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In News

5 Trends Influencing the Future of Ecommerce

March 24, 2025 No Comments

By Slava Bogdan, Edited by Micah Zimmerman

These ecommerce trends are set to reshape the industry, offering insights into the future of online shopping and business strategies.

Key Takeaways

Social shopping, voice tech and AI are shaping ecommerce’s future.
Sustainability and hyperlocal marketing drive consumer loyalty and engagement.
Immersive experiences and personalization enhance online shopping convenience and conversion.

he ecommerce landscape never ceases to amaze, with new trends changing the way businesses build their strategies. With over 2.77 billion people shopping online worldwide and ecommerce sales projected to surpass $6.8 trillion in 2025, the online retail market is more competitive than ever.

Moreover, this year, online purchases are expected to account for 21% of the market, reaching 22.6% by 2027. In this article, I will break down 5 key ecommerce trends that will rock 2025.

1. Social media shopping

Social media keeps changing daily, adapting to the needs of users who are actively engaged in buying while scrolling their feeds. By creating opportunities for smooth shopping online, brands change the whole purchase journey, thus making it much easier to discover and buy without leaving the comfort of their favourite social media channels or trusted bloggers’ accounts.

While platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest have long been leaders in social shopping, Gen Z favourites YouTube and TikTok are now taking over. However, the recent buzz across TikTok only marks the importance of diversifying marketing efforts across multiple platforms, mitigating risks and reaching new audiences.

One more trend that goes hand in hand with social media shopping is personalization. Data shows that 31% of ecommerce sales come as a result of recommendations. Here comes influence marketing, engaging techniques, tailored ads and unique content based on a deep understanding of your audience.

2. The voice of commerce rise

One of the significant shifts in ecommerce trends is all about the growth of voice-driven technologies. Voice search, driving over $2 billion in sales annually, dictates new strategy rules for brands that want to increase their sales, highlighting the emphasis on voice search optimization.

Starbucks has expanded its existing app to include voice ordering capabilities, allowing customers to place orders via voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Samsung Bixby. This move makes the whole ordering process easier, enabling customers to conveniently place and pay for their drinks while on the go, reducing wait times and ensuring accurate order fulfilment.

Successful implementation requires a deep understanding of your target audience. As for Starbucks, they did research, introduced app-based ordering first, then, regarding the pattern of grabbing coffee while driving, introduced voice ordering.

3. Sustainability

Sustainability has become a must. A significant 78% of consumers now rank sustainability among their top five purchasing criteria. Furthermore, 58% of consumers actively demonstrate loyalty to brands that prioritize sustainable practices.

Businesses meet these expectations with “green tech,” such as leveraging AI-powered demand forecasting to optimize inventory management and minimize waste. For example, Coderio developed a predictive system utilizing time series models and machine learning to forecast demand for Coca-Cola Andina accurately. This solution boasts an impressive accuracy rate exceeding 85%, enabling precise forecasting of daily retail sales, streamlined production planning and optimized workforce allocation.

4. Immersive shopping experiences

The global metaverse in the ecommerce market is expected to reach a valuation of USD 11.11 billion by 2023 and expand at a CAGR of 40% through 2030. AR, VR and the Metaverse keep influencing the way people shop and the way businesses interact with their users, offering personalized, engaging shopping experiences.

By allowing consumers to virtually try on products or visualize items in their own spaces, these technologies reduce return rates and make it much easier for people to make a purchase decision.

5. The hyperlocal advantage

In today’s hyper-connected world, consumers are increasingly seeking localized experiences. Location-based searches on Google account for 46% of all Google searches, with “near me” or “close by” experiencing a remarkable 900% growth in just two years.

Location data, cultural context and consumer patterns offer great opportunities for brands that want to deliver highly personalized content to resonate with their diverse audiences. Think a clothing brand targeting customers in colder regions with a campaign specifically focused on outerwear, while offering a wide range of swimwear options in a coastal region.

Hyperlocal marketing allows businesses to achieve this level of precision, delivering targeted promotions to the most receptive audience. In the ecommerce realm, hyper localization allows brands to showcase products and services that align perfectly with the unique preferences and needs of each local market.

McDonald’s offers different menu options depending on the region. You can find vegetarian options: Paneer Wrap in India, Pistachio McFlurry in Italy, Kaprao Crispy Chicken in sweet and spicy sauce so typical for Thailand, Teriyaki McBurger in Japan and many other options tailored to the taste buds of certain countries — furthermore, McDonald’s leverages app-based promotions to deliver localized deals.

The success of ecommerce businesses in 2025 hinges upon their willingness to listen and adapt to customer needs, emerging trends and innovations. By incorporating voice search optimization, leveraging immersive technologies, harnessing the power of social media, prioritizing sustainability and implementing hyperlocal marketing strategies, businesses can win by attracting new customers and strengthening the existing customer base.

By Slava Bogdan Edited by Micah Zimmerman

Entrepreneur Leadership Network® Contributor

СEO & co-founder of Flowwow, tech-entrepreneur with a 10-year leadership experience in e-commerce business. Building a glocal (global + local) marketplace that brings ultimate joy to your loved ones around the world.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

If You Sell Anything Online in 2024, Make Sure You Take These 5 Steps

May 15, 2024 No Comments

BY BEN CRUDO.

With shoppers craving connection, retailers that make the human touch part of their ecommerce play could find themselves rewarded.

We keep hearing that ecommerce is an unstoppable force, but the truth is that it’s hit a wall. Even though online sales keep climbing, growth has been flat lately. It might not be a hiccup, either.

I take no pleasure in sharing that news. After all, my whole business is about helping online retailers succeed. But for brands that want to keep thriving, it’s critical to acknowledge this trend and what’s fuelling it.

My suspicion: Shoppers are tired of all things digital.

Just look at the resurgence of brick-and-mortar shopping post-pandemic. U.S. retailers opened twice as many stores as they closed in 2022. Shoppers — especially younger ones — like browsing IRL, and I don’t see that shift reversing anytime soon. Overall, online shopping’s share of U.S. sales has stagnated since 2020, hovering around 15%.

Why? Part of the reason is that people still crave the human touch, which can set retailers apart from their rivals. That’s why smart brands — even in the age of AI — are prioritizing ways to humanize the online shopping experience.

With that in mind, here are five ways to stay ahead of the curve in 2024, from my perspective working with hundreds of the world’s top online retailers.

As retail tech finally delivers real value, take full advantage

Historically, the harder you try to make online shopping like real life, the more the gulf widens. Fortunately, retail technology is turning a corner, in large part thanks to AI.

