marketing Archives - Page 41 of 50

In News

Could Social Media Be The Ultimate Customer Service Channel?

January 19, 2018 No Comments

Could social media be realising its true calling as the ultimate customer service channel?

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

According to a new study released today, overall satisfaction is highest when customers ask questions or make requests via social media.

The study was conducted by J.D. Power, surveying people who were customers of mobile network operators. Said Peter Cunningham at J.D. Power, “Personalised feedback, rapid-fire response time and interaction with live humans are some of the primary factors driving the highest levels of customer satisfaction with customer service. And, increasingly, customers appear to be finding that formula through alternative channels such as social media. That doesn’t mean call centres and brick-and-mortar stores are no longer relevant; in fact, personalised assistance via phone, app and face-to-face are still critical to customer satisfaction.”

Following are key findings of the 2018 studies:

• Social channels will become front line for customer service

Among customers who ask a question or make a request, overall satisfaction is highest in the social media channel (838 on a 1,000-point scale) and the app channel (835). By contrast, overall satisfaction scores average just 797 among customers who handle these requests on the phone with a representative.

• The human touch still matters

Satisfaction tends to be much higher when customers use a channel that provides personalised feedback. For example, assisted care satisfaction is 26 points higher than unassisted care satisfaction (819 vs. 793, respectively), and satisfaction is 824 among customers who ask their question in the store channel vs. 797 among those who speak with a rep over the phone. Additionally, among customers who ask a question or make a request through their carrier’s app, overall satisfaction is 845 when they think they are interacting with an actual person vs. 800 when they think the system is automated.

• Video plays a key role

The channels with the highest first-contact resolution incidences are online videos (92%) and mobile app to research information (90%). Among customers who view an online video from their service provider, 34% say they “definitely will not” switch to a new carrier in the next 12 months vs. 21% among those who use the phone automated response system.

• Not-so-immediate gratification via email

While social, app-based and face-to-face customer support are prized by consumers for their personalised, rapid response, the average customer service response time via email is 32 hours.

Could Social Media Be The Ultimate Customer Service Channel? Soon, perhaps, it may be the ONLY service channel.

In News

Advertising Influences Millennials to Buy More Often Than Baby Boomers

January 18, 2018 No Comments

Millennials are more likely than older generations to try a new brand or product after seeing or hearing an advertisement. And who says advertising doesn’t work! It totally, totally does.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Millennials are more likely to make purchases after seeing or hearing advertisements compared to Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and other older generations, according to a new survey from Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews firm.

About 81% of millennials surveyed – those ages 18 to 34 – made a purchase after seeing or hearing an advertisement in the last 30 days. Baby Boomers and other generations over age 55, however, were not quite as influenced by advertising: Among those consumers, 57% made a purchase as a result of an advertisement.

These findings illustrate millennials’ higher tendency for “impulse buying” when it comes to new products and brands.

“Baby Boomers have already gotten set in their ways in regards to the brands they prefer, so an ad might not convince them to buy something,” said Rob Albertson, managing director of Bandwidth Marketing. “There’s an aspect of spontaneity in millennials that would cause them to try something.”

Millennials also trust advertising mediums more than older generations; 64% trust TV and print advertising, and 51% trust online and social media advertising. About 54% of Baby Boomers trust TV and print advertising, and just 27% trust online and social media advertising.

Millennials trust advertising more because they have more resources available to help them discover if a brand’s message is misleading.

“Baby Boomers come from a time when there were a lot fewer regulatory bodies in advertising,” said Julie Wierzbicki, account director at advertising agency Giants & Gentlemen. “For example, cigarettes used to be advertised as good for you, and we found out that these brands we thought were great were lying to us. Millennials feel like brands have to be honest because there’s so much more information out there, and if you’re doing things in a fraudulent or misleading way, it’s going to eventually come out.”

Consumer income is also a factor in advertising influence. The study found that 83% of consumers with a household income over $100,000 were more likely to make a purchase as a result of an advertisement, compared to 68% of consumers with household incomes of less than $49,999. This is due to a higher disposable income and more spending power.

