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By Jo Gilbert

Published:  13 May, 2021

Online services continues to grow in importance, key sources have highlighted this week, as online retail sales continue to strengthen despite physical stories reopening, and as digital strategies and e-booking becomes more important than ever for bars and restaurants re-launching to demob-happy crowds.

The on-trade is finally allowed to open indoors across England, Wales and Scotland on Monday 17 May, ending months of hospitality lockdown, alongside the ramping up of what was previously deemed non-essential retail.

It is interesting therefore, to note the findings of two key sources which predict how digital strategies and sales will continue to grow in importance over the coming weeks. The first, from IMRG and Capgemini’s Online Retail Index, shows that online retail showed positive growth in April, with sales rising +10.2% YOY despite the easing of lockdown.

“This month’s +10% increase on 2020 is particularly impressive when considering last April’s +44% year-on-year growth,” said Lucy Gibbs, managing consultant for Retail Insight at Capgemini. “It has been over a year since the first UK lockdown, therefore growth online on top of this is significant.

A separate report from KAM Media and Zonal shows that the digitalisation of the customer journey is also accelerating for bars and restaurants as sector prepares for indoor reopening.

The report, focused on the post-pandemic customer, shows that customers are now more reliant than ever on digital services such as online bookings and discovering where to eat and drink out.

This has become particularly relevant this year as customers have become reliant on online booking services and also social media in order to find reservations in limited-capacity, socially distanced venues.

Alison Vasey, group product director at Zonal, said: “Having accepted the need for technology over the past 12 months, consumers now have a greater understanding of how it improves their experience and helps remove some of their typical frustrations when eating and drinking out. From an operators’ perspective this can only be positive, as maximising the power of tech helps free up staff to concentrate on those elements that help enhance the overall guest experience.”

According to the research, customers now search digitally when deciding which venue to visit, with most people doing a ‘general internet search’ (38%) followed by the use of Google’s ‘Near Me’ search tool (25%) and then using hospitality review websites/apps such as TripAdvisor (22%.)

This represents a “huge opportunity” for operators to either influence potential customers, or risk losing them during the critical ‘research’ stage.

Social media plays a considerable role too, but with significant generational swings. Gen Z and Millennials in particular are heavily reliant on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok for ideas and inspiration on which venues to visit. Operators therefore need to ensure they are targeting the right channels which fit with their strategy and customer base, and avoid a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

For retailers, online synergies are equally important, IMRG and Capgemini say.

Andy Mulcahy, strategy and insight director at IMRG, explains that despite a major reopening of the high street in April, many large retailers saw some of their strongest sales ever last month across online and retail platforms.

“One even recorded their biggest day ever overall. While online growth might have dropped away from +70-80% between January and March to +10% in April, this is largely as growth rates are now comparing with pandemic-period rates from 2020, which were so strong that it is hard to build upon that performance,” Mulcahy said.

On the rise of digital ordering in the on-trade (42% of consumers say a venue that offers mobile phone ordering and payment became more important to them over the last 12 months), Blake Gladman, strategy and insights director at KAM Media said: “Whether customers use digital ordering options will depend on the occasion, how much time they have and who they are with – so it’s not a case of one or the other, otherwise we risk alienating them – and in some instances it could be the same customer from one day to the next. The research showed, for example, that those dining with kids were more likely to want the option of ordering digitally. It offers them a quick, hassle free option.”

Findings from KAM Media and Zonal were taken from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK adults online in April 2021.

The IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index tracks the online sales performance of over 200 retailers from a variety of sectors, including grocery, drinks, clothing and garden.

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Originally Appeared Here

The retail customer journey has been changed forever. No longer is going to a physical store and browsing the aisles the only method of shopping. More browsing than ever is taking place online, more sales than ever are occurring in digital spaces and more pressure on retailers is driving change – and new challenges – that continue to alter the shopping experience.

Understanding these changes are key to creating successful customer journeys. More importantly, though, is understanding what the modern consumer seeks. A series of recent reports provide some insights into the consumer of 2021 and what they say is important to them, giving retailers and brands a road map to fulfilling consumer needs.

