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

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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.

The takeaway? Always be thinking about how to enchant customers who have come to expect the same old thing from brands large and small. In a world where human connection still matters to people, retailers taking such steps in 2024 could also find themselves pleasantly surprised.

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

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Inflation: One More Driver Of Shopper Promiscuity

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By Rebecca Brooks

Most shoppers today aren’t loyal; they’re always looking for the next best thing that will fit their exact needs. This evolution has been occurring for years, driven by powerful forces: technology, category disruption, socioeconomics and more. Shoppers have exponentially more choices and information at their fingertips, so they are making more informed decisions. World events, such as the global recession of 2008, ongoing political upheaval, the arrival of Covid-19 and now looming inflation, are accelerating a fundamental change in the way people shop. They are more willing than ever before to try new brands, products and categories.

We’ve coined this evolution as “shopper promiscuity” to indicate not a moral judgment but a distinct movement away from traditional brand loyalty. In our new book, Influencing Shopper Decisions, my co-author and I outline four key forces that are driving shopper promiscuity: innovation, unlimited access to information, the need for personal expression and the reprioritization by shoppers of what’s important to them. Inflation can now be added to today’s list of factors that are driving down brand loyalty and creating a new kind of shopper.

First, let’s talk a bit about the initial four forces that we identify in the book so we can understand how new inflationary trends are playing into the picture.

Innovation: Advancements in technology are driving innovation at a rapid pace, causing consumers to expect constant change and improvement as they seek the latest, greatest thing. Traditions and nostalgia no longer play into the picture for many shoppers, as they believe they deserve something new, shiny and leading-edge every single time they buy.

Unlimited access: From DTC products to the ubiquitous Amazon, new brands and shopping channels are constantly emerging. Shoppers are becoming increasingly accustomed to the new and unorthodox, and they don’t hesitate to adopt shopping behaviour that takes advantage of these new channels and technologies.

Need for expression: Consumers understand that what they buy says something about themselves, and they use purchases to tell their “story.” Consumers are looking for more than form, function, price and performance—they want to feel a connection to what they are buying and show their peers/social networks how their purchases contribute to their identity.

Reprioritization: People are redefining what “value” means to them, and it consists of more than just price. Over the past few months—years even—we’ve seen a major shift in how people think about their safety in the world, social justice, corporate responsibility and “needs” vs. “wants.” And it makes them reprioritize their resources.

Inflation is now also influencing the reprioritization of resources, driving shopper promiscuity in a very tangible way: at the pocketbook. In the United States alone, inflation is at its highest rate in 40 years. It stands to reason that this will have a huge impact on the way people spend money. In addition to looking for purchases that are innovative, reflect their personality or are a product of reprioritization, shoppers are now looking for products that will fit a new spending budget forced on them by rising prices.

Consumers are willing to try new things that are less expensive or more readily available to them as supply chain issues persist and impact inflation overall. Worry about financial instability can make people more cautious and less likely to spend more on a premium product. Higher prices on the things they need leave them with less disposable income as dollars become earmarked for more “survival” type purchases. It’s a trade-off that is boosting shopping promiscuity once again.

While this inflationary environment does present an opportunity for discount brands and competition based on pricing, that isn’t the only thing brands should be focusing on to be successful. Value adds, such as retailer loyalty rewards, can appeal to shoppers, as well as educational materials, transparency and information about pricing from brands on ways to make dollars go further. From a business standpoint, brands should focus on building an understanding of a changing customer in order to meet shopper needs head-on. It’s important to also remember that every category is being affected differently by inflation. By conducting the right market research, brands can gain insights into where their marketing or product development spend will have the most impact with their audiences, even as their behaviour shifts.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Rebecca Brooks

Founder and CEO of market research consultancy, Alter Agents; believer that powerful insights can change businesses. Read Rebecca Brooks’ full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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How New Disruptive Consumers Are Buying Brands

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Nearly half of consumers today (48 percent of all U.S consumers ages 13 and up) are disrupting the traditional purchase path, from discovery through purchase, the new study reports. These consumers are younger, have higher incomes and choose brands that aid their self-expression.

