News and InsightsInternet Retailing Expo 2018
Internet Retailing Expo 2018 Day 2
Hello from Internet Retailing Expo, NEC, Birmingham! We’re back for Day 2 with more exciting updates and insights:
Session: Re-Inventing Omnichannel In A Luxury Business Where Driving Sales Is Not The Primary Goal
10:30: Getting ready for Sarah Stagg to discuss reinventing omnichannel in a luxury business, where driving sales is not the primary goal.
Session: Embracing The Omnichannel Customer – How Technology Innovation Is Changing The Retail Space In The Digital Age
10:36: Hammerson plc runs a portfolio of retail destinations. Looking to create experiences, as customers still want to shop in bricks and mortar retail stores, but looking at features that attract customers to the location.
Session: Embracing The Omnichannel Customer – How Technology Innovation Is Changing The Retail Space In The Digital Age
10:39: Developed a “Plus app”(450k downloads of the app so far) – exclusive offers. Leverage data to make a difference to consumer behaviour. Create a valuable retail space for retailers. 1 in 3 of the customers has redeemed an offer from the app. Plus app users visit the centres 57% more often than non plus app.
Session: Re-Inventing Omnichannel In A Luxury Business Where Driving Sales Is Not The Primary Goal
10:40: 2018 luxury trends
Session: Re-Inventing Omnichannel In A Luxury Business Where Driving Sales Is Not The Primary Goal
10:42: Sarah Stagg explains how email newsletters have become the new brand magazine, where investment in content and storytelling is essential.
Session: Embracing The Omnichannel Customer – How Technology Innovation Is Changing The Retail Space In The Digital Age
10:51: Style seeker implemented via app where you can take photo and find similar products in store. Aimed to send customers to new stores that they might not be aware of. Has been a big success in driving customers to new stores.
Session: Re-Inventing Omnichannel In A Luxury Business Where Driving Sales Is Not The Primary Goal
10:55: The Rug Company use digital to strengthen in-store activities by doing the following:
1. Digital screens showing content
2. iPads so that customers can see rugs in various settings for context
3. In-store team use the website as a sales tool
4. Data capture in-store via wishlist, newsletter and account set-up in store
5. Ensure that any website sales are attributed back to the sales person who has an existing relationship with that customer (if one already exists). This ensures that in-store teams buy into the newly implemented digital strategy and avoids the website sales being a threat
Session: Mobile Trends Shaping The Future Of Customer Interaction
11:10: Mobile trends talk overview
Session: Mobile Trends Shaping The Future Of Customer Interaction
11:11: Sean Harney of mGage tells the audience how companies are using Chatbots to improve online customer service, satisfaction and ultimately capture more sales. Sean explains that 45% of customers would choose a messaging chat service rather than being on hold and that 80% of companies will be using chatbots by 2020. Benefits include – it reduces customer queue times, it’s immediate and available 24/7.
Session: Using A Brand Advertising Algorithm To Drive Real Business Outcomes Shane Shelvin Iponweb
11:18: Timescales of analysis between different outcomes differ vastly. Customer success depends on this analysis. By controlling and managing their own data, brands can optimise on their own terms.
Session: Mobile Trends Shaping The Future Of Customer Interaction
11:19: Sean Harney of mGage discusses how RCS is the future of mobile marketing via customer interaction. RCS messaging is the next evolution of SMS message marketing will open up new interactive channels between customer and company.
Session: Mobile Trends Shaping The Future Of Customer Interaction
11:20: RCS (Rich Communications Service) can revolutionise business. Sending large video and images free from restrictions, offering dynamic ticketing for airlines, dynamic actions (eg customer care). mGage has been selected as a global partner with Google for RCS. RCS is the next generation messaging platform and will replace SMS.
Session: Mobile Trends Shaping The Future Of Customer Interaction
11:22: 5 reasons why RCS is better: verified sender (see who the message is from clearly). can include rich media (more engaging). suggested responses and actions, branding, use of QR codes.