The face of the online consumer

In Jungle Scout’s Q1 2021 Consumer Trends Report, consumers reported that free shipping was the top reason to shop online. That jumped up from the fourth spot in the Q4 report, suggesting shipping cost was less of a factor during the busy holiday season. Lower prices, which was sixth in the Q4 report, jumped up to No. 2 in Q1. Convenience was third in Q1 after topping the survey in Q4.

The report, which surveyed 1,005 U.S. consumers Jan. 26-29, 2021, found that 46% of consumers leave items in their online cart and forget about them, suggesting brands have some work to do to convert these customers.

When it comes to which online retailers are most popular, it’s no surprise that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) topped the list, with 73% of respondents saying they shopped at Amazon.com at least once in the past three months. Amazon was followed by Walmart (NYSE: WMT) at 40%; eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Target (NYSE: TGT), 18% each; and Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), 10% each.

When it comes to returns, 31% of respondents said they would return a product bought from an online store. That number increased slightly, to 32% for Amazon shoppers, but both numbers remained below the 37% who said they were likely to return an item at a physical store.

Consumers looking for items often start with Amazon, with 74% of them saying that is their first online stop. Search engines were popular as well, with 65% saying that’s where they start researching items. A brand or retailer’s website was cited by 38% followed by social networks Facebook, 31%; YouTube, 29%; Instagram, 21%; and TikTok, 10%. (Note: Respondents could select multiple answers.)

When it comes to getting a product in a timely manner, though, the clear choice is Amazon, with 64% saying they turn to Jeff Bezo’s platform.

Where consumers begin their online shopping journey. (Photo: Jungle Scout)

Nearly three-quarters of consumers – 73% – believe the majority of shopping will happen online in the future and 43% said they would be fine if they never shopped in a physical store again. A full 58% of consumers shop online at least once a week if not more.

When it comes to price and shipping considerations, 68% of all consumers said they are looking online for the item with the lowest price, but 48% said they would pay more for that item if it came with faster shipping. Interestingly, of Amazon shoppers, 55% said they would pay more for faster shipping even though the company already offers free shipping for most items for Prime members.

Shipping trends

A SOTI Bricks to Clicks report found that last-mile delivery remains the most inefficient part of the entire e-commerce supply chain for 59% of U.S. transportation and logistics companies. Yet for the consumer, that piece remains a critical part of the online buying experience.

In a survey of 6,000 consumers conducted by Arlington Research for mobile technology platform SOTI during Q4 2020, 67% of consumers said they wanted real-time visibility into the location of their Christmas gifts from the moment the online order was processed. Delays in delivery exceeding two days turned off 38% of consumers, who said they would look elsewhere for the product in those cases, and 57% said they were frustrated with the returns process for online orders.

Delivery experience management company Convey conducted its own survey on Amazon, building the results into a recent webinar, “Amazon’s Momentum and Retailer’s Moment of Opportunity.” The company’s survey found 6 in 10 consumers were more likely to complete a purchase if the estimated delivery date was visible in the product card prior to checkout.

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“It’s very much an Amazon takeaway experience,” Carson Krieg, co-founder and head of strategic partnerships at Convey, said during the webinar.

Almost half of consumers (47%) said they would like the ability to pick up an online order at a physical store on the same day if the retailer had a store location nearby. That theme came through in the SOTI report as well.

“When they are under pressure, whether online or in-store, customers want a high-quality and tailored experience,” the SOTI report said. “But they also want maximum simplicity and convenience. We can expect these trends to spill over from the holiday experience into the rest of the year.”

The Convey survey was conducted in December 2020 at the height of the holiday shopping season and asked 1,200 consumers 15 questions. The results showed that consumers have mixed feelings about Amazon – even as the e-tail giant continues to drive supply chain innovation and alter consumer demands. While 19.9% had a “very negative” view of Amazon’s impact on retail and another 28.6% held a negative view, 49% of shoppers said they preferred to shop with Amazon because they trusted their package would be delivered on time.

