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How the the Multichannel Majority varies between different sectors

Our mobile marketing statistics summary shows how mobile use has increased such that it now exceeds desktop use in many categories. Following the lead of Google and others, you now often hear marketers and designers talking about adopting a Mobile-first design approach when upgrading their websites. Many responsive designs are led by the mobile experience. This often leads to a simplified design approach which is positive for users and conversion. I was recently working on  a consulting project in the insurance sector and it was interesting to see how insurance comparison sites like Money Supermarket, Confused.com and the AA have all adopted a mobile-first design philosophy with simplified designs and reduced copy. While this is positive, I've chosen today's Chart of the Day to show that it is an over-simplification. The reality is that while smartphone use is overwhelmingly popular for some…

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality will transform from interesting gimmick to core marketing channel

Virtual and Augmented reality tech has already started to make waves in the world of marketing, but you ain't seen nothing yet! According to research conducted by Goldman Sachs, the market for VR and AR tech is set to explode in size, reaching a combined $35 billion worth of revenue by 2025. This may sound like a long way off, but it's only 8 years away- which will go quicker than you think! For marketers the really juicy segments in the chart are the retail, video entertainment and live events sections, which combined account for more than eight and a half billion dollars in predicted market size. There are a myriad of ways this kind of technology will prove a boon for marketers in all sorts of different industries - augmented reality dressing rooms for retail, showing prospects around a…

Simplifying the purchase journey will help ensure you provide a happy customer experience.

The customer journey can be a long and arduous one for consumers as they move through the buying maze/funnel from initial research all the way to receiving their goods. These same consumers are demanding more and more from retail brands with, buy in-store for delivery, click and collect, and same hour delivery. At every turn, you are potentially putting off the customer from making their purchase. WorldPay surveyed over 2,500 consumers and analyzed their behavior cross buying channels, generating in-depth insights into their behavior to give you a deeper understanding of what they want from retailers. Worldpay found that while 28% of consumers are being frustrated with the lack of delivery options, a combined 31% of people are struggling with finding a product and then understanding the product when they finally do. This…

A breakdown of online sales in the UK

We're continuing to see a steady growth in online retail sales across sectors based on a range of compilations. In this chart based on data from the UK ONS we see a breakdown by sector of growth and the proportion of online retail sales compared to all sales. We are seeing growth in all sectors other than textile, clothing and footwear stores. Perhaps evidence of a change in preference back to the high street in this category. Year-on-year growth in most sectors is sub 20% other than the 'other' categories. For reference, the specific figures in each sector are below. Source: UK Office of National Statistics August 2016 report Related toolkit: E-commerce and retail marketing  …

Users are changing devices across the customer journey - marketers need to recognise this.

Mobile, mobile, mobile. It's all about mobile. Be mobile first. Do everything mobile first. That's pretty much what you hear from eCommerce or search thought leaders these days. In fairness, they do have a point. Not only do mobile sessions now outstrip desktop sessions across the web, but they do so by a big margin on eCommerce sites. 59% of sessions on eCommerce sites are on some form of mobile device, according to a study of 87 million web sessions by Wolfgang digital. But the picture isn't that simple. When it comes to revenue by device, it's actually desktop that still dominates. A massive 63% of revenue comes desktop, 3 times what comes from Smartphones. So can eCommerce marketers breath a sigh of relief and stop worrying about those pesky mobile visitors that they've always struggled to engage with? -…

SEO isn't dead. It's never felt more alive.

I'd like to introduce a new rule for marketers everywhere. When something is declared 'dead' by a self-proclaimed 'thought leader' at a marketing conference, right thinking marketers should invariably assume that its prospects have probably never been better. The rule certainly holds true for SEO as a revenue driver for eCommerce businesses. Although plenty of search conferences this year will have speakers declaring the coming death of SEO, the data shows it's scarcely ever been more critical. As you can see from the chart below, organic search traffic makes up a massive 43% of all eCommerce traffic, almost double the next biggest driver - Google AdWords, which is also significant. This data comes from a Wolfgang digital study which analysed the traffic of 87 million website sessions, accounting for $230 million in eCommerce revenue. Our other summaries from data from YotPo and Custora tells a similar…

Get more from TV ads by optimising them for greater engagement

Online video advertising can be an expensive and time consuming investment, but what factors will increase engagement to avoid viewers from skipping the content or just plain ignoring it? A study carried out by Hub Entertainment Research investigated what it takes to maintain engagement with online TV content, they surveyed 1206 participants who have broadband at home and watch five or more hours of online TV content every week. The research used MaxDiff analysis, therefore the greater the number the larger the impact on engagement. The research found that having a greater control of the ads, the ads being more relevant and targeted as well as being able to control the ad load could lead to increased engagement. Earning points and getting promotional rewards for watching the ads led to increased engagement. Ads should be more…

On average only one-third of businesses have a process for funding tech innovation across the whole business

Our quarterly focus on digital transformation is soon to end, as we pivot to a new focus on eCommerce marketing. But whilst we're on the subject I thought it was important to highlight the lack of process in place for even larger businesses when funding technology innovation. Technology innovation will be what brings in the customers of tomorrow. Those businesses who've used the latest tech to create the best products and the most seamless customer journeys will be the ones winning in the years ahead. [si_monthly_campaign_blog_cta_banner id=154882] Yet only a minority of businesses actually have a formal process in place across the business for funding technological innovation. The best performers were businesses with a turnover of over 250 million dollars, but even they had only a minority of 45% that were using formal processes established across the business. Smaller businesses…

New research shows most businesses now have digital strategies, but many are developed only within 'silos' and not implemented company-wide.

We poll our members every year asking about their digital plans. Our 2016 research into managing digital marketing found 47% of businesses are doing digital marketing without any kind of digital marketing strategy. It's interesting to see how this compares to digital strategies more broadly in larger organisations. Harvey Nash and KPMG surveyed over 3,300 Cheif Information Officers and Technology Leaders about IT management, in the largest survey of its kind in the world. Their findings related to digital strategy make for interesting reading, and corroborate closely with the results of our survey into digital marketing strategies. 42% of businesses surveyed by Harvey Nash and KPMG didn't have a digital strategy in place at all in 2016, similar to the 47% we found without a digital marketing strategy this year. Interestingly, many of…

Digital marketing systems, CRM roll-out and Big Data project failure rates exceed 50%

Long ago, before the World Wide Web (yes such a time does exist, it was in the late 1980s, early 1990s), I worked as an IT project manager managing teams building marketing systems for clients and packaged solutions used worldwide. So IT project failure is still 'close to my heart', particularly since now with my focus on digital marketing we hear that many project failures occur raising questions about the Return on Marketing Technology (RoMT). For example, you hear shocking statistics like these bandied about: 63% of CRM initiatives fail 70% of Marketing Automation projects fail (actually a bogus statistic) 84% of digital transformation projects end in failure They're certainly shocking and raise HUGE questions about the way marketing technology is procured and implemented today. Yet we need to be careful about their validity. As Venture Beat…