Session: Mobile Trends Shaping The Future Of Customer Interaction
11:24: 5 key takeaways –
Session: Using A Brand Advertising Algorithm To Drive Real Business Outcomes
11:30: Buyers need a powerful suite of tools that work together to straighten out the path to supply and restore buying power, control and transparency to DSPs and Advertisers. A holistic approach to supply path optimisation is achieved through this. Transparency and data protection are also essential for driving value via algorithms – this is particularly apparent this week given the news relating to data gathering and use. Brands should therefore demand transparency and be able to “trust” the technology implemented and be assured that the data involved is secure.
Internet Retailing Expo 2018 Day 1
We’ve arrived at Internet Retailing Expo at NEC, Birmingham and we’re so excited to get started! If you can’t make it then you’re in luck as the Digital Six team will be keeping you informed with “live” updates throughout both days of this event.
Session: Understanding Why Customer Centricity Is Crucial For Today’s Ecommerce Players
9:45: Bruce from Brand Ally takes the floor
Session: Understanding Why Customer Centricity Is Crucial For Today’s Ecommerce Players
9:50: Customer Centricity
The customer is looking for a simple and clean experience where they can find what they want and purchase easily – everything should be seamless.
A customer-centric company is more than just a retailer. A Customer-centric business offers the end consumer a holistic brand experience.
Session: Understanding Why Customer Centricity Is Crucial For Today’s Ecommerce Players
9:55: Customer centricity should begin with culture – your culture should reflect your values and in the words of Richard Branson, “if you look after your staff, they will look after your customers”
Session: Understanding Why Customer Centricity Is Crucial For Today’s Ecommerce Players
9:56: Understand the market and behaviour of customers as well as using CRM data to understand customers to respond to their needs – help customers find what they are looking for.
Session: Understanding Why Customer Centricity Is Crucial For Today’s Ecommerce Players
10:00: Customer expectations on delivery. Order fulfilment is KEY!
Session: Understanding Why Customer Centricity Is Crucial For Today’s Ecommerce Players
10:00: Customers are prepared to wait for delivery if they get a better deal. The key is to keep them informed of the lead time at all times – from the first time they see the product all the way through to the checkout. Communication is key throughout the lead time so they know they haven’t been forgotten about
Session: Yotpo – 10 Things You Don’t Know About Your Customer (that they’ve been telling you all along)
10:00: Talia Shani, Director of Marketing for Yotpo UK opens the day in Workshop 1 with “10 things you don’t know about your customer – that they’ve been telling you all along”. Here we go!
Session: Why Personalisation Makes for a Winning eCommerce Strategy
10:01: Personalisation drives an increase in 12% in revenue
Session: Why Personalisation Makes for a Winning eCommerce Strategy
10:03: 44% of all online retailers globally have implemented personalisation on their website
Session: Why Personalisation Makes for a Winning eCommerce Strategy
10:04: Jamie Wilkins (GB Posters): 8.3% conversion rate on items are found via personalised recommendations
Session: Understanding Why Customer Centricity Is Crucial For Today’s Ecommerce Players
10:05: Send Time Optimisation – emails sent based on when each customer engages and when they are most likely to want to receive an email – this has led to open rate increases of 11%. Personalisation is CRUCIAL
Session: Why Personalisation Makes for a Winning eCommerce Strategy
10:09: Boobydoo uses FourSixty to generate user generated content which has built trust for new users
Session: Why Personalisation Makes for a Winning eCommerce Strategy
10:12: Personalisation on social – some ads work well, others don’t. 7.4 ROAS (return on ad spend) on cart retargeting ads. Special offers seem to work best.
Session: Yotpo – 10 Things You Don’t Know About Your Customer (that they’ve been telling you all along)
10:15: Talia identified the top words which appear in customer reviews as Quality, Service, Product, Fit & Delivery. Which is no surprise, however what companies should also be looking for are more revealing and unexpected keywords which crop up time and time again.
Session: Yotpo – 10 Things You Don’t Know About Your Customer (that they’ve been telling you all along)
10:20: The country which ranks the highest for most positive sentiments within reviews is actually.. drumroll… UK! Who’d have thought?
