. One of the most famous examples is a social post by Kylie Jenner, picturing herself moving into a bare apartment with just a Casper box on the floor beside her. According to HubSpot, that one ad doubled net sales. They also post cheerful ads in such locations as New York MTA stations and invest in TV ads. What advice could a D2C marketing agency give Casper? Judging by revenue, Casper has run very effective marketing and advertising campaigns. They’ve certainly introduced a new generation to a new way of buying a very traditional product. Still, they have a couple of problems that have hampered profitability: Infrequently purchased item: People don’t buy new mattresses very often. Even if Casper might convince customers to ditch their old mattress in favor of their product, they won’t have a chance at a repeat sale for several more years. Also, high-quality mattresses usually cost at least a few hundred dollars, so many people want to see and feel the product before they buy it. Supersized marketing budget: Gartner says average companies spend between 10 and 12 percent of their revenue on marketing. In the last few years, Casper’s has ranged in the mid-thirties to mid-forties. In comparison, Wayfair spent about 16 percent. Casper is on the way to fixing some of these issues. For one thing, they’ve started to introduce other sleep-related products to their mix. Examples include frames, pillows, and bedding. Now they even sell a line of gifts that includes dog beds, weighted blankets, and a glow light that they say helps people fall asleep. With the massive investment they make in promoting their brand, they’ve realized that they need to encourage repeat sales with smaller and more impulsive purchases. Like other online retailers, Casper has also realized that they’re missing out on a lot of customers by keeping their products out of retail stores. Even BarkBox has started placing pet supplies in Target, and Amazon has
Online Pet Marketing During and After the COVID-19 Crisis
Pet marketing in 2020: Consumer confidence may have waned, but pet owners still spend money on their dogs, cats, and other pets. COVID-19 has generated plenty of concerns about health and finances all over the world. This global pandemic may have initially begun when the virus jumped from an animal to a human host. On the plus side, the CDC says that you probably don’t have to worry about pets getting sick or contributing to spreading the disease. Instead of making people leery of keeping pets, the crisis appears to have sparked interest in them. In fact, pet ownership has even increased in the United States during these days of social isolation. Even better for pet product marketing, most sectors of the industry have proven remarkably resilient to past financial downturns. Still, pet industry trends and consumer behavior have changed abruptly during the current crisis. It’s important to understand what’s different about the COVID-19 outbreak than financial slumps of the past. That way, you can develop pet product marketing plans that will attract and retain today’s customers. How has the coronavirus impacted pet marketing? Even before coronavirus, marketers have touted pet product marketing as a typically recession-proof industry. That positive view of the overall pet business held true both during the Great Recession of the last decade and in the aftermath of 9/11 two decades ago. Still, the current pandemic has generated both some new opportunities and new challenges for the pet business. For instance, previous economic downturns did not have associated stay-at-home orders and perhaps, did not occur quite this abruptly. While many retailers and marketers still have plenty of reasons to feel optimistic, others have struggled and may need to pivot their pet marketing plans rapidly in order to maintain and grow their business. Local pet services face the most obstacles The virus has generated the most challenges for local pet services. In particular, locally owned businesses may struggle to survive. Travel restrictions and increased remote work have slashed the need for such services as pet boarding, daycare, and dog walkers. Restrictions on in-person contact have limited dog groomers, even if they’re considered essential businesses. People may delay some other discretionary services as they tighten their purse strings. On the other hand, one sort of pet service has enjoyed an upswing. According to USA Today, pet shelters and adoption centers have not reported an increase in the number of pets dropped off because owners were either financially unable or too ill to take care of them. Actually, pet shelters have reported an increase in the number of people who have signed up to foster or adopt shelter pets. Because of social distancing measures, people may have decided pets can help them cope with isolation. Others may simply have found more time to care for a furry friend. Also, many shelters and sponsoring agencies have made it possible to reduce or even eliminate adoption fees. Probably for multiple reasons, expect to see pet ownership increase and not decrease during the coronavirus outbreak. Local retailers must take safety measures and find alternative business tactics Most of the government stay-at-home orders consider pet stores an essential business. That means that they can stay open, even when non-essential businesses have had to close. At the same time, they’ve generally had to take more stringent