Take chatbots, which used to leave most customers frustrated. But generative AI is finally making them useful. In one poll, more than half of people who have used ChatGPT said they were more likely to shop from a brand with a similar conversational bot.

Personalization is also making strides. The gold standard here is tech that’s as thoughtful and perceptive as your favourite real-life salesperson — the one who always remembers what size you wear, the colours you like, and your favourite designers. Online, we’re starting to get there. Each time I visit the clothing site Farfetch, for instance, its AI gets better at showing me products that match my preferences.

Augmented reality has raised its game too. This tech is far from new — I remember AR games at the arcade as a kid. But we’re finally seeing seamless integrations with ecommerce. Shopify’s new AR tool lets retailers add 3D models and videos directly to their product pages. Then there’s Apple’s Vision Pro headset, which could become a virtual changing room.

My advice: Be open to using the latest retail tech, which is more likely to win customers over than to alienate them.

But make sure AI gets a human intervention

But slow down. Yes, generative AI is a game changer for the shopping experience, but smart brands are tempering new tools with human oversight in 2024.

The laziest retailers will hire a robot army and turn it loose, leaving shoppers to wrestle with GPT’s growing pains. The growing number of major brands offering little to no human customer support attests to the popularity — and serious pitfalls — of this approach.

A better way? Smart retailers are treating AI tools like new employees — ensuring that they’re onboarded, trained and supervised so that they truly deliver value to shoppers.

To handle this new digital workforce, retailers should be open to introducing brand new human roles in 2024: dedicated bot managers to monitor AI conversation and train agents; digital specialists to fine-tune AI merchandising; AI sales enablers to sharpen automated sales efforts.

To me, it’s like when retailers woke up to the fact that having a website also required a digital team. Just like that digital store was never going to run itself, AI needs care and attention.

Help customers move away from mindless consumption

It’s no secret online shopping can be wasteful, unfulfilling and even addictive. A shiny new purchase and its attendant dopamine hit are always just a click away. But progressive retailers are tapping into a growing backlash and finding ways to encourage more purposeful consumption.

Patagonia — which urges people to buy less of its own and others’ products — doesn’t do Black Friday sales. Same goes for Typology. Last Black Friday weekend, the vegan skincare brand donated $2 of every purchase to fighting ocean plastic pollution.

The recommerce movement — reuse, recycle and resell — will also help carry that torch. Expect the explosion of secondhand retail sites, led by the likes of Poshmark, Facebook Marketplace, thredUP and Depop, to continue into 2024. Contrary to the stereotype of shabby thrift stores, recommerce is big business. The U.S. market alone stood at more than $160 billion in 2021 — up 15% over the previous year. By 2025, it could grow to $245 billion.

I’m not suggesting that you open a second-hand marketplace. But the fact that many people no longer want to shop til they drop, for sustainability, mental health and other reasons, should figure into online retailers’ product and marketing strategies.

Double down on community

In a similar spirit, retailers are going to increasing lengths to prioritize building true community in 2024.

The fact is that acquiring new customers online has gotten more complex, cutthroat and prohibitively costly. Data privacy laws are stricter than ever. And partly thanks to the fallout between Apple and Google over tracking people, customers’ digital trails have gone cold. Meanwhile, retailers seeking to advertise on social media face dwindling options: X is a mess, Facebook’s rates are soaring and TikTok only reaches a narrow demographic.

Overall, ecommerce — and direct-to-consumer retail in particular — has become a seriously saturated market. The bottom line: the average cost of picking up a new customer surged over 220% between 2013 and 2022, from $9 to $29.

So rather than chase one-off sales, savvy retailers should play a long game, going the extra mile to build and cement ties with loyal customers. One standout is lululemon, which hosts thousands of yoga classes and other events at its stores. Meanwhile, Harley Davidson brings people together through the Harley Owners Group, which offers membership benefits along with rallies and other gatherings.

Find new ways to surprise and delight shoppers

In 2024, online retailers that make a conscious effort to dazzle customers will have an edge. With more consumer interactions governed by predictive algorithms, brands that break the mold and add a truly human touch are poised to stand out.

I’m still floored when I get a handwritten note with a product, even if it’s from the warehouse worker who packed the box. One study found that such messages double the likelihood of repeat purchases, build connection and help retailers stand out. Personalized QR codes, which can tailor offers to each customer, are another way to surprise and delight shoppers.

Brands can also take a marketing cue from the makers on Etsy, who flex their creative muscles in ways that big businesses might not. I recently ordered a pencil case crafted by a small Polish company. It arrived with not just a free pencil but a coffee sample from its region. Needless to say, they’ve got a customer for life.

BY BEN CRUDO.

ENTREPRENEUR LEADERSHIP NETWORK® CONTRIBUTOR

Ben Crudo is CEO of Diff Agency. A retailer turned technologist, he’s an ecommerce expert who helps retailers win today and tomorrow.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Why Influencers and Ecommerce Should Be the New Power Duo for Your Business

January 29, 2024 No Comments

BY KARTIK JOBANPUTRA

The convergence of ecommerce with social media influencers creates a dynamic symphony of trust, engagement, and sales.

The digital revolution in ecommerce has brought forth numerous innovations, with the role of social media influencers standing out distinctly. These online mavens, each with distinct flair and following, are crafting a new narrative in online marketing. Central to this transformation is social commerce, an innovative strategy that weaves shopping into the tapestry of social media.

Unpacking the phenomenon of social commerce

Social commerce signals a paradigm shift in how consumers experience online shopping platforms. Rather than the traditional browsing and searching, it offers a richer, more engaged shopping journey. Modern consumers, especially those in the millennial and Gen Z demographics, are tightly intertwined with their social media accounts. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook aren’t just for entertainment; they serve as lifestyle compasses, guiding users in everything from pop culture to shopping choices.

In this digital landscape, influencers have carved a niche for themselves. Their content, genuine and relatable, shines bright amid the bombardment of traditional advertisements. When these influencers vouch for a product, it’s seen not as a sales pitch but as a sincere recommendation. Augmenting this is the allure of convenience that social commerce brings. The process is incredibly streamlined; one can spot a product on a post or story, swipe or click on it, and be led directly to an online checkout. The entire experience is swift, smooth, and satisfying.

The inimitable role of influencers

At the core of the social commerce machine are influencers. These individuals, with their varied followings, are more than just digital personalities; they’re pillars of modern marketing. Unlike celebrities who might endorse various products, influencers are selective, ensuring their endorsements often stem from personal experiences and align with their brand. This selective approach, combined with their domain-specific expertise, makes influencers trust magnets.