Session: Why Personalisation Makes for a Winning eCommerce Strategy
10:22: Some interesting stats on email personalisation (below)
Session: Yotpo – 10 Things You Don’t Know About Your Customer (that they’ve been telling you all along)
10:25: Amy Saunders, Digital Content Lead for Green People talks to us about how she uses the Yotpo Review Insight tool to assist her email marketing strategy and campaigns. She explains how she uses this unique customer insight to highlight the language and words which customers use in their reviews and feeds this back into their campaigns and communications.
Session: Sharpening Your SEO Strategy To Cater For The Current Status Of Ecommerce In 2018
11:10: Technical SEO is becoming increasingly demanding. As a result, more things can go wrong – link cannibalisation, insecure form fields etc. As we move to PWAs, technical SEO is key.
Session: Improving International Success Through Highly Effective Localisation Strategies
11:15: The ease of selling internationally means that it’s important to have a Framework to work from or as a business it’s easy to become disorganised.
Session: Improving International Success Through Highly Effective Localisation Strategies
11:19: Framework through each stage solve customer problems: Problem/ Solution fit. eg problem –returns from x country very high). hypothesise why this might be. Once dug around regarding potential causes, identify potential solutions. Another problem might be customer retention on a country by country basis. End result is coming up with 5 – 6 ideas to test. prioritise decisions based on “marginal pound framework”
Session: Sharpening Your SEO Strategy To Cater For The Current Status Of Ecommerce In 2018
11:20: Increasing performance expectations from users – people expect very fast websites. AMP will help this but running a decent performance programme is essential. Speed increases conversions to retailers need to take performance seriously
Session: Sharpening Your SEO Strategy To Cater For The Current Status Of Ecommerce In 2018
11:25: Good Voice Search Strategy
Avoid competing with search engines on information retrieval – use a content-based strategy and aim to remove friction. Interact with voice platforms and virtual assistants to provide your customers with what they want – “where is my shopping?” “what offers are available?”
Session: Sharpening Your SEO Strategy To Cater For The Current Status Of Ecommerce In 2018
11:25: Preparing for voice strategies
Session: Improving International Success Through Highly Effective Localisation Strategies
11:35: Pay on delivery has been one of the biggest barriers to international sales in certain countries
Session: Oracle + Bronto – 2018 Trends: Inside the Minds of Ecommerce Retailers
11:35: Saima Alibhai of Bronto Software, takes us into the minds of Ecommerce Retailers over in Workshop 1. Looking forward to hearing her thoughts on strategy for building a deeper relationship with the customer and trends for 2018
Session: Oracle + Bronto – 2018 Trends: Inside the Minds of Ecommerce Retailers
11:41: Salma explains recent studies have revealed that 38% of Ecommerce companies rely on paid search to reach their customers – which is surprising giving the channel is renowned for being competitive and expensive.
Session: Oracle + Bronto – 2018 Trends: Inside the Minds of Ecommerce Retailers
11:45: “Browserless Commerce” – is a new way of shopping and it’s here now. Alexa, Siri and AI can do customers shopping for them. This is an important trend for 2018 for Ecommerce companies particularly those operating in FMCG sector.
Session: Connecting To The Future Of UX Expectations Across The Globe
11:50: Track how they make customers happy based on net promoter score – would you recommend us to a friend or colleague (score of 0-10). Do this across the business. If score is poor then follow this up with a chat
Session: Connecting To The Future Of UX Expectations Across The Globe
11:55: In 2017 ecommerce merchants lost >$5 trillion due to poor checkout optimisation
Session: Connecting To The Future Of UX Expectations Across The Globe
11:56: Ingenico developed the ability to take payments in a chat environment
12:32: D6 exploring the expo
Session: iAdvize – Convert Your Most Valuable Online Visitors Using Conversational Marketing
12:41: Conversation is the new marketing…conversations allow you to increase conversions by 10%. Have conversations with your customers and put them first by listening and giving an excellent customer experience
Session: Bunting Software – Rapid Personalisation: The Hidden Opportunities that Will Turn Your Visitors into Customers
12:47: Steve Tucker talks passionately about personalisation for ecommerce and on site strategies to put into practice to increase conversion rates for both new and existing customers. When it comes to increasing conversion and effectiveness of cross-sell & product recommendations he states “Context is king.”