Despite the negative views of Amazon, 28% of respondents reported making at least half their purchases on Amazon.com.

Krieg said this indicates the importance of a strong fulfillment program for all brands, not just Amazon.

A look at where shoppers have shopped online in the past three months. (Photo: Jungle Scout)

“2020 was a test for all retailers including Amazon,” he said during the Convey webinar.  “Amazon had similar capacity constraints and restrictions as brick and mortar did … but what did they do is they hired workers … and they made the tough decision to turn off their FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) program.”

Throughout the Convey survey, the theme of cost and shipping continued to appear. Respondents said they would choose Amazon over a smaller retailer due to cost of items, with 33.7% saying items were more expensive at the other retailers. Additionally, 23.3% said shipping was either more expensive or wasn’t free at the smaller businesses, while 22.1% said shipping was going to take longer.

“Some consumers were willing to wait longer for shipping … if it’s free,” Krieg noted.

Amazon Prime members were also more likely to be wealthier shoppers. According to Convey’s data, of those with household incomes above $75,000 per year, 41% bought half of their goods from Amazon, and the shipping experience was “very important” for 64% of them. Even though 33% of these shoppers shopped exclusively at Amazon for the holidays, 24% said Amazon was having a negative impact on retailers.

Krieg said the lessons learned from the Convey surveys are clear: Brands not selling on Amazon need to step up their delivery games.

Amazon is now fulfilling more than 50% of its package deliveries, Krieg said, and while “a lot of retailers are not going to have the scale to do that,” the benefits Amazon has gained from it are clear – and they are pushing others to match it.

“Two-thirds of the country (68%) is saying that if you screw up the first [delivery], we’re not going to give you another shot,” Krieg said.

What can retailers do?

Krieg advised retailers to offer in-store and curbside pickup where possible and be proactive with communications to customers.

“You can be brand forward and capitalize on the opportunity by sending more alerts around certain shipments,” Krieg said, noting that packages delayed by weather or traffic can be alerts. The more touch points with the customer, the better, he added.

Bringing all communications and data streams – from distribution centers to delivery networks to stores – into a single silo helps this process.

Krieg also said to be vocal about sustainability efforts. He noted that 30% of consumers under the age of 30 believe Amazon is harmful for the environment, and sales of sustainably marketed products grow at 5.6 times the rate of conventional products, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

Show how you are reducing waste by being more efficient through shorter supply chains that reduce emissions or result in less food waste; spotlight how slower – and cheaper – shipping methods can be a sustainable choice, he said.

“The consumer base will pay more for these goods,” Krieg said.

“Two-thirds of the country is saying that if you screw up the first [delivery], we’re not going to give you another shot.”

– Carson Krieg, co-founder and head of strategic partnerships at Convey

Shash Anand, vice president of product strategy for SOTI, said that technology offers retailers a pathway to both better shipping experiences and increased trust surrounding the entire purchase.

“Almost half of consumers abandoned online purchase because they didn’t trust the site [would secure their data],” Anand said, noting that 57% were more trusting of well-known brands.

SOTI provides technology that helps protect data privacy as well as improves the shipping process, including returns.

“Delivery [and returns] is not only an option but a must,” Anand said. “Sixty-three percent of consumers would like the returns process to be easier if not automated [entirely]. This is an opportunity for retailers to perfect their game.”

Anand said retailers should evaluate technologies and look to use cases that will show how the technology works in real-world applications. This can include mobile devices, RFID, scanners, wearables and drones.

“There are many companies that have gotten this right and they are doing extremely well and thriving in this economy,” he said.

Technology deployment should take into consideration customer privacy and speed of delivery – and shipment tracking is a must-have that customers have come to expect. Anand said retailers need to become technology companies since the customer journey now includes the shopping experience, the payment experience and the delivery experience. Falling down in any one area can drive a customer away forever.

Click for more Modern Shipper articles by Brian Straight.

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Originally Appeared Here

Essential B2C marketing implementations. Technology and regulatory changes will require preparation. We asked marketing experts how they plan to tackle the next 12 months—here are the 18 topics they zeroed in on.