safety measures to satisfy local regulations and of course, to keep their customers and employees safe. For instance, stores might limit foot traffic, have employees use PPE, and offer curbside service or new delivery options. Keven Fink serves as the CEO of Worldwide, a pet products manufacturer. He said that many of his company’s local retailers should have prepared themselves better by leaning into online retailing a little more. He believes they should take advantage of their community presence by offering more online ordering with local pickup. In this way, customers still won’t need to pay a shipping charge. Still, they can enjoy the convenience of contact-free payments, online ordering, and in many cases, same-day pickup. Traditionally, this model has served other types of retailers with physical stores very well. In addition to other marketing, physical stores could better position themselves by adding online pet supply marketing to their existing advertising. How to benefit from the rise of online pet supply marketing Pet industry marketers will face challenges both during and shortly after the outbreak. Compared to an original project increase of five percent for 2020, the marketing research firm Packaged Facts predicts an overall 17 percent decline for the year. Most of that decline comes to a drop in such pet services as boarding, dog walking, and pet daycare services. Travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders mean that more people won’t need this kind of help. Packaged Facts also expects a somewhat more modest decline in other discretionary services and products but an increase in sales of such non-discretionary pet products as food and litter. Along with obstacles, marketers can also find some growth opportunities. Online pet supply marketing already enjoyed steady growth before the outbreak. Mobile and online sales have been surging for all sorts of eCommerce. Pet product retailers and marketers should take this as good news because historically, online sales have tended to grow the overall market instead of cannibalizing other retail sales. Packaged Facts expects online sales to reach at least 24 percent of total industry sales in 2020 and grow to over 26 percent within five years. Choosing an online platform Larger retailers and distributors may already have their own eCommerce platform. Other pet product marketers may simply take advantage of the vast audience and developed infrastructure that Amazon already offers them. If a pet product supplier has a brick-and-mortar store, either option can offer a customer base that extends far beyond their local market. Of course, many sellers have both a presence on Amazon and their own store. Managing both Amazon listings and a business website makes an marketing a bit more complex; however, it can also offer your business many
The Rise of eCommerce Marketing After COVID-19
Use eCommerce marketing to take advantage of the growing population of regular online shoppers, while avoiding the pitfalls of this digital transformation. As news of the COVID-19 pandemic spread almost as fast as the coronavirus itself, governments started encouraging people and businesses to take social distancing measures. Soon after, even the brick-and-mortar businesses that didn’t have to close their doors, often cut hours to reduce the risks to staff and customers. Both businesses and customers have experienced dramatic changes in a very short time. Still, this sudden shift in shopping behavior has allowed eCommerce to boom. How does the COVID-19 crisis impact eCommerce marketing? As with all crises, some dramatic changes are likely to remain permanent. For instance, business reliance upon eCommerce marketing had already grown at a steady pace. During the pandemic, buying and selling online suddenly spiked. These growth figures come from the Salesforce Global Shopping Index for the first quarter of 2020: Traffic growth: 16% Digital commerce growth: 20% Individual shopper growth: 4% Certainly, marketers expect eCommerce growth over time. Still, these figures from the first quarter of 2020 surpassed the 2019 holiday season, which was considered a productive one. When compared to last year, home goods increased by 51 percent. Active apparel grew by 34% and toys by 31%. Such essential goods as food and personal care items spiked up 200 percent. Is the rise of eCommerce marketing permanent? Each holiday season attracts new eCommerce business. As new shoppers get introduced to online shopping or at least, shopping at new sites, the first quarter has always surpassed the first quarter for the previous year. However, analysts don’t necessarily expect as much activity in the first quarter as occurred during the holiday season. According to CIO Magazine’s report on the impact of COVID-19 on consumer behavior and eCommerce marketing, none of this is temporary. They believe that the current crisis will create the sort of emotional bookmark that 911 and Pearl Harbor did. Some of these rapidly upset routines will cause people to revaluate and change behaviors long after the crisis has passed. To support this assertion, consider new research from the Capgemini Research Institute: Before the coronavirus pandemic, 59 percent of consumers reported a lot of interaction with brick-and-mortar stores. Just about a quarter of consumers said they expected to frequent stores as much afterwards. Within the next six or nine months, less than 40 percent