Tag Archive for: ecommerce strategy

Why Live Shopping Is The Future Of Ecommerce

/in , /by

Brick-and-mortar retail was a significant revenue-driver as recently as 2019, but Covid-19 has changed everything. The pandemic has already accelerated levels of e-commerce growth not previously expected until 2022 at minimum. Live shopping is coming up as the latest Ecommerce trend that combines advances to technology and social media channels with the familiar, quaintly nostalgic concept of at-home shopping. Envision the Home Shopping Network (which continues to be quite successful) but streamable on mobile phones through websites and on social media apps such as Instagram with influencers that help to sell goods.

Onimod Global experts are here to break down what live shopping is and why it will be crucial to the success of your Ecommerce strategy in 2021 and coming years.

What exactly is live shopping?

Livestream shopping is a natural confluence of several current tech trends—streaming, influencers, social, commerce—and offers companies a new approach based on an old shopping trend to consumers’ hearts and wallets. Think back to when the Home Shopping Channel began to appear on televisions, first across North America and then worldwide. Previously catered to housewives, the live shopping on channels QVC and HSC allowed women to shop from the comfort of their couches just by calling in to the show.

Several decades and gender role changes later, live shopping provides a convenience that has now been completely taken over by ecommerce and the ability to do it all from one’s computer or mobile phone instead. Live shopping provides a real-time feedback loop for all consumers tuned in, including reviews and recommendations of products. Influencers and customers sharing among followers and friends, and asking questions about the product on the platform in use is an important piece of the puzzle for brands to embrace “social commerce.” As we’ve already mentioned, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of live shopping, giving ample space and opportunity for it to reach customers in North America and Europe. Beyond fashion and beauty, live shopping can be extended into many different types of categories. For example, cars and houses and all sorts of accessories sold in a variety of industries are emerging in popularity.

Live shopping platforms

Live shopping used to come from one customer and one customer only: the ones watching tv at home. Now the landscape has shifted entirely, where live shopping can happen on a buyer’s phone or computer, and, yes, streamed on their smart television, too.

This list of already existing streaming platforms from Shopify is a great place to start looking if you’re interested in offering live shopping:

The most important and largest platform to start live shopping for your business is of course, Instagram. Instagram live shopping is used in the following ways:

  • Product demos: Educate and engage buyers. Test the products for interested customers, answering any questions they may have.
  • Collaboration: Give buyers authentic reviews. Bring on other creators or brands with an influencer to give a level of insight and realistic product presentation to the process.
  • Human interaction: Invite buyers to participate. All of these options allow for your buyer to participate in the testing, learning, and shopping experience in a way that straight Ecommerce doesn’t necessarily provide space for.

The future of Ecommerce

Live shopping brings a humanized element to an otherwise human-less experience. One thing Ecommerce always had going for it was the fast and easy process, however no one had yet figured out a way to bring interaction to the table to match the USP of convenience. COVID-19 catapulted Ecommerce and online shopping in this direction, with no signs of slowing down.

Though a post-COVID life is hopefully coming soon, and whatever version of “normal living” is sure to resume soon after, live shopping—like many other new or adapted consumer behaviors and technologies—is likely to remain a pillar of the buying experience.

More from Onimod Global

Onimod Global is looking forward to the future and helping your business reach your full digital potential. Interested in growing your digital presence for your company? Reach out to us here!

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

Black Friday Digital Marketing Tips

/in /by

In 2018, 14.8 million online sales were processed on Black Friday, making it the most popular shopping day of Thanksgiving weekend, including Cyber Monday. Black Friday is one of the most important, if not the most important day of the year for businesses, both online and physically. Last year, 89 million consumers shopped both online and in-store. This year, it’s predicted that 61% of consumers will Black Friday shop online, and online spend will surpass $12 billion. Focusing on digital execution is becoming essential for Black Friday success, no matter your business. As Thanksgiving is right around the corner, now is the time to evaluate your current position and start preparing your digital marketing strategy for not only Black Friday, but the general holiday season. 

Preparing for Black Friday 

Do Your Research 

Research your competitors’ deals. If you’re offering a 20% discount and they’re offering 50%, which would you choose? You want your deals to have real value. Consider increasing the deal amount or adding additional offerings to ensure it will attract consumers. Of course you don’t want to go so low it affects your profit margins, but you want to offer something that will pull shoppers away from the competition. 

