How UK retailers can stand out in the Black Friday American crowd
Black Friday is no longer a frenzy that only takes place in North America. British consumers have embraced the phenomenon with open arms, and sales topped a record £5.8 billion over the four days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2016. This was an increase of 15% on 2015 numbers, and this year numbers are expected to be even bigger.
However, some retailers in the UK have not been as quick to capitalize on the shopping extravaganza, even as sales continue to grow year on year. This has been great news for US ecommerce giant Amazon. The conglomerate sold 7.4m items in the UK last year at the expense of British business and is expected to expand…
What challenges impact the ecommerce industry and how can you overcome them according to your customers?
With advancements in technology, the ecommerce industry has become an intensely competitive space.
As an ecommerce business, you are bound to face competition from not just industry giants but also from nascent brands that are coming up as we speak. As a result, you are in for a tough ride, especially when it comes to attracting and engaging buyers and reducing cart abandonment rates.
We interviewed 1,000 online consumers from the US and the UK on their buying habits and their experiences with the current ecommerce enterprises.
This allowed us to understand the challenges that ecommerce enterprises face and how you can build strategies and tactics to counter these challenges.
You can download the full VWO eCommerce Consumer Survey Report 2017.
This ecommerce report addresses different challenges including:
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Our recommended blogs that every retail and E-commerce professional should be following to use the latest innovations and grow their sales
Considering the growth in importance of E-commerce, contributed to both by pureplay online-only businesses and multichannel retail businesses, it’s surprising that much advice on marketing best practices is ‘vanilla’, simply covering advice that could apply to any type of business. While some fundamental marketing concepts such as the marketing funnel and lifecycle marketing do apply across different businesses, many of the success factors for E-commerce businesses are specific to this sector. So, it can be difficult to find the best advice to inspire your improvements if you are new to working in the sector, or just want to expand your knowledge.
At Smart Insights we’ve been covering E-commerce and retail since we launched, and have a specific E-commerce toolkit for members, relevant for the main types of transactional businesses of…
Follow these 10 strategies to reduce cart abandonment and 1 strategy to recover lost sales post cart abandonment
Your customers add items to their carts, they may even start the checkout process, but then they leave the site and abandon the items.
Sounds familiar?
This is the cart abandonment phenomenon.
Cart abandonment is a common phenomenon in e-commerce, with an average cart abandonment rate of 68.63% for 2016 (see chart below).
Online shopping cart abandonment rate worldwide from 2006 to 2017, Statista.
There are many reasons for customers to abandon their carts. Some of the most common reasons can be seen in the chart below.
Primary Reasons for Cart Abandonment in the U.S. in Q4 2016, Statista
So why is cart abandonment a major issue for ecommerce sites?
Think of the amount of resources that…
Examples of how build your ecommerce brand in a changing landscape
Research suggests many people are getting fed up of being ‘sold to’ thanks to incessant retargeting, yet we’re buying online more than ever before. That’s the oxymoron of our current ecommerce industry — how to sell, without seeming to sell.
In a saturated marketplace, marketers need to create more immersive shopping and retail experiences. Largely, ecommerce brands are evolving to meet the demands of the fractured user journey and the fractious user.
How?
Big brands tend to throw all their money and weight at influencers and programmatic advertising, whereas smaller brands focus on communities and stories. New retailers periodically flood the markets, capitalizing on the latest consumer trends and cashing in on the ‘fad economy’.
So what ecommerce evolution (or devolution), can we expect in the coming year? (Before you read on — check out our marketing megatrends for 2017 to be fully…
Chart of the day: User generated is the single most influential factor in determining purchase intent.
User-generated content (UGC) includes things such as photos and reviews sent in by previous customers. Nine out of ten (90%) of US customers who took a recent survey into UGC, said that user-generated content was the highest influencing factor when purchasing online. Search engine results came a close second. Promotional emails came third. It makes sense for SEO and email to have high influence, but this study shows that UGC is now heavily influencing shoppers, more than ever are buyers relying on reviews and the opinion of others.
Those under 30 were particularly heavily influenced by UGC. Those over 65 were least influenced by UGC. Clearly then UGC will become over more popular and is an area you should be looking at developing.
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Two-thirds of carts are abandoned. Here's how to win those customers back.
When a consumer reaches the final stages of making a purchase but decides to abandon their shopping cart, it’s clear there is some level of objection. Shopping cart abandonment is one of the largest obstacles for ecommerce retailers to overcome and the extent of the problem is shocking.
On average, 67% of online shopping carts are abandoned (Shopify) meaning businesses who are failing to proactively engage with these potential customers are missing out on a huge opportunity to recover lost interest to generate conversions and, ultimately, sales.
It’s easy to assume the majority of cart abandonments happen because consumers are undecided over a purchase, when actually there are numerous underlying reasons that are directly linked to your business’ sales process - ’not being ready for purchase’ only takes third place according to Business Insider’s top eight reasons for shopping…
These massive trends will change E-commerce marketing this year
We are now well into 2017. If you are to develop a winning e-commerce marketing strategy you'll need to start planning now. E-commerce continues to grow rapidly, but with the huge market acting as a magnet to brands large and small, competition will ramp up faster than the total growth of the market. This means customers will be harder to win, easier to lose and fussier on price and user experience.
To avoid falling behind the ever more fierce competition, you will need to both be aware of and benefit from the latest trends in e-commerce. These megatrends are global, have huge implications, and are not going to go away anytime soon. Ecommerce marketers will have to integrate them into their planning to be successful this year And if any of you think you can get away without creating a detailed plan - remember that…
Headless commerce means performing updates and tests is easier and quicker.
All enterprise e-commerce platforms were created in the era of desktop screens running web browsers. The assumption that desktop browsers would be the main audience for commerce was baked into the architecture of the platform.
At the time, no one dreamed of all of the places customers would one day make purchases or that we would be shopping on screens of every size using mobile and wearable tech — or with no screen at all, as with Google Home or Amazon Echo smart speakers. Now, we buy directly from social media feeds like Instagram and Twitter or from inside applications such as Snapchat.
With more digitally enabled and networked devices added to our environment every week, the only safe assumption we can make is that there's no way to know the complete picture of commerce channels.
You’ve probably noticed big changes in the…
The Future of British Trade with Europe: A Light at the End of the Chunnel?
With Article 50 having been triggered recently by UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Brexit is now actually happening and calls for a revote can be forgotten. The negotiations are officially underway, and guess what, uncertainty still lingers in the air like a dense, London fog. So, what lies ahead for British business owners?
Building bridges by building tunnels
When the Channel Tunnel connecting Folkestone, England and Coquelles, France was opened in 1994, it was seen as a symbol of unity between the UK and mainland Europe. Though the idea of connecting the two landmasses was rejected for years by the British during the height of their empire, minds were changed as the new economic realities of the world started to take shape after World War II.
Today, there is no question as to the importance of such a tunnel.…