of consumers said that they expected to return to previous levels of visiting physical outlets. Before the pandemic, about 30 percent of consumers reported a high level of engagement with online stores; however, 37 percent now report this behavior. In other words, consumers anticipate shopping online more and in physical stores less. Will the eCommerce boom end physical stores? Because of these survey results, Capgemini analysts agreed with CIO’s assessment that this bump in online spending would continue even after the crisis ends. At the same time, even the Amazon marketing agency doesn’t want to see local, physical stores vanish. For instance, Amazon purchased Whole Foods and opened outlets to give their customers a better experience. Prime subscriptions offer customers the choice to either save money online or inside a store. People can see, touch, and even smell products. Customers also can choose in-store pickup for deliveries, an option that has proven increasingly popular with other omnichannel outlets. Capgemini also doesn’t expect physical stores to vanish; however, shoppers may have higher expectations in the future. It’s intuitive to predict that survey respondents said they would pay more attention to sanitization issues in stores. They also said that they would be more likely to patronize physical or online businesses that communicated a strong sense of purpose and a commitment to sustainability. Customers will return to stores. At the same time, they may visit stores less and be much pickier about which ones they choose to frequent. Vital eCommerce marketing tips Ecommerce marketing may enjoy a boom because of the coronavirus. At the same time, even businesses with existing eCommerce platforms have to overcome some obstacles: Pre-coronavirus, many businesses focused mostly or solely upon foot traffic and have had to abruptly change their strategy to include eCommerce marketing. This increases competition for keywords, consumer attention, and of course, online revenue. While an established eCommerce brand will enjoy some advantages, they may not entirely overcome the budgets of large companies that need to rev up online marketing fast. As CIO Magazine ironically phrased it, the digital transformation wasn’t entirely prepared for the digital transformation. Some platforms could not handle the sudden and unexpected surge to “Black Friday” traffic levels. Very commonly, retailers suffered because of supply chain disruptions and inefficiencies. Many simply didn’t have the processes and manpower in place to handle the extra business. Even Amazon had to slow down delivery of non-essential items to ensure essential products moved to their destinations quickly. With these obstacles in mind, these essential eCommerce marketing tips can help companies survive and thrive through the current crisis and beyond: Shore up supply chains: You can’t make good inventory decisions without good information. Contact manufacturers or distributors to understand how they’re coping and what you can expect from them. Hedge your bets by finding alternative suppliers. Communicate with customers: Just as you want your suppliers to keep you in the loop, your customers want to know if they can rely upon you to provide them with excellent service and reliable deliveries. These days, people also want to feel good about doing business with you by knowing that you’re striving to improve safety for them and employees. Let people know how well you’re doing through emails, your website, and social media. Revisit your understanding of customer needs: You may believe your business understood your customer very well before the crisis; however, your customers’ situations and needs have changed as abruptly as your company’s have. For example, many beauty products companies started adding hand sanitizer to their product line to help meet customer demand. Understand that customers may
Pet Product Marketing During the Coronavirus
Find out how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted pet product sales, and how your pet product marketing can take advantage of opportunities. In the past, marketers thought of pet product marketing as reliably recession-resistant. According to Pet Food Industry, an industry journal, that proved true both after 911 and during the Great Recession of 2008. In contrast, industry forecasters do expect to see at least a temporary drop in some pet product sales during the coronavirus crisis. Of course, pet owners still need to feed and care for Fluffy and Fido. Because of this, not all kinds of products will suffer, and the market should rebound by next year. In fact, some brands have continued to do quite well during the crisis. Take a minute to understand the state of the current market and how a pet product marketing agency or retailer can appeal to customers. Challenges to pet product marketing during the coronavirus These are some recent recent forecast for U.S. retail sales for pet product marketing and sales that Pet Food Industry published: Post-pandemic forecasts assume a 17 percent drop in U.S. retail sales of pet products for 2020 to 2021. Before the pandemic, those same forecasts predicted a five percent increase. If true, these declines will translate into about $18 billion less revenue in 2020 than in 2019. The forecasts do predict that the market will begin to recover in 2021. This rebound underscores the strength of the market for pet food and other pet