Overall, advertisements influence 90% of consumers in their purchasing decisions, and consumers—regardless of generation—are most likely to make a purchase after seeing or hearing an advertisement on TV and in print.

Consumers view traditional advertising mediums – TV, print, and radio – as the most trustworthy, while they view online and social media advertising more skeptically.

The survey shows that advertising continues to influence consumers in their purchasing decisions, and businesses should advertise in order to reach consumers.

In News

Practical Tips For Integrating Video Into Your Marketing

January 16, 2018 No Comments

By Mandy Pennington

It’s a beautiful thing when you find a marketing strategy that people want more of. Every day, we’re shown thousands of advertising messages, most of which we’re blind to. But believe it or not, 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers – a key statistic that should be your call to action for adding video into your strategy.

Video has changed our browsing experience for good. YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of total internet users, and is one of the most frequently used search engines. More video content is uploaded in 30 days than the major U.S. television networks have created in 30 years. We create video narratives of our lives through vlogs or dedicated YouTube channels.

Why Video Matters

Sure, people may want to see more video content, but what value does it really offer? Research and case studies show that video can aid in fundamental brand activities like building trust, establishing credibility, and generating engagement.

Have you ever felt frustrated by a key message not sinking in with your audience? Video may be the tipping point. Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. Anyone who sells a product with some assembly or explanation required can appreciate the importance of information retention in their customer base.

The benefits are clear – and it doesn’t hurt that 51% of marketing professionals worldwide name video as the type of content with the best ROI.

How Can I Add Video To My Marketing Strategy (Without Making Ads)?

Enriching your user experience with videos that aren’t just ads is all about reaching people in their micro-moments, or the moments when we turn to our devices for answers when we want to know something, do something, buy something, or go somewhere.

By understanding a user’s intention when engaging with your marketing (i.e. those learn, do, go, or buy activities), you can create videos that add value to their experiences and lead them down the path to conversion. In fact, according to Visually, adding video to a landing page can increase conversions by 80% or more, and home page videos can boost conversions by 20%.

The key to incorporating video into your marketing strategy is to get intimately familiar with:

What is visually interesting and valuable to your audience
What people are searching for
What the intention is behind the searches

Here are a few ways to apply those insights in a practical way to improve engagement, conversion rates, audience perceptions, trust, and social reach.

Q&A Sessions: No matter what industry you’re in, there are bound to be questions. Video Q&A sessions with members of your team or industry thought leaders can be a great way to reinforce your position as a knowledgeable and trustworthy resource for information and guidance when your customers need it most. Plus, it can drive additional search traffic to your content properties by reaching searchers when they have a query in mind. For example, Warby Parker has a help-related YouTube channel that gives video answers to frequently asked customer service questions while also capturing search traffic from prospective customers looking for answers.

Product Demonstrations/How Tos: Your customers are looking for ways to use and understand your products or services, so why not meet them at the moment when they start their research by creating a video that can show what you do or what you offer in action? Explainer and product demonstration videos can be a powerful marketing tool when you have a product that pays to show in use or in greater detail, especially if you can find a unique way to present the information. Just take a look at Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” Series which showed the power of the product by introducing unexpected – and funny! – use cases.

Testimonials: Adding video testimonials to your site or social channels can also be a powerful strategy by tapping into buyer psychology. Demonstrations of concensus or endorsement by others with like qualities or characteristics through social proof can instill a greater sense of trust and be a powerful persuasion tool. As a case study, ChowNow uses professionally-produced video testimonials to sell their benefits while showing real customers in real situations. Don’t just tell, show.

Social Media Storytelling: Social platforms have evolved with user’s growing demand for more video content. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter have video features to enrich the experience of participating in an online community. Brands can easily post videos to their social accounts or even livestream as a way of adding context to their brand stories. Buzzfeed does this effectively by launching its own original shows/programming, distributing across social, and livestreaming to its already engaged audience. Video content is frequently shared throughout social channels to increase reach – and it works. Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.