The new IAB Study confirms that word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations are the highest-valued prompt for direct-to-consumer buyers before trying a new product.

Greater than reviews or social media Influencers.

But the concept of “brand value” is also transforming. It’s no longer about usage or “better, faster, stronger” efficacies. Rather, brand value for nearly half of today’s consumers comes from their ability to contribute opinions, suggestions and sharing the cool things they buy, wear or use on social media.

The fact that they also like to be the first of their friends to post about a purchase experience — means they’re also your first adopters.

If you’re not opening social portals for your consumers, you’re not just losing business. You’re losing the game.

These disruptor brands cater to the new cohort by building consumer loyalty and lifetime value (LTV) through cross-channel interaction.

Brands like to think of themselves as “personalities”—as a wallboard exercise. But today it’s the new rulebook. Imagine, for example, that your product is a YouTube or Instagram star: it pays to spread content across channels. Internet star Zach King, for example, is huge on Vine and YouTube, but also has a major Instagram following. Beauty blogger Huda Kattan writes blogs, but also has a presence on Instagram. Fitness model Michelle Lewin spreads her messages across a swath of social media channels, increasing her audience count each day.

Omnichannel adjacency pays off back inside the funnel: Search, shopping, plus social media sites bundled together equal traditional TV for brand discovery today. Great ads spark trial, but so do great product plus great social content.

This Is A Tipping Point Moment

How do we define brand loyalty for this new cohort? Key drivers include — following the brand on social media, telling others about the brand (WOM), and having a subscription from the brand.

But if you think Influencers are on their way out, you’re way off track. Today there are at least four types of Influencers:

Celebrity/Professional Influencers, 2) experts, 3) ‘Real’ people, and 4) Super Influencers.

According to the IAB study, Influencers are the “advertising” of the modern consumer economy. They not only wield power during initial purchase consideration — via posts, word of mouth and other methods, but also exercise their power further down the purchase funnel.

Disruptor consumers are over 2X more likely to say they only listen to Expert Influencers and 150% more likely to value online mentions by ‘Real’ people.

Roughly 1 in 3 disruptor consumers qualify as Super Influencers — a newly identified cohort who are strategic, deliberate, and prolific in their postings. They take the time and effort necessary to create brand-centric content to publicly build their personal brand. Some of their verbatims read like, “I like to share cool things I buy, wear or use on social media.” “Content I share online is an important part of who I am.” “Content I share online is an important part of how I want people to think of me.”

Not surprisingly, nearly half of these super consumers want samples and free shipping. But only one in five cares about loyalty programs.

Attention Is The Prize

The industry of attention is the largest, fastest-growing segment of the global economy. There are massive inefficiencies in how people’s attention is being extracted and traded and, for 80% of consumers, simply purchasing a brand is not enough to define loyalty: brand engagement and interaction are required.

As DōTerra CIO Todd Thompson, stated last week in Glossy, “The user experience becomes a strategic driver of revenue. Engagement with the customer sets us apart from other companies.”

Seizing people’s attention and holding onto it, represents the largest investment opportunity for companies in the next decade. It used to be that simply putting a product or service on the shelf (or on your site) put you in the game. Today, brands are not becoming thinner, they’re spreading their brandwidth at scale to become more relevant, meaningful and vital. A statement from the IAB study, “When I purchase a new direct to consumer (DTC) brand, I am expressing who I am,” is not a loose declaration. It is conflating human identity and product.

Brands are people, too.

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Author of Primal Branding

Sourced from Branding Strategy Insider

The Blake Project Can Help: Get actionable guidance from experts on Brand Differentiation and Growth strategy.

Branding Strategy Insider is a service of The Blake Project: A strategic brand consultancy specializing in Brand Research, Brand Strategy, Brand Growth and Brand Education

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