With the pandemic in the rear view mirror, where does eCommerce go from here?
As the dust finally starts to settle on lockdowns and social distancing, Resolution Digital poses some vital questions for online retailers. Namely, what does the rapid evolution of eCommerce mean for marketing and sales teams, and how can the industry overcome the serious obstacles in its way?
With 5.5 million households shopping online in Australia last year, accelerated eCommerce growth driven by the COVID-19 pandemic has put many marketers in a tailspin. The Australian eCommerce industry has been catapulted forward by an estimated five years, with approximately 16% to 18% of all sales coming from eCommerce – a figure that wasn’t expected until at least 2025.
While the boost in eyeballs and traffic has been welcomed by many, the forced evolution has resulted in stopgap solutions becoming permanent fixes, and teams left wondering when things will finally go back to a non-existent ‘normal’. Struggles faced by retail teams include the quest for engaging online visual merchandising, gaining clarity on team responsibilities, a lack of resources, and a dwindling talent pool.
The evolving focus on eCommerce has left a lot of brands scrambling to understand who does what function and how teams work together. This has only been accelerated by an increasingly limited talent pool over the last couple years, thanks to border closures and rapid technological advancements.
So, what’s the solution? Resolution Digital’s recent webinar, ‘How to double your Online Retail sales in 9 months’, provided several keys to success when evolving your eCommerce solutions.
Work towards being present at all consumer touchpoints
Everything brands do should be designed with an optimal customer experience in mind, in order to deliver the best experience at any touchpoint in the shopper’s journey.
With so many eCommerce platforms available, from marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay to the various Australian retailers, it’s important for brands to stay on top of their data and ensure their cross-channel strategy continues to work.
It’s vital that brands are able to understand what’s available from each retailer and are able to navigate the varied platforms and options, all while maintaining a clear view of the consumer journey.
Leveraging existing retailer relationships to create a strategic approach to eCommerce
In order to create a cohesive digital strategy across all sales platforms, the first step is to ensure clear visibility on traffic data across the entire eCommerce ecosystem. eCommerce dashboards should have the power to combine all your different channels, including the ability to compare ROI from a wide range of channels, platforms and partnerships.
Brands should use their relationship with their retail partners to their advantage, ideally accessing data that is broken down into online versus offline and even down to SKU level to help you make strategic decisions based on your specific focus. This will of course require a close relationship and collaboration between your agency partner with your e-retail partner, as well as the marketing and sales teams within your own business.
Optimising towards a best in class digital shelf
A lot goes into visual merchandising products in store, but often, not as much focus is placed on how products are presented online. During the webinar, the team shared an example of a customer searching for Asahi beer on Dan Murphy’s website. If you searched for ‘Japanese beer’ on the site at the time, the beer didn’t appear, because the country of origin was listed as China.
These minute details, which some might view as inconsequential, have a significant impact on your products visibility online and as a result can significantly impact sales performance. Put an SEO lens on when optimising your products, and make sure that you’re targeting the keywords that your consumers are already searching for as well as creating engaging, informative product pages to drive conversions.
Using retail media to accelerate growth in sales
Finally, brands should be ensuring that they leverage the retail media available on their given retailers – from category pages to on-site search this is a key lever to ensure maximum visibility of your products. With the expansion of eCommerce showing no signs of stopping, it’s vital that brands start implementing strategies that will provide long-term keys to success. Resolution Digital’s end-to-end eCommerce framework, TransAct, provides brands with the tools they need to achieve higher ROI from eCommerce sales and improve overall share of shelf.