retail-marketing-ecommerce-trends-smart-insights-2021.pdf

Part of the Ecommerce / Retail Toolkit
Retail e-commerce
marketing trends 2021
Experts give their views and examples of the future trends of
retail e-commerce marketing trends.
Editor: Dr. Dave Chaffey, Smart Insights
Reference

1
Retail e-commerce marketing trends 2021 - Published January 2021
© Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Limited.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION�� 2
OMNICHANNEL RETAIL�� 6
CONNECTED COMMERCE��11
GOOGLE ADS DEVELOPMENTS��15
CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE��21
EXPERIENCE OPTIMIZATION AND PERSONALIZATION��28
EFFECTIVE USER EXPERIENCE��37
INNOVATIONS IN MOBILE PLATFORMS��53
'ON-DEMAND' E-COMMERCE FULFILMENT��58
EMAIL MARKETING AND AUTOMATION��61
CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND RETENTION��65

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INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD - THE EVER CHANGING LANDSCAPE
The pandemic has led to governments across the globe introducing lockdown measures. This
has led to a marked shift in consumers favouring online shopping. With more free time than
ever before but less to do in it we have seen a significant increase in online shopping - with IBM
predicting a 20% growth in e-commerce in 2020.
In fact, a recent survey by Internet Retailing found that 42% of consumers would shop more
online even after shops reopened.
Through this report, we want to highlight the critical trends and techniques that could help make
the difference - both in a time of pandemic but also when we return to normality. We've tied each
trend into a specific stage of our RACE Framework, which we'll introduce to you below.
Thankstotechnologyevolvingatsucharapidpace,therewillalwaysbetemptationfromthelatest
tech fad but, whilst it may be new and exciting, is it really going to cater to customer expectations?
Businesses should never be afraid to take a step back and evaluate their marketing maturity
– and identify what level of support they require in order to meet their objectives and deliver
growth. In an era where customer experience counts for everything, investing in the tools that
allow marketers to take control of their customer data and leverage it effectively will prove critical
to delivering results.
Beyond recognizing where and how to focus your efforts in line with business objectives,
personalization and automation remain critical topics for the retail and e-commerce sector. As
a result, brands that are serious about delivering world-class omnichannel retail experiences to
drive sales and build long-term loyalty must demonstrate commitment to putting their customers
and the effective use of data at the forefront of their agenda.

3
INTRODUCTION
About Smart Insights
Smart Insights is a digital training and performance platform that supports individuals, teams and
organizations to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Actionable learning and data-driven
content covering the full customer lifecycle is provided in a dynamic learning ecosystem to save
marketers time, provide quality advice, frameworks and templates that are proven to improve
marketing processes and deliver results.
More than 150,000 Free members use our blog, sample
marketingtemplatesandtwiceweeklyDigitalMarketing
Essentials newsletter to follow best practices and
keep up-to-date with the developments that
matter in digital marketing.
Thousands of Individual and Business members
from over 170 countries use our premium planning
and management toolkits, Learning Paths
templates, guides, and video courses to map,
plan, and manage their marketing using the Smart
Insights RACE Growth Process and Framework.
The Smart Insights RACE Growth Process enables
you to define and implement a market-leading
omnichannel marketing strategy focused on your
customer lifecycle.
The RACE Framework is composed of five essential
stages that break down into the 25 core activities which
must be optimized to achieve integrated marketing across
your customer lifecycle. Each of these areas is supported
by comprehensive online training, tools and templates
which will help you upskill your team, plan and implement your
strategy, and achieve your goals..
Learn more about the RACE Framework and how it can help you improve your marketing.
Grow your audience using paid, owned and earned media
REACH
Prompt interactions, subcribers and leads
ACT
Achieve sales online or offline
CONVERT
Encourage repeat business
ENGAGE
5
4
3
2
1

RE-AUTOMATE
Define your goals and strategy
PLAN

4
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
This guide shares techniques and examples covering the latest omnichannel e-commerce
marketing trends across the customer lifecycle. The aim is to summarize the latest innovations to
help inform your e-commerce strategy and development roadmap.
The era of e-commerce optimization
We are now in the e-commerce optimization era where, to maintain growth, businesses will
need to innovate their growth strategy for making their online experiences, merchandising, and
communications more engaging and persuasive.
Online sales continue to grow in importance but, for many businesses, the days of double-digit,
year-on-year percentage online sales growth achieved by increased consumer use of online
shopping are ending. In the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European countries with a
high-level of e-commerce maturity, the majority of consumers who want to shop online already
are, so growth from increased penetration will decrease. With that said, it's clear that 2020 has
been a massive year for e-commerce, as this research from eMarketer shows:
The graph below from the Centre for Retail Research shows the total online retail sales from 2019
to an estimate of 2020-21's figures. Their projections show a 4% increase in online retail sales from
2019 - 2020 - representing an increase of more than £70bn.

5
INTRODUCTION
Changing patterns in payment
Recent research from Worldpay offers insight into online payment behaviours. The report shows
how the dominance of cash is waning. Worldpay projects that credit cards, debit cards, and
e-wallets will all surpass cash at the point of sale by 2022. Led by overwhelming market share
in China and substantial increases in the United States, e-wallets have established a dominant
position globally.
According to the latest international benchmark report compilation by E-commerce Europe, ten
European countries have over 75% of their citizens already using online shopping. So, in these
markets, future growth in the percentage of people shopping online will be limited.
This Smart Insights Customer Lifecycle model summarizes key touchpoints that can be optimized
as part of 'always-on' marketing and campaign activities. In this report we will cover examples of
innovation that can be applied across the customer lifecycle.
Let'snowgetintothespecifictrendsthatneedtobereviewedtoinformyourstrategy-thesewillbe
grouped using the Smart Insights RACE Framework to provide structure and aid implementation.

6
OMNICHANNEL RETAIL
REACH
The RACE Framework covers all aspects of a customer lifecycle and helps you to define a true
omnichannel strategy.
The benefits of an omnichannel mindset are highlighted well by this quote by John Bowden,
Senior VP of Customer Care at Time Warner Cable, who said:
Multichannel is an operational view – how you allow the customer to complete transactions in each channel.
Omnichannel, however, is viewing the experience through the eyes of your customer, orchestrating the
customer experience across all channels so that it is seamless, integrated, and consistent. Omnichannel
anticipates that customers may start in one channel and move to another as they progress to a resolution.
Making these complex ‘hand-offs’ between channels must be fluid for the customer. Simply put, omnichannel
is multichannel done right!
The quote shows the importance of orchestrating the omnichannel customer experience to make
it as seamless as possible for customers, while at the same time measuring its effectiveness.
Chris Shaw, Director of Product Marketing at Manhattan
Associates, a supply chain and omnichannel commerce
technology company, talks about what this means in
practice:
When the customer places that order [online] or calls the contact
center or walks into the store, we try to do everything we can to
put the customer and the order back together again, because
they don’t make any sense without the context of each other
– [and] not just the transactions the customer has had at the
particular store they may be in right now, but all the interactions
they’ve had outside that store: the times they’ve interacted with
the call center, when they’ve interacted via social, when they’ve
interacted via chat.
To do this well means combining more advanced tracking of multichannel behaviour using
attribution and ensuring customer research using techniques like Net Promoter Score to assess
multichannel experience.
Christina Dam, Product Marketing Lead of Square, suggests retail brands need to develop:
A great omnichannel experience [is one] that feels familiar to the customer, regardless of the channel. Inject
your brand’s voice into every communication, and be consistent with pricing policies, offers and rules so that
potential buyers don’t get confused.
HOW DO WE DEFINE
OMNICHANNEL RETAIL?
Omnichannel retail is the pursuit of
a retail experience that transcends
digital channels and physical
premises. Customers will feel
attuned to your brand experience no
matter where they are in the buying
process, whether they’re using
multiple devices, or browsing and
shopping in a physical store.

