Shoppers are interacting with more touchpoints across more marketing channels and devices than ever before.
But which of these is having the biggest impact on consumer choice, and how are Britain’s favourite brands making the most of it?
The deadline for entering the Masters of Marketing awards is approaching fast (September 23) and therefore I thought I’d take a look at one of the most complex and somewhat overlooked categories: Performance Marketing.
Marketers continue to be ambitious with creative digital campaigns and cross-device usability as new technologies emerge, but many still don’t truly understand which channels are actually working.
Attribution may not be the most exciting subject, but measuring the success of your marketing channels should play an integral role in your marketing strategy.
Don’t take my word for it – top brands successfully riding the omnichannel wave are proving that it works.
Black Friday has come and gone, leaving my inbox full to the brim with tempting offers and discounts.
Thanksgiving sales have been big business in the US for many years but they’re now starting to catch on among UK retailers as well.
It’s November, which means it’s time for retailers to start ramping up their Christmas marketing efforts.
US brands still have Thanksgiving and the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping bonanza to get out of the way first, but in the UK marketers have a clear two-month run up to Christmas Day.
The avalanche of seasonal joy kicked off in earnest last week with the unveiling of John Lewis’ penguin TV ad, followed by less-popular efforts from it rivals.
But alongside the big TV reveals, digital marketers have also begun dropping in mentions of Christmas.
I’ve started to receive emails promoting various offers and sales, though it hasn’t yet been the torrent of Christmas-related messages that I was expecting.
House of Fraser has just unveiled its new Android mobile app to go alongside its existing iPhone app.
Built by Poq Studio, the app’s main features include a barcode scanner, online store and stock checker.
For more on House of Fraser’s digital strategy read our posts on its site redesign and an interview Andy Harding, the company’s executive director for multichannel.
And here’s a run through some of the app’s most useful features…
Back in the distant past of 2012, our illustrious editor shared his 14 best practice tips for how ecommerce sites should handle online returns.
Upon reading the above linked article you’ll notice that very little in terms of best practice has changed in the intervening years.
The benefits of nailing customer returns are also still the same. Customer satisfaction leads to better retention and higher CLV.
However in the intervening two years since the above publication, how well have some of the top UK ecommerce sites presented their returns information? Let’s take a look…
It’s awards season here at Econsultancy as the entries detailing inspirational case studies from a huge range of companies continue to roll in, and it’s still not too late for your team to enter.
The Digitals 2014 are designed to showcase the finest work from the global digital and ecommerce community, but not just from individuals, we want to put the whole team centre stage in order to celebrate and truly reflect the collaborative culture of our industry.
You have till 24 September 2014 to enter, and in order to give you inspiration for your own entry we’ve rounded up some of the best retail case studies we received in 2013.
For more advice on how to write your entry, read David Moth’s 10 tips for writing a stand out awards entry for The Digitals.
Way, way back in 2011 we published an article looking at how 26 commerce sites presented their mega menus.
This refers to the drop-down menus that are generally situated within the horizontal navigation at the top of a webpage.
Web trends and UX design have changed in the intervening years, in large part due to increasing consumer adoption of mobile and new technologies such as responsive design, so I thought it would be interesting to revisit those same sites to see how they’ve evolved.
Here they are…
In the same way that exclusive offers and flash sales cause shoppers to throw rational thought out of the window, dwindling stock levels create a fear of loss and a sense of urgency that nudges consumers ever closer to making a purchase.
Ecommerce retailers are obviously wise to this as a sales tactic and it’s common to see stock information displayed prominently on product pages.
With this in mind I’ve been scouring apparel ecommerce sites to see how different retailers present stock levels as part of their product page design.
Here’s a selection of what I found…
How a company handles its online returns is one of the trickiest areas of ecommerce customer service.
How helpful, flexible and clear you are about your returns process can mean the difference between encouraging repeat customers and sending them off to a competitor.
There’s an excellent article on the best practice of handling returns written by editor-in-chef Graham Charlton which highlights 14 ways that companies can avoid annoying their customers.
But what if you want to reduce the amount of returns your business deals with, particularly if you’re a fashion retailer that traditionally deals with a higher volume of returns than other businesses?
Are there ways that you can help consumers find the right size product straight away, therefore saving you and the customer unnecessary trial and error?
Let’s take a look at some examples, including some from our own case study database, to see how companies are reducing the amount of returns they receive.
House of Fraser launched a redesigned version of its site earlier this week, with a focus on catering for touch screen users.
I’ve been asking Executive Director for MultiChannel at House of Fraser Andy Harding about the thinking behind the relaunch…