Session: iAdvize – Convert Your Most Valuable Online Visitors Using Conversational Marketing
12:54: Conversations happen everywhere – online chat, social media, sms – which means you have to be everywhere at all times. Using real people, who are passionate about the brand/product and are experts in their field, should be used to have conversations with customers to help drive further conversions.; Customers looking for advice will respond to passionate people!
Session: iAdvize – Convert Your Most Valuable Online Visitors Using Conversational Marketing
13:44: Sarah Davies from Google with Google’s predictions for mobile first and the opportunities available –
Session: Building A Solid Data Strategy That Achieves Real Customer Insight And Diversifies Your Business
14:01: 17.5% increase in holidays to Gran Canaria using data and targetting. Lastminute.com is using their expertise to advise other online businesses – such as Rough Guides. ambition is to become “the place” for audiences to connect regarding travel
Session: Building A Solid Data Strategy That Achieves Real Customer Insight And Diversifies Your Business
14:06: Emphasised that GDPR is positive news and that they are fully complying. “In order to be relevant you need to be transparent.”
Session: What Does A Great Mobile Shopping Experience Look Like In 2018 And How Can You Deliver It?
14:07: The key elements to increased revenue via mobile for retailers
Session: Understanding What A Great Content Strategy Looks Like In A Highly Competitive Market
14:10: Google’s Sarah Davies talks “mobile-first” & customer expectations
Session: Understanding What A Great Content Strategy Looks Like In A Highly Competitive Market
14:45: What a panel! In today’s competitive market, what makes a great content strategy? We hear from the experts at Shopware UK, Whittard of Chelsea and Footasylum.
Session: Understanding What A Great Content Strategy Looks Like In A Highly Competitive Market
14:46: Grab your seat while you can, full turn out for the first panel of the day – understanding what a great content strategy looks like in a highly competitive market.
Session: What Does A Great Mobile Shopping Experience Look Like In 2018 And How Can You Deliver It?
14:48: In terms of mobile design it’s important to recognise the context. Users picking up mobiles 100 times per day. Inspiring mobile ecommerce sites that the panel likes: Trainline (does a great job engaging consumers), Screwfix (excellent speed of site and delivery, convenient click and collect), some Shopifys are creating an excellent mobile experience.
Session: What Does A Great Mobile Shopping Experience Look Like In 2018 And How Can You Deliver It?
14:57: Speeds are still an issue with 3G. Don’t give too much choice on mobile (hide text so someone has to reveal). Think about customers and what mobile strategy suits – eg frequent purchases vs one off. Most people don’t tend to use apps after 3 months and just crowd the home screen.
Session: Understanding What A Great Content Strategy Looks Like In A Highly Competitive Market
14:51: Thoughts from the panel on using content to differentiate yourself from competitors:
1. “Content should always meet your brand DNA”
2. “Content is essential to differentiate your brand from competitors”
3. “Spending too much time on what other people are doing with their content and producing a variation on that does not make for competitive content”
Session: What Does A Great Mobile Shopping Experience Look Like In 2018 And How Can You Deliver It?
15:05: Brands shouldn’t lead with technology. They should get the fundamentals correct first. Example: a number pad, not a keyboard should appear when entering a CV2 number on mobile devices. Simple changes can make a massive difference.
Session: Retail in the Age of Mobile Discovery
15:40: Talked about Simba mattress – the first being worth in excess of £1 million – and others. “Disruption of mundane products”. Target passive shoppers.
Session: Retail in the Age of Mobile Discovery
15:44: Content creation – the pace of content creation is surpassing our ability to consume information. Only the relevant and remarkable stand out.
Session: Retail in the Age of Mobile Discovery
15:51: Current challenge – the need for speed. People under 20 are consuming content 2.5 times as quickly as people over sixty. In order to grab attention need to create “thumb sucking content”. examples include Bose, Heinz and Mr Clean. Whatever it takes to grab attention quickly.
Session: Retail in the Age of Mobile Discovery
15:53: Next wave of visual communication on mobile is Instagram Stories and augmented reality.
16:34: And…. relax. That’s a wrap!! Day one complete, D6 team signing off to network and meet some new faces. Until tomorrow Expo!