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OMNICHANNEL RETAIL
Measuring omnichannel shopper behaviour
Google Analytics has supported measurement of omnichannel activity for a long time with its
Multichannel Funnel attribution feature. Facebook Attribution gives additional insight beyond
the last click. This is particularly useful for showing cross-device usage involving Facebook ads.
This insight is worth reviewing if you’re unaware of this tool.
Measuring cross-device interactions
Going forward, most devices that people use to access online resources and make purchases will
become integrated. According to RetailMeNot, most shoppers are omnichannel:
While 64% of shoppers are completing their purchase in a physical store, they don't always start there. Data
shows 39% of Americans are starting their shopping journey on a mobile device and 14% begin on a desktop.
Itisimperativeformultichannelretailerstomakeuseofthistrendandmaketheironlineexperience
asintegratedanduserfriendlyaspossibletobeabletoreachandtargettheomnichannelshopper.
It is no longer enough to just have an online presence on multiple channels – the channels now
also need to be efficiently integrated. You need to make sure that your offline and e-commerce
strategy includes consistent branding, design, messaging, and payment methods, to be able to
provide the integrated multichannel experience.
A good example of omni-platform, omni-device strategy would be the cookie-enabled ads
commonly seen on social media platforms. For instance, if you search for multivitamin tablets
on Amazon, eBay etc., you start seeing them on your social platforms, such as Facebook and
Instagram – that’s no coincidence!
Assessing offline impact of online ad investment
Measuring store visits and offline conversion tracking has now been a staple of Google Ads
tracking for several years, rolling out initially as a beta for select advertisers and now more widely
available.
Facebook has also added tracking of offline shopping activity to justify spend on its online ads.
This case study shows that when the jewellery company Pandora used offline conversion tracking
to measure the offline impact of its Facebook campaign, it discovered that there was over a 20%

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OMNICHANNEL RETAIL
increase in revenue attributed to dynamic ads when in-store purchases were taken into account.
Mini case study - Clinique
Situation
Clinique’s mission is to be the most trusted prestige beauty brand in the world and lead the
dermatological skincare and cosmetics market. In-store sales remain an important part of
Clinique’s business, because in-store consultants can assist shoppers and showcase products.
This demonstrates recognition that its audience is increasingly shopping while they are on the
go. However, Clinique UK has made more of its beauty products available for sale online over the
past five years.
Solution
Clinique UK wanted to understand the true value Facebook ads brought to its offline business.
The initial objective was to measure the incremental impact of ads on offline sales. The second
objective was to assess which creative assets were most efficient at generating online and offline
sales.
Clinique UK joined with Facebook Creative Shop and media agency Manning Gottlieb to develop
an iterative approach to advertising on Facebook known as ‘test and learn’. Clinique ran two
consecutive campaigns promoting Moisture Surge 72-Hour Auto-Replenishment Hydrator
hydrating cream on Facebook and Instagram in the UK.
Before launching the campaign, Clinique UK needed a way to link its Facebook ads to sales. For
online sales, the company could use the Facebook pixel—a piece of code on its website—to
understand which ads led to people buying things on its site.
The brand was not able to pinpoint whether Facebook ads drove sales of Clinique Moisture Surge
72-Hour Auto-Replenishment Hydrator in Clinique’s own stores. Companies can usually use
Facebook’s offline conversions tool, which matches sales data from physical business locations to
ad views on Facebook. But Clinique was unable to take advantage of this tool because it was such
a huge challenge to upload its physical store sales data to Facebook on a large scale. Facebook
removed this roadblock by working with Clinique to automate the data upload process across the
UK, which transformed the company’s ability to understand the true effect of its Facebook ads.
With the offline conversion setup in place, Clinique then turned to the campaign itself. Clinique
and Manning Gottlieb adopted a powerful approach to campaign optimization: split testing.
This involved pitting different creative assets against each other. By split testing over 20 assets,
Clinique UK was able to swiftly find the most effective ads and drop those that were less effective.
As a result, Clinique improved its campaign results in real time, rather than looking for lessons
once the campaign was over.
To measure the impact of the campaign as a whole, Clinique used a Facebook conversion lift
study, which measures the number of extra purchases caused by the campaign, as well as a brand
lift study, which polls people to determine the additional effect the campaign had on its target
audience’s attitude towards Clinique Moisture Surge 72-Hour Auto-Replenishment Hydrator.

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OMNICHANNEL RETAIL
Results
Clinique UK transformed its Facebook campaign by
measuring the impact of its ads on offline sales and by
optimising the creative in real time. By doing this, Clinique
UK and Manning Gottlieb achieved:
1. 22% lift in online sales
2. 7% lift in in-store sales
3. 9.8-point lift in likelihood to consider Clinique
Moisture Surge 72-Hour Auto-Replenishment
Hydrator as the only or top 2-3 brands when
shopping for moisturiser
4. 1.8 million people estimated to have been
influenced by the campaign
Takeaways
Clinique'ssizeasacompanyaffordsthemacertainleeway
when troubleshooting with Facebook. Their solution is
unlikely to be available to the majority of companies.
This doesn't mean that attributing offline sales to
Facebook ads is impossible. Indeed, Facebook works
very hard to prove the worth of running ads with them
from both an on- and offline perspective. Clinique's
peculiarity arises largely due to their size and complexity
as a company.
If you'd like to implement attribution of Facebook ads to offline sales, the first port of call should
be Facebook's offline conversions tool. This is likely to be easier to implement for smaller to
medium sized businesses with relatively simple customer relation management systems (CRMs),
product structures and points of sale (POS).
This technique does require you to link your CRM and POS to your Facebook account and you'll
need to qualify and set some relevant offline goals in order for it to work.
Recommendation
Without an Omnichannel mindset, you may be missing out on crucial opportunities to improve
your brand experience across all channels, at every stage of the buying funnel.
The best way to learn more about attribution and funnel analysis is to complete these two
interactive Learning Path modules. The first is our module on reviewing media performance,
which will help you how to use Google Analytics to review the current effectiveness of digital
media and identify improvements. The second is our module on paid media investment. This
module will help you to discover options for using paid digital media across the most important
platforms, including Facebook, Google, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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CONNECTED COMMERCE
How Internet of Things (IoT) experiences will integrate with M2M interactions
The Internet of Things (IoT), coupled with machine-to-machine (M2M interactions), promises to
bring the connectivity of the Internet into every facet of our lives. These systems should make
our devices and homes smarter and more efficient. More products will become IoT-enabled.
For example, an agreement between IoT provider Evrythng and label provider Avery Dennison
will see at least 10 billion apparel and footwear products heading to market over 36 months as
web-ready #BornDigital physical products.
Cisco explains the importance of IoT and M2M:
The phenomenal growth in smarter end-user devices and M2M connections is a clear indicator of the growth
of IoT, which is bringing together people, processes, data, and things to make networked connections more
relevant and valuable.
This section focuses on the continued growth of M2M connections and the emerging trend of
wearable devices. Cisco forecast that globally, M2M connections will grow 2.4-fold, from 6.1
billion in 2017 to 14.6 billion by 2022.
Machine-to-Machine (M2M connections)
Theseincludehomeandofficesecurityandautomation,smartmeteringandutilities,maintenance,
building automation, automotive, healthcare, and consumer electronics.
What about the marketing applications of connected products? Evrythng recommends these IoT
applications for brands to consider:
1. Product as media: Some connected products
whichhavescreenscanpotentiallybeusedforads
whichwillbemorevaluableiftheyarepersonalized.
Devices don’t necessarily need screens since
IoT-enabled tags on product packs can be used to
connect to information, entertainment, and offers
as shown in the mini case study on Diageo. In the
last two years, luxury brands have also started
to employ IoT technology to inform users on
product supply chains or to verify the authenticity
of goods. LVMH is developing its own digital
platform, Aura, to use across brands; Gabriela
Hearst and PVH have worked on digital identity
projects; and labels from Ralph Lauren to 1017
Alyx 9sm have partnered with Avery Dennison
and Evrythng on digital supply chain tracking.
The Denim Reimagined project, created by Hong
Kong upcycled apparel company The R Collective
REACH

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CONNECTED COMMERCE
and supported by Levi’s, aims to take traceable fashion using tags to a new level going
beyond supply chain traceability.Denim Reimagined leverages the Internet of Things
(IoT) technology to track the relevant garment information and securely pass it on to
consumers.
2. Products-as-a-service: The ‘smart home’ control products are examples of this. These
services are often administered via mobile or desktop apps. This gives opportunities
to keep audiences engaged through notifications when they are timely rather than the
previous system of monthly bills.
3. Productsasconnectedecosystem:Withinthehomecontext,thereareagrowingnumber
of popular smart home IoT clouds in the market, such as Homekit, Nest, SmartThings,
and Wink. New products for the home will have to support interoperation with these and
other products that are integrated with them.
Connected commerce and voice search
Connected commerce is all about connecting the home, the store and the person through
'intelligent personal assistants'. Smart speakers such as
Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomePod are
perfect examples of Connected Commerce. Echo is the
device and Alexa is the voice recognition. Alexa allows
connections with other devices so you can play music
on command, or set reminders, add something to your
Amazon basket and so on. Whilst Amazon isn’t a physical
store, it’s certainly making efforts to connect physically
with consumers.
You'll likely have noticed the hype around connected
devices, starting with Amazon and causing Google, Apple and Microsoft to play catch-up. We
won’t look at this trend in depth since it’s not something that other retailers can emulate by
creating their own devices.
We have now moved beyond the hype, which estimated
that 50% of searches will be voice-based by 2020. We
are starting to see an impact on retail with the latest
eMarketer data showing that double digit percentages are
browsing, re-ordering and asking for recommendations
from their smart speakers. Actual purchases are in single
digits.
Takeaways
The hype around voice search has been long lasting and
optimistic but, even now that over 100 million devices
have been sold - and that's just the figure for Amazon's
Alexa - it's clear that we're still a long way from naturalising
the purchase process.

