Online Shoppers Are Doing What Brands Should Do: Using Technology Smartly

The global retail industry is enduring a ground-breaking evolution. The Prime Day predictions, trends, and statistics show how Online Shoppers Amazon behave with e-commerce technology. It gives all retailers to review their e-commerce technology stack and understand how they can match Amazon’s unparalleled delivery models, both online and offline.

Despite the increased use of smartphone and online shopping platforms, retailers are suffering from stagnant growth, coupled with reduced foot traffic in physical stores. If we simply go with the advances in digital technology, we should be witnessing exponential growth in the volume of Sales. That hasn’t happened as yet. However, technology continues to shape the way customers shop. As a result, we expect retailers to embrace shopper’s behavior and not feel challenged to develop a purely personalized e-commerce experience to win customer’s wallet share.

According to “Queen of Internet Analytics” Mary Meeker, private messaging platforms are pushing the boundaries in e-commerce. Shoppers buy what they see and read on their private messages; that’s why more online shoppers are directed from links on Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. To clearly understand how shoppers use technology for shopping, we spoke to leaders from MarTech. Here are some staggering insights that they shared with us.

Also read: LiveRamp to Acquire Data Plus Math to Enable Next-Generation TV Currency

Every Season Sale is a Litmus Test for E-Commerce Tech

Jaime Bettencourt, Senior Vice President, Premier Sales and Account Management, Mood Media, said,

“Prime Day serves as an excellent litmus test for retailers to gain insights into what products consumers are most interested in and what promotions worked best online, to then leverage with relevant products and via promotions in-store after Prime Day wraps. It’s a great opportunity to see what’s in the highest demand and what we’re leaning toward overall from a buying trend perspective (for example, are people already looking for holiday gifts? What promotional messages seem to be gaining the most traction?). Watching to see the hottest items and evaluating that online shopping behavior can be hugely beneficial for brick & mortar retailers.”

Jaime continued, “Retailers that consider those online behaviors to help guide their in-store marketing and customer experience strategies will be better set up to capture consumer attention as they head back into stores in the coming weeks.”

So, retailers large and small can indeed benefit from Prime Days – by leveraging information and insights tied to some of the buying trends to help inform what’s needed to enhance both their in-store and online buying experience for their customer base.”

Digital Marketing agency Tinuiti shared their views on exploring consumer shopping habits on Amazon Prime Day. It reported that as consumers sift through millions of deals during the Prime Day shopping hours, voice-assistants like Alexa and Siri would win the game for retailers. Today, Voice Commerce or Conversational Commerce is liked by online shoppers. In fact, more than 40 percent of the respondents who use voice assistants regularly have shopped using technology. For CPG products, voice is the most favored medium to shop online.

However, there is a wide gap between mobile users and voice. If you compare between Amazon Prime shoppers who use Mobile phones for shopping and Alexa users, 56% would still prefer to go with the mobile app or their website versions.

A joint report from Liftoff  and Adjust, the survey had identified a visible trend seen in the Gen Z population who prefer to do “Mobile Window Shopping.” It said that “In mature mobile markets, shopping app scrolling is becoming the new window shopping as users become increasingly difficult to convert.” Online shoppers, who are also prime tech users, find comfort in shopping on mobile.

It reported –

“Globally, shopping app users are cheaper to acquire and more engaged than ever before (in some cases nearly 50% more!)”

Get Noticed: Use Mindful Advertising to Cut Through the Noise of Competitive Contesting

Brooke Willcox, Director, Digital Business Development and Emerging Media, MNI Targeted Media, said –

““Brands need to be prepared to increase their spend during Prime Day, as it will be extremely cluttered for advertising. One thing in particular that they can do is capitalize on search through Amazon to increase exposure, since there will be a large spike in search volume by consumers. It’s important to be strategic on keyword selection. Be prepared to spend 3-5x more on a keyword during Prime Day vs. a standard day; in fact, as traffic spikes, bids could increase hour over hour during Prime Day itself. If your budget is more limited, however, focus on a finite list of keywords and use competitor keywords for competitive contesting.”