products in the United States. Pet product marketing opportunities during the coronavirus crisis While forecasters expect pet product marketing to struggle during the next year, some kinds of products may not suffer as much. For example: Industry analysts believe non-medical pet services, vet services, and non-food pet supplies will have the largest drops. On the other hand, these same forecasters expect non-discretionary product sales to maintain modest growth. Non-discretionary products include such necessary items as pet food and cat litter. Even with these need-to-have items, expect to see consumers looking for value by turning more to sales and in some cases, store brands. Pet ownership may actually increase during COVID-19 Packaged Facts provides industry research for several industries, including pet products. Their research director, David Sprinkle, believes that U.S. pet ownership might even increase during this crisis. He said that happened during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2008. It’s even more likely to happen now because pets can provide comfort and companionship during these times of social isolation measures. As more people have switched to remote work, they may also feel they have more time to care for a pet. Surges expected for eCommerce pet product sales Even before the current crisis, eCommerce sales of pet products had begun to grow at a steady pace. As with other packaged goods, the online part of the market has continued to climb during the outbreak. Consumers may feel reluctant to leave their homes to shop as much and might even have trouble finding their favorite brands reliably stocked in stores. In addition, once pet owners find an eCommerce retailer who offers competitive prices, they often decide that ordering pet products online provides them with convenience and affordability. In any case, Packaged Facts expects the online share of the market to reach 24 percent in 2020 and over 26 percent by 2021. Maintaining and growing sales during the coronavirus pandemic A pet product agency can take some comfort in the potential growth in pet ownership and a strong demand for such essential pet supplies as food and cat litter. While other niches may slump somewhat, they won’t completely drop off and are expected to resume growing again by next year. Based on these insights for the current state of the industry, businesses can take some steps to position their own pet business better. For instance, good tactics might include offering competitive prices for essential pet products to attract and keep customers. Those same customers are still likely to consider some discretionary pet purchases. Maintaining or creating pet products brand loyalty At least when it comes to pet food, most owners tend to remain pretty loyal to certain brands. If their pet appears to like a certain kind of food and that food keeps them healthy, their owners will generally keep buying it. As most pet owners know, switching brands can take a period of adjustment, so that’s something most people would rather avoid. A survey from Civic Science found that even during the pandemic, just about three-quarters of pet owners had more concerns about pet food quality than price. As an interesting note to help develop buyer personas, women, people who cook a lot for themselves, and older people appear most concerned about quality. Dog owners seemed somewhat more concerned than cat owners. People who value quality the most will tend to turn to online retailers; however, people who also value patronizing locally owned businesses also tend to care a lot about quality. This also suggests that locally owned business could have a good chance to grow their business with online ordering options. To dig a little deeper, the survey also asked these pet owners some specific questions about their buying behavior: Brand vs. price: Where 40 percent said brand mattered more than price, only 14 percent said price mattered more. To be fair, almost half of the survey respondents said that they considered price and brand just about equally important. Unsurprisingly, typical consumers would rather save money but not at the expense of quality. Sources: About 55 percent of the respondents said they bought their pet food at the store. Of these, 43 percent shopped at either a grocery or discount store and 28 percent purchased from a local or chain pet store. Online sales from Amazon and other online retailers captured about 29 percent of sales. In conclusion, pet owners do tend do demonstrate brand loyalty. On the other hand, most of these consumers would prefer to find a good deal
ECommerce Website Management and Marketing After COVID-19