For instance, a beauty influencer’s tips on skincare are valued because they’re backed by experience, while a tech influencer’s gadget review is awaited for its depth and authenticity. Additionally, influencers prioritize engagement. Their interactions aren’t limited to broadcasting content. They chat, conduct polls, share snippets of their lives, and create a shared digital space with their followers. This two-way communication fosters a bond, a digital kinship that’s deeply valued. Another feather in their cap is their expertise in visual content. In an age where visuals dominate, influencers, with their compelling images, videos and stories, hold their audience’s rapt attention.

Strategic collaborations for mutual growth

The collaboration between brands and influencers is multifaceted. There is sponsored content, where influencers create posts or videos infused with their personal experiences with products. While promoting, they ensure transparency, often tagging these as #ad or #sponsored. Then there’s affiliate marketing, a performance-centric approach where influencers reap rewards based on the sales generated via their unique links.

Some collaborations transcend regular promotions. Think of a renowned beauty influencer launching a limited-edition product line with a major brand. Such initiatives blend the influencer’s personal brand with the product, promising authenticity and unparalleled quality. Beyond these, some brands envision a longer journey with influencers, turning them into brand ambassadors. This deep relationship ensures that the influencer becomes an enduring face and voice for the brand.

Enduring impacts and considerations

The synergy between brands and influencers leads to tangible benefits. Enhanced brand recall, exponential growth in sales and spikes in website traffic are common positive outcomes. On the trust front, influencers act as a bridge, lending their credibility to the brands they endorse. However, like all strategies, this one isn’t without pitfalls. Over-commercialization can dilute an influencer’s authenticity.

Moreover, ensuring that the influencer’s personal brand aligns with the corporate brand is crucial. Then, there’s the challenge of measuring the intangibles. While metrics like clicks, views, and sales are straightforward, quantifying trust or brand perception remains nebulous. It’s also crucial to remember that influencer marketing isn’t an unregulated frontier. Clear guidelines, especially about disclosures, exist, and both brands and influencers must adhere to them to maintain credibility and avoid legal pitfalls.

Conclusion

The convergence of e-commerce with social media influencers creates a dynamic symphony of trust, engagement, and sales. For consumers, it offers a shopping experience that’s rich, trustworthy, and interactive. For brands, it’s a golden ticket to visibility and authenticity in a crowded digital marketplace. Looking ahead, with innovations on the horizon, this partnership promises to redefine the retail landscape further. In a rapidly evolving digital world, the bond between e-commerce platforms and influencers is beneficial and essential. They aren’t just changing the game – they’re crafting a new one for the next generation of online shopping.

BY KARTIK JOBANPUTRA

ENTREPRENEUR LEADERSHIP NETWORK® CONTRIBUTOR

Founder & CEO Benevolent by nature, Kartik is a diverse man of diverse and unpredictable choices, a serial entrepreneur. One may find him not just reading stoics or seizing the present like jumping off a plane. He is pro skydiver/licensed scuba. He doesn’t speak in hypotheticals and lives life by doing.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

‘Butterfly effect’ customer journeys: how algorithms change everything

October 25, 2023 No Comments

By Sam Huston

Dept’s Sam Huston charts the complexity of the modern customer journey. It’s one, Huston argues, that is constantly moved by the ripples of algorithmic dominance.

The convergence of brand and performance media creates butterfly effects across the consumer journey. This means that even small changes in a marketing campaign can have significant, unpredictable consequences. For example, a study by Google found that a personalized ad can increase click-through rates by up to 20%. However, if the same ad is shown to a consumer who has already purchased the product, it could backfire and damage the brand’s reputation.

The divergence of individual media consumption habits is further exacerbating this butterfly effect. In the past, consumers were more likely to consume media in a linear fashion, meaning they would see the same ads multiple times. This made it easier for marketers to build brand awareness and positive sentiment. However, today’s consumers are much more likely to consume media in a nonlinear fashion, meaning that they may only see an ad once or twice. This makes it more difficult for marketers to reach their target audiences and to have a lasting impact.

Culture at the speed of algorithms

Algorithms are playing an increasingly important role in this new marketing landscape. They’re used to target consumers with personalized ads, to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, and to make predictions about consumer behavior. In some cases, algorithms can even have a direct impact on product sales and brand adoption.

For example, a study by Nielsen found that consumers are more likely to trust recommendations from friends and family than traditional advertising. However, an algorithm can use social media data to identify which consumers are most likely to be influenced by their friends and family, and then target them with personalized ads that are more likely to be effective. Culture now moves at the speed of algorithms, and Brands need to be prepared to move at the same speed reacting to the butterfly effect in real time.

The great convergence

The convergence of brand and performance media, the divergence of individual media consumption habits, and the growing importance of algorithms are all creating a new marketing landscape that is more complex and unpredictable than ever before. Marketers who understand and adapt to this new landscape will be the ones who are most successful in the years to come. However, those unprepared for this new reality may find themselves at a significant disadvantage.

Need convincing? Here’s some cold, hard data for you:

A study by Salesforce found that 70% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that they have interacted with on social media.
A study by Gartner found that by 2023, 80% of marketing budgets will be spent on digital channels.
A study by the World Economic Forum found that by 2025, artificial intelligence will create 133m new jobs – and displace 75m others.

These data points suggest that the future of marketing is increasingly digital and data-driven. Marketers who embrace these trends will be well-positioned to succeed in the years to come. Those unprepared for this new reality may find themselves at a significant disadvantage.

Feature Image Credit: According to Dept, the modern customer journey is buffeted by butterfly effects of algorithms and media convergence / Drz via Unsplash

By Sam Huston

Sourced from The Drum

In News

How to Balance Ecommerce and Brick-and-Mortar Shopping Expectations Through Relationship Marketing

October 2, 2023 No Comments

By Michelena Howl

Here’s how relationship marketing is critical to balancing ecommerce and brick-and-mortar shopping expectations.

When ecommerce activity skyrocketed during the pandemic, many were quick to call it the death of brick-and-mortar retail. But now that the 20%+ growth rates in ecommerce have fallen into single digits, many others are saying it was all just a fad.

The problem with both accounts is that they pit the ecommerce vs. brick-and-mortar as competing formats rather than recognizing their co-existence as concurrent, even complementary, channels.

It’s not about the channel. It’s about the customer.

As more paths to purchase emerge, the customer journey from awareness to sale becomes more complex. Retailers don’t need to pick a winning channel. They need to pick a winning strategy.

Customers don’t want to be forced to choose one over the other. They want more options and less friction. So retailers need a strategy that helps customers shop, buy and receive goods however and whenever they want.