Brooke continued, “Overall, brands should plan to have a presence leading up to Prime Day, as Amazon provides sneak peeks to upcoming deals. The truth is that it is a very crowded space; for some, the return simply won’t be enough. Skip on trying to push a hefty discount and simply focus on getting in front of the eyeballs of high-purchase intent customers. Finally, don’t abandon your campaign during Prime Day. Consistently monitor your bids and keyword selection. Don’t be afraid to make knee jerk changes because the window is small, and competition is fierce.”

Ka Mo Lau, COO at Thunder Experience Cloud, said, “Targeting in-market shoppers with product offers that are known not to be on sale for Prime Day is an increasingly popular way competing retailers are drawing dollars from Prime shoppers.”

Is Holiday Shopping Becoming a Fad? Don’t Blame Mobile Technology as Yet

Holiday shopping may just be a fad. Mobile e-commerce shopping trends reveal that customers shop all year long. Liftoff’s survey revealed that the cost to acquire a first-time retail app user is in the range of $30 to $45 throughout the year. With a growing number of global retail giants establishing their own annual shopping holidays – think Flipkart’s Big Shopping Days in May, Amazon Prime Day in July, and Alibaba’s Singles Day in November – users no longer need the winter holidays as an excuse to buy; they’re primed-to-purchase all year long. 

Liftoff Co-Founder and CEO at Mark Ellis said,

“Winter holiday shopping is still alive and well, from mobile to brick-and-mortar. But our data shows consumers now spend steadily all year long, suggesting the traditional holiday shopping season won’t make or break a brand as it might have in the past. In short, the data suggests that linking mobile advertising campaigns to traditional holidays is somewhat passé. For mobile marketers looking to get the best return on their marketing dollar this year, throw away preconceived notions and target users year-round.

Choice Versus Location: Where Loyalty Matters and Personalization Wins

According to Shopify, the whole online versus offline debate in e-commerce wins has been built on a lie. It never existed for technology users. It quips, “Choice, not location, is commerce’s greatest opportunity and its most-looming threat.”

With the firepower coming from Personalized Interactions and Content Customization, retailers can also look at adding loyalty and payment experience to their kitty. In a recent Forrester report, “Nearly every US online adult belongs to a loyalty program, yet only 44% agree that programs make them feel more loyal to a brand. Further, 62% of the companies surveyed for the evaluation plan to increase their spending on loyalty at least 5% in the next 12 months”

“Marketers need strategic guidance to make the most of their programs and, more importantly, to contextualize the role of the program in a larger strategy for earning, recognizing, and maintaining customer loyalty regardless of whether that customer is a loyalty program member.”

Epsilon, recently named a leader in Loyalty Services, has always placed faith in providing accurate identity resolution to manage better customer experiences. It states that People-based Marketing is the best thing you can do, mentioning providers such as LiveRamp, Neustar, Drawbridge and Epsilon in the blog.

Post-Forrester’s recognition, Bryan Kennedy, CEO at Epsilon-Conversant, said,

“We are honored Forrester named us a Leader in both loyalty services and technology. We believe these recognitions are a proof point of our unique ability to deliver business outcomes by helping brands know consumers better, anticipate their needs, and optimize personalized interactions across customer touchpoints. Epsilon was built around the belief that tech for tech’s sake doesn’t work. We believe that every brand experience should be personal and purposeful, and every customer wants to be recognized, respected and protected.”

Yes, Online Shoppers are Smarter with Technology

Shoppers are using technology to get the best deal from the various online marketplaces. At the end of the day, they pay for what they see and feel like. For brands and e-commerce advertisers, the game-changer lies with positive content promotion, loyalty givebacks, wallet experience, and the holy grail of targeting potential buyers with the right message at the right time on the right medium. Mobile commerce is just the tip of the needle. Who knows, by next Prime Day sale, Voice Commerce from Alexa would have tipped the mobile market altogether. Only if mobile marketers are listening! Get that mobile app to load fast, and your location data analytics to run smoothly for real-time analytics.

To participate in our editorial program and MarTech RADAR listing, write to us at news@martechseries-67ee47.ingress-bonde.easywp.com