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CONNECTED COMMERCE
Depending on your company's internal capacity, it's likely you'll need to work with a third party
agency to develop an offering like this but, as the technology has been in development for a few
years now, prices are stabilising.
Recommendation
Voice search and connected commerce is slowly supplementing the established browser-based
digital experience. Whilst it might not seem immediately applicable to your current business
focus, there are many other way of improving the effectiveness of your company's website and
your customer's digital experience.
To begin your journey to improving your company's website and its contribution to the business,
take a look at our Digital Experience Learning Path. It's packed with concepts, examples and
opportunities to test your understanding and ultimately apply a data-driven approach to
improving how users interact with your site.

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GOOGLE ADS DEVELOPMENTS
Over the past several years, we have seen within Google Ads a mobile-first strategy in play where
Google was seeking to protect its ad revenue as more users adopted smartphones. Initially,
enhanced campaigns were deployed and, more recently, a range of ad extensions and bid
adjustments have been released. These give advertisers the flexibility to serve their ads in the
correct context depending on the device, user location and previous interactions via different
online placements.
Google Shopping ads now dominate retail, with the latest Merkle report showing that spending
on Google Shopping Ads grew 12% YoY - with Google Shopping generating 60% of Google ad
clicks.
However, much of the innovation in retail advertising from Google is not in Google Shopping
(where people search for the best deals on known products) rather it is through display ads
(generally used to raise awareness of brands and products). During a recent Google Marketing
Live, Google launched Discovery ads which give richer formats and reach across YouTube.
REACH

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Google also announced Gallery ads, a new search ads format that brings a more interactive visual
format to the SERPs.
Google says:
Gallery ads make it easier for you to communicate what your brand has to offer. We’ve found that, on average,
ad groups including one or more gallery ad have up to 25 percent more interactions—paid clicks or swipes—at
the absolute top of the mobile search results page.

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Returning to Google Shopping, Google is developing
Shopping as a destination within Google, developing
a new personalized homepage on mobile in the
Shopping tab where people can filter based on
features and brands, read reviews and watch videos.
For example, if they’re looking for headphones, they
can filter for wireless and the brand they’re looking for.
Ads Account Optimization
With many businesses now having adjusted to
the increase in smartphone usage, Google is
recommending a focus on Optimization. To highlight
the Optimization mindset, Google has introduced
Account Optimization Score. Google explains:
Your optimization score, found on the Recommendations
page, helps you understand your account’s optimization
potential.Optimizationscorerunsfrom0%to100%,with100%
meaning that your account can perform at its full potential.
We look across key aspects of your campaigns to evaluate
whether they are fully optimised and then offer recommended
actions if there is room for improvement. If a recommendation
can have more impact on your performance, it’s given more
weight on your overall score.
Optimization score encompasses several aspects of
your campaign, including bids and budgets, ads and
extensions, keywords and targeting, and repairs.
Applying Machine Learning for Optimization
Marking a change in focus to AI, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced an “important shift from a
mobile-first to an AI-first world” at Google. We categorize these changes as:
1. Increased Machine Learning AI options in Google Ads: For some time now, Google has
sought to use analysis of historical ad data to better inform decisions. Sometimes these
changes have been to support less sophisticated advertisers, for example optimizing based
on ‘Smart Goals’ or ‘Smart Bidding’ where the advertiser hasn’t set up their own business
goals or complete their own bid adjustments. In other cases, the power of Machine Learning
can be used on large scale campaigns to improve ROI. For example, travel search site Trivago
used Smart Display campaigns (which optimized targeting, bidding and over 25,000 ads on
the display network).
2. Google Smart Shopping Campaigns: These bring Google's increased machine learning
prowesstohelpyouoptimizeandautomateyouruseofGoogle'sShoppingplatform-reducing

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time spent on some of the more tedious tedious aspects of managing Google Shopping
campaigns, such as creating product groups or identifying negative keywords. Alongside this,
you'll also find powerful features such as Smart Bidding that aim to help unlock more revenue
from your budget. Machine learning allows you to set your campaign to automatically set
bids based on how likely a search term is expected to convert. This likeliness of expected
conversion is based on a huge range of factors such as device and location to whether theyre
in your remarketing list.
3. Revised and new extensions: Earlier this year, after an initial trial in France, Google launched
its updated Google Shopping experience in the US. It offers price alerts, personalized product
recommendations, and the functionality to buy directly from merchants via Google. It uses
the Google payment system and customer payment details stored on their Google account.
4. Improved experience and insight: Google Ads practitioners will have seen the recent revised
user interface. Improved insights such as the ‘average time to convert’ report are aimed
at helping advertisers understand how their ad programmes fit with consumer behaviour
which is often complex, involving multiple interactions and devices through time. The Mobile
Landing page report helps here also. More support for testing through Campaign Experiments
supports marketers to ‘test and learn’.
5. Customized text ads: There are new options for creating text ads with customized text in it.
You can now create text ads that update automatically with the information that you want
your potential customers to know. Read more here.
6. Test campaigns: Drafts and experiments help you optimize your search and Display Network
campaigns by letting you propose and test changes. There is detailed information available
on testing campaigns through Google Ads Help that'll support marketers in the ‘test and
learn’ process.
7. Remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA): RLSA has proven to be an effective feature for
Google Ads. Google defines it as, “a feature that lets you customize your search ads campaign
for people who have previously visited your site, and tailor your bids and ads to these visitors
when they're searching on Google and search partner sites. You can also use Customer Match
tonavigateyouremaillistsandfocusyourShoppingcampaignsonyourhigh-valuecustomers
like newsletter subscribers, previous purchasers, rewards members etc.
8. Affiliate location extensions: If you sell products through retail chains, you can use affiliate
location extensions to help your consumers make buying decisions when they are thinking
about making a purchase, guiding them on where to buy the product from. However, Google
Ads Help makes an important distinction by stating that, “If you’re a manufacturer who sells
products through major retail chains, you can use affiliate location extensions to help people
find nearby stores that sell your product. If you want to advertise your own business location,
use location extensions.”

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Google Attribution
You may have used Google’s Attribution modelling tool or reviewed Assisted Conversions within
Google Analytics.
This is particularly significant for Google, other paid media and social media because it helps
businesses review and credit upper-funnel and mid-funnel interactions. This could mean when
someone searches for a generic product or service or follows a social share or ad and doesn’t
convert immediately but does convert on a later site visit and potentially on a different device,
perhaps through a brand search or direct URL visit.
Google Attribution is the simplified version of Attribution 360, a paid enterprise-level service
whose features are based on Google’s acquisition of multichannel attribution model solution
Adometry. It integrates with Google Analytics, Google Ads, and DoubleClick Search and doesn’t
require any additional site tagging.
Price extensions on Google Ads
Google now allows e-tailers to promote their offering with a kind of menu card on the ad itself.
For example, your product, a short description and a price. Particularly handy for online retailers
as it allows your customers to quickly see the price of something from you, compared with other
retailers. Price extensions can also be shown on specific dates and at specific times, meaning
reductions and discount pricing can easily be added or adjusted.
Cross-device conversion reporting
As mentioned previously, this allows you to track your customer journey over a long window (for
example, 90 days). The reality is that customers move from tablets, to smartphones to laptops
before purchasing and with cross-device conversion reporting you’ll see how your Google Ads
campaign influences conversions across devices.
Monitoring Google's latest innovations
Google introduces many new features which can be exploited to improve competitiveness or
competition. While you can rely on your agency or PPC specialist for these, we recommend you
monitor Google's own innovation summary list.
Google Ads Innovation summary list
An example of a recent change relevant to retailers is the introduction of pay for conversions in
Google Display campaigns. Paying for conversions means you only pay when someone converts
on your website or app – so you never pay above your target cost per action (CPA).
Takeaways
Google Ads can be one of the quickest ways to improve your company's performance in the early
stages of the customer lifecycle - what we call the Reach stage of the RACE Framework.
SimilarourpreviouspointsaboutFacebook,Googlewantsyourexperienceusingtheiradplatform
to be as easy and succesful as possible, so that you'll continue spending money on advertising

18
with them. That means they're spending significant amounts of money on all the aforementioned
features to help achieve this.
You likely read some of the features above and started thinking about implementing some of
them. A few will take hardly any time at all to start using - such as the new reports within the
Google Ads platform - and their benefits will be felt nearly as quickly.
Others, such as some of the 'Smart' targeting options, will take a little while to calibrate but should
bring dividends once you've set them running, as shown by the Trivago example.
So many of the emerging trends and features in this section can be put to use in no time at all but
bring great rewards, so our advice is simply to do so!
Recommendation
Take your usage of Google Ads to the next level with our Paid Media Toolkit - offering a whole host
of resources and guides for making the most of your paid ad investments.
We also offer an interactive Email Marketing and Automation Learning Path that will help you
learn about and explore methods for introducing and improving automation into your marketing
strategy.