The rise (and plateau?) of ecommerce

When ecommerce first entered the scene, it enjoyed double-digit growth rates for years. It reached a particularly noticeable spike during the pandemic. As pandemic restrictions eased, customers rushed back to stores, and ecommerce growth rates fell back to the levels expected by a more mature industry.

The pandemic disruption of 2020 has now settled to more stable levels, with both ecommerce and retail growth rates forecasted to maintain single-digit levels for the foreseeable future. It’s not a zero-sum game. One is not eating into the other.

Retail’s staying power

While many retail stores did shutter both before and during the pandemic. Data from Coresight Research shows that U.S. store closures between September 2021 to 2022 fell 55%. Despite the growth in ecommerce over the past few years, only 20-25% of sales occur online. That means 75% to 80% of sales still take place in a physical store.

The outlook is that while the rate of growth for ecommerce is slowing, it will continue to grow faster than physical. Meanwhile, physical sales will still grow, but at a slower rate than ecommerce.

Clearly physical retail is holding its own just fine. But the role of the brick-and-mortar store is evolving. Retailers are adapting in different ways. Some have converted stores to ecommerce fulfilment centres. Others are opting for showroom-style stores that display physical products, paired with ecommerce sales and delivery. Others are just opening smaller stores. There’s a lot happening.

What consumers want

In our Consumer Trends Index – Retail Forecast, published earlier this year, we found that 51% of consumers are doing more research before buying, and 47% are waiting for items to go on sale. Also, 50% are “showrooming” or browsing in-store before buying online or elsewhere. Over half (52%) made a purchase directly as a result of an email (up 4% on last year), while 55% used their mobiles to research potential purchases.

For these reasons, marketers must do everything they can to be more personally and contextually relevant to a consumer whose behaviour has become quite unpredictable. That means understanding the role of the store in the buyer journey and rethinking the role of messaging, digital media, loyalty, rewards and more in driving traffic as part of an omnichannel customer experience.

Three things marketers can do right now to make that happen are:

Build relationships: The first step is building relationships that matter, from knowing who and what to send, to using multi-variant testing, automation and journeys to get noticed.
Strengthen relationships: Getting noticed is just the first step. Follow with strengthening and deepening the relationships developed, offering multiple channels for sending and actionable data to improve and refine the content that adds value.
Invest in relationships: Finally, keeping customers means investing in them, through preference and zero-party data that continues to deliver personalized content, as well as offers like coupons and rewards that build brand loyalty.

We live in a fluid world. Things change, formats shift, and technology evolves. Trying to predict or control how consumers respond to these changes is a risky way to respond. Far safer, and more productive, is to focus on the things you can control, which is how you collect, store and use customer data.

Some consumers will go all-in on ecommerce. Others will want a traditional retail experience. Still, others will want a mix of both. It’s not on you to choose the one “right” way for all. Instead, simply ask your customers (through constant interaction) what camp they fall into. Then you can communicate the right offers and experiences that align with the format they prefer.

And when those preferences change, which they often do, you’ll be armed with the information necessary to react appropriately. Ecommerce vs. brick-and-mortar isn’t about predictions or picking winners. It’s about data and relationships and removing friction between what customers want and what you can provide.

By Michelena Howl

COO of Marigold

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Will the D2C brand revolution flourish or fizzle?

April 6, 2023 No Comments

By Chris Sutcliffe

DTC brands, especially Chinese giants like Shein, have been big news for all sorts of reasons over the last couple of years: their remarkable growth, but also challenges around their sustainability and quality. Is this an evolution that will continue to evolve, one that more established brands will be able to incorporate in the long-run, or a flash in the pan?

Senior tech reporter for The Drum Chris Sutcliffe is joined by Andy Griffiths, associate director for growth, Space & Time; Miro Jin, head of EPAM continuum for China, EPAM Continuum; Lingzi Shang, digital strategy director, Landor & Fitch; and Jessica Chapplow, commerce managing partner at Reprise Digital, to discuss:

DTC saw a boom time during the pandemic, and has rapidly accelerated innovation in that space. What have been the biggest trends of the past few years in and around DTC?
How has the rapid rise in new DTC brands changed how we think about brand comms?
What advertising mediums are working especially well for DTC brands?
The perception seems to be that many new DTC brands will flame out in a short period of time – where has this perception come from, and how accurate do we think it will be?
What are the panel’s predictions for future trends in and around DTC marketing?

By Chris Sutcliffe

Sourced from The Drum

In News

Is Your Company Prepared for What’s Ahead for Ecommerce in 2023? Here’s What You Need to Know.

November 4, 2022 No Comments

By Michael Stagno

Content is still a powerful proponent in creating a strategy that is both creative and effective. Utilizing tactics in storytelling and maintaining an analytical approach can certainly guide a mediocre campaign to becoming a successful bombshell for a company.

No matter which way you look at it, the ecommerce landscape is getting increasingly competitive. Staying ahead of the competition heading into 2023 will take precision. Advertising costs are up, and campaigns cantered on quality, customer-focused content have been dwindling because it has become more about making a quick buck.

According to Shopify, the future of ecommerce is in the rise of acquisition costs, steering clear of third-party cookies and the power of social commerce. Brands must be both authentic and readily available to their customers but also have the ability to engage their audience. As ecommerce continues to shift toward social platforms, content is the driving force behind a brand‘s success.

Ecommerce across social media is becoming increasingly popular heading into 2023. In fact, sales via social media platforms, on a worldwide scale, are presumed to triple by 2025. Additionally, nearly 30% of United States-based internet users are already making social media platform purchases. China currently serves as the global leader as about half of its internet users are making social network purchases which, when compared to the U.S., equates to almost 10x.

It all comes down to the value in customer retention and acquisition. What ecommerce storefronts should not steer away from is generating quality, timely and customer-focused content that will not only attract new customers but keep them loyal to your brand. The question you should be asking yourself is: What is my company doing to create an experience for my customers?

Content is king in determining ecommerce success in 2023

Content is still a powerful proponent in creating a strategy that is both creative and effective. Utilizing tactics in storytelling and maintaining an analytical approach can certainly guide a mediocre campaign to becoming a successful bombshell for a company.

The ability to tell a story that is consistent with a brand’s mission can serve as a powerful tool in attracting an audience and maintaining it as a valuable, consistent and recurring community for one’s business. However, it is important to remember that it is the people, not the product, at its core.

