E-commerce Marketing

Festive Season 2020 – Boost Online Sales

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‘Sales’ - the term that rings in the mind of business leaders and management professionals during the festive season in India. It is a multi-faceted street - brands come up with lucrative promotions, e-commerce platforms launch extravagant sales, and even banks offer purchase benefits to card-holders. All these combining factors…

‘Sales’ - the term that rings in the mind of business leaders and management professionals during the festive season in India. It is a multi-faceted street - brands come up with lucrative promotions, e-commerce platforms launch extravagant sales, and even banks offer purchase benefits to card-holders. All these combining factors lead to an increase in the purchasing power of end-consumers. Here are some vital factors to consider while planning out festive sales activities this Diwali season - 

The Impact of COVID-19

The role played by COVID-19 in transforming not just sales, but entire business processes as a whole has been well-documented. The initial stages were dark, however, resilient brands are seemingly adapting to the new normal, with most traditional norms obsolete now. At first, businesses with an online presence noticed a spike on these platforms, while the lockdown has resulted in growing e-commerce spikes of $52 billion. Another intriguing fact is that the Indian online market is expected to acquire 300-350 million new users by 2025 with the Gross Merchandise Value to also rise to $100-$120 billion in that period. The upcoming months will notice a deeper focus on experience-driven eCommerce since cut-throat competition will lead players to innovate. Related Article : Diwali: The Golden Season of E-Commerce

Prepare Your Marketing Blueprint 

The festive season in India is a great time to explore marketing avenues and to test the waters. This period is a great opportunity to plan new product launch campaigns on digital platforms to create a buzz when spending capabilities are at an all-time high. Similarly, based on what you have planned, it’s a good idea to integrate these marketing activities into your social media calendar as well as paid media ad structure well in advance to ensure smooth execution. It is equally important to make sure that all your resources in the marketing and sales department are well-aware of all the festive processes and campaigns that have been planned out to make the most of this period.

Provide A Seamless Mobile Experience 

Optimising your website with targeted banners, landing pages, and keywords for an array of platforms is a must. Creating personalised content - geared for the mobile phone since it is the preferred medium for users will help a great deal in converting users. An effective and sale mobile platform is the key to providing a frictionless platform. The content should be AMP optimised. AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open-source standard supported by Google. The aim of developing this standard was to optimise the loading speed of the webpages on mobile devices. AMP framework serves the mission “to provide a user first-format for web content”.

Increase Visual Experience 

With new developments in technology on a daily basis, it is no surprise that methods of content creation are transforming as well. It is estimated that online videos account for more than 70% of India’s total digital consumption, with streaming platforms and social media channels the popular mediums. Video-first strategies are proven methods to tap into customer intent and drive real, measurable results. Leveraging video content can help users intent through search queries, consumer buying patterns & journey, and targeting the right audience. Visual content can also be leveraged to augment e-commerce pages in the case of product information/tutorials. These elements are likely to facilitate users’ decision-making process.

Leverage Dynamic, Data-Driven Videos

Short, targeted, and informative video ads are dominating the paid media sphere. These highly relevant video ads if planned properly can be the trigger users need to make transactions. Similarly, brands can use live & contextual data triggers like in-store traffic via social ads to increase awareness & engagement. Personalised video content in the form helps build brand identity and engagement as it adds an emotional and personal touch to marketing strategies. Repeat-sales and customer loyalty can be maximised with a one-on-one personalised video approach. For example, Diageo created a unique personalised video experience for their customers, by enabling them to record their own bespoke video message for the recipient of a bottle of whisky.

Work On Digital Interaction 

While e-commerce has obviously become the norm today, most players are leveraging AR and VR to augment user experience by offering personal and life-like situations during the buying process. This helps recreate the charm of in-store shopping visits. Innovations such as AI can also be leveraged to automate image-detection, video-cropping, and stream adjustments while incorporating the upload & delivery performance.  AI also supports product recommendation functions as well as in the optimisation of personal portfolios. These personalised recommendations show relevant products to the relevant audiences hence making sales efforts more fruitful. Adopt a 360-Degree Marketing Approach An amalgamation of affiliate marketing and paid media helps in executing banner ads of special offers or promotions for an instant boost. In the wider scope of paid ads, social media and search engine efforts should be planned out well in advance in terms of budgets, tech support, and content requirements for smooth and timely execution. Social media channels with quirky and contextual graphics and copy help in user engagement and brand awareness - key supplements to sales during the festive period. Similarly, fan contests boosted by a micro-site can augment your festive efforts as well. Lastly, it is of great importance to make sure that each social media is aligned in terms of content with the same offers, tone, and call-to-action. Driving sales during the festive period is obviously the number one priority for all - however, to truly succeed, brands will have to explore different technologies and digital capabilities to make the most of e-commerce. A well-planned and integrated marketing approach covering elements such as social media, website optimisation, paid media, email marketing, amongst others is critical to elevate sales numbers. Related Article : Boost Festive Sales With AI Download the PDF version

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    E-commerce MarketingTechnology