19
CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE
In 2019, Brafton predicted that 50% of all searches would be voice-based by 2020 and at least
20% of mobile queries would be voice searches. Global WebIndex reports that 20% of adults
use mobile voice search or voice command tools at least once a month. As expected, a higher
proportion of younger age groups prefer voice search, showing the potential for voice search to
grow.
We recommend retail businesses review the relevance of these applications of conversational
commerce:

þ Voice-activated search

þ Smart speaker interactions

þ Voice-based commerce

þ Chatbots and Messenger interactions
Voice-activated search
This started from the trend of smartphone
voice assistants led by Apple and Google.
We now have voice interactions through
the likes of Apple Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, and Amazon Alexa/Echo. This is a
major trend across all the main digital platform providers.
The increasing popularity of smartspeakers has increased the potential of voice commerce.
Yet many voice queries are functional, such as playing a playlist or telling the time. What really
interests retailers is whether consumers will search for
products or buy via smartspeakers or smartphones.
According to research by Computerlove and Mediacom
North, the daily use of voice assistants in the UK has risen
significantly in the past 12 months.

þ 7 in 10 people who own a voice-controlled device now
use it on a daily basis, up from 4 in 10 just a year ago.

þ 93% of voice device owners now use it at least once a
week, up from 83% in 2018.

þ 1 in 5 people are heavy users, interacting with their
voice assistant at least five times per day.

þ 32% of respondents said they have more than one
device in their home.
WHAT IS CONVERSATIONAL COMMERCE?
A technology that empowers brands and consumers
to interact with each other through chat or messaging,
voice assistance and other natural language interfaces.
Simply put, conversational commerce uses natural
language to interact with customers during their
buying journey by providing them with personalized
help and recommendations while nurturing long-term
relationships.
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Voice-based commerce
So, the question is, how important will voice commerce be in the future? Look past the hype
about smarts peakers and it seems consumers are rightly cynical - selecting and purchasing most
products is complex. The Computerlove and Mediacom North research suggested that, when
it comes to making purchases or ordering take out food via a voice assistant, the percentage
of people using smart speakers remains under 10%. In research collated by Review42 exploring
voice search adoption in 2020, the majority of smart speaker owners have not yet used voice
search or voice assistants to shop.

þ Of those that do use voice-enabled devices on their purchasing journey, over half (51%) use
them simply to research a product

þ 28% then go on to call the business they used voice search to research.

þ 5.5. million adults in the US 'regularly' use their smart speakers to make purchases (roughly
1.6% of the population)
However, a significant proportion of people are using voice assistants to learn more about
products, particularly in younger age groups - 39% of Millenials use voice-enabled assistants at
least once a month.
Chatbots and Messenger interactions
Many retailers have used chatbots and many of these bots apply Artificial Intelligence. This form of
conversational UI makes perfect sense on smartphone where a combination of spoken or typed
questions can be combined with prompts to select from a preferred response. It seems certain
that chatbots will become a more common form of customer service for retailers as people gain
trust in the technology - just as they have with the previous introduction of Livechat for customer
service.
According to a report on conversational commerce, the average conversation rates in stores
range from around 20-30%, whereas online, that rate drops down to sub 10% depending on the
brand strength. The obvious reasons for that could be the rich, visual, and tangible experience
that customers get when they physically visit a store. However, another reason is the instant
customer support and service that they receive within the stores, making it essential for online
platforms to be able to compete with that level of customer service. E-commerce brands, hence,
need to be able to provide more personalized, real-time customer experience. The report also
reiterates that 53% of consumers are more likely to shop with a business they can message,
making it worthwhile for business to consider deploying newer, more innovative martech such as
chatbots and conversational UIs.
Millennials seem to be the quickest adaptors of chatbot-based customer experiences. According
to research by Qualtrics, conducted in the US and key European markets, people aged 18-34
are twice as open to communicating with a personal chatbot as an assistant when shopping,
compared to other age groups.

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Facebook data shows that:

þ 53% of people are more likely to interact with a business they can message directly.

þ More than 50% of people consider business messaging the modern way to communicate.
Businesses can use messenger-based chatbots as a more cost-effective way to send customers
personalized content, offer exclusive deals and suggest purchases.
Facebook Messenger chatbot developer platform
These examples of Messenger chatbot use-cases, such as
Wishlists, show how retailers can integrate Facebook Messenger
with e-commerce account sign-in. There is also a beta for accepting
payments within Messenger.
Google Dialogflow chatbot developer platform
In 2018, Google introduced Dialogflow, a similar platform for
developing chatbots. It integrates with Google Assistant but has the
benefit that it can be deployed via Google Cloud, independent from
Messenger, so can be more readily integrated into websites.
These case studies from KLM, Dominos, and Ticketmaster show how
it can be deployed.
Looking to the future, a specialist Augmented Reality version of the
Echo can even deliver fashion advice. Still only available in the US,
Amazon Echo Look includes a depth-sensing camera that is able to
blur the background, bringing your outfit to the foreground. Users are
able to build a personal lookbook and share photos with friends, while Alexa offers advice from
its Style Check service – a combination of Machine Learning and tips from fashion experts. Echo
Look will also help consumers to discover new styles and brands based on their archived looks.
“We only wear pink on Wednesdays. What were you thinking Jenna??” – Alexa

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Takeaways
Conversational commerce doesn't have to be as daunting to implement as it may seem. The best
place to start is to introduce some form of chatbot. Chatbot development has breezed forward
in recent years to the point that they are affordable and easy to customize, with the benefit being
that a little bit of setup time saves a lot of customer service time in future.
If you already have an FAQ section you're a long way to having some of the content that powers
your chatbot - the next step will be 'conversationalising' the content and setting up the chatbot
logic to serve it.
As we explored, this can have striking benefits when it comes to brand perception and, in turn,
conversions - so this can be a great 'bang for your buck' investment.
Recommendation
Get started with your journey to conversational commerce by completing the Smart Insights
Multichannel Selling Learning Path Module. You'll discover options to integrate digital channels
with more human interaactions like phone conversations and chat functions.
Our module on Customer Service and Success also offers great insight into the positive impact
conversations - whether human or powered by chatbots - can bring to your customer experience.

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EXPERIENCE OPTIMIZATION AND
PERSONALIZATION
Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic in marketing for some time, but AI is a broad term
covering a wide range of different technologies. Artificial Intelligence means any technology that
seeks to mimic human intelligence, and this covers a huge range of capabilities such as voice and
image recognition, machine learning techniques and semantic search.
Smart Insights uncovers each different AI application in this detailed article about applications
of Artificial Intelligence.
In this section, we will focus on applications of using AI to improve e-commerce sales.
Monetate has provided a useful ‘pyramid of personalization’ to help businesses review their
capabilities for personalization, showing the overlap between optimization and personalization
using the following techniques:
1. OptimizationusingA/Btesting:Thistechniqueisusedaspartofconversionrateoptimization
to identify which page elements and variations are important to increasing conversion. It isn’t
typically personalization based on data collected but involves serving different content to
some groups of users compared to a control.
2. Segmentation using rules-based targeting:Here,rulesaresetupinapersonalizationsystem
to serve different content to different audience groups based on the four types of data above.
For example, first-time visitors can be served a different message to repeat visitors or a ‘next
best product’ can be recommended to a previous purchaser.
3. 1:1 personalization: This approach goes beyond pre-defined rules to use machine learning
or predictive analytics to serve the most relevant messages to an individual based on all the
known profile information and how similar individuals have responded in the past.
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EXPERIENCE OPTIMIZATION AND PERSONALIZATION
Zalando is a company that has always had data-driven analytics at the heart of their success. They
believe that “much of the success (or failure) of a product rides on data, and on how it is used”.
They have even outlined their approach to structure their product analytics and optimization
process, which you can read about here.
This is a summary of their vision:
We wanted to ensure that we’re bringing data-informed decision making to the forefront of our processes by
establishing a true data and experimentation culture that could ultimately become a competitive advantage
in today’s fast-changing world.
Zalando has always been a data-driven company and analytics has been one of our key success factors. We
believe that much of the success (or failure) of a product rides on data, and on how it is used.
This brought about the following question: How can we elevate Zalando to the next level of data-informed
decision making? This is how the Product Analytics department came to life.
You can see this is about more than A/B testing page templates, it's about optimizing the buying
process for particular product types.
Here's an example of one specific optimization activity from the Zalando team.
Even though predictive analytics have been around for a while now, its full potential hasn’t yet
been explored by online retailers. Due to its level of complexity and incurred costs, e-commerce
marketers have been wary of relying too much on predictive analytics. However, with the
development of Big Data and emotion analytics etc., using prediction as a measure of judgement
has become more accessible and user-friendly.