In 2022, paid social was not as much a determining factor for attracting buyers if the content did not resonate with its audience and customer base. The same will apply in 2023. The community needs to connect with an ecommerce business on a personal and even inspirational level, before buyers are motivated to maintain the needed consistency. If sales and traffic are both down, then there is a good chance that neither the content nor the reach is serving its purpose.

With roughly four months remaining in 2022, it is important to buck the trend of most B2C companies in halting the production of B2C content without focusing on B2C results. In other words, as we progress into the new year, companies should begin to create campaigns and strategies that essentially “hit home” with customers and followings, rather than turning in campaigns to generate a quick buck.

Content needs to use written, visual and audio to drive marketing funnels in building interest, desire, action and awareness. In fact, 2023 will be more about how content doesn’t necessarily drive customers to make a purchase, but rather, how it creates an opportunity to better their lives.

You may be asking yourself, how can I develop marquee content to give me an advantage over my competitors? There are roughly three factors to consider. It is important for the consumer, who essentially is digitally window shopping, to want to stop and see more of what your store has to offer. The proper steps here are to attract, engage and garner a positive outcome.

This is done by drawing attention to stopping the prospective customer, whether via an engaging picture, video or short-form copy. Remember, especially in 2022, attention spans are shrinking, and it is important to distribute the who, what, when, where, why and how for the customer quickly and painlessly. Next, customers need to feel engaged, so sparking their interest and convincing them to draw on their desire is important. Typically, the videos earning the most bang for their bucks are the 3-5 second Facebook videos and Instagram reels, while even the 30-second “shorts” on YouTube have proven successful as well.

Ecommerce will continue to migrate more toward working in conjunction with social media platforms.
Brand marketing and customer engagement, including advertising, is essentially moving more toward a social media-centric approach.
Video, and to a lesser extent, pictures, are providing a more social aspect to ecommerce sales, which is reimagining how companies engage with consumers.
Instagram is coming around, but in adopting a TikTok-type method, platforms are seeing the power of video when it comes to social media ecommerce. With the ability to perform consultations, recommendations and livestreams, products and experiences are personalized for consumers.

The moral of the story for the remaining months in 2022 as we progress toward 2023 is: When the customer has the desire to navigate and explore, action comes into play. The content should be results-driven. After all, it’s about the sale in the ecommerce world.

By Michael Stagno

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Discovery and attribution: what’s driving Instagram’s new QR code push?

September 28, 2022 No Comments

By Chris Sutcliffe

Instagram, like all social media platforms, is investing heavily in its e-commerce capabilities. But while its ambitions are forward-facing, it is also looking backward at an underappreciated marketing tool to supercharge those ambitions – the QR code.

The QR code is having a renaissance. Once mostly seen in out-of-home (OOH) grassroots campaigns, the value of the code has skyrocketed as marketers grew to understand its wider implications for attribution and analytics purposes.

Instagram, finding itself on the back foot for e-commerce compared to platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat, is now quietly rolling out a new QR-based feature for all users. Following a limited trial of the tool, as noted by Alessandro Paluzzi, the platform is allowing its wider user base to share links to Reels and posts through the generation of a QR code.

A Meta representative told Techcrunch: “To make it easier for people and businesses to share specific content, we recently launched the ability to create QR codes for profiles, tags, locations, reels and more.”

It is another lease of life for the QR code. In 2015, Snapchat experimented with launching QR-based Snapcodes, allowing users to easily follow their friends. TikTok similarly launched its own visually-distinct QR code to allow users to share their own profiles.

The tool has also previously seen use in marketing in print titles. South Africa’s Associated Media – which publishes the regional editions of Cosmopolitan among others – saw positive results from printing QR codes next to products in its print magazines. That allowed its brand partners to track the purchase funnel from an analogue product to a digital one with much greater specificity than would otherwise have been possible.

At the time, Associated Media’s chief exec Julia Raphaely said: “We started with a QR code because, in South Africa, that is the payment gateway that’s very well recognized. We partnered with a QR code technology that was powered by a bank, and we started testing it.”

In the rest of the world, however, the QR code was seen mostly as a tool that had never lived up to its potential. Now, though, audiences have greater familiarity with codes for information-sharing and linking out. In its most recent Marvel series, for instance, Disney has included QR codes within TV shows that take users to bonus content.

A social strategy

Now, however, the QR code has come roaring back to the fore as a viable marketing tool. On social platforms, as in print, the codes are being used to open the purchase funnel for consumers – and to deliver greater measurement options for advertisers.

Jordan Lukeš, communications director at Emplifi, explains: “QR codes offer a wealth of opportunity for brands in terms of social-forward marketing. We know that influencer marketing is a huge hit with younger consumers especially. Just imagine how this could enhance the shopping experience – you could have QR codes connecting product info to posts where an influencer is wearing the item, or even include QR codes on physical clothing racks in stores.

“Not only does this create a phygital experience for the shopper, but it offers a new way for brands to drive and monitor their engagement in a way that can be traced all the way down to the bottom line.”

The codes would also aid with one of Instagram’s perennial issues – that of discovery. While more consumers are using platforms such as TikTok and Pinterest to seek out and discover recommendations, thus opening the purchase funnel for brand partners, Instagram has struggled to match their capabilities. This integration of QR code allows its creators to share their posts off-platform, which could help ameliorate that problem.

Beyond that, the key benefit for Instagram is one of attribution. The QR code allows for more direct and demonstrable measures of efficacy when it comes to linking through to advertising partners’ products.

Media Bounty’s Max Harris and Ali Moloney explain: “For advertisers, this trend has provided the added benefit of gathering audience data for future marketing purposes. For example, QR codes can store digital information such as when, where and how often you scan a code, which typically leads to an app or a website that then tracks your personal information. Therefore, the rise of the QR code follows the agreement between platforms and users as we exchange our data for access and convenience.”

The QR code was a victim of Amara’s Law, and its early use cases were arguably too early to take advantage of the rise of the smartphone camera and social media. With Instagram and the other major social platforms making huge strides toward developing their e-commerce operations, however, the QR code has again found its place in the marketer’s arsenal.

By Chris Sutcliffe

Sourced from The Drum

In News

The Best Marketing Strategies for eCommerce Businesses

August 2, 2022 No Comments

By Diana Ford

Every day, new internet users buy products online. From America to Europe to Asia, eCommerce is here to stay.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that global eCommerce sales are expected to hit $5.5 trillion in 2022, according to Statista. But while you have more potential customers, more competitors are also trying to take their share of the eCommerce pie.

So, don’t expect internet users to land on your website and launch a buying spree without your effort. That’s why marketing is vital to any successful eCommerce business’s operations.