    Boost Festive Sales With AI

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    The ongoing festive period is in full swing with brands planning to make the most out of the increased purchasing capabilities of customers, who in turn, are targeting the lucrative promotions and discounts available. However, it’s a different ballgame this year. The transformation in the sphere of e-commerce we’ve seen…

    The ongoing festive period is in full swing with brands planning to make the most out of the increased purchasing capabilities of customers, who in turn, are targeting the lucrative promotions and discounts available. However, it’s a different ballgame this year. The transformation in the sphere of e-commerce we’ve seen since March 2020 has been herculean. With consumers limited to the digital world for most of their daily activities, online penetration and e-commerce sales have evolved. It’s no secret that e-commerce platforms are leveraging Artificial Intelligence - amongst other innovations - to amplify online penetration and sales. With these AI tools, retailers on e-commerce platforms are now able to regulate supply chains seamlessly. Order management and fulfilment systems are refining processes which otherwise would have been hectic, and also offer data on insights and growth on a day-to-day basis. Along with all this, technology is also drastically changing customers’ shopping experiences.  Here are some ways you can leverage innovation during festive sales -

    Visual Search & Recommendations: AI-Driven 

    Visual search creates a new path along the customer journey, but it also serves to bypass other paths – such as traditional person-to-person brand interactions. Now, consumers are personalising their own journeys with the help of AI-driven technology. E-commerce matching algorithms leverage users’ behaviour to suggest products with similar designs/features/prices all at their fingertips.  Pinterest recently launched ‘Lens’ - a feature that uses machine vision to detect items on the web or Pinterest library and suggests similar items - you could call this a ‘Shazam’ for products. Similarly, another AI-driven search tool app - ‘Snap’ allows users to take a photo of any product, upload it to the app, and then view other similar items. These capabilities replicate the role of a sales representative in a retail store whose primary duty is to understand users’ needs and preferences.

    Visual Search & Recommendations: AR-Driven 

    As per a study carried out by Gartner - up to 100 million users worldwide are leveraging AR developments to help smoothen their online shopping experience. AR and VR capabilities are the key innovations that can help bridge the gap between offline and online retail, and effectively merge the best capabilities of both. Based on the “try-before-you-buy” approach, augmented shopping attracts customers by allowing them to interact with products online. For example, ARkit-based apps help visualise what a piece of furniture would look like when placed in their living room, or how the new winter fashion range would look on them.  This utilization of AR offers a realistic interaction between users and brands with added convenience and comfort.

    Hyper-Personalised: Targeting

    Access to more data and processing power is enabling e-commerce leaders to examine their customers and new trends in behaviour like never before. Access to structured and unstructured data sources like social media, loyalty cards, sales, and market research create deep psychographic profiles of known customers to spot emerging trends and predict unknown customers demographics. These capabilities help drive activity from pre-defined target audiences, ensuring the best return on investment in the case of marketing spends related to paid media and other targeting tools. Platforms can even leverage targeted banners and other ads to assist users in identifying products/promotions/sales that they are likely to be interested in.

    Hyper-Personalised: Product Recommendations

    Brands can now collect various forms of data to add value to a consumer’s buying journey by offering helpful and relevant recommendations. Sources of this data include - 
    • Product reviews
    • Product specifications (price, style, colour etc)
    • Purchase history
    • Social media
    • Web analytics
    Predictive product recommendation amalgamates all these different data sets to offer hyper-personalised selections. A key technology driving this function is collaborative filtering. Collaborative filtering (CF) is a technique commonly used to build personalized recommendations on websites/apps. With the help of this technology, algorithms are used to make automatic predictions about a user's interests by compiling preferences from several users. For example, a site like Amazon may recommend that the customers who purchase product A and Bm purchase book C as well. This is done by comparing the historical preferences of those who have purchased the same products.

    Demand Forecasting : Plan

    If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail - Benjamin Franklin AI helps brands forecast demand and sales. Based on multiple insights, e-commerce and retail vendors can keep a reserve stock of particular products and even run certain promotions and ads based on these insights. Accurately estimating these ebbs and flows in demand based on geographic and historical customer data helps ensure a positive ROI. Here are the key factors to pay attention to when forecasting -
    • Location of target audience
    • Seasonal preferences
    • Type of product (luxury/necessity)
    • Competition in the market

    Demand Forecasting: Save

    The next step is to make use of all the information accrued from your demand forecasting activity. An effective demand forecasting plan can help your e-commerce activities in the following ways - 
    • Improves financial decision making 
    • Offers customers the right products at the right time 
    • Lower warehousing expenses 
    • An effective pricing strategy that reflects demand 
    With its disruption, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought along a sea of opportunities and revenue streams for e-commerce players. Combine this with the raging festive season in India - and there is a lot to take advantage of for brands. 

