BRotD - Entry 0262 Digital Dashboards

Best Reading of the Day

Data driven is the way.

Right?

Yes.  Of course.

How we do it is very important though.  Data can tell you anything you want if you try.

Take a look at this read:

https://econsultancy.com/what-are-digital-dashboards-challenges-best-practice/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

There are two factors that have driven the recent meteoric rise of digital dashboards.

Firstly, the concept of data democratisation; wherein all data is available to everyone within an organisation. In a data democracy, there are no gatekeepers, and everyone has the tools to understand and act on what the data is telling them. This idea and its potential benefits are now well established. And the technology to power it is evolving fast – complex machine analysis and processing of big data is giving users the power to draw insights automatically, in ways that were never possible before.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

eCommerce Engines

I've been pretty heavy in eCommerce for a while and have some knowledge of a variety of the systems sold to support those efforts.  This little write-up on the Forrester Wave analysis of those eCommerce engines caught my eye as useful.

Not surprising that Salesforce is at the top (the Demandware platform) along with SAP.

Here is the full article:

https://www.clickz.com/forrester-b2c-commerce-suites-what-made-the-winners-stand-out/247573/

You will have to become a client of Forrester to get their full research.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

How Amazon Competes and How to Compete With Amazon

This will be a short article that may lead to a deeper investigation and white paper.

What is Amazon doing besides just selling stuff online that competes with other players?

How are other players competing with Amazon in ways that may or may not include selling online?

Let's take a look at a few examples.

First Amazon.

They are masters at taking something they already do and monetize it in a new way.  They had massive data centers providing web service to Amazon.com that was mostly not in use.  They needed the massive power for their busy times.  Why not sell it as a service?

Amazon Web Services was born and now you too can host anything you can dream of in "the cloud".

This was quickly followed by others.  Microsoft Azure has found its place and there are countless players in the space now.

Here is one way Amazon is vertically integrating, taking some upstream or downstream product or service and creating a way to do it themselves.  Package delivery.

Amazon Orders Vans for Prime Delivery

Next are a couple of players that took Amazon eCommerce ideas and started providing the same solution for others.

This company is called Mirakl, a Paris based company, that has created a platform for other eCommerce sites to add resellers, just like Amazon.com does. They're the only player in the space and are big already, especially in B2B, and will be growing dramatically in the years ahead.  I promise you.

https://www.mirakl.com/

Next is a similar concept.  The product reviews that worked so well on Amazon.com became something you can add to your own eCommerce site.  Now there are multiple other players in this space but the original may still be the best.

https://www.bazaarvoice.com/

I think these responses are the correct path for all but the largest retailers.  I used to refer to retailers in a Tier level segmentation, Tiers 1 to 5.  Tier 1 was Walmart while Tier 5 was the local YMCA Christmas Tree sellers. I think there is now a super-tier reserved for those who do brick & mortar well, digital well, and eCommerce well.  How can smaller and regional players compete?  Third party providers.

Here is a great example:

https://www.retaildive.com/news/perfect-corp-rolls-out-makeup-ar-tool-for-small-businesses/559242/

Hope this gave you some food for thought.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Personalization in Marketing

I have seen first hand how merchandisers are so busy they can barely begin to move forward on future-leaning initiatives.

Missing out on personalization is a big miss however and should not be allowed to happen.

Salesforce estimates that adding Einstein personalization to your marketing sorting rules for grid pages, PLPs, will have a positive impact on revenue in the range of 6-9%.  Why leave that money sitting on the table?  Companies such as Certona are thriving on doing the work for you.  Just set up a data feed of your order history and the company will personalize recommendations, resulting in a revenue lift.

Oh, did I mention Amazon is in that game too?  Yeah.  Another threat from Amazon.  Just what you needed right?

Do it.

Here is a story on the subject of how marketers are failing to make this a priority:

https://www.clickz.com/personalization-powerful-priority/243913/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

It’s been a big news week for Amazon. The ecommerce giant’s shares have surpassed those of Walmart. Amazon announced the end of its restaurant delivery service, while launching a credit card an AI-powered recommendation service to improve personalization. Oh, and thanks to a 52% year-over-year increase in brand value, Amazon displaced Apple at the top of WPP and Kantar’s annual ranking of the most valuable brands in the world.

