We interviewed Certona's CEO Meyar Sheik about the future of one of marketing hottest trends - personalisation tech.
1. First of all, congratulations on being named top personalisation provider! Can you tell us how Certona uses machine learning and predictive algorithms to predict customer behaviour?
Certona pioneered the use of patented machine learning and predictive algorithms that empower retailers to leverage real-time profiling of individual shoppers across the omnichannel landscape. Certona’s personalisation platform is powered by a sophisticated blend of continuous profiling and real-time targeting that augments behavioural profiles with every interaction. This develops shopper insights that fuel intelligent predictions, letting retailers deliver increasingly individualised experiences as shoppers engage across touchpoints. Within 3-4 clicks on a site, Certona’s personalisation platform ingests real-time shopper data such as location, weather, time of…
The most effective ways to boost your conversion rate
Have you ever considered why it happens? Why a visitor enters your website, stays there for a while and leaves without purchasing when you have so much to offer? According to the latest trends, you have 5 seconds to engage the customer and make an impression before they leave your website. In this article we will expose 5 major conversion blockers that can be disastrous for your website, but are fixable at the same time. So if you are a new business getting started with ecommerce, you better make those 5 seconds worth your customer’s time.
The Rise of Ecommerce
Ecommerce started as a revolution in shopping. With time, increased competition inspired companies to invest more in their websites, improving their appearance and usability to meet the standards.
Ecommerce as we know it today has evolved into a billion dollar industry, but for…
The latest research reveals the current growth of the ecommerce market
Online retail is a huge and booming industry as the latest retail growth figures show, with sales expected to reach an astounding 1,115 billion dollars this year. From research conducted with SimilarWeb and JBH Marketing we have identified 3 big trends multichannel retailers are acting on this year: Mobile, Millenials and In-store Beacons.
Although overall growth is continuing, interestingly Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other big days for ecommerce purchases were all down on the year before, despite the fact overall ecommerce sales were up considerably. Consumers are increasingly less impressed by these date specific offers so it' s better to have a strategy which isn't over-reliant on these days. Year-on-year e-retail sales continue to grow with online sales up to 10% in January 2016 according to the Custora Pulse Ecommerce benchmark. That's still a lower growth rate than in previous…
Use these stunning designs and useful tools to improve your Ecommerce UX
Just about anyone can create their own ecommerce store, with the ecommerce site builders available today, it's a 'piece of cake'. Creating a good ecommerce store, now that's a bit harder. But creating one exceptional enough to stand out from the infinitely large crowd and wow your audience. That takes a special something.
The key to building a loyal base of customers and attracting more at the same time is building a genuinely exceptional user experience. Achieving this requires sensational visuals, beautiful design, elegant and intuitive menus and features which actively help your users. Doing this for your ecommerce store is not easy by any means, but it is possible, and learning lessons from the most innovative online stores in business is a great way to give your ecommerce stores user experience a big boost.
So we thought we'd showcase 3 of the…
Make sure you aren't making any of these costly ecommerce marketing mistakes
Competition is fierce in the ecommerce sector, so to get an edge, you need a planned approach, with clear priorities and a relentless approach to optimisation.
It’s likely Ecommerce Marketing is already a massive investment in your business and this will only grow in future as you look to compete. Creating a robust multichannel marketing strategy that balances your business goals with your available resources can be difficult to achieve, but when you succeed, the benefits are immense.
Over the last 20 years as we have consulted and trained with many Ecommerce businesses and we have seen many different mistakes which hinder growth. Yet there are some common mistakes we see often, which we have summarised here so you can compare against your approaches.
Strategy Recommendation: Plan, Manage, Optimise!
This is our mantra at Smart Insights and it is shared by many of the…
Unusual Tactics To Help Small Business Win The Holidays
I’m writing this article on the morning of Black Friday, just after I cleaned out my inbox of all the promotional emails I had received from retailers about their special offers.
There were about 10 promo emails in my list. I opened two and clicked through from only one. The others were unceremoniously archived.
This sums up the challenge that small businesses face during the holidays.
Markets have gotten more saturated and enterprise-level marketing technology is readily available to everyone. Instead of competing on a level playing field, it’s harder to reach your customers and bring them back to your store.
This is especially true during the holidays when there are so many retailers (some with massive marketing budgets) vying for the same attention and dollars.
I’ve always liked…
Stay ahead of the curve with these essential 2017 retail trends
There are lots of exciting new digital technologieis for retail marketers to explore next year, including: chatbots, social commerce, Google Beacons and virtual/augmented reality.
Retail marketers have had to be patient over the last few years. We all know the future lies in creating a seamless shopping experience between online and offline consumer habits. And we know personalised, targeted messages are the way to guide users from one habit to the next.
The problem is, we don’t really have the technological means to do all of this in an integrated way yet. Despite all the talk and ambition, the necessary technology isn’t readily available, affordable or practical enough for retailers to implement on a wide scale.
However, 2016 has felt like a genuine turning point for retail marketers. We’re almost there. 2017 could finally be the year retail marketing comes of age.
Chatbots are…
How and Where to Add Chat To Your Website
I’ll start with a simple question: Are you actively interacting with visitors to your store? If you own a physical store, your answer is probably ‘Yes’. But if you operate a virtual storefront - a website - and you’re answering ‘No’ to this question, you’re leaving a lot of visitor questions unanswered. And since people who don’t get their questions answered are less confident and engaged shoppers, they’re more likely to leave your website. And too many bailouts will kill your conversion rate.
Picture yourself in shopping mode: even if you know exactly what you want, and from which stores you’d consider buying it, you usually have at least one lingering question. For example, if you’re shopping for shoes online, you might not be sure if the website you’re visiting offers black suede shoes in your size. Or you might wonder if they…
What to avoid when looking for Ecommerce payment solutions
For most ecommerce retailers, payment gateways are seen as a necessary evil. Yes, they help you accept payments from your customers, but they’re not at the top of your list of organizations you like working with. They’ve developed a reputation of being sleazy, money-grubbing middlemen that take advantage of retailers, both big and small.
Some modern payment gateways, like Stripe, Braintree, and Sezzle, are finding ways to create more value for retailers and they’ve developed good reputations because of that. But problems remain. And if payment gateways want to shake their negative image within the e-commerce community, these are the five things they should focus on improving first.
1. They’re too expensive.
Payment gateways have long been rebuked by retailers for their high processing costs. The average rate today is 2.9% + 30c per transaction for online, or card-not-present, transactions. These costs…
Chart of the Day: 74% of Black Friday weekend consumers are planning to shop on the big day.
Black Friday is finally here, whether you love it or hate it, there is one undeniable fact - Consumers spend big during this period.
Consumers in America are buzzing to see the deals online and high street retailers have on offer during the biggest shopping weekend of the year. An estimated 137.4 million people are considering hitting the shops this weekend, that's 59% of the population.
While there is plenty of competition for consumers attention across the whole weekend, the days with the highest potential for your business is on Black Friday and Saturday. With most Black Fridays sales lasting from Thanksgiving (Thursday) to Cyber Monday (and beyond), which day will drive the most sales for you? An annual survey from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics shows that less than half are planning to shop…
