3 strategies to ensure you are using customer data ethically and effectively
If your career revolves around selling products on the Internet, you’ve probably had people ask, “How do they know I was looking for a new (insert product here)?”
“They” includes everyone from social networks like Facebook and Twitter to Google (and just about any other website where ads are shown). By using personal data, advertisers are able to create highly targeted ads, which usually either go unnoticed or are only mildly unsettling. Some promotions, however, can come across as full-blown creepy.
People love personalization, so they’re not unnerved by relevant content. The creep factor comes in when they don’t understand how the data is exchanged that powers these sorts of retargeted ad campaigns. People assume that the website showing the repeat ad has access to their search data.…
These trends will shape the ecommerce industry this year
Ecommerce business is on the rise, as online shopping is predicted to increase by 45% in 2016 in the U.S - see the latest ecommerce growth statistics. To stay ahead of the game or to grow your online business, you need to benchmark against the latest growth rates, both for overall business in a category for specific devices and then implement marketing strategies and tactics that work to achieve business goals.
For example, year-on-year e-retail sales continue to grow with online sales up to 10% in January 2016 according to the United States Custora Pulse Ecommerce benchmark. So your online trading volumes could be 5% up YoY, but you are actually going backwards compared to the competition.
We thought this infographic was a nice summary list of the top trends that will enable any e-Commerce business to grow in 2016 and beyond. Beacons, big data…
How optimised sales messages on category pages can give your revenue a huge boost
On many ecommerce websites one of the first things that is discussed is the design and 'feel' of the site. Phrases such as 'I want the site to look clean' and 'slick' are a frequent occurrence.
Yet it is important to note that a balance has to be struck between being representative of the brand, heritage, look / feel, and actually selling stuff (luxury brands tend to be the exception to this rule).
Offline stores maintain the design and look that you want, with your sales assistants being the ones that can step outside of the 'design', be human and actually do the selling.
Online your website has to achieve this to ensure that you end up with a website that converts as well as looking pretty.
To test the impact that sales messaging alone can have, we looked at a client's website whose site…
SMEs/SMBs with offline businesses models can still utilise digital marketing
You would be forgiven for thinking that the days of bricks and mortar stores are numbered due to the rise of Internet shopping and dramatically increased usage of Smartphones to make purchases when on the move. Certainly, online shopping is fast becoming the norm as UK shoppers are expected to spend over £52 billion online by the end of 2015; an increase of over £7 billion on the 2014 figure.
Yet this only represents 15.2% of retail sales in the UK which is a clear indication that in-store shopping is still the consumer’s #1 choice. Even better news is that you can use digital marketing to boost your level of in-store customers! According to a Deloitte report, digital technology influenced approximately 33% of in-store retail sales in the United Kingdom during 2014; this equated to over £100 billion.
No matter how advanced…
Using quizzes to drive e-commerce sales
Social media is a tricky too to apply. You can use social networks to engage your fans, conduct discussions or ask for the opinions, but at the same time it may be really hard to get a real profit out of your audience.
Very often marketers are getting excited with ideas that are highly interactive, unfortunately, they lack it terms business sense. In this article I will show you how to create quizzes for social networks that will not only engage your users but also improve your sales.
Why quizzes?
Take a look at this infographic with 6 interesting quiz statistics to discover the potential of the quizzes:
First advantage: Personalization
Personalization is one of the most important triggers that can help to increase your sales. Consider an e-commerce site where the content that is shown…
Demystifying personalization for retail e-commerce - examples of the three ways to do it
Personalization is either 'freaking people out' or enchanting them. It’s scary for people who believe that it may freak out their website’s visitors. But it’s blissful for those who believe that it will provide an incredible experience for them and the facts about consumer preferences support this too.
Even if you’re scared of personalization, or you love it, more than 70% of consumers get frustrated when website content has nothing to do with them.
Instead of waiting until Amazon tries something new and test it on their website, you can be more aware of your capabilities right now.
To understand what personalization is all about, I’m going to share with you what types of personalization are available now on the market and how they…
Data shows uplift retailers in the UK and worldwide can expect from the key e-commerce dates this month
For retailers, the festive season effectively starts with Black Friday on 27th November 2015 and Cyber Monday three days later. This year some experts are predicting that UK sales could top the one billion pound mark. To understand what we should expect this year let’s take a look at how things panned out in 2014.
The data in the charts below is compiled by Fresh Relevance and the predicted uplift is based on billions of page views across retail websites in previous years (approx. 50% in the UK and 50% worldwide).
The impact of the two day shopping bonanza starts one week ahead of Black Friday as traffic falls back slightly, suggesting that consumers are delaying purchases in the anticipation of lower prices. Then the day before a 25% increase in traffic as shoppers’ scope…
3 Best practices for Email Marketing Security
Email is an intrinsic part of building and maintaining customer relationships in any field, but customer data needs to be safeguarded. Because email marketing is so prevalent, it can be easy to take this platform for granted. However, it’s also important to remember that client information is sensitive; your customers entrust your business with their names, Social Security information, and credit card or bank account numbers.
Each field has its own security needs, and a privacy breach could reveal all of the above information and more. When it comes to email marketing for customer retention, it’s critical to ensure that all emails are secure from harm.
The Effects of Data Breaches
Data breaches can be catastrophic for large and small businesses alike. In one recent major hack, Anthem Inc., the country’s second largest health insurance provider,…
Avoid a Black Fridays Sales #Fail by optimising your Black Friday Marketing
Over the years, we Brits have been given much by our transatlantic cousins: the telephone, the lightbulb, David Hasselhoff… In more recent times, we have been ‘gifted’ the concept of Black Friday.
Once nothing more than jaw-dropping news reports of deal-hungry shoppers fighting over reduced flat-screen TVs, it’s now recognised as the biggest retail opportunity of the year. Though still a relatively new phenomenon, the UK’s ecommerce industry has started to act accordingly, taking steps to ensure that it gets the most out of this strange, yet lucrative, US import.
To help you do the same, we appealed for some advice. We know you will have your core plans for Marketing Black Friday in place, but you will still be making last-minute adjustments. Here are some Black Friday ecommerce marketing tips…
10 practical recommendations for choosing the right retail personalisation service for your online store
Although ecommerce is now a relatively mature industry, the software solutions that underpin the industry are still very much evolving. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the personalisation field. Recommendation engines were perhaps the first tools to promote personalisation, but it is now a common feature espoused by many ecommerce tools, in systems designed for both marketers and online merchandisers, with each often having a very different take on what it means and the benefits it brings. If you’re in the process of selecting personalisation software where should you begin, what questions should you ask?
#1 KNOW YOUR GOALS
It may seem obvious, but knowing what you hope to achieve by selecting a personalisation solution is critical to selecting the right product. Although a ‘no brainer’, don’t fall into the trap…