Education & Conversation: Sometimes you have a customer base that wants to continue learning. Why not make video content to educate and start a dialogue? Take wine, for instance. Wine Library TV understood that shopping for wine is a highly personal and customizable experience that can be improved by giving customers a bit more information about what they’re shopping for and how to make better choices. Branded video content can also create and redefine conversations that are important to your audience in ways that can start entire movements.

Cross-Promotion: Besides enriching your website and social media efforts, video can be a helpful tool for content cross-promotion. Authors often use video teasers or trailers as a way to sell audiences on their latest book. Conferences share clips or recorded sessions to sell the value of the event prior to tickets going on sale. Publishers turn blog posts into video presentations. Musicians make music videos or lyric animations to further the reach of their latest releases. Try incorporating video trailers, teasers, and previews as a way to give your content additional mileage while generating interest through a new interpretation of your work.

A Few Best Practices To Keep In Mind

Have a goal in mind before you film and align the video content you create with stages in your customer journey.
Making a testimonial? Be genuine and focus on the benefits.
Add transcripts to your YouTube video description, landing pages, or blog posts where videos are embedded so that your video content is more accessible for search.
Include captioning as part of your recorded video to ensure a better user experience, as 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.
Suit the video to the distribution platform, especially on social.
Boost your video’s adoption through supporting it with paid advertising. Don’t rely simply on organic views to get your content seen.
Keep it short and sweet. Videos under 90 seconds see an average retention rate of 53%.
Practice product video mindfulness. As you consume video content, ask questions about whether or not it’s clear, tells a story, or adds value to the brand. Don’t copy, but learn from what other brands have done successfully through video.

Tools To Get Started

Starting with video can be as simple as using your built-in laptop, tablet, or smartphone camera. With technology at our fingertips, it’s never been easier to make and share a video.

But there are some tools that you can use to make, edit, share, and measure videos in your online marketing efforts:

And of course there are live streaming or social in-app solutions too! Key principles to keep in mind no matter which tools you choose to use: make sure the video looks good, sounds good, is accessible, and offers solid content. As Brightcove reports, 62% of consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of a brand that published a poor quality video.

But beyond these DIY solutions, you can also look to partner with a trusted video production company who understands your marketing goals and can collaborate with you. There’s nothing wrong with seeking out help from the pros.

Measuring Video Success

View stats may seem great, but are they really telling you what’s happening with your video content?

Measuring the effectiveness of your videos is a must-have for any marketer and there are lot of ways you can approach the subject of KPIs. For some brands, awareness and hit stats are all they want to see, but if you really want to see the impact of the content you’re producing, you have to look at engagement stats. What’s the average view look like? Where do people stop watching? How do they interact with the links or transcripts? What actions do they take on the page after watching the video?

Google BrandLab has a great resource on how to determine the right KPIs for your video marketing efforts by aligning measurement with marketing goals.

Ultimately, it’s all about being mindful and attentive to how video adds value to your overall marketing strategy – and there’s a lot of value to be enjoyed by brands who can incorporate video effectively.

By Mandy Pennington

Mandy (Boyle) Pennington is the Director of Internet Marketing at Net Driven. She is also a published freelance writer, lecturer at Marywood University, and co-founder of NEPA BlogCon. She enjoys theater, not taking herself seriously, and all things food.

Sourced from searchenginepeople

In News

Don’t Use Cute Kids While Advertising Your Charity – Your Campaign Will Backfire

January 15, 2018 No Comments

If you are selling clothes, use all the cute kids you want. But if you are advertising a charity, you need a different kind of kid.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

When it comes to asking a stranger for help, being young, pretty, and the opposite sex greatly improve your odds. But when it comes to children suffering from the likes of natural disaster, poverty, or homelessness, a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research reveals that less attractive children receive more help than their cuter counterparts.

“Many charitable organisations use children in advertising and promotional materials. Our research examines how the facial attractiveness of the children in these campaigns affects the empathy and help received from adults,” write authors Robert J. Fisher and Yu Ma (both University of Alberta).