Read why eCommerce is booming during the coronavirus, and how businesses can retain those customers after the crisis passes. During these days of the coronavirus outbreak, you might have a hard time picturing a return to normal business conditions. Still, you can already see signs that preventative measures have begun to flatten the curve and even turn it around. Doctors and scientists have remained optimistic that they can devise better treatments and effective vaccines rapidly. Hopefully soon, people can start to resume normal activities and companies can reopen their doors. Still, most marketers expect at least some of the dramatic changes to consumer behavior to last. More specifically, one sector of the economy, eCommerce, has boomed. With that in mind, it’s important to address eCommerce management and marketing strategies that will ensure that you can retain the gains you may have made for a long time after the coronavirus crisis passes. How has eCommerce marketing fared during the coronavirus outbreak? To understand how rapidly eCommerce has grown, take a look at one particular segment, food and beverages. According to eMarketer, they had previously forecasted eCommerce sales for food and beverages would increase during 2020. The pre-coronavirus forecasts predicted growth of over 23 percent and over $32 billion in revenues for the year. While eCommerce had only accounted for 3.2 percent of all receipts in this market, they had suggested food and beverage as an example of a segment of eCommerce niche without much current penetration and plenty of room for growth. Before the crisis, retailers marketing on Amazon may have also enjoyed brisk growth because of the way the largest online retailer had improved logistics to provide quick deliveries. Even though Amazon ranks first in overall eCommerce, it is not the only source of food and beverage. In fact, a large segment of that market also goes to grocers and independent direct-to-consumer companies. In any case, you should inform yourself by looking at the surge during the first months of coronavirus stay-at-home orders: Just within the three days between March 12 and March 15, a comparison of that same time period from last year showed that orders in that sector boomed by over 200 percent. Another survey sampled the time period between March 1 and March 25, and found 183-percent growth. A poll of consumer behavior between March 1 and March 25 found that American adults reported increasing their online grocery shopping from about 11 percent to 37 percent. Even more, eMarketer reported that shopping online grew steadily more common each week by the middle of March. Will marketing my product online continue to grow after the coronavirus? Obviously, people have increasingly turned to eCommerce because they want to avoid crowded grocery stores during the crisis. Also, some retailers have limited hours or even temporarily closed, so consumers need a convenient alternative. Still, you can look at past consumer behavior to predict that many of these consumers will continue to shop online after the outbreak. Predictably, eCommerce spending has surged during the last quarter of each year. Still, it doesn’t die down after the holiday season ends to the the previous first-quarter levels. Multiple-year charts look more like an ascending staircase than like a series of peaks and valleys. During successive years, sales will surge again the next fourth quarter to even higher levels than the year before. This suggests that once consumers get used to shopping online, they tend to keep the habit. Which eCommerce website management and marketing strategies will help you retain customers after the coronavirus? Certainly, shoppers will still return to retail outlets after the crisis passes. At the same time, it’s fair to predict that they will also continue to spend more money online than they did before the pandemic. Even if consumers just switched out the equivalent of one out of ten of their normal shopping trips for an online order, it would have a tremendous impact on eCommerce growth. Of course, you may have plenty of online competition in your niche and cannot guarantee that all of the customers you attracted during the outbreak will return to your business. These eCommerce marketing suggestions can help you retain more of your customers now and in the future: Subscription orders If you’ve done any consumable marketing on Amazon, Shopify, or even your own eCommerce site, you’ve probably run into subscription orders. You often see them for such consumer goods as coffee and dog food, and they let customers create a recurring order every month, typically at a discount. Such DTC companies as Dollar Shave Club and Blue Apron also rely upon the subscription model. They tend to work particularly well in such categories as food, pet food, and beauty. According to McKinsey Research, the overall subscription market has increased by 100 percent a year, and about 15 percent of all consumers say they have used subscriptions for convenient, repeat ordering at least one time. The model particularly appears to appeal to younger adults who live in urban areas and earn at least $50,000 a year. Consumers who take advantage of subscription purchases say they enjoy the convenience and value; however, they also say they’re quick to cancel if they don’t receive high-quality service and products. If you decide to offer subscription ordering, you need to make certain that you have the good products and services in place to sustain it. Loyalty programs Adding a loyalty program to your eCommerce marketing plan provides you with another way to entice customers to return. Typically, these programs offer such rewards as points to accumulate for free products, discounts, or notification of special promotions. Some companies even give their customers extra points for mentioning their products on their social networks or for providing reviews. If you add a referral program to your loyalty program, you can even encourage your current customers to mention your business to their friends. Provide flexible customer service options Recently, a lot of businesses have made their return or cancellation policies more flexible to