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Animportantthingtoremember,however,isthatthepropensitymodelcreatedthroughpredictive
analytics can only be as good as the data collected, so if there are errors in your data, it will be
unable to make accurate predictions.
The benefits of using predictive analytics include:

þ Recommending products

þ Tailoring promotions – both on site and by email and to optimize promotions for your ability
to target customers in general, as well as optimizing your price points

þ Amazon Personalize - Real-time personalization and recommendations, based on the same
technology used at Amazon.com
Businesses with AI-trained, in-house development resource can potentially use publicly available
algorithms. For example, Amazon recently made their Amazon Personalize service available
as part of Amazon Web Services. It’s billed as
‘Real-Time Personalization and Recommendation
for Everyone’.
Takeaways
The easiest way to start offering some form of
experience optimization is through A/B testing - and
we recommend Google Optimize as it has proven to
be a game changer for many businesses out there
lacking in Dev time or know-how.
Google made their Optimize product free in 2017 in
part as a response to a survey they ran that found
that 45% of small and medium businesses don't
optimize their website through A/B testing. The most
common reasons given were a lack of knowledge to
get started and a lack of resources.
WHAT IS PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS?
Predictive analytics is the process of
first collecting data on consumer and
potential consumer behaviours/actions
from a variety of sources and potentially
combining with profile data about their
characteristics.
This data is then distilled and interpreted,
often automatically, by sophisticated
algorithms, from which a set of
predictions are made. Based on these,
rules are developed to deliver relevant
communications and offers to consumers
to persuade them to engage with a
business to meet its goals.

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Optimize allows anyone to make quick and easy changes on their site and A/B test their rollout
against the original. All you need to do to set it up is add a single line of code to your site's HTML
and then use the visual editor to make your changes.
The streamlined approach makes it simple to make iterative improvements based on actual user
interactions, and it can have a great impact on your site and company's performance. Our top
tip, however, is to as little changes as possible per test - that way you can be sure about the cause
behind any increase or decrease in activity.
Choosing a high-value page to optimize (such as seen by users entering your site through a
valuable PPC ad) will see the biggest dividends, as you can understnd how moving a CTA around,
using more or less content, or including testimonials, for example can make an impact on how
you perform at Act and Convert stages of the RACE Framework.
Recommendation
Bring a more personalized experience to your customers by completing our Learning Path
module on Web Personalization. You'll discover how to better communicate with your audience
and motivate them to convert by crafting a personalized buying journey that resonates with them
as individuals using a range of tools and techniques. This module is part of our Digital Experience
Learning Path, in which you'll find many more modules that will help you bring an extra edge to
your marketing efforts.

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EFFECTIVE USER EXPERIENCE
Almost two in ten (19%) of users are frustrated by the checkout and payment process, according
to research by Worldpay. The research also showed that almost a quarter (23%) were frustrated
by comparing products on a site.
A third (33%) abandon because they are required to
create an account to purchase a product online and a
quarter (25%) abandon a purchase due to additional
payment fees (for example credit cards fees). 23% are
still concerned about payment security, according to
the Worldpay research.
So, it's not hard to see how poor user experience can
dramatically reduce the amount of people succesfully
interacting and coverting on your site,
Checkout abandonment is one key area where
customers encounter a range of frustrations according
to research by Baymard.
WHY IS USER EXPERIENCE
IMPORTANT?
User experience (UX) improvements
are a way of increasing sales and
revenue. It’s a form of conversion rate
optimization and a way of attempting
to improve conversion rates by making
websites, mobile applications and
mobile websites as user friendly as
possible.
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User experience must support different micro-moments
In today’s fast-paced, technology-oriented world, consumers are overwhelmed with content.
Be it through ads, offers, emails, texts, social media and everything else, the industry has reached
a point of content shock where consumers cannot consume much more content than they
already are. Hence, the way brands devise their digital experiences to meet their audience needs,
must change. Brands need to focus on the micro-moments of their customers’ behaviours.
WHAT IS MICRO-MOMENTS MARKETING?
As Think with Google highlights: What used to be our predictable, daily sessions online have been
replaced by many fragmented interactions that now occur instantaneously. There are hundreds
of these moments every day — checking the time, texting a spouse, chatting with friends on
social media. But then there are the other moments — the I want-to-know moments, I want-to-go
moments, I want-to-do moments, and I want-to-buy moments — that really matter. We call these
micro-moments, and they're game changers for both consumers and brands.

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Case study: Shiseido from Alessio Rossi, Global Chief Digital Officer
“Beauty shoppers today are passionate and curious. They spend hours researching product
benefits and reading reviews before deciding what to buy. Even product aspects that were once
low consideration, such as ingredients, now generate hours of research time.”
“Customer insights are our No.1 business asset. We care deeply about data-driven storytelling
and reaching individual customers in their key moments of intent. But we’ve also learned the
dangers of over personalization. Early on, we were doing such a great job of customizing content
that, while conversion and checkout rates increased, the average revenue per visit went down.
Customers got exactly what they needed, but we weren’t helping them discover anything new. We
realized that we also needed to predict what other kinds of products might excite them.”
“Our customers are willing to provide information about their preferences because we give them
value in return. And the more information we have about our customers, the better we can
infer their needs. As soon as we stop providing that value, we lose their trust. So, we take this
relationship seriously.”
“Our BareMinerals Made-2-Fit app is a perfect example of this. It’s an acquisition tool, helping us
retain important information about customers so we can customize our marketing and deliver
relevant messages. But the app also meets a strong customer need: It helps a beauty shopper find
the perfect foundation to match their skin tone at any point in the year or their life — something
we know our customers have struggled with. We know that people are reluctant to purchase
foundation without being assured of a perfect shade match. The app is about creating a lifetime
of value for our customers, so they’ll give a lifetime of value back.”
“Anticipating what our customers need is important, but we also need to deliver a great customer
experience. A huge part of our success at Shiseido stems from our organization-wide alignment
on a few customer experience priorities: standardizing our e-commerce platform; deploying our
web analytics platform with Google Marketing Platform; and moving to a full-funnel, integrated
media approach with standardized KPIs and benchmarks. We’ve integrated all digital touchpoints
— across brands, regions, and devices — into a single platform. This makes it possible to have
cohesive and meaningful conversations with our customers regardless of product, device, or
location.”
“At Shiseido, customers are our guiding light. And to meet them where they are, we need to do
more than just respond to their intent signals. We need to start anticipating them.”
Recent developments and examples
Here we explore some of the latest trends within e-commerce UX. The use of guided selling is one
aspect of neuromarketing which is a trend we feature in our practical guide to neuromarketing
for e-commerce marketers.

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Web design trends for e-commerce marketers
Content marketing is key to e-commerce, persuasive copy, and high-quality website design are
also deeply important. Homepages are not art, but they need to stand out and encourage users
into the customer purchase journey. Good web design is crucial to content marketing and the
customer journey, but remember good web design is about user experience, not art.
Here are our top web design trends to look forward to.
More use of video
As marketers find newer, more creative ways to attract audiences, video usage is becoming a
key scope of interest for revenue growth. Video is no longer considered a niche skill or category
when trying to expand the types of content that your company can produce. The costs and skills
required for video production have gone down tremendously in the past years, making it a highly
efficient way of conveying complex information about your brand. The popularity of video with
consumers is shown by data from Cisco who estimate that video will make up 82% of all online
consumer internet traffic by 2022.
Brands like Fitbit make use of videos in line with their product detail pages and provide their
customers with dynamic, engaging content to attract sales. Online videos are both popular and
an effective way to evoke emotion, which is why more and more online retailers are using video
elements in their web design.

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Guided selling
According to Practical E-commerce, guided selling is a form of product recommendation that
makes suggestions and provides product information based on both statistical data and on the
answers shoppers provide to questions related to the product or how the product will be used.
Even though guided selling has been around for a while, this trend is likely to become even more
common as personalization tools continue to take the e-commerce world by storm.
Tails.com has a 13-step questionnaire to customize their dog food recommendation for your
specific dog.
Boohoo.com, an online clothing store, tracks online consumer behaviour and shows their
customers similar clothing options to the ones they have clicked on/searched for.

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Web design is now mobile design
Every site should now be designed with mobile users in mind from an SEO perspective too, due to
Google's Mobile-first indexing update.
Loading content as needed
Due to the demand for mobile responsive design and mobile first sites, websites will load content
as needed, creating long scrolls but with content “lazy loading” (as Practical E-commerce calls it).
Hamburger menus
Hamburger menus are becoming standard, appearing on the left of many sites. But they also may
hurt UX.
Read more about how hamburger menus can affect user experience
GIFs
GIFs are also making a comeback, with many sites now starting to use them on their homepage,
it’s becoming quite common in the e-commerce world.
See examples here
Fast checkout
The best experience that buyers can have is a fast checkout and a fast payment. ASOS has allowed
users to register using email address, Facebook, Twitter or Google accounts – they also have a
one-page checkout containing billing address, delivery address, delivery type (such as standard
or faster delivery options), payment details (including PayPal) which all makes for an incredibly
efficient check out.