Now, there’s no single strategy that works for every eCommerce business. So how do you know the best for your business?

This guide will show you the most effective marketing strategies and how to identify the best for your needs.

How do you know what strategy is best for your eCommerce business?

As I mentioned earlier, every eCommerce business’s marketing strategy is unique according to various factors. Nevertheless, here are three critical considerations to help you discover the best marketing strategy for your eCommerce business.

Your ideal buyer

While billions of users are online, only a few profiles of people qualify as your ideal customer. Therefore, defining your ideal buyers will determine most of your marketing and even business decisions.

You can define your ideal buyer by creating a buyer persona, which will include details such as:

Name
Gender
Age
Income
Favorite marketing channels
Location
Pain points
Ambitions
Hobbies

These pieces of information will determine elements of your marketing campaigns, such as marketing channels, brand voice, targeting criteria, and more. Here’s an eCommerce buyer persona example from Drip:

Your marketing goals

Although your overall goal is to acquire more customers and revenue, there are many stages of that journey. Your marketing campaigns at various buyer journey stages will have different goals.

Common marketing goals for eCommerce businesses include:

Brand awareness
Lead acquisition
Customer acquisition
Customer retention

Once you have a goal for your marketing campaign, it will inform your marketing messages, channels, and tasks. You must also define the metrics to measure your goal during the goal-setting process.

Without setting a goal for your marketing campaigns, you can easily fall into a scattergun approach. As a result, there’ll be no way to measure the success or failure of your campaigns.

Your marketing budget

First, your overall budget will determine the channels you’ll focus on. With a big budget, you can have more space to experiment. However, a small budget will restrict you to only a tried-and-tested strategy.

Whatever your budget, it’s vital to optimize it to obtain the best result possible.

Considering these factors, you can create a unique eCommerce marketing strategy to meet your business needs.

The best eCommerce marketing strategies

Below, we’ll consider six proven strategies to help you reach more customers. Of course, you can combine some of these strategies to achieve your marketing goals.

Let’s go into the details.

Ecommerce SEO

Before a customer is ready to buy your product, they’ve done a lot of research. So to give your business the best chance of converting prospects, you must connect with them during the research stage.

ECommerce SEO is the process of optimizing your web pages to rank high for essential business keywords. Here are tasks to execute to improve your eCommerce SEO:

Content Marketing: no page can rank on search engines without some content on it. Hence, valuable content is one of the most vital criteria for ranking high for a keyword. Today, SEO has gone beyond just stuffing a page with keywords. Search engines consider search intent and ensure your content provides the information a searcher is looking for. Therefore, creating pieces of content that solve your visitors’ problems is vital.
Technical SEO: includes tasks you execute in your website’s backend to ensure search engines can quickly discover your website. For example, you can submit your sitemap to index your pages and make them crawlable. Another aim of technical SEO is to improve the website experience for visitors. For instance, you can increase the speed of your website for a boost in rankings and usability. Another similar focus is making your website mobile-friendly to complement both of the points mentioned above.
On-Page SEO: these are SEO tasks you do on your web page. They include tasks such as adding your target keyword to the page URL, title, subheadings, and other aspects of your page. Header tags are essential, they help break down content to help search engines better understand your content.
Off-Page SEO: while you can improve SEO for your eCommerce website through many actions on your website, you can also take steps outside your website. One of the most prominent off-page SEO tactics is link building. When other websites relevant to your niche link to your page, they help build the authority of that page. Another critical factor is that the website linking to you already has a lot of high-quality backlinks to your pages will boost your chances of higher ranks.

By engaging in eCommerce SEO campaigns, you can acquire more leads and customers through search engines.

Pay Per Click Advertising

Improving organic search and social media performance can take a lot of time that you don’t have. However, with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you can reach your audience now.

For PPC advertising on Google, you must take the necessary steps to improve your chances of success. They include:

Conduct keyword research: what keywords are your potential buyers putting in the search box? You can find the best keywords to reach your prospects through keyword research on Google Keyword planner and other research tools.
Adjust bidding according to your goals: Are your ads showing up for your preferred keywords? Is the competition too high? Is a click worth much higher than you’re currently bidding? You can also achieve better success with your bidding if you increase your ad quality score through high-relevant ads and better click-through rates.
Build relevant landing pages: your ad copy must align with your landing page copy to improve your chances of conversions. Some landing page builders allow you to take it further through dynamic text replacement. This will feature searchers’ keywords on your landing page.
Use Google shopping ads: These ads are usually created for transactional keywords. These ads will display your products and their prices on the search results page. You can also add shipping information and ratings.
Use retargeting ads: if someone has visited some pages on your website, you can send them ads related to those pages. For instance, you can target a shopper who has visited a product page with ads for that product. This will make them more receptive to your ads.

After executing these tactics, you can improve performance through A/B testing. Frankly, there’s no single ad that works for every business. So, you have to test various ad campaign elements to improve performance.

Email Marketing

According to statistics from Litmus, email marketing can deliver an ROI of $45 for every dollar spent by eCommerce businesses. So, unsurprisingly, this is one of the best marketing channels to improve performance.

That is because email marketing for eCommerce has many advantages compared to other marketing channels. First, your marketing messages will land in your subscribers’ inboxes. This is more exposure than other channels.

Second, sending different messages according to the subscriber’s interests is easy. In other words, personalization can make a lot of difference in your marketing campaigns.

Naturally, the best email marketing software you can use today will allow you to personalize your emails based on many criteria such as:

Name
Birthdays
Gender
Location
Purchase history
Emails opened
Website pages visited

As a result of sending relevant emails to subscribers, you’ll increase your open and click-through rates. And since you’re directing them to a relevant web page, there’s a higher chance of converting such visitors.

Beyond personalization, email marketing automation is another effective strategy. Email marketing automation involves sending a series of messages to your subscribers based on a schedule or when some conditions are met.

Some examples of automated email sequences are:

Welcome emails
Lead nurturing emails
Promotional emails
Abandoned cart emails
Up-sell and cross-sell emails
Onboarding emails
Re-engagement emails

To create these emails, you’ll find the necessary tools in your email marketing software. Better still, some software packages will provide automation templates you can use to create your campaigns. Here’s an example of a sequence built with

While creating your sequences, you can add triggers or conditions to add or remove subscribers from your email automation. For your eCommerce business, email marketing is a must rather than an afterthought.

Social Media

While social media is a platform to connect with friends, users also follow businesses and check out information and product offers. Here, eCommerce brands can provide value to their audience through content that can solve their problems.