In a series of four experiments, participants were asked to visit fictional websites where they were asked to consider sponsoring a child from a developing country. The authors then systematically varied the levels of attractiveness of the children featured on the websites as well as their levels of need.

Results showed that when the children were portrayed as having a severe need (for example, orphaned as a result of a natural disaster), their facial attractiveness had no affect on helping responses. In contrast, when their need was not severe, participants felt less compassion and sympathy for an attractive child compared to an unattractive child in an identical circumstance.

The authors explain that this negative effect of attractiveness occurred because participants inferred that the attractive children were more popular, intelligent, and helpful than their less attractive peers. They also observed this negative effect despite the fact that the children in the studies were obviously too young to care for themselves.

These results offer practical implications for how children are portrayed by disaster relief agencies, children’s hospitals, and other charities. “We believe our research offers a positive and hopeful perspective on human behaviour because it suggests that when a child is in obvious need, even strangers can feel compassion and offer aid irrespective of the child’s physical appearance,” the authors conclude.

Fundraisers and marketers for charities, take note!

In News

What Drives and Destroys Brand Loyalty?

January 12, 2018 No Comments

It’s pretty much what you think, with a few surprises.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

A new study shows that too many unsolicited emails and sales calls will significantly damage brand loyalty. Well it does in the IT industry anyway. While this study was conducted within the IT sales arena, wisdom from the findings can be applied to all industries.

The study was conducted by Spiceworks who announced the results of the new survey today. It explored how often IT buyers are contacted by sales reps and marketers, what drives them to engage with tech brands, and what drives and damages their loyalty to vendors.

The study, Brand Loyalty 101: Winning over IT Buyers, reveals 85 percent of IT buyers believe too many sales calls and emails from tech brands make them less likely to purchase from a vendor they’re loyal to. In fact, feeling bombarded by emails and calls is just as likely to deter brand loyalty as a security issue with a vendor.

“It’s no surprise that IT buyers react to value — they want reliable products, a fair price, and timely customer support, which all helps build a great brand experience,” said Sanjay Castelino, vice president of marketing at Spiceworks. “But this brand experience doesn’t start when a buyer becomes a customer. It starts with prospects, and if you’re continuously sending them irrelevant products and information despite low engagement rates, you’re starting in a hole that you’ll have to dig out of to eventually build brand loyalty.”

Great customer support and fair pricing are the top drivers of IT brand loyalty

In terms of how loyal IT buyers are to their current technology vendors, the results show more than 70 percent of IT buyers are loyal to their server, virtualisation, and networking vendors. About 65 percent of IT buyers are also loyal to their computing device and security vendors. However, they’re least loyal to their cloud-based service vendors (47 percent) and their IT outsourcing/consulting partners (52 percent).

When examining what drives brand loyalty among IT buyers, the results show more than 95 percent of IT buyers believe great customer support, consistently fair pricing, and a history of reliable products are important to driving brand loyalty. Ninety-one percent of IT buyers also believe access to technical experts at a company is important.

Additionally, when comparing the results by different generations of IT buyers, it’s evident creative marketing efforts are slightly more important to millennials than older generations. While 23 percent of millennials believe creative marketing efforts are important to driving brand loyalty, only 18 percent of Gen Xers and 13 percent of baby boomers said the same. The quality and frequency of communication from tech brands is also much more important to millennials than Gen Xers and baby boomers.

Over-Contact

The survey results show that on average, IT buyers are contacted by technology sales reps and marketers 13 times via email, five times via phone, two times via online forums/communities, one time via social media, and one time via physical mail per week. In some cases, IT buyers are contacted by tech sales reps and marketers up to 25 times a week.

However, the preferences of IT buyers aren’t always taken into consideration when it comes to how they want to be contacted by sales reps and marketers. Fifty-seven percent of IT buyers prefer to be contacted via email and only 8 percent of IT buyers prefer to be contacted via phone. Additionally, 36 percent of IT buyers prefer to seek out information on their own. In fact, 97 percent of IT buyers surveyed said they use online forums and communities to learn about new products, while 79 percent rely on tech news sites and 77 percent research new products via Google.