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PayPal is certainly a fast way to pay and can also help with security as details are not being added
to yet another website. Many online stores are embracing PayPal, such as Argos.
By offering multiple registration options such as Facebook, Google, etc. it takes away the burden
of having to sign up to every website you want to purchase from.
Some sites, such as JohnLewis, offer guest checkout which also gives the customer the option to
create an account later, too.
AO.com don’t mention registration at all – customers just check out as a guest, as there is no
registration.
Product pages and reviews
Product reviews are also a form of content marketing – and they are more powerful than ever.
Many product pages contain independent reviews, some verified and some not.
This AO.com page contains a product review video, links to live chat wherever you are on the page
and it shows its certification to build trust with customers. The site also contains product reviews
as well as a score.
The product page has lots of information
but, because of its layout, it doesn’t look
too much for the customer to take in.
Review sites are now just part of the
journey, as many e-commerce sites
display reviews either submitted by their
own customers or imported from other
sites. Verification of reviews from real
customers is also important.
Amazon display verified purchases to
show genuine customer reviews from
those who purchased the product on
Amazon itself.

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Feefo is a service which teams up with online retailers to ask their customers to leave a review
on their purchase. They have come up with this solution to add genuine reviews to the web,
whilst helping retailers to encourage purchases
through content marketing and solid reviews
from customers.
Tripadvisor and other review sites like Review
Centre have a flaw in that they don’t have a
method of making sure the reviews are from
genuine customers, hence why Feefo’s solution
is becoming more popular. Feefo isn’t industry-
specific like Tripadvisor, either.
People are reading reviews more than ever
before to make purchase decisions. Customers
relyonreviewstohelpthemwiththeirpurchase,
with over 90% saying they read reviews.
Omnichannel experience benchmarks
The growth in use of mobile devices and increasingly complex customer journeys means that
multichannel retailers need to deliver customer experiences that that integrate across customer
journeys. This is necessary as consumers increasingly use multiple channels along their path to
purchase.
The current pandemic has also heightened the need for a cohesive, seamless experience across
channels as physical stores remain closed in many locations. With more time spent browsing
the internet and, in particular, social media, it is imperative you capitalise on all opportunities to
convert. As such, we expect to see more companies initiating digital transformation programmes
aiming towards implementing omnichannel marketing plans. Indeed, a recent survey found that
70% of executives think the pandemic will accelerate digital transformation.
Another survey from Acquia found that 77% of their UK consumer respondents reported a
change in their digital experience with brands, and 83% of the brands they surveyed reported an
improvement in ROI for marketing and CX technology over the past year.
Increasing the number of channels you operate on is crucial at this stage of internet and
e-commerce maturity, and the experience on these channels must feel cohesive. Consumers
want to experience a brand, not a channel within a brand. A report from Omnisend found that
marketers using three or more channels per campaign would see a 287% higher purchase rate
than marketers using just one channel.

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Takeaways
By now you will be full aware of UX's importance as it stands to reason that a smooth, easy and
pleasant experience onsite is likely to lead to a positive outcome from a lead, sales or conversion
perspective.
Reviews are a relatively easy way to make a positive impact on how your site and products are
perceived. If you are already gathering reviews from a source such as TrustPilot, you can easily
pipe these reviews over to display on your site to lend credibility and reinforce trustworthiness.
A simple way of getting started on improving user experience is to pay attention to any pinch
points your site may have during loading and navigation. Google's Lighthouse audit - available
free through Chrome browser - is a good way of getting an overview of any issues your site may
have. For example, if your site loads fine for desktop users but is sluggish and poorly sized for
mobile users, you can be sure that they won't be converting as well.
Fixes run from straightforward, such as specifying image sizes within the HTML, to those that will
be heavier on your Dev resources - such as reducing JavaScript bloat.
Speaking of mobile users, now more than ever is the time to deidcated resource to improving
how your site performs for mobile users both physically and as a buying journey. Google has been
vocal about its move towards towards favouring mobile optimized sites, and it is clear to see why.
Mobile traffic has surpassed desktop traffic, with a purported 51% of global web traffic coming
from smartphone users - which brings us neatly onto the next trend.
Recommendation
There's no better place to start improving how users experience your digital presence than with
our Digital Experience Learning Path. You'll discover how to bring data and an analytical approach
to making systematic improvements to your website and digital channels.
Our module focusing on discovering opportunities for improving digital experiences will be
useful in light of the above trends. It is designed to help you learn how changing your mindset and
approach to how your website is managed can drive great benefits for an organisation.
Another useful module concerns conversion optimization. Completing it will help you learn
about the principles and best practices for setting up a simple A/B tests and implement a broader
CRO programme.

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INNOVATIONS IN MOBILE PLATFORMS
Mobile devices have already made a tremendous impact on the e-commerce industry in the
previous years, but they will play an even bigger role in future. Estimates say that 82% of people
consult their phone regarding a purchase they’re about to make in a store. Going forward, mobile
shopping will continue to add to e-commerce revenues as shopping on the go will become more
and more common.
It comes as no shock that mobile e-commerce or m-commerce is growing at a rapid pace. People
are spending more time on their smartphones, browsing through retail outlets, discount deals,
etc., using them for more types of activities than ever before.
As shown in the graphic below, whilst mobile traffic across the web has slowed down in the last
few years, it's still represents a significant proportion of web traffic. Given the global pandemic's
impact on consumer habits, we expect so see an even bigger rise in next year's reports.
Despite mobile overtaking desktop traffic, it still lags behind the humble PC when it comes to
conversions. According to a report from BroadbrandSearch, US e-commerce conversion rates
were at just over 4% for desktop, with
mobile at just 1.5%.
The growth in m-commerce has been
actively supported by the increase
in mobile-friendly features that have
been developed in the past years, such
as single-page checkout, responsive
website themes and easier integration
with mobile wallets such as Amazon
Pay, PayPal One Touch, Apple Pay etc.
Mobile platform options
E-commerce businesses are using a variety of approaches to deliver mobile experiences in terms
of the technology platforms used. Some are mobile first, some are mobile responsive, while
others are mobile adaptive. Coupled to this there are technologies like Accelerated Mobile Pages
(AMP) and Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which are increasing in importance and popularity - and
may well be on your roadmap.
What’s the difference and why does it matter?
Mobile-first design means that sites are designed with the mobile user in mind from the outset as
opposed to responsive design, which adapts a core design to mobile devices. Mobile first designs
will have large design elements and buttons which may work well for mobile pages but may well
not on desktops. Mobile first is also “content first” which, briefly, means that the content dictates
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the site's design as opposed to the site being designed and then having content slotted in after.
Adaptive designs are becoming more popular since they may use different design layouts, content
and calls-to-action for smartphone vs desktop.
Which should we use?
Companies are often choosing mobile first if their analytics and conversion data suggests they
receive more visitors/more orders from smartphones or tablets. If your site is not mobile first,
it should at least be responsive, otherwise it could have serious consequences for your Google
search position. You really do have to opt for one or the other.
Accelerated Mobile Pages
You can see the importance that Google gives to AMP since David Besbris , VP of Google Search, is
also the AMP Project Lead. He explains their growth:
“Intwoyears,we’veseentheprojectgrowfromafewlaunchpartnerstoover25millionwebsite
domains that have published more than 4 billion AMP pages. And not only has the number
of pages built with AMP grown, their speed has too. The median time it takes an AMP page to
load from Google search is less than half a second”.
He contrasts the half a second figure with a benchmark statistic that 53% of mobile site visits are
abandoned if pages take longer than three seconds to load, although site abandons are natural
regardless of load time.
AMP is increasingly being used by retailers to deliver pages more quickly to users. AMP has
traditionally been most important for news and blog pages, yet these are relevant for most sites.
So why do ‘just’ 25 million sites feature AMP and why aren’t they used on more project pages?
Besbris quotes research showing that AMP leads to a 10% increase in website traffic with a 2x
increase in time spent on page. For e-commerce websites using AMP, the study also found a 20%
increase in sales conversions compared to non-AMP pages.
Progressive Web Apps
Google has increased its ‘push’ for PWAs. Google explains the benefits of PWAs and contrasts
them to mobile apps like this:
“It’s not hard to see why leading brands would embrace PWAs. They realize the need to provide
the best mobile experience for users―regardless of platform.
PWAs eliminate friction by using the web to deliver app-level experiences. There’s no need for
consumers to find apps in the app store and install them—they can just navigate to the site on
any browser, including Chrome and Safari. PWA techniques focus on reliably loading faster (even
working offline) and using less data”.
Adopters of PWAs include media companies like Forbes, Washington Post and e-commerce
sites like Alibaba (China), Myntra (India) and Lancôme. In markets where 2G rather than 3G or 4G
dominates, PWAs are particularly important.