How DTC Can Pivot Media Plans for the Rest of 2020
DTC retailers have been affected by COVID-19. Pivoting your 2020 marketing plan using e-commerce, data, and direct sales platforms will help you recover. By the Middle of March, AdWeek published the sobering news that DTC stores had been among some of the first retailers to close because of the coronavirus crisis. At the same time, these companies’ rationale for closing may point to strengths — and not weaknesses — with many of the brands. To develop an effective media plan for DTC brands, you might consider some of the strongest examples in the industry and how they coped even when retailers had to close. Rethinking the media plan for DTC brands for post-crisis 2020 Adweek’s take on early closings by such DTC retailers as Glossier, Warby Parker, and Allbirds contained some encouraging insights. These companies did not necessarily lock their physical stores because they struggled more than typical retailers. Instead, many of them believed they could ride out the storm without brick-and-mortar outlets because they had already developed a strong online presence. In fact, some DTC retailers only sell online or at least, began with e-commerce marketing before establishing brick-and-mortar stores. In this time of crisis, they could simply return to their roots. Pivoting e-commerce marketing strategies after the coronavirus crisis To develop your plan for DTC marketing after coronavirus, it could help to consider the example of one very young company and then, consider some advice for the industry as a whole. Success through infrastructure, data, and innovative direct sales platforms Zak Normandin founded Iris Nova, a soft drink company that sold offline through its own retail stores and the hospitality industry. Normandin spoke about remaining unafraid to pivot his marketing strategy, and how this alleviated sales losses during the past couple of weeks after many of his offline channels lost business or closed. Now backed by Coca-Cola, Normandin first gained attention with the novel tactic of marketing more through text messaging than web platforms. ‘In fact, customers can directly order crates of beverages through SMS. With more people staying home, demand for home delivery has increased and this ordering method appears increasingly popular with the company’s customer base. The company does have financial challenges because of the loss of retail business, but Normandid says that he’s thankful that they had already invested heavily in brand awareness, marketing intelligence, and technology for their mobile direct ordering system. As an example, they’ve also developed retail technology they used for their own cashless store. Even though they needed to shutter the store during the coronavirus crisis, they can use this tech to generate additional revenue in partnership with other companies. Digital DTC marketing trends for during and after the coronavirus crisis Jerome Shimizu co-founded DoGood Media and serves as its chief data and analytics officer. He observed that stay-at-home measures have made consumers increasingly dependent upon direct orders. At the same time, lots of legacy companies have failed to keep up with this model. He mentioned that more old-fashioned businesses could benefit by looking at the ways newer players, like Iris Nova, have developed their online customer base. It’s also a good time to make certain brand messaging expresses sympathy to the stress many customers have experienced during the crisis. As an example, McDonald’s had a chance to procure at least an extra million masks to donate to healthcare workers when it ordered protective supplies for its own employees. This act of enlightened self-interest helped the company improve their brand image as a good employer and community member. For a DTC example, look at Brands X Better. A couple of dozen DTC brands, including Clean Simple Eats, Boll and Branch, and Harrow Sports, have teamed up together to commit a percentage of sales to a charity effort. These individual brands all cooperate to donate money and promote the effort. In turn, the website also helps promote the companies. The message on the Brands X Better site tells visitors that by buying from these brands, they can help support worthy causes and of course, keep the companies in business and employees at their jobs. It’s already time to develop e-commerce marketing for after the coronavirus As demonstrated by these examples, your ability to weather the current crisis and bounce back stronger afterwards depends upon the actions you can take now to respond. You might also need to remain flexible in the way you meet consumer demand, even though you have to make drastic changes to your original marketing and advertising plans for the year. A strong e-commerce platform and online audience can help carry you through times of weaker offline, retail sales. During the crisis, lots of consumers have turned to online ordering, so you just need to let them know you’ve made that available for them. You may even find sales boosted by consumers who are more likely to order for home delivery than to travel to a retail outlet right now. To build your brand imagine, consider actions and marketing that can demonstrate how well you adjusted and strove to help protect your employees and your community. In some cases, you may even find it easier to stretch limited resources if you can find other like-minded companies to partner with.