The vast majority of IT buyers won’t respond to a tech brand they don’t recognize

In terms of what motivates IT buyers to respond to a new sales rep or marketer, the results show a relevant product or service is most important. In fact, 77 percent of IT buyers said relevant products drive them to respond, followed by detailed pricing information (61 percent), detailed product specs (55 percent), a timely solution to a challenge (44 percent), and a free product trial (35 percent). However, only 12 percent of IT buyers said they’re likely to respond to sales or marketing outreach if they’ve never heard of the tech vendor.

When comparing the results by generation, it’s evident millennials are more likely to respond to sales reps and marketers if there’s a personalised message to them. Conversely, Gen Xers and baby boomers are more likely to respond if there’s a product or information that provides a timely solution to a challenge.

In News

Track your Brand’s Twitter Buzz with a new Alert App

January 11, 2018 No Comments

And it’s free! Everyone’s favourite price!

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

A free email service alerts you about your brand (or your competitor’s brand) activity across the internet. This includes results from Twitter, making it an essential tool for any communications professional.

Talkwalker, a social listening and analytics company, today announced the launch of Talkwalker Alerts. It delivers mentions of any keyword (i.e. brand name, hashtag, competitor) across the internet straight to your inbox. The revamped product also features brand mentions from Twitter, making it the only free alerts service that delivers social media mentions as they happen.

“Social media is where the action is today. If you want to stay on top of news and social conversations about your brand or products, you have to constantly check all major social platforms. We’re trying to make that process easier for you by bringing all brand mentions from across the internet to your inbox automatically,” said Robert Glaesener, CEO of Talkwalker. “Our aim is to empower marketers around the world and help make their job easier. This is why we’ve decided to keep the tool free and make it essential for communication professionals by adding the most important Twitter results.”

Users will have access to the tweets that matter most, as the service delivers the conversations with the highest engagement. Aside from Twitter, users can also opt to receive alerts from websites (news), discussion forums and blogs. This will enable digital marketers and PR professionals to keep track of their brands and keywords online, and let everyone monitor the web for their topics of choice, with a special emphasis on social media.

Social media presents a very accurate picture of the buzz generated around a brand or a topic. Talkwalker Alerts is the only product in the market to include alerts from a major social network such as Twitter in its results, thus enhancing the value of the service considerably.

To try Talkwalker Alerts out for yourself, click on this link: www.talkwalker.com/alerts

In News

Want to Make Money Investing on the Stockmarket? Then Ignore Media Experts

January 10, 2018 No Comments

“Experts” in the media get it so wrong so often you have to wonder what’s going on.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Research shows that investing in the stocks least-favoured by analysts yields five times more than buying the most recommended.

But we often defer to experts, especially those in the media. So, we listen to them, then assume taking their stock analysts suggestions would make us better off than doing the exact opposite, right? Well, no.

Recent research by Nicola Gennaioli and colleagues shows that the best way to gain excess-returns would be to invest in the shares LEAST FAVOURED by analysts. They computed that, during the last thirty-five years, investing in the 10% of stock analysts were most optimistic about would have yielded on average 3% a year. By contrast, investing in the 10% of stocks analysts were most pessimistic about would have yielded a staggering 15% a year.

Gennaioli and colleagues shed light on this puzzle with the help of cognitive sciences and, in particular, using Kahneman and Tversky’s concept of representativeness. Decision makers, according to this view, overweight the representative features of a group or a phenomenon.

After observing strong earnings growth, analysts think that the firm may be the next Google. “Googles” are in fact more frequent among firms experiencing strong growth, which makes them representative. The problem is that “Googles” are very rare in absolute terms. As a result, expectations become too optimistic, and future performance disappoints.

“In a classical example, we tend to think of Irishmen as redheads because red hair is much more frequent among Irishmen than among the rest of the world”, Prof. Gennaioli says. “Nevertheless, only 10% of Irishmen are redheads. In our work, we develop models of belief formation that embody this logic and study the implication of this important psychological force in different domains.”