The latter two are certainly related. Available in a handful of regions for now, the recommendation service enables marketers to incorporate product recommendations and tailored search results on websites, in apps, and within content management and email marketing systems. It’s called Amazon Personalize, a nod to the company’s signature move.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS I found this great little complementary article that is also worth your time, especially if you are in the supermarket industry.
https://retailleader.com/personalization-digital-food-retailing

BRotD - Entry 0261 Google Report on Omnichannel Shopping

Best Reading of the Day

As I started to read this I was struck initially by how pedestrian the article was.  It gets better though and is well worth your time.

What bogey are you chasing today in your marketing strategy?  AOV?  CR?  Looking at your mobile traffic suddenly over 50%?

Read this little article to give you some help:

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/omnichannel-shopping-journey/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

In other words, people feel that online shopping makes it easier for them to find the right item at the right price.
...
Ultimately, people are looking to meet their needs in the most efficient way possible, whether that means shopping online only or researching online before heading to the store.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Shoppability is a Thing

The current state of eCommerce should be interesting to all of us for a variety of reasons.  We have some new data and a new term to consider.

Shoppability.

That is the integration of a variety of apps and services, such as social media, with the ability to shop instantly.  I'm saying this is a way to encourage people to buy things they don't need and spend money they don't have  but this is also a set of ways to help people find goods and services they may not have known about and may truly need.  Both of those statements are likely true.

It is different from "omnicommerce" as it is less focused on the traditional ERP-based delivery of goods and more on inserting directly in to multi-channel approaches to selling.

Here is the full story:

https://econsultancy.com/three-key-retail-ecommerce-trends-meekers-internet-report-2019/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

...what’s most interesting about the growth of ecommerce in 2019 is that it isn’t just coming from the expected places – offline sales shifting to online, or customers visiting retailers’ websites to make purchases. Instead, Meeker’s Internet Trends report tells a story of shoppability becoming integrated into apps and services of every kind, offline retail becoming digitised, and ecommerce reaching new communities and demographics.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Another Platform Player gets an IPO

I have written about this before, though I had previously focused on the B2B space, but platform players are continuing to make big waves in the market.

This is a consignment store online where people can sell their goods.  The IPO is expected to be valued at about $1.3 Billion.  With a "B".

Some people have things they want to sell on consignment.  Some people wish to purchase things from consignment and buy with confidence.  This platform brings them together.  Easy. 

Here is the full article:

https://www.chainstoreage.com/finance-0/another-fast-growing-digital-native-going-public/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

eCommerce the Profit Drain

I found the title of this article to be quite eye-catching:

Is eCommerce Draining the Profit Out Of Retail?

Yeah.  That is truly a great question.

Top to bottom the entirety of the eCommerce ecosystem is focused on enabling a company to have an easy relationship with customers and quickly provide them with goods at a low cost.

That has been the focus of traditional brick & mortar retailers for over 100 years but the cost structure of getting good TO a customer is quite different from providing a place for customers to go get goods FROM a retailer.

It is a read that is worth your time.  Get the whole story here:

https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2019/05/16/is-ecommerce-draining-the-profit-out-of-retail/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Customer Lifetime Value CLV

Whether you are a B2B or D2C or a B2B business you should be thinking of the lifetime value of your customers.

The concept is simple.  If your business spends time and money acquiring a new customer isn't it worthwhile to look at the value of that customer as a repeat customer?

Yeap.  Sure is.  Netflix subscriptions are the perfect way to look at it.  That customer isn't worth the $10 they pay the first month.  Their lifetime of paying that $10, then $12, etc. is the real value of that customer.  Payments providers work to that by providing Automatic Updater services so when your customer forgets they have a new CC the subscription service finds it for them. 

There is a great write-up over with ClickZ on this subject that really lays it all out for you:

https://www.clickz.com/how-to-calculate-customer-lifetime-value-cltv-the-complete-guide/228128/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) allows marketers to predict how much revenue customers will generate for their business for the duration of their relationship.

It is increasingly a data-led estimation and a key metric of business health. CLTV helps marketers understand how much each individual customer is worth to them. It also shows how much can be spent to acquire new customers while ensuring return on investment (ROI).

Forrester has been writing on the subject for a while now as we look to take the lessons of the B2C world and apply them in B2B.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

HolidayWrapup - Mobile Drives Traffic

If eCommerce is part of your strategy you should be paying close attention to the trends in customer shopping habits.