Of course, your business needs to focus on social media platforms where you can reach your ideal customers. Some ways eCommerce businesses can use social media include:

Posting product tips
Displaying product use cases
Providing industry information
Making product announcements
Featuring user-generated content (UGC)
Featuring influencer content
Selling products
Customer care

In many industries, you’ll find experts and celebrities who have gained a big following due to years of excellent performance in their industries. As a result, these influencers have audiences who trust their product recommendations.

Naturally, eCommerce businesses have taken advantage of this phenomenon to promote their products. However, while launching an influencer marketing campaign, you need to find the right influencers.

The right social media management tool can help you find the right influencers. Then, it can help you track the effectiveness of your influencer campaigns.

Fortunately, you’ll find many examples of brands using influencer marketing on Instagram.

Over the years, social selling has become a popular strategy for eCommerce businesses. For instance, Statista found that about half of American social media users aged 14 to 34 made purchases through this channel in 2021.

In fact, some social media platforms now allow you to sell your products on their platforms. For example, Instagram allows you to add shopping tags to products on your Instagram posts.

A user can click on this tag to buy this product or shop more products without leaving the Instagram app. This allows you to eliminate the barrier of taking users out of Instagram.

Pinterest also allows influencers and brands to create shoppable pins. This will let users shop products on Pinterest or click a link to visit the eCommerce website.

On social media, there are many opportunities to promote and sell your products.

Affiliate marketing

Since you can’t reach all your prospects through your efforts alone, you can partner with publishers who will promote your products on blog posts, emails, social media, and videos. In return, publishers will take a share of the sales they refer.

This will help you increase your reach faster. After all, according to Backlinko, “40% of U.S. merchants cited affiliate programs as their top customer acquisition channel”.

First, you have to find a suitable affiliate marketing platform. This will help you organize details such as your affiliates, commissions, and other pieces of information. Moreover, your publishers can see the number of clicks, affiliates, paid affiliates, commissions, and more.

Some affiliate marketing platforms such as PartnerStack, Everflow, and Impact.com provide tools to run your affiliate marketing campaigns. On the other hand, you can use affiliate marketplaces such as ShareASale and Commission Junction.

Beyond this, you need to create an affiliate marketing page on your website. On this page, you’ll explain your affiliate terms to publishers. Publishers should also have a link to register.

After a publisher has registered as an affiliate, you should send emails to them providing tips on how they can promote your products more effectively.

Optimizing Website UI/UX

Your website is the first impression a shopper will have about your business. If your website design is poor, shoppers will see your business as sloppy. And sloppy businesses don’t make great products, right?

So, a shopper can leave before they get to see your wonderful products if your website UI/UX is poor. However, there are a few steps to ensure this never happens.

First, you need a simple site structure. This means shoppers should be able to get to any page in no more than 4 clicks. More so, you can install a search bar to help visitors find products easily.

You can also use a chatbot and live chat to answer any vital questions prospects may have during shopping. Another way to optimize your eCommerce website UI/UX is to make your website scannable and use obvious CTAs.

Today, a large percentage of your buyers will be on mobile devices. Having a mobile responsive website ensures all the essential elements on your page will be visible to mobile users.

Adding the geolocation feature helps provide shipping information and addresses of your nearest physical stores. Implementing these tactics will help provide a seamless experience to shoppers during the buyer’s journey.

Conclusion

As more people shop online, your eCommerce business should prepare for more challenging competition. Effective marketing is one of the best ways to give your business the right exposure.

Even if you have an excellent product, nobody will buy it if they’ve never heard of it. But with the right marketing strategies, you’ll attract more shoppers to your online store and sell more products to them.

Employ the strategies explained in this guide to boost your marketing results.

The post The Best Marketing Strategies for eCommerce Businesses appeared first on Due.

Feature Image Credit: Due – Due

By Diana Ford

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

5 Examples of eCommerce Chatbots That Will Increase Sales and Revenue

July 21, 2022 No Comments

By Srushti Shah

Chatbots today are revolutionizing the manner in which people shop. They are providing improved customer experiences in product selection, shopping, customer service, and more.

According to Statista, an estimated 2.14 billion people purchased goods or services online in 2021.

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The number of active chatbots is growing at its quickest rate yet. In 2017, Facebook Messenger had 100,000 chatbots, which quickly rose to 300,000 within 12 months. This rapid expansion shows that the collaboration between humans and chatbots is and will continue to improve as time passes.

If that isn’t indication enough of how useful people find chatbots, take a look at the stats below:

40% of millennials claim that they use chatbots daily
64% of internet users say round-the-clock service is the best chatbot attribute
67% of millennials say that they are more likely to shop from websites using a chatbot

Do you want to know how this theory of eCommerce chatbots works in practice? Let’s take a look at Masha.ai, a shopping assistant chatbot by Facebook Messenger.

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Masha.ai began as an experiment to help customers reduce the amount of time they needed to accomplish their shopping and soon grew in popularity among users. The chatbot, which was designed to assist buyers with shopping options and assist them in placing orders, also provided consultation to its users and sent them news of new stock updates.

The need for eCommerce chatbots

You can save a great deal of time for both your employees and consumers by using a chatbot while also improving your revenue.

Let’s look at the most popular eCommerce use case – placing orders online. As an eCommerce business owner, you must guide customers through the three stages of the customer journey before they make a purchase:

Awareness
Consideration
Decision/Purchase

On paper, the development appears to be straightforward. However, it might be challenging to properly guide online shoppers through all three stages.

So, what do you do here to help prospects along the customer journey so that they end up at the Decision stage more frequently?

Simple. You deploy a chatbot.

These bots can be built to offer a variety of services to prospects while gently nudging them towards the final stage. Here’s how to do it:

Engage during the Awareness stage: A chatbot can go beyond simply luring prospects to your brand and the problem(s) that your product(s) solve. They can even engage them in a unique way that distinguishes your business and prepares them for the next stage.
Inform during the Consideration stage: It is up to you to educate leads to assist them so that they progress smoothly to the consideration stage – a job well-suited to a chatbot. These bots can tell consumers your brand’s story, promote your products, and pique the curiosity of potential buyers as well. These bots can also service customer queries and satisfy the objections of prospects so that they are more ready to buy.
Convert at the Decision stage: Bots can make the purchasing process simpler and more appealing. Furthermore, they can follow up with individuals who were on the verge of converting and encourage those who did purchase to return and buy again.

5 Examples of successful eCommerce chatbots

Chatbots that are well-designed can have a favourable impact on customer experience. The channels on which they are most popular are often the ones with the best user experience and simplicity of interaction. What role do chatbots play in the world of big brands? Let’s take a closer look.