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Benefits of PWAs include:

þ Rapid install and download compared to traditional apps in native app stores, which leads
to better engagement and use

þ Less data transfer and can potentially work offline

þ Potentially single code base, rather than separate Web vs iOS/Android native apps

þ Magento2 support available
The disadvantages are that they rely on techniques like ‘Web App Manifest’ and ‘Service Workers’,
which Apple don’t support yet in Webkit/iOS/Safari, although this is expected to change. There
are also other standards like React Native used by Facebook and AirBnB.
It’s worth considering the potential linkage between PWAs and AMP. AMP Pages can use many
PWA features on their own, as long as they’re served from your site’s domain, as opposed to an
AMP cache. This means that PWA features won’t kick in when consuming an AMP Page within a
platform like Google or Bing, but they will on the onward journey, or if users navigate to your AMP
pages directly. This developer article explores the options for these to work together.
Takeaways
We've already mentioned the increasing importance of focusing on mobile before desktop. PWAs
are fantastic, but also a big investment and still largely reserved for huge retailers and news
outlets.
Serving an AMP version of your site, however, is achievable by nearly anyone. If your site is built on
a CMS like Wordpress, implementing AMP is as simple as adding and configuring a plugin. Once
you've done this, it is wirth phyisically reviewing how your site looks and performs as if you were
a user, as sometimes styling can go awry and need a little tweaking.
Many retailers' sites will not be new, and their architecture will have been built upon and adapted
overtimeand,historically,withdesktoplargelyinmind.Thisdoesmakemobilefirstdesignhardto
implement as it often involves a full teardown of the site which can be costly and time consuming.
There are tweaks you can make, however, that can have a big impact on usability for mobile users
(and also positively benefit your desktop traffic). Making the clickable areas of buttons, or the
buttons themselves, larger can help mobile users accurately click, as can spacing buttons more
efficiently. Another tip is to make sure images are appropriately optimized for web use as this can
save you precious milliseconds of load time. Better yet, serving device specific versions of imagery
can ensure each type of user sees the most appropriate - and efficient- imagery on your site. As a
slight caveat and, as with many things in digital marketing, you still have to trust your analytics,
too. If you're simply not seeing as many mobile visitors as desktop, you can be forgiven for placing
mobile optimization further down the queue if your Dev resources are low.
Recommendation
Our Learning Path Module on mobile and multiscreen usability is a good place to start when
it comes to improving your site's usability on mobile devices. Our modules on reviewing and
improving mobile rankings and implementing AMP will help you keep your site visible and quick
to load for mobile users.

39
'ON-DEMAND' E-COMMERCE FULFILMENT
Up until recently, customers often had to accept slow deliveries or simply go to a shop if they
wanted something quickly. However, e-commerce has done a great deal to catch up with demand
forfastdelivery.Todayandinthefuture,gettingitemsatspeed,inreal-time,willbemorepractical.
How on-demand commerce has evolved
A few years ago, the likes of JustEat made it possible to avoid phoning a takeaway to place an
order. They also made card payments possible for takeaway food shops. Local takeaways have
battled it out to get the best reviews, by cooking great food and delivering it as fast as possible.
Now, there is a whole new level of demand. Described as the latest and biggest investment trend,
on-demand is all about giving customers what they want, when they want it. Food, consumer
goods, and online content such as TV programs
and films, are all taking advantage of the desire
to have something on our own schedule and,
often, in an instant.
Amazon have made their mark in this area with
Amazon Go, Prime and Prime Now.
It’s not just Amazon that is driving on-demand
commerce – Uber allows anyone to locate the
nearest Uber taxi to come and pick them up.
Netflix continues to disrupt the traditional pay TV market (competing with Sky and Virgin Media,
as well as with its similar competitor Amazon Prime Video). They allow anyone to stream programs
ondemandontheirmobileorcomputer.Thenthere'stheriseof‘on-demand’TVchannelservices,
such as All4, Discovery+ and BBC iPlayer.
Multichannel retailer Argos have shared insight on the shift in consumer fulfilment preferences in
the Annual report of their parent company, Sainsbury. This shows that fast-track, their term for
same-day delivery or collection, is now more popular than traditional ‘internet home delivery’
taking more than one-day. This data also shows a sizeable shift in a mature e-commerce market
from 54% to 59% digital orders.
The rise of click and collect
Click and collect certainly seems to be what customers want. ASDA, Tesco, eBay, and Argos have
all built click and collect strategies, with Sainsbury’s teaming up with Argos to open 200 click and
collect points. ASDA have one of the most advanced click and collect offerings, as their grocery
click and collect service is available from many of their petrol stations, as well as stores.
WHAT IS ON-DEMAND COMMERCE?
On-demand commerce refers to placing
orders and receiving goods, services or
content at a time determined by the buyer.
This trend has also been described as the
‘On-demand’ or ‘access’ economy.
CONVERT

40
Waitrose has also rolled out click and collect points for John Lewis orders. Whilst customers may
appreciate the convenience of click and collect, it’s a quick and easy way pick up groceries on the
way home from work. It’s also usually free, so customers save on delivery fees, too. Doddle is a
fairly new player in the market that provides post box services for a number of online and High
Street retailers, which can be used to post and collect parcels.
Whilst some experts think that click and collect
has had its day, Sainsbury’s have launched a
same day delivery service and Holland and
Barrett have launched click and collect in all of
their stores. Amazon lockers in key locations
allow recipients to collect items in their own time,
rather than to have to wait at home or work for
deliveries – similar postal collection services are
popping up regularly across various store estates
and shopping centres.
Takeaways
Offering the ability to use a collection service like Collect+ or a locker delivery service can make
life easier for the customer - ultimately leading to increased conversions and possibly higher net
promoter scores.
Other fulfilment options
Asonlinesalescompetitioncontinuestogrow,
brands that provide more efficient fulfillment
options will perform better. The infographic
overleaf shows the modern consumer
behaviour and highlights the importance of
fulfilment options in a buyer’s journey. More
and more online retailers are starting to offer
speedy shipping and delivery services, with
enhanced and accurate tracking options.
According to Deloitte, over 70% of consumers cite convenience and free shipping as their top
reasons to shop online. PWC found that 41% of consumers were even willing to pay extra for
same-day delivery. Whilst these figures are both from 2018, it is indicative of the desire for speedy,
convenient delivery despite assoicated cost - and may even be good for brand-building. For
example, Amazon deliver goods over $37 on the day of order for Prime members.
Similarly, Walmart allows customers to pick up their orders, reducing the time taken through
delivery services.
WHAT IS CLICK AND COLLECT?
Customers can collect items from various
locations or lockers instead of receiving
them from a postman at their home or
office address. They can collect in their own
time. According to Retail Gazette click and
collect is expected to reach £10 billion by
2023, growing 45% over 5 years.

41
Customers naturally expect fast delivery and more delivery options, which can be important
within the purchase decision as this research from Metapack shows:

þ 83% of consumers want to see delivery options displayed on the product page

þ 66%have bought goods from one retailer over another because it provided more delivery
choices

þ 49% have paid more for better or more convenient delivery options
As you can see in the graphic above, gone are the days of having to shop online from the confines
of a desktop device. Diverse shopping habits mean your one platform must be flexible and
accessible - ultimately, you have to ensure you'll always be able to serve the customer in whatever
situation they find themselves in.
Recommendation
Cross-device functionality is the key to getting this right, and we cover this in depth in our
advanced Learning Path module on mobile and multiscreen usability. You'll discover how
to create an effective digital experience acrosss multiple screens and devices with a focus on
increasing usability and, in turn, conversions.
A great companion to the above is our module on breaking down visits from mobile and desktop
devices - which allows you to analyse the flow and experience of users as they interact with your
web presence.

42
EMAIL MARKETING AND AUTOMATION
Customer engagement through email is often an area where online retailers don’t utilize its full
potential. The key factors of supply chain management can efficiently be tackled through email
engagement. The factors are:
Data sharing:
Key data, such as availability of stock, customer data, delivery information or even dynamic
product information can be made available to customers through effective email engagement.
For instance, stock level data can
be imperative to drive sales for your
business. An article on Amazon’s
use of psychology shows how stock
level data introduces an element of
scarcity. The lack of availability of
a product can drive consumers to
make purchases more quickly, to
avoid missing out.
Etsy is another example of using
stock level data, as an overlay, on
its product pages and driving sales
through scarcity.
Interestingly, this stock level data can now be conveyed through live emails, displaying dynamic
stock level data, in real time.
Showcasing weather conditions for the user’s location
and advertised destination Virgin Holidays promoted
its Holidays Sale by creatively showcasing live weather
conditions for the user’s location and advertised
destinations using animated gifs. In the live email, the rain
drops run down the screen and the pool shimmered.
ENGAGE

43
Automation
Email engagement through marketing automation can help solidify your email marketing strategy
and gain measurable outputs by building customer loyalty and spread clear information to your
target audience.
Email remarketing and email prompts (such as abandoned cart prompts) can help to increase
revenues by bringing back abandoned customers. Email personalization is taking this to a
whole new level. In a recent report by Smart Insights in partnership with Movable Ink, we found
that promotional emails, welcome emails, and newsletters dominate lifecycle email campaign
strategies, but many EMEA marketers are failing to exploit the full range of email targeting options
to personalize their emails and it’s the same story with dynamic content too. Most marketers
are also using fairly basic metrics and lack of strategy is the biggest barrier to contextual
personalization.
We found that time of email open, location, device type and transactional information are the
data types most used to personalize emails.
This example from beauty subscription
box service Birchbox shows how welcome
email sequences are often more effective
than a single welcome email.