So it looks like the talking heads in the media needs to give us better advice, or we need to forget them and trust our instincts.

In News

You Will Sell More to Millennials and Centennials by Personalisation of Your Marketing

January 9, 2018 No Comments

A new report finds that nine out of ten marketers need help improving their personalisation strategy.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Personalisation is a good strategy for engaging consumers of all ages, BUT younger consumers find it especially important. Nearly half of centennials, age 18-21, (45 percent) and millennials, age 22-37, (49 percent) make purchases because of the level of personalisation within a brand’s email content, meaning that personalisation translates into revenue

This is according to a new study, which shows that two in five marketers don’t tailor their initiatives to audiences of different age groups. So, marketers potentially miss out on substantial engagement opportunities as consumers demand more customised content.

The report found that just 11 percent of marketers claim they can personalise all content. The study also found about only 27 percent can execute basic personalisation tactics, such as using a customer’s name or birthday. Another 26 percent can personalise based on browsing or purchase history, but say it’s tedious to do so. And 17 percent of marketers state they cannot personalise content because they still have trouble collecting and analysing data.

“Personalisation isn’t limited to a customer’s name; and marketers who go beyond this simple data point in order to customise communications will reap the benefits,” said Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “Marketers should tailor content to their customers’ habits and demographics. Fairly easy-to-implement adjustments, such as triggered campaigns and lifecycle messaging, will go far.”

Of the brands that personalise content based on age, two-thirds do so via email. Social media (38 percent) and website (35 percent) are the three channels that marketers are most likely to personalise content based on age.

“The takeaway from the data is obvious: consumers want marketers to personalise content based on their individual characteristics and attributes, and marketers still struggle to do so,” said Michael Iaccarino, CEO and chairman of Infogroup. “To alleviate personalisation woes, marketers need a partner that can help them enhance and leverage their customer data in order to improve personalisation, and as a result, increase revenue.”

Additional findings from the report include:

Less than a quarter of marketers personalise display (24 percent) or direct mail (23 percent) content based on customer age.
Driving revenue (40 percent), acquiring new customers (24 percent), and engaging customers (17 percent) are the three biggest priorities for marketers heading into 2018.
Only 16 percent of marketers believe millennials are most influenced to purchase by the email channel; yet 67 percent of millennials report finding email valuable when researching products.

To learn more about how marketers can personalise content by age, download the full report here.

In News

Why do Online Shoppers Abandon Their Carts Right Before Paying?

January 8, 2018 No Comments

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Shoppers hoping to bag a bargain in the post-Christmas sales are much less likely to go through with their purchases if they are using phones and tablets to buy goods online. This is because consumers often worry they are not seeing the full picture on a mobile app or that they could be missing out on special offers or overlooking hidden costs, according to new research. Concerns about privacy and security can also motivate people to put items into their shopping baskets but then quit without paying.

Although mobile apps are rapidly becoming among the most popular ways to shop online, the phenomenon of shopping cart abandonment is much higher than for desktop-based online shopping. According to Market Research firm Criteo, the share of e-commerce traffic from mobile devices increased to 46% of global e-commerce traffic in Q2 2016. However, only 27% of purchases initiated on this channel were finalised and conversion rates significantly lagged behind desktop initiated purchases.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) investigating why this is so say it represents a huge challenge for online retailers, who are investing heavily in mobile shopping, but not reaping the rewards in successful sales.

“Our study results revealed a paradox,” said Dr Nikolaos Korfiatis, of Norwich Business School at UEA. “Mobile shopping is supposed to make the process easier, and yet concerns about making the right choice, or about whether the site is secure enough leads to an ’emotional ambivalence’ about the transaction – and that means customers are much more likely to simply abandon their shopping carts without completing a purchase.”

The researchers studied online shopping data from 2016-2017 from consumers in Taiwan and the US. They found that the reasons for hesitation at the checkout stage were broadly the same in both countries. In addition, shoppers are much more likely use mobile apps as a way of researching and organising goods, rather than as a purchasing tool, and this also contributes to checkout hesitation.