All the best ways to market your business in the next 12 months

The following list provides insights into many strategies you’ve already heard of, including SEO, customer retention, ecommerce, and video and influencer marketing. It also includes new strategies related to cookie-less advertising and privacy changes, as well as new approaches to help you cater to the new COVID-weary and social change-conscious consumer. No matter the strategy, the idea is the same: to market personally and value your customers, but also efficiently so you can save time, scale up, and keep running your day-to-day.

Optimise for Google’s next update

With Google’s Page Experience Update – May 2021, new metrics called Core Web Vitals—which will measure site load time, interactivity and content stability—will start to impact overall search rankings.

Prepare for the end of third-party cookies

2021 will also be the year marketers prepare for two big changes to come: the end of third-party cookies and new privacy regulations in California.

“We have to get comfortable with privacy-first data collection practices. That means focusing on list-building and developing one-to-one relationships with customers,” said Harry Maugans, CEO of consumer privacy service Privacy Bee. “Make sure that your campaigns help you build your first-party data so you rely less on Other People’s Data.”

The death of third-party cookies will change how digital ads are targeted and tracked, but Dave Toby, director of digital marketing agency Pathfinder Alliance, said there’s still “considerable confusion about how campaigns will be affected.”

Foster first-party relationships

Having direct relationships with customers will be even more important as the online landscape becomes even more cluttered with brands trying to reach digital consumers. But it will also be important because one-to-one relationships mean brands can personalise content for better experiences.

Houman Akhavan, CMO of CarParts.com, said a first-party data strategy yielded “incredible results” in 2020, including “record conversions.”

“A critical part of this first-party data strategy has been using the correct customer data platform technology—one that is scalable to process millions of records of customer insights, including real-time signals that must be acted upon immediately before they go stale,” he said. “Thus far, leveraging our customer data platform has allowed us to generate over a quarter billion personalised one-to-one messages. We’ve seen our click-through rates increase by as much as 400% and our email revenue has doubled.”

Focus on customer retention

And for brands struggling to recover from the events of 2020, focusing on existing customers may be wise.

“In an uncertain economy, most brands—especially niche retailers— should focus on existing customers,” said Jonathan Frey, CMO of electric bike retailer Urban Bikes Direct.

For his part, Jim Pendergast, SVP of commercial financing platform AltLine, expects to see B2C brands emphasise mobile marketing for customer retention.

Start selling on social

Another burgeoning trend with potentially far-reaching implications is social commerce. In 2020, Facebook launched Shops for both Facebook and Instagram, allowing users to shop directly on the platforms.

Bruce Biegel, senior managing partner of management consultancy Winterberry Group, expects to see more focus on social commerce in 2021, along with new marketplaces, to shorten the customer journey from search to conversion.

Product Personalisation

The email weapon isn’t so secret. It’s common knowledge that email marketing is a powerful customer acquisition tool. First of all, the foot-in-the-door technique applies. Second, you have permission to push marketing messaging to an entire list of people.

There are two main ways to use email marketing in the customer acquisition process: following up and increasing retention.

Capturing an email is an easy way to reach out to a potential customer down the road. Say, when you have a discount or a special offer to follow up with. As long as you don’t abuse the list (leading to unsubscribers), you literally have a list of people who are somewhat interested in your product and are open to being contacted again.

Email also is a great way to improve your customer retention. The most valuable customer is the one you don’t lose. Keeping customers is just as important as acquiring new customers. Reach out to let them know about any outstanding notifications, recent updates, etc. Reignite their interest in your product via email. Remind them of what’s going on, of what they’re missing out on, etc.

Personalised product selection solutions, using predictive analytics technologies, identify consumer’s future behaviour ranking every SKU by greatest likelihood of that individual consumer to purchase from all the SKUs listed, in order of greatest propensity. It presents them to that individual at exactly the right moment, thereby maximising that individual’s customer lifetime value CLV potential. (i.e. Likelihood to Purchase, Discount Affinity, Likelihood to Churn etc).

