Ecommerce Trends 2015: 19 Predictions from Top Ecommerce Experts

本 * 本本 本本 本 19 ecommerce marketing predictions for 2015 from top ecommerce experts What represents the biggest opportunity for ecommerce marketers in 2015? Pia Stanchina Industry Manager, Fashion at Google The connected consumer If you think back a decade, you used to be either online - via a dial-up modem at a stationary desktop computer or you were offline. Today, consumers have a super computer in their pocket that allows them to do almost anything they might want to, when they want to and where they want to. forecast We will come from testament to the transition from the desktop era to the mobile era. ,it's Yet, (retail-related queries this Christmas, which is that 50% of ÚKi hard to the able to with desktop as it plays a way we used to be krole in the customer path to purchase. So while the this may sound like old news, truth is that many retailers trut still under-index when it comes to adapting to the shift in consumer behaviour and I hope that 2015 is going to be the year when we see a lot of movement in this space with marketers taking a leap of faith and optimising the experience they offer the new connected consumer. Focussing on the basics Sam Mallikarjunan Head of Marketing, Hubspot :::::: I'd love to say that the big opportunities are cutting edge tactics like personalisation, segmentation, and customer-centric business model innovation. However, most ecommerce marketers are still missing the boat with tactics as fundamental as closed-loop analytics and abandoned cart nurturing. Tactics that are simple to implement and can have a disproportionate impact on revenue. Ecommerce has fallen behind the curve on innovation because innovation hasn't been necessary to its survival, Ecommerce a whole has grown roughly 20% YOY for the last 10 years just because selling stuff online is itself a good idea - and many Ecommerce businesses are riding that wave right off a cliff (our 2014 State of Ecommerce study has data on this). James Gurd Owner, Digital Juggler Paid social Paid social will take a greater share of budget for two key reasons. Firstly, the targeting options for look-alike audiences have improved, especially on Facebook, making it relatively simple to promote content to people who share similar for profiles and/or interests to your target audience; for example promoting ads via Facebook to people who like complimentary brand pages. Secondly, it's relatively low cost and very quick to set-up. With a budget of £100 you can run a trial Twitter paid campaign for promoted tweets unts. By adding tracking parameters to URLS in the ads you can measure the impact both from an engagement point of view (impressions, interactions) and froma traffic point of view (visits, engagement, goals, conversion etc.). The quick time to market makes it ideal for tactical campaigns, such as new product launches and events. You can spin up a campaign in amatter of minutes if you're organised and use the data to optimise ads on a daily basis. It's a great way to use micro budgets, taking smallamounts of money to rapidly test marketing approaches and learn what works and this compliments strategic marketing plans nicely. וווווווו ווווווווו ווווווו ווווt ttו ווווו Iו ווווו ווו וווווווו ווווו ווןןווווI Drew Sanocki Ecommerce consultant, drewsanocki.com Segmentation >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>: >>>>>>>>>>>> I think the biggest thing is segmentation and targeting. I'm consistently surprised at the number (and size) of retailers that I work with that aren't implementing even a basic level of segmentation and target to 1) identify their best customers and 2) treat them well. Retailers that get this are able to experience truly epic growth and competitive differentiation. >>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>><><<>>>>>>>>>>>> Mike Baxter Ecommerce consultant Mobile payments 2015 is going to be the year for mobile payments going mainstream - driven by digital wallets (e.g. Apple Pay) and payment enabling technologies (e.g.card scanning such as www.card.io). Eric Bandholz Content marketing Founder, BeardBrand I think that content marketing is the biggest opportunity as well as the biggest challenge for most ecommerce companies. It's very time consuming and challenging to create good quality content that gets regular eyeballs; but it also builds very loyal customers. We are pushing hard with urbanbeardsman.com and it's definitely a big hurdle. Alicia Navarro Mobile payments CEO, Skimlinks [ונ ונ (נ[ [ונוונ ווונ [ווותנונ ונ ונוונ וונתוווונונ ננונונננונ וונ ונ נננננננ I'm excited about Apple Pay and the future of payments on mobile devices. The easier it will be to transact on mobile (and to track sales accurately) the more the advertising and affiliate markets will expand, which benefits publishers, advertisers and ultimately users. ו! וננ ןו וו !ונווננננ Gabrielle Hase Managing director, Soleberry Lean marketing ++++++ +++++++ The biggest opportunity for ecommerce marketers in 2015 is to create a lean, mean marketing machine. Marketers need to take a long, honest look at what is working and what isn't, and divest themselves of affiliates who aren't performing, email creative that no longer moves the needle, and SEO optimisation efforts that aren't delivering any noticeable returns. Once they've gotten rid of the deadwood, they should partner with any number of interesting retail marketing startups to trial some new ways of getting incremental gains out of their marketing spend. Engaging on a trial basis is a win-win for everyone and can inject new thinking and insights into amarketing program that might be getting a little long in the tooth... ++++++++++++++* +++++++++++++++++++ Ashleigh Tennent Marketing and Customer Experience Director, Wool and the Gang Storytelling {{{{{{M Opportunity lies in storytelling, not by the brand, but by its community. People will buy from people, brands will merely be there to help build the story and act as a facilitator. Smart brands will get their customers to create incredible content - that's far more believable and real. Over time you'll find that the content that converts at the highest rate will be created from within your own community. {{{{{{{{{ Danny Richman Founder, Richman SEO Training SEO <<<<<<<< «<<<<<<<<< In 2014, Google finally won the war against artificial manipulation of their search results. As organic search visitors are 5 times more likely to purchase than a social media visitor, the brands that invested in legitimate SEO are now reaping the rewards. In 2015, the biggest opportunities will go to those with the most SEO knowledge and creativity, not just those with the deepest pockets. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Ira Wichmann Ecommerce and product development, Swoon Editions Single customer view It has to be having a single customer view. First understanding the source the customer originally came from vs. the source that drove purchase and what behaviour looked like between the two to optimise the acquisition budget. Then collating post-purchase behaviour from multiple channels into a single destination to optimise CRM activities and lifetime value. Getting this right ends up increasing efficiency AND improving customer experience. Not bad. Anant Sharma Storytelling and messaging CEO, Matter of Form The biggest shift over 2015 will be in how marketers communicate with their audience. The implication of increased transparency at a macro level means business can no longer hide behind brand. Marketing, PR and advertising will converge within a single narrative. Storytelling will continue to be key, and represents an opportunity for smaller brands. At a broad level brands must continue to adapt messaging based on channel, and at a sales level on their personal relationship with their consumer. Most of all, brands must work to define how Insights will be used not only to help sell to consumers, but also to inform their own product development strategy. Jamie Merrick Digital Commerce Strategy - Demandware Leveraging data ################################### The biggest opportunities for ecommerce marketers in 2015 are: 1. The better use of data. Understanding and processing data into actions that are realistic to accomplish and will provide a relatively immediate impact to top and bottom lines is key and 2. International markets. Accessing new markets in relevant ways is not new but actually doing it at scale will likely provide significant returns. #3####### # 持 林林 林林林 : ###### Liam Patterson Founder, topLAD Social targeting I'm excited by the intersection of content and commerce: never before have we been able to target so precisely a customer audience as through social. If the messaging is right, the customers will instantly become brand ambassadors, sharing with friends. A well-managed campaign can generate high volume of interactions at low cost and at a great ROI. Social is, in my opinion, the most undervalued channel in ecommerce. Dan Barker Process, centralisation E-business consultant and 'doing things well' There are too many opportunities for retailers to really pick one, but if I was going to pick three I'd say: 1. Process. A deeply boring answer, but having simple, light processes to optimise things can reap massive rewards. From regularly paying attention to stock levels and reacting through to competitor monitoring through to responding to feedback. 2. Tying things together. For example social media is important, content is important, conversion is important, but making the links between those things is equally important: Your social media activity can bring users to your content, that content can support conversion, those conversions can nudge users toward sharing on social media. Looking at the way your different activities can support each other can bring better results for relatively little additional work. 3. Doing things well. Again, it's a boring answer, but a very good blog post can bring 100,000+ visitors to your site; an average post can bring a couple of hundred. The difference in results between ticking the box and maximising can be astronomical. And, of course, get all three of the above right and you're building a nice foundation to ongoing better results. Elisabeth Ling Digital marketing & product management consultant Centralisation <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<<<<<<<<< This year's winners will stand out thanks to a complete alignment of all their departments: buying, merchandising, online marketing, fulfilment, customer service,... When all teams coordinate seamlessly, take actions fast, ground their thinking in data, and deliver a consistent customer experience, the advantage is robust and delivers very srong Ecommerce e competitive results, sometimes much more rapidly than expected. executives need to relentlessly promote an integrate culture, check that team KPIS are harmoniously aligned, and lead by example with a strong and fully joined-up management team. There is no longer time for internal quarrels when the external competition is so fierce. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< <<<<<<<<<<<<< Michel Koch Ecommerce Director UK and International, Cross-device Maplin Electronics marketing and video Here are the three top opportunities for ecommerce marketers, in order of importance: - embracing multi-touchpoint analytics and attribution modelling to improve campaign efficiency, by identifying the best performing journeys across channels and devices and the right timing to push the right message to the right customer. - leveraging mobile in a multichannel environment, providing customers with timely information and services wherever they are (home, stores, on the go). - leveraging the power of video (product and how to videos) and user generated content (photo and video curations) to differentiate the brand and increase visibility across channels and devices as well as improve conversion. Adding value beyond purchase Josh Michael Email marketing manager, Magazines.com I would say that the biggest opportunity in 2015 is to add value for your customers beyond what they have purchased. Simply buying items off the web has reached a state of maturity and brands that can differentiate themselves by going above and beyond the transaction will have the upper hand. Ivan Mazour CEO, Ometria Data-driven decisions 2014 was the year whe marketing manager became data-driven - they set up the tools they needed to get the information they wanted, but then they realised they weren't really sure what they should do with it. 2015 will be the year when that data is no ecommerce witit. 2013 be abiet npenensible. The marketing managers of next year will be able to easily understand, and act, because the software available to them will be smarter, more intuitive, and more automated. Communication strategies will finally be truly data-driven, and truly personalised, created based on the experience of the marketing manager, but automated based on the intelligence built into next- generation marketing platforms. !!! ! Want more top ecommerce marketing tips? Visit – blog.ometria.com OMETRIA