“People think differently when they use their mobile phones to make purchases,” said Dr Korfiatis. “The smaller screen size and uncertainty about missing important details about the purchase make you much more ambivalent about completing the transaction than when you are looking at a big screen.”

Flora Huang, the study’s lead author, added, “This is a phenomenon that has not been well researched, yet it represents a huge opportunity for retailers. Companies spend a lot of money on tactics such as pay-per-click advertising to bring consumers into online stores – but if those consumers come in via mobile apps and then are not finalising their purchases, a lot of that money will be wasted.”

The team’s results, published in the Journal of Business Research, showed that consumers are much less likely to abandon their shopping baskets if they are satisfied with the choice process. App designers can help by minimising clutter to include only necessary elements on the device’s limited screen space and organising sites via effective product categorisation or filter options so consumers can find products more easily.

Other strategies that might prompt a shopper to complete a purchase include adding special offers, or coupons for a nearby store at the checkout stage.

“Retailers need to invest in technology, but they need to do it in the right way, so the investment pays off,” added Dr Korfiatis. “Customers are becoming more and more demanding and, with mobile shopping in particular, they don’t forgive failures so offering a streamlined, integrated service is really important.”

In News

Want to Sell More Online Products? Make Delivery Free

January 4, 2018 No Comments

This is fascinating stuff.

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

A new study has revealed the true cost of delivery to retailers, with more than half (54%) of shoppers surveyed saying they have abandoned a purchase online because delivery was too expensive.

-83% of online shoppers said free delivery was the most important factor when ordering online

-More than half (54%) have abandoned online shopping baskets because of delivery costs

-A quarter cancelled orders because delivery wasn’t fast enough for their needs.

The original research of 2,000 shoppers by Arvato found that the majority (83%) said free delivery was the most important factor when it comes to fulfillment of online orders, followed by speed of delivery (53%) and free returns (52%).

This rang true for basket abandonment too, with nearly a quarter (24%) of shoppers saying they had cancelled an order because of slow delivery speeds, while 26% said that the product had been out of stock and, with no indication of when it would be available, they decided not to proceed with their purchase or shop with another retailer.

When it comes to fulfillment, 45% said that convenience was the most important factor, with 17% saying they liked to be offered multiple delivery options. 56% of shoppers already use the ‘buy online pick-up instore’ (BOPIS) option, but while only 11% currently use two hour BOPIS options offered by retailers, 32% said they would like to see more retailers offering one or two hour collection spots for BOPIS purchases going forward.

Ferka Vukel at Arvato said: “Delivery isn’t just about fulfillment but an integral part of the decision-making process for the online shopper. Those retailers who are not offering a fast, convenient and, crucially, free delivery service are at risk of losing out. With retailers having to balance the rising cost of fulfillment against the cost of losing an order, there is no easy answer, however one thing all retailers can do is to be transparent, giving customers an estimated delivery cost from the outset to avoid frustration at the end of the shopping journey.”

According to Vukel, the importance of delivery will not diminish over time and may, in fact, become even more significant to buyer behaviour in the future.

She explained: “Our research shows that within five years, shoppers expect retailers to offer up increasingly innovative delivery solutions – 7% wanted to see driverless vehicles or Uber drivers doubling up as carriers to get their products to them and a further 17% want orders from multiple retailers to be delivered in one go.”

Amazon’s Prime Air has also captured the imagination with 13% of shoppers wanting to see adoption of drone deliveries from retailers, while 11% wanted ‘drive thru’ collection lockers and 8% even thought that retailers should offer ‘to device’ delivery, where an item is delivered to a customer by using their smartphone or tablet to geo-locate them.

What’s more, 12% would be happy sharing their finger prints with retailers so they can ‘sign’ for deliveries with their finger print for more secure deliveries

“At the moment innovations such as drone delivery are more about capturing consumers imagination than reality, but what we are seeing from consumers is that speed, cost and convenience are imperative when choosing to shop online and that is something that is not going to change any time soon,” concluded Vukel.