Grow communities

In addition to demonstrating they are trustworthy, brands should foster communities of loyal customers now.

“The notion of community building isn’t novel, but brands need to understand that loyalty is coming back and brands that know what it is their customers want, as well as how to engage them through transparency and humility, is what will become the difference-maker,” said SEO consultant Itamar Blauer.

Olga Petrik, CMO of Gmail CRM firm NetHunt CRM, agreed brands should invest more in loyalty and retention now.

Optimise for voice search

We’ve seen voice search in previous year-end predictions. However, this may be the year it really takes off as consumers used their voice-enabled devices more while they were at home during the pandemic.

Lean into local SEO

Speaking of which, local SEO is another marketing strategy to make a repeat appearance on this list. This time, it’s because brands can update their Google Business Profiles via their Google My Business Accounts to include pandemic-friendly details like online appointments and curbside pickup and delivery, said Sarah Blocksidge, marketing manager at digital marketing agency Sixth City Marketing.

Go casual in social videos

The trend toward social video will undoubtedly continue throughout the decade.

Mark Hayes, head of marketing at video-based advice platform Kintell, noted TikTok has over 500 million users and is available in more than 150 global markets. It has also spurred copycats like Instagram’s Reels, which launched in August 2020. (Twitter’s Fleets, which came out in November 2020, offers similar 24-hour-only video capabilities.)

Go Live

An extension of this video trend is live streams, which will also remain popular.

Reuben Yonatan, CEO of VOIP guide site GetVOIP, noted a sharp uptick in brands going live during the pandemic to interact with consumers in real-time.

Tap into micro-influencers

2020 was a good year for micro-influencers like Nathan Apodaca, the viral cranberry-juice-drinking TikTok star, and Tony Piloseno, another TikTok user with wildly popular paint-mixing videos who was fired by Sherwin Williams—and then hired by Florida Paints. With TikTok showing no signs of slowing down, the power of influencers—big and small—is expected to continue.

Use retailer media networks

Retailers like Amazon were among the few to actually benefit from changes spurred by the pandemic.

In recent history, Amazon has also diversified its advertising portfolio, adding units like Sponsored Video Ads, Sponsored Display Ads and OTT ads.

“With these additions, Amazon has become a fully enclosed ecosystem, supporting the whole marketing funnel from product discovery to purchase,” said Natalia Wulfe, CMO of digital marketing agency Effective Spend. “Advertisers can use OTT and Sponsored Display to build awareness, video ads to educate and engage visitors and traditional sponsored product ads to drive transactions.”

Combined, these developments mean advertisers can enjoy better reach and performance on Amazon than ever before, Wulfe added.

Establish brand partnerships

2020 brought us successful brand collaborations like McDonald’s and Travis Scott, Adidas and Allbirds and Adidas and Lego, which means more brand collaborations are likely on the horizon.

Unexpected partnerships between corporate brands capture media attention, generate social buzz and allow for cross-marketing to customer bases—without celebrity endorsement fees, all of which plays well in an era of hard-to-capture consumer attention and tightened budgets.

But brands that, say, don’t have the resources to hire a Travis Scott can instead team up with brands that offer complementary products or services. That’s what thermal imaging brand ThermoGears did when it was looking to bring new visitors to its website.

Get into augmented reality

Also expect to see more augmented reality (AR) executions. This will allow brands to show consumers what objects will look in their homes, like Ikea’s AR catalogue, or how clothes or accessories look on their bodies, like Warby Parker’s virtual try-on app.

The pandemic encouraged marketers to think uniquely for ways to connect with consumers who always stay inside their homes,” said Stephen Light, CMO of mattress retailer Nolah Mattress. “The solution was AR marketing, which helped the target market get a feel of owning the product even without seeing it personally.

The biggest misconception about AR ads is they’re expensive, but they’re actually more budget-friendly than traditional channels.

Automate what you can

Another tactic to help decrease budget and increase efficiencies is marketing automation. Sharon van Donkelaar, CMO at LinkedIn marketing automation company Expandi, said automation helps free up employees from “many boring and routine business tasks.” This includes Automated Bidding in Google Ads.