1. Nike StyleBot

Brand: Nike

Industry: Sports apparel, accessories, and equipment.

Major takeaway: Chatbots can improve conversions for retail campaigns.

Key stats:

The average click-through rate (CTR) is 12.5 times higher than other brand campaigns
Conversions improved by 4 times the brand average

In an effort to promote Nike AirMax Day, Nike considered adopting a conversational marketing campaign that utilized a chatbot for the purpose. An AI eCommerce bot, aka the Nike StyleBot, the brand brought its exclusive Nike ID platform to Facebook Messenger. Customers could create their custom shoe designs or go through previously submitted versions for ideas.

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Among other things, users can communicate with the chatbot in natural language and receive multiple-choice responses in the form of text, interactive buttons, gifs, and photos. Of all the functionalities, though, the customized sneaker-creation one remains the most fascinating part of the bot. All you have to do is submit a photograph of your favorite pair of shoes and select a color theme from NIKEiD. The opportunity to play with colors and create their own sneakers all through the chatbot helped make Nike StyleBot a huge hit.

2. Michael Kors

Brand: Michael Kors

Industry: Fashion

Key stats:

Gained more than 350,000 active users
55% decrease in inbound service volume
90% containment rate

Major takeaway: AI chatbots can reduce service volume and improve customer satisfaction.

Michael Kors spent the year 2018 focusing on creating and deploying an improved chatbot for its worldwide audience. The chatbot that came about not only provided existing deals and item suggestions but also supports consumers in making the right purchase by redirecting them to their eCommerce store to complete the transaction.

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Michael Kors’ chatbot also provides FAQ help and reroutes customers to real human agents when the need emerges. The chatbot allows you to learn about the brand’s products. Users can ask the bot their questions and it will respond and keep them interested.

The chatbot not only continues to attract new clients but also accurately responds to more than 80% of consumer concerns and retains them with a 90% containment rate.

3. Sephora Kik Bot

Brand: Sephora

Industry: Beauty and makeup

Key stats:

Achieved a 4.4-25% increase in conversions across platforms
18% of Sephora’s customers now make purchases online

Major takeaway: Chatbots can provide personalized recommendations to foster a unique virtual shopping experience.

Mary Beth Laughton, Sephora’s Senior VP of Digital Marketing, delivered a keynote speech in which she announced that Sephora would partner with Kik Messenger to create a chatbot to provide its clients with engaging shopping experiences. Users could now have one-on-one chat experiences via phone with Sephora’s Kik chatbot.

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If you have ever been inside a Sephora store, you’ve definitely been startled by the vast array of items. This is where Sephora’s Kik bot comes into play. Users can learn about makeup through Sephora’s video clips, special tips, and photo tutorials seamlessly. What’s more, Sephora’s Kik bot also assists users in discovering the items used in makeup tutorials and recommends top-rated items for a specific category.

4. Betty Bot

Brand: GearBunch

Industry: Apparel and accessories retail

Key stats:

Hit $100,000 in revenue within the first month of operation
Increased overall revenue by $5,000,000 in a span of 12 months

Major takeaway: Chatbots can act as personal shopping assistants to improve engagement.

GearBunch is a clothing company established in the United States that specializes in goods with unique patterns. Their highest-selling and most popular products are women’s leggings, but they also sell other apparel like caps, accessories, and shoes. They also designed a chatbot named Betty to assist with sales.

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Betty operates as a personal shopper for users, recommending certain products and even intervening when a user fails to convert. As a consequence, prospective buyers who would otherwise be lost can be reengaged and persuaded to buy. If a customer does not convert after their first encounter with Betty, the bot targets them by:

Offering discount coupons: GearBunch sends out sale notices and coupon deals to its customers. Given that 48% of consumers believe they are more likely to purchase a product sooner than usual to take advantage of a deal, this is a highly beneficial tactic for GearBunch.
Following up on cart abandonment: If a user adds something to their cart on the GearBunch website but does not purchase it, the bot will contact them again. It will send a cart abandonment notification to the consumer via Messenger that also contains a link to take them back to where they left off.

This has aided GearBunch in increasing conversions by offering its users a personalized shopping experience and assisting them in finding the perfect product, increasing the likelihood that they’ll convert.

5. Freddy Bot

Brand: HelloFresh

Industry: Meal-kit industry

Key stats:

Improved conversion rate by 64%
Increased message volume by 47%
Decreased response times by 76%

Major takeaway: AI chatbots can decrease response times to provide improved customer satisfaction and consequently boost conversions.

HelloFresh is a meal kit startup established in Berlin. In 2017, their Facebook page released Freddy, a chatbot, to assist them:

Increasing message volume from prospective buyers
Reducing the time it takes to respond to those messages

Freddy began this exercise by interacting with visitors in an innovative way as they progressed through the Awareness stage. It enticed prospects with engaging, seasonal content to lure them in. For Black Friday 2017 and 2018, HelloFresh made Facebook posts containing a question or a riddle. Whenever a user gave the correct answer, Freddy would contact them over Messenger and send them a promo code. This campaign was so successful in 2018 that it had a conversion rate of 64%.

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The HelloFresh team also gave Freddy a few amusing features in order to offer visitors a distinctive brand experience that would retain them by keeping them interested. Freddy’s Breakfast Quiz, for instance, is the perfect example of an engaging way for users to learn about HelloFresh’s products.

Freddy paid off big time as part of this bot effort in the following ways:

Once configured and deployed, the process of delivering discounts, generating leads, and closing purchases were essentially totally automated, saving the team at HelloFresh both time and energy.
It provided users with a memorable, delightful experience with the brand, increasing their likelihood of conversion and/or re-engagement in the future – an important part of this stage in the customer journey.

To bot or not to bot?

As the chatbot examples above demonstrate, the future presents nearly endless possibilities for eCommerce companies.

Irrespective of the industry you are from, a chatbot may increase your brand’s performance and revenue by attracting new customers, teaching them about your offerings, and improving customer satisfaction by lowering the time it takes to respond to support issues.

So, regardless of which method you adopt, this revolutionary technology can help your brand improve its performance to reap substantial benefits.

By Srushti Shah

Guest author: Srushti Shah is an ambitious, passionate, and out-of-the-box thinking woman having vast exposure in Digital Marketing. Her key focus is to serve her clients with the latest innovation in her field leading to fast and effective results. Working beyond expectations and delivering the best possible results is her professional motto. Other than work, she loves traveling, exploring new things and spending quality time with family. Reach out to Srushti Shah on Twi t ter or LinkedIn

Sourced from Jeff Bullas