Evaluate Site 

When shoppers are already presented with so many different options, they’re not going to wait around for a slow or low performing site. 46% of shoppers have said they’ll never return to a slow website. Going even further, Google reported that for every one second delay in page load time, conversions can fall up to 20%. While there can be many causes of a slow site, these are the most common: 

  1. Heavy Page Image: Optimizing images will allow the pages on your website to receive bytes faster, and this makes your page more efficient with a faster load time.
  2. Large Files: We highly recommend a JavaScript compression or a minimization tool to help decrease your download size.
  3. Plug-Ins: Enabling caching with a plug-in allows pages on your site significantly faster. This saves you copies of pages with the same request, which allows your server load in a much more efficient manner.

It may be beneficial to get a professional digital audit, to ensure your site is performing at its best for Black Friday. 

Make Sure Tracking is in Place 

There are a variety of tracking and attributing tools and strategies. Google Analytics is one of the easiest to implement and includes a URL Builder Tool to assist you in the process. This will allow you to monitor performance beyond just sales numbers. These additional insights will allow you to be even better prepared in the future. 

If you already have analytics tools in place, analyze last year’s data. Have you tweaked your site based on those insights into how your holiday traffic behaves? Analyze what and what didn’t work in the past. Which of your products were most popular? Were most of your visits from email marketing, or did visitors find your site organically? What were they searching for? Use these insights to better plan this year’s strategy. 

Black Friday Digital Marketing Tips 

Start Early 

In a report by AdWords, 61% of holiday shoppers begin searching online for their purchases prior to the weekend of Thanksgiving. Consider creating a Black Friday landing page and letting it run all-year-round. If a shopper is doing early research for the deals they want to take advantage of on Black Friday, yours could be one of the first they see. If you keep that landing page up all year round, it will allow for continuous SEO work. By the time it gets close to Black Friday, and the searches get higher, your page will likely rank much better than those that just released their pages a few weeks prior. 

In addition to a specific Black Friday landing page, include the usual promotions and email blasts. Email marketing is an important aspect of Black Friday, but it needs to be done tactfully. The subject line is one of the most vital aspects, as if it doesn’t grab readers’ attention, it’s likely to remain unopened or marked as spam. Timing is also everything. Schedule your emails based on time zones or peak of online email users. 

Utilize Social Media 

Social media is becoming a great tool for ecommerce. The amount of users that purchase products via social media ads continues to rise. Both paid and non-paid social posts can be effective to create awareness for your sales. Include Black Friday hashtags in your posts so prospects searching for deals will easily find yours. Make sure to include a strong call-to-action in every post as well. Whether it be to visit your site or request more information on the sale. It’s additionally as important to engage with your audience. Don’t leave any comment unanswered. It always looks better when businesses are prompt with responses to questions or concerns. 

Initiate Referral Programs 

Consumers trust other consumers. Recommendations and referrals are some of the strongest forms of advertising. Take advantage of that and consider implementing a Black Friday referral program. Referred customers can actually be a great driver of brand loyalty and striking profitability than any of your other clients. The key is the reward has to be too good to pass up. If it’s not worth it, no consumers will care enough to put in the effort. There are a variety of ways to create enticing rewards without hindering profitability. 

Add a Countdown/Timer 

Shoppers can be indecisive. They often take their time to price shop and compare deals before making a final purchase. A countdown timer can add a little pressure to the situation and may be just the push a shopper needs to make a quick decision. It’s beneficial to include one for every product with the specific date and time the deal ends. Timers can be effective in more places than just product pages. Consider adding them as banners to landing pages, in promotional emails, or even social media pages. 

Personalization 

It’s no secret that serving highly tailored and personalized messages to each potential customer can drastically increase the chances of them converting. In fact, 63% of shoppers expect their purchase history to guide personalized experiences from brands. When it comes to Black Friday here a few ways you can try to make your marketing efforts more personalized: 

  • Include the recipient’s name in email blasts. 
  • Offer different deals to different customers. For example, existing or loyal customers are offered larger discounts or better deals. 
  • Include recommendations on product pages based on users past purchases and buying behavior. 

Black Friday is basically the kickoff to the holiday shopping season, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start your efforts long before Black Friday. Most of these strategies include detailed planning and targeting to be effective, which usually isn’t something that can be accomplished in a few days. It’s never too early to prepare for Black Friday. 

How We Can Help 

Even the best ecommerce sites can need help with digital marketing, especially around the busy season. At Onimod Global, we’re experts in all areas including SEM, SEO, social, web dev, automation, and analytics. With our expertise and unique cross-channel digital marketing campaign strategies, we can power entire corporate marketing departments, or provide custom solutions for local businesses. We are your 24/7, in-house marketing partner. 

Learn more about what we do, take a look at some of our work, or start your conversation with us today!