The shopping season in 2018 was dominated by mobile touchpoints as customers increasingly get out their phone to shop.

Here is a snippet from the report:

Mobile shopping eclipsed desktop for the first time during the 2018 holiday season: 48% of orders came from mobile devices while just 44% came from desktop or laptop computers, according to Salesforce. Mobile accounted for 66% of all e-Commerce traffic during the season, and 74% of shoppers browsed from a mobile phone on Christmas Day.

Here is the full story:

https://www.retailtouchpoints.com/topics/omnichannel-cross-channel-strategies/holiday-wrap-up-mobile-dominates-e-commerce-driving-66-of-traffic

Here is one other point.  For years now we have seen the growth of mobile as a point of interaction between retailers and manufacturer brands while sales has been dominated on a desktop style device.  That is trending towards a pure mobile-first interaction.  The customer shops on their phone, finds what the want on their phone and buys it there too. We are projected to pass the 50% threshold within the next 2 years.

Here is that data:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/249863/us-mobile-retail-commerce-sales-as-percentage-of-e-commerce-sales/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Nike is Digital First

Need a new athletic shoe? 

Fan of Nikes?

Get connected.

They've become trailblazers really in their overall approach.  Digital first, mobile first, and leading brands toward the new engagement era.

For many customers the new funnel for the customer journey starts with the mobile app.  However, a potential sale can enter anywhere on the path and that is all enabled by a digital-first mindset.

Read more here:

https://www.retaildive.com/news/nike-execs-see-digital-as-the-majority-of-future-business/544975/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Not eCommerce but Experience Commerce

Every now and then someone coins a phrase that really captures something.

Bricks & Mobile really works well from my perspective.  A play on the traditional retail store enhanced with mobile.

Now its not eCommerce but Experience Commerce.

Experiences win customers and retain them.

I agree.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Recently, I went on a health kick and stopped going to the [donut] shop entirely. When I finally returned, the woman who runs the shop said, “We thought you moved! It’s good to see you.” I made the decision right then to reinstate my once-a-week doughnut splurges. They were so happy to see me, they gave me my doughnut free, and I was utterly charmed by the interaction. It’s nice to feel seen, and if my business means that much to a sweet couple, then I want to make sure I spend my extra calories on them.

In the world of ecommerce, it can be a bit daunting to make sure customers feel as welcome as I do in that doughnut shop, but focusing on experiences, rather than sales, can mean more personal, and longer-lasting, relationships with customers.

Here is the full story:

https://www.clickz.com/experience-commerce-winning-customers/221080/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Online eCommerce Grocery Sales to Grow Fast

The toughest nuts to crack are often the best.

Not sure that is the case here but I'm still convinced we will see quite a shift in our Supermarket shopping habits as the Information Age continues to change our daily lives.

These folks continue to think grocery will move to online.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Online sales of groceries continue to grow much faster than the overall market and that web growth is expected to continue, according to recently released datafrom the United Kingdom-based Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD).

Yes, it references the UK but the data is U.S. focused.

Here is the full article:

https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2018/12/17/all-signs-point-to-continued-growth-in-online-grocery-sales/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Basics of eCommerce Personalization

Get your house in order first.

That should always be the rule to live by.

Low hanging fruit, etc.

However it is shocking to find basic advice along those lines is still necessary especially when its something new involved where we lack a basic comfort level with the subject.  The reactionary response is to seek help from outside to address this new "something".

Try looking inside first. 

Good little article:

https://www.clickz.com/5-first-party-data-strategies-personalization/213990/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Every brand understands—or should understand—the importance of data. And no data is more valuable than first-party shopper behavior data, which is derived directly from your customers. Since first-party data comes straight from the source, this eliminates any games of telephone, enabling marketers to better understand—and build stronger relationships with—their customers.

Clearly brick & mortar retailers want the same approach but it is far more challenging when dealing with in-store interactions.  This article's value is best seen by the online players or the omnichannel play for traditional retailers.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Amazon - Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Two stories from Business Insider tell this story.

First up is how Amazon did on Black Friday and if you had any doubt, they rocked:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-dominates-thanksgiving-and-black-friday-online-sales-2017-11

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Amazon pulled in 45% of all online transactions — or purchases — on Thanksgiving Day, and 54.9% on Black Friday, according to Hitwise data cited in Dealerscope.