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      Diwali: The Golden Season of E-Commerce

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      With the festive period nearly here, brands must be eagerly anticipating the upcoming rush. E-Commerce is fundamentally indispensable now, with it being the preferred mode of business for most users. Embracing digital transformation and technology during the Diwali festive season, and making the most of them will be key to…

      With the festive period nearly here, brands must be eagerly anticipating the upcoming rush. E-Commerce is fundamentally indispensable now, with it being the preferred mode of business for most users. Embracing digital transformation and technology during the Diwali festive season, and making the most of them will be key to drive all business goals and objectives. Here is all you need to know about the role of e-commerce in the upcoming festive season in India. 

      E-Commerce & Diwali 

      This year’s festive season sale is expected to rack up gross sales of $7B, a massive spike of 75% compared to last year. As consumer preferences and habits have transformed in the last 6 months or so due to the pandemic, it is no surprise that e-commerce will continue to be the preferred medium for users keen to splurge this Diwali. This is further highlighted as e-commerce companies are expected to see a 50% jump in gross sales. These numbers are primarily down to the fact that the number of individuals using e-commerce has increased exponentially in the period offline retail was off the grid. Users who were not too accustomed to e-commerce had to familiarise themselves, and now prefer it for daily use. This year, there has been a rise of 160 million online shoppers, as opposed to 135 million of last year, with more than half of this spike arising from tier-2 cities.

      Get Started With Google Shops

      Google Shopping allows brands and consumers to interact with each other in a way that adds value to both entities’ experience. It allows consumers to browse, compare, and purchase physical products across different retailers without having to visit each individual brand’s website - saving time and offering a seamless shopping experience. It minimizes the need of third party platforms and since users don’t have to jump from one interface to another, its a much quicker process. How does Google Shopping work? Whenever you search an item, a ‘shopping’ tab pops up where you can browse across different brands. It integrates various elements such as  Shoppable Ads on Google Images, Showcase Shopping Ads, Smart Shopping Campaigns, and Shopping Actions.

      Whatsapp Marketing For Business

      E-commerce as a concept has evolved on so many different levels and will continue to do so for sure. A digital feature driving e-commerce at the moment is Whatsapp’s business marketing feature. It is estimated that 98% of messages on Whatsapp are open and read, with 80% of them opened within 3 seconds of being sent. Whatsapp business bots help facilitate quick and easy conversation with customers through an interactive & visual medium (images, videos, and short clips). Presence on Whatsapp adds an element of identity and personalisation above and beyond other social media platforms. Developing a Whatsapp strategy as a part of regular messaging marketing strategies is a great way to start. It helps identify purchase behaviour, buying patterns, and consumer tastes to deliver the ideal products to consumers. 

      Leverage Facebook  & Instagram Shops 

      Just like Whatsapp, even social media networks - notably Facebook & Instagram - have announced features to facilitate e-commerce on the platform. For example, brands can display a catalogue of products, allowing potential customers to view and then purchase them directly on Facebook or Instagram shop. These platforms also facilitate seamless two-way communication with users through Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct. Another new feature includes the initiation of a Livestream where a product link can be selected within the live video to display an icon with a link to the product on the screen throughout. Facebook is also experimenting with ways to offer users rewards from brands they follow and interact with, through brand loyalty programmes. Similarly, Instagram shop allows users to shop from a brand’s Instagram account, or through its feed and stories. They can browse products, explore collections and purchase products - all through an app browser (no third party interference). E-commerce is evolving way beyond simple websites and applications, and exploring Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp is a sure shot way to make the most of digital platforms to drive online sales.

      Dominate E-Commerce With Voice Search

      Driven by such innovative technology, the capabilities of voice search personalizes the shopping experience to a whole new level. For example, voice assistants can help suggests products based on the past purchase patterns of the buyer. Similarly with voice assistants, collecting reviews and feedback from buyers is much more efficient. Voice integration facilitates a two-way communication process and encourages constructive feedback. Voice search is quick and efficient compared to manually browsing through vast catalogues. The average buyer types at the speed of around 30 to 35 words per minute, whereas a voice search processes close to 100 words per minute.  We are all well aware of how e-commerce is propelled by data-driven machine learning & artificial intelligence characteristics, and that holds true in the case of voice search as well. For example, while purchasing groceries, the voice assistant can suggest products that have previously been a part of your cart and are missing in the current list.

      Create a High-Converting Landing Page 

      A landing page is one of the most vital components of any website, in terms of converting page visits - and this holds even more value for e-commerce websites. Landing pages can be optimized and designed in order to cater to the festive mood and add some vibrance to a user’s experience. Users are often overwhelmed with excess overloads of information, which is why it makes sense to create a dedicated banner, crisp content, along with a call-to-action that helps communicate best site-wide offers. This section can even include high-quality images & testimonials to create appealing visuals using directional cues to guide users. Another essential cog of the success of a landing page is the integration of keywords. Landing pages can shoot up search engine rankings with the help of Google Keyword Planner. Targeted keywords can be used to boost rankings on the landing page highlighting the exclusive deals. With evolved buyer habits and preferences, e-commerce is here to stay. With the Diwali festive season upcoming, now is the time to explore digital transformation and technology to boost not only sales but brand presence and user engagement as well. Download the PDF version

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