Originally published here.

Author: David Swift

David Swift is an experienced CEO with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in personalised product selection software for email marketing. A Martech entrepreneur.… View full profile ›

Originally Appeared Here

A pair of experts shared their decades of experience in creating customer service excellence.

Image courtesy of iStock.

Retailers know they need to embrace digital innovation to succeed nowadays. Suggestions on how to do it were the focus of a recent Retail Customer Experience webinar, “The Connected Customer: Digital Interaction and Service Innovation.”

Amrit Dhangal,

A pair of experts — Amrit Dhangal, co-founder and COO at Acquire, a conversational customer engagement platform, and Derrick Boatwright, director of commercial innovation at HLC, a wholesale distributor to bicycle shops — shared their decades of experience in creating customer service excellence.

“Companies hoping to succeed must meet these expectations by creating engaging and rewarding customer experiences,” webinar moderator Elliot Maras, editor of Kiosk Marketplace, said in introducing the two panelists.

A listener poll at the start of the webinar found that most attendees like to communicate with companies via live chat and email. Both Dhangal and Boatwright said these poll findings matched their own companies’ experiences.

Dhangal further noted that there were 63% more digital engagements last year among businesses as the pandemic drove customers to use more digital channels when connecting with brands.

Derrick Boatwright

“Effectively, cross communication became very digital,” Dhangal said.

A customer can start a live chat on a website, then use SMS, after which point an email exchange takes place, he said. This holds true for nearly all types of businesses.

More shopping is also being done on social media channels such as TikTok (through its Shopify partnership), Facebook click to buy and Instagram, he said.

HCL encourages online and in-store buying

HCL was encouraging its customers to blend online and in-store commerce, which proved to be very helpful when the pandemic struck.

“People prefer to spend their dollars locally if you make it easy for them to do so and when you give them that option,” Boatwright said. “If you didn’t have the ability to live chat with your customers or if you didn’t have the ability to transact online, then you really were left without any options, especially when shutdowns were in place and your physical store had to close down.”

HCL, which has partnered with Acquire for four years, offered customers a doorstep delivery and a back order solution. This allowed customers to back order products, get in the queue and know when the products would arrive.

“They (back order programs) were never more reliable than when a supply chain shuts down,” Boatwright said. “We were able to equip a mom-and-pop retailer with some of the best e-commerce platforms in the world.” Retailers were able to provide two-day delivery.

“You get to spend your dollars locally, but you get the experience of an Amazon,” he said. “It set our customers up to be successful.”

Helping customers navigate the journey

HCL was also able to offer customers video, screen sharing and co-browsing to help retail customers navigate through challenges.

“It allows us to do a better job of realizing the needs that our customers have,” Boatwright said. “In many cases, they can’t even articulate those things. The retailer must find out what challenges their customers are facing. Then and only then can you go into solutions mode.”

A good first step for crafting a digital customer strategy is to understand your internal resources, Dhangal said.

The first actual project in this journey is live chat.

“That is first and foremost step one,” he said.

Boatwright said the first step is to understand how your customer wants to communicate with you. If the target customer is older, Tik Tok might not be the best channel.

Who’s on the team?

As for who should be involved in creating the programs, a variety of company roles can be involved, such as e-commerce, finance and customer service, Dhangal said. The job role that companies use most often is digital strategy innovation.

He advised not to wait for the perfect version of a digital interaction offering before launching one. He also recommended not trying to do too much at once. As you add more channels, consistent execution becomes more difficult.

Boatwright agreed.

“Maybe start with one channel and get live chat figured out before you try to add something else,” he said.

At the same time, Boatwright suggested not setting your bar too low.

“Compare yourself with the best of the best,” he said.

“Understand that retail has changed, and in many cases, the person walking into your store knows more about your products that they are coming to purchase than you do,” Boatwright said. “If you’re no longer the expert, how does that change the way you speak to and interact with your customers?

“Maybe that’s an area you could make some changes and have a positive impact,” he said.

To view this video, click here.

Originally Appeared Here