Next is Amazon on Cyber Monday ... and ... they rocked:

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-says-cyber-monday-is-biggest-shopping-day-in-history-2017-11

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Amazon says Cyber Monday was its biggest shopping day in company history.

"Amazon customers shopped at record levels... ordering hundreds of millions of products from toys to fashion to electronics and Amazon devices," Jeff Wilke, Amazon's head of worldwide consumer, said in a statement. "Customers ordered nearly 140 million items from small businesses alone and this is just the beginning of the holiday season."

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Experience Experimentation or Checkout Optimization?

Any time I read about a sophisticated experimentation effort to optimize some digital process or tool I get all starry eyed.

Yes, these are the things that keep me up at night wondering about the larger meaning.

The folks over at eConsultancy have another excellent entry that goes right down this rabbit hole.  Well worth the read:

https://econsultancy.com/blog/69447-ask-the-experts-conversion-rate-optimisation-trends-challenges-strategy/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

There is a divide taking place in the industry. The businesses at the strategic and transformative level of maturity don't even use the term CRO or conversion optimization. Experimentation is the mindset change they have adopted and made part of their DNA. Brands like Amazon, Skyscanner, Booking.com…

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

67% eCommerce Growth at Walmart

Now that's news for the day!

Huge growth at Walmart online.  Think the Jet.com acquisition is paying off?

Maybe?

Yeap.

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Walmart continues to invest heavily both in-store and out to redefine the shopping experience and blur the distinction between digital and physical retailing.

As the world’s largest retailer continues its fight with Amazon for consumers’ hearts, minds and wallets, the customer ultimately wins ― new solutions provide a seamless path to purchase and bring a new level of excitement to the shopping experience.

Here is the whole story:

https://risnews.com/walmart-posts-enormous-67-e-commerce-growth

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

AI Comes to Online Retail

What's the next big thing?

Artificial Intelligence, or machine learning, is definitely coming as big wave of impact.

This little article caught my eye for that reason.

https://econsultancy.com/blog/69292-this-online-retailer-uses-ai-for-product-categorisation-here-s-how/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

LovetheSales.com was founded in 2013 and is a retail sales aggregator where consumers can find more than a million sales items from hundreds of retailers.

Machine learning is used to classify these products, tagging them to enable the website to sort them into the right categories and to show a user products they may be interested in.

[Founder Stuart McClure] explains the need for a machine learning-led approach:

“Given that we’ve got that massive catalogue of products that can change and shift very quickly - as products on sale can change in price or sell out - we recognised that we needed a pretty clever tool."

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0253 Next Generation Stores Today

Best Reading of the Day

Always remember, the folks who want to sell you something will often be willing to write studious analyses to help persuade you to but it.

With that in mind you really should read this, the best read of today, or the month really.

Forget everything we know or think we know about the retail store.  Given the technological shifts we've seen in recent decades with online, social, integrated fulfillment, seemless customer service through digital, mobile, and more, what should the store look like today.

Here is a snippet that provides one view:

Over the next three years, outdoor lifestyle apparel retailer Toad&Co. plans to open 20 new brick and mortar stores.

With news of store closings by powerhouse brands likely swirling around in your head, you may be tempted to make sure you read that number correctly. It’s been dizzying for sure. So why would an apparel retailer be looking to expand its brick and mortar footprint in this environment?

Santa Barbara, CA-based Toad&Co. lives by a simple truth: People enjoy shopping and being in the store, and still want that experience. They just don’t want it to be disconnected from the rest of their purchasing journey.

“We don’t believe brick and mortar is dying,” explained Kelly Milazzo, VP of operations for Toad&Co. ”But we do believe that the consumer expects, and will soon demand, a seamless interaction with the brand.”

Here is the full article:

http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/how-make-next-generation-store-right-now-store

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

NewStore of Boston Uses Tech to Help Against Amazon

The next generation store, according to some, is fully integrated with technology.

Demandware eCommerce founder Stephan Schambach is back with a new creation that is mobile first.  Forget eCommerce, it is now all mobile all the time. Everything done on your phone.  Pay, order, delivery, all integrated for the convenience of the customer and whatever retailers or manufacturers sign up.

They just earned a big round of funding so keep an eye on them.

Read more here:

http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2017/07/18/newstore-rings-up-50m-to-help-retailers-win-mobile-influence/

Next up is some thoughts on what the next generation store looks like.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant