Retail Marketing

Google’s Retail & Ecommerce Marketing Event Recap

August 23, 2017 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, August 16th, Google provided some great tips, insight, and advice to retailers regarding ecommerce marketing. Kristen Johanson, Head of Industry for Retail at Google and Alex Chen, Product Marketing Manager at Google Shopping, did a great job presenting 3 major problems the shoppers and retailers face online, and steps that retailers can take to remedy these problems.

Problem #1 – Discoverability – Can Consumers Find You?

While having a storefront on the main street helps, in-store foot traffic has been and continues to decline. However, shoppers are not disappearing, rather relocating online. Making your website and overall online presence (local listings, social media, reviews, etc.) that much more important. Today, having a great website isn’t enough, it has to be easily viewed and used on multiple screen sizes especially smaller mobile devices.

Problem #2 – Personalization – Mass Message Is an Easy Way to Fail

Each of your customers’ want/need something, but not all the same thing. While communicating with your client base according to their wants/needs is challenging, it is also a huge opportunity. Present the right offer to the right person at the right time, and watch your sales increase. For instance, imagine your favorite coffee shop texted you a discount coupon for your favorite drink when you are within walking distance of their new location (which you might not have even known about). Are you going to visit the new locations? – most likely.

Problem # 3 – Frictionless – Easy Consumption or Loss of Sale

Being found is step one. Customizing communication with your customers is step two. Step three is ensuring a good user experience. This includes fast load times, fewer clicks to check out, streamlined forms, ease of navigation, and much more. With global competition, sometimes the littlest pain points for a customer could drive them away.

Essentially, consumers are online looking for stores that cannot only provide the products they need/want but also a service that makes purchasing and receiving these products easy. The full Google video can be viewed on YouTube.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss your ecommerce marketing further, you can contact DaBrian Marketing Group, a certified Google Partner.

What is Omnichannel Marketing?

July 24, 2017 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Omnichannel marketing is about ensuring that ecommerce & retail marketing strategies are geared toward enabling customers to purchase on any channel. Often there is some confusion about omnichannel versus multichannel marketing. It is my opinion that multichannel marketing is more specific to the tactical efforts of a campaign while omnichannel marketing is based on an organization’s strategic approach.

Why is Omnichannel Marketing Important for Retail & Ecommerce?

The US Census Bureau reported an increase of 14.7% in e-commerce sales with the latest year-over-year increase compared to the first quarter of 2016. The level of competition will continue to grow while US retail sales drop 0.3% versus 0.1% increase that was expected in May. I don’t think that shoppers are so interested in shopping locally and a look for value with a seamless experience. It is important for retailers to understand the latest omnichannel trends and how integrated marketing can turn shoppers into loyal customers.

5 Ways to Turn Shoppers into Customers

Omnichannel marketing is a strategic approach that will require a clear strategy, integrations, execution, and measurement. Below are 5 ways to start turning your shoppers into profitable customers:

1. Have a digital marketing strategy that addresses abandoned shopping carts. Consider including a progress indicator on the checkout pages and offer multiple payment options.
2. Improve the mobile & mobile apps users experience to help shoppers compare, interact, and offer customers enhanced features to increase your mobile sales.
3. Shopping search engines allow you to search specifically for products for sale from online merchants. Enhance your product feed by automating and optimizing your product listing for shopping engines, mobile shopping apps, and social networks to increase product visibility and sales.
4. Use remarketing to engage with previous customers and retargeting to stay top of mind throughout the shoppers’ journey to purchase. Retargeting is often referred to online placement or display ads that target users who have visited your website in a specific way. Remarketing is often used as an email campaign to reconnect with customers.
5. Ask for online reviews from your customers to build trust and customer recommendations to shop at your location.

Measure Your Omnichannel Marketing Strategy

By no means is the list of ways to turn shoppers into customers limited to 5! I would recommend that your company solidifies a realistic strategy and set goals with targets to measure the effective and overall impact your strategy has on increased revenue. What works for your competition may not be realistic for your brand or customers so maintain your uniqueness and measure strategies and tactics that work for your company!

For more information on E-Commerce and retail, download our free 5-Step Guide to Ecommerce and start to increase your sales.

References:

Gk Elite Case Study – Conversion Tracking Using Google Adwords

January 17, 2017 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

You Can't Improve What You Can't Measure (Accurately)

Recently, DaBrian Marketing Group wrote a case study on one of our Pay Per Click (PPC) clients. When we first reviewed their Google Adwords accounts, it appeared they were receiving several conversions. However on further review, their conversion configuration did not align with actual online transactions. After establishing new conversions that lead to and track online sales, DaBrian Marketing was able to measure return on ad spend (ROAS) and optimize our client’s PPC to increase transactions and their bottom line.

To learn more about this case study, watch the video below and download the full case study. If you have any questions, or would like DaBrian Marketing Group to take a look at your PPC, give us a call at 610 743 5602.

What problems are you having with your Pay Per Click advertising? Tell us in the comments below!

Get Your Share of $400 Billion in Ecommerce Sales with A Product Data Feed

November 21, 2016 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

Ecommerce sales are expected to grow to more than $400 billion in the next several years, with Forrester Research estimating $414.0 billion in sales in 2018 and eMarketer estimating $491.5 billion in 2018.

Retail and Ecommerce businesses continue to look for opportunities to grow and increase online sales, as well as in the store visitors. One of the most challenging things for business owners is the management of the product data feed or inventory information and availability for products online.

What is a Product Data Feed?

A product data feed is an organized list of products and their attributes. Each product can be displayed, advertised or compared in a unique way. A product data feed typically contains a product image, title, product identifier, marketing copy, and product attributes. It is often used to populate product information on ecommerce websites and shopping engines such as Ebay, Amazon, or Shopzilla.

How Can Retailers Use the Product Data Feeds?

Retailers and Ecommerce websites can use product data feeds to increase product awareness and influence purchasing decisions. Online shoppers are using shopping engines to find what they want. Shoppers are searching, browsing, and making purchasing decisions before stepping into a store. Often purchases are made outside of the merchant’s website.

How Can the Product Data Feed Help with Retail Promotions?

It can be optimized to increase organic search visitors. The product data feed provides value information on products, availability of items, shipping options, product reviews and details that are visible for search engine and potential shoppers. Also, it can be used to promote or advertise via social media, mobile apps, and generate local in-store visitors.

Use the Product Data Feed to Position Your Online Business & Retail Store

The product data feed is vital for Ecommerce and retail stores. It shouldn’t be an afterthought but an overall part of the strategy to sell more products. Customers are constantly searching for the least expensive products to fit their needs and sometimes it happens while they are in your store. Your products need to be visible and accessible in-store, online, apps, and shopping engines if you want a piece of the estimated $400 billion in ecommerce sales.