þ Customer-centricity: It goes without
saying that your customers’ aims,
preferences, tendencies and online
behaviour should be at the heart of
your online retail strategy. Building
preference centres using your
marketing automation system is a
key example of efficient supply chain
management.

44
Customer identity and access management (CIAM)
Forrester explains the benefits of customer identity and
access management (CIAM) which are available from CRM-
independent providers like Janrain, Gigya, LoginRadius,
Auth0, and CRM providers like Salesforce and Microsoft.

þ Streamline new customer acquisition and registration
processes through social login. Allowing customers to
use bring-your-own-identity (BYOI) from a recognized
social identity provider such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, or PayPal, and preregister on a
site is a large component of many CIAM implementations.

þ Manage user consent to meet compliance with global privacy requirements. Multinational
brands with millions of customers must address demands globally where different regions
and countries have different privacy requirements.

þ Provide user-centric capabilities for preference management. Updating communications
preferences or opting out in a preference centre.

þ Integrate with other systems and report on performance. CIAMs can integrate with CRM
systems, but do not replace their messaging functionality.
Note that the deep integration between social networks and CRM systems promised by Social
CRM have not been delivered in practice. This is due to a combination of privacy concerns, and
social networks wanting to retain control, requiring advertising expenditure for marketers to be
able to communicate to their subscribers.
As Inside CRM explain: ‘Dominant social platforms largely boxed out social CRM by changing APIs
and limiting access. Facebook shut its door and broke many CRM integrations, and LinkedIn
got choosy. The promise of social CRM as a way to automatically collect contact data and
communicate on social platforms from within the CRM died a quick death.’
Testing and experiments
A/B and multivariate testing using tools like Google Optimize and UnBounce, as well as site
recordingsfromserviceslikeHotjar,allhelpyoutodesignhighconvertinglandingpages,aswellas
understand customer journeys through the site. Remote user testing platforms like WhatUsersDo
and UserTesting can show you how users use your site, what they expect based on the homepage,
test forms and much more.
Ad retargeting and Lookalike audiences
Retargeting has been popular for a while, however recently there have been a few innovations,
such as 'CRM retargeting' and 'Lookalike audiences'. “Lookalike targeting” (Google Customer
Match plus Facebook/Instagram Custom and Lookalike Audiences).
Take a look at our digital media options cheatsheet where we list the latest innovations, many of
which are relevant for retailers. With our digital media cheatsheet, which is in a Google Sheet,
you can see the latest and most up to date promotional techniques across digital media, such as
social media platforms and Google Ads.
WHAT IS CUSTOMER IDENTITY
AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT?
A category of application for managing user
access and consent to online information
and services typically social login.

45
Access resource
CRM retargeting helps to build online audiences with only an email address or postal address and
it works in partnership with publisher networks who securely match anonymous email- or mailing
addresses. It allows marketers to retarget with minimal information, and find potential customers
within large publisher networks. It helps bring offline data online, allowing potential customers to
be retargeted via online ads.
Takeaways
Ad retargeting and lookalike audiences are surely some of the quickest and cheapest ways of
introducingautomationtoyourworkflow,andtheirimpactcanbesignificant.Aswe'vementioned
previously about personalization, any efforts to make your communications more relevant will
also make them more effective. And, as we've also mentioned, many companies that offer such
options will be investing heavily in making them actually work - it is in both your and their benefit
to do so! This means they're usually simple to use, as all the heavy lifting is done by the provider.
Depending on how your systems operate, this may not be this easiest feature to implement, but
adding scarcity factors such as stock levels to your product pages can increase sales and make
an imapct on perceived value and popularity of your products. Not only that, but this notion of
scarcity can provide great fodder for emails - whether in the subject line or body copy.
Recommendation
We offer a huge amount of expert advice through our Email Marketing and Automation Learning
Path that can help you improve your existing email marketing efforts and stay ahead of the curve
as the industry matures.
In light of the trend above, a good place to start would be our module on understanding
marketing automation opportunities.

46
CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND RETENTION
Hotels.com have an effective retention program, their rewards programme has various levels
including the prestigious Gold reward level which offers discounts and ‘secret prices’ as well as
flash sales, on top of the existing programme. The programme allows customers to collect one
free hotel night (average value is based on orders) when they purchase ten nights via hotels.
com. It is favoured over other hotel loyalty programmes, such as Starwood Preferred Guest, as
customers realize they will not stay often enough to get the benefits. The same is true for Avios,
as it takes significant spending to get discounted and free flights. But after every ten hotel stays a
hotel room is all yours with hotels.com.
Research by Bond has found that the average consumer belongs to 14.8 loyalty programmes but
is only actively using 6.7 of them. Just 15% of loyalty program members interact with them on a
daily basis (PDI), but 84% have made at least one redemption from the program, such as a coupon
code (Bond)
Customer retention is important. Encouraging customers to purchase again is far easier, quicker
and cheaper than attracting new customers. A focus on quality service always helps, IKEA keep
their customers up to date with their delivery, ensuring they give a customer experience to
remember.
Companies such as Uber Eats have also
developed an extensive discounting
and recommendation scheme that
sees their customers coming back
for more - boosting sales of food
(and thereby making money for Uber
Eats). Users are regularly emailed with
personalized deals relating to their
previous purchases, and are motivated
to recommend friends to sign up to use
Uber Eats, with discounting available for
succesful signups. Users can also stack
up reward points to receive money off or
special deals at their favourite eateries.
Takeaways
Introducing some form of loyalty or
discounting system is a great way of
stimulating sales and offering great
content for emails.
ENGAGE

47
The key is not to undersell your product too much or too often as it can hurt your bottom line and
could have an impact on brand perception.
As we mentioned, getting repeat customers is easier than new customers, and the easiest way
of doing this is through emails. Try to develop an offer and roll it out to an audience segment
comprised of first time buyers. Email subjects like John, here's a deal to say thanks can help
increase open rates and make the customer feel valued - all the while motivating a repeat sale.
Recommendation
Refresh your approach to increasing customer loyalty by completing our Learning Path module
on customer onboarding and growth. This module focuses on helping you learn how to improve
how you use digital communications to welcome new customers and encourage ongoing usage,
and purchase, of these services. Our module on customer service and success also offers crucial
insight into encouraging retention and customer satisfaction by making strategic improvements
to your quality of service.

48
Conclusion
Conclusion
From startups to small businesses and global corporations, e-commerce has proven to be a key
source of revenue and is expected only to grow and grow.
With the global pandemic having changed the face of retail commerce and lifestyles in general,
e-commerce clearly has had its chance to shine or as is the case with some retailers, to fail
miserably under the strain of such a unique situation.
IBM's US Retail Index report found that the pandemic has accelerated the shift away from physical
stores to e-commerce by about five years. As a result, it is perhaps no surprise that department
store giants such as the now collapsed UK-based Debenhams have struggled and failed to match
pre-pandemic sales figures.
We have already seen a decline in today's high street. In today’s fast-paced, competitive and
convenience-driven world, consumers no longer want to take a stroll along the high street and
physically go into a store to shop. Add in a global pandemic and you can see how e-commerce
is projected to have topped $3.9 trillion at the end 2020 - although this figure is yet to have been
made official. This same forecast predicts a 79% increase in this figure in 2024 - with retail-focused
e-commerce amounting to $7 trillion in annual sales activity.
What remains to be seen is if these behaviours remain as and when things return to 'normal'.
Cultural shifts often come - and stay - due to huge global events and the already clear predilection
for shopping on the go, from the comfort of home, during a commute or literally anywhere, may
well be one of these shifts.
Retailers that have historically had low interest in moving online or investing further in their
offering will have seen and felt the impetus to do so. Many of the takeaways in this report will
be achievable by any company and with minimal budget but can bring a real impact to how you
perform as on online retailer and how you define your strategy for the future.
Artificial Intelligence, innovative marketing technology, personalization and experience
optimization, relevant targeting, adoption of good user experience as well as the other trends
mentioned above, can not only help you reach a larger audience but also generate new revenues,
leads, and conversions in the coming year.
If there ever was a time to get e-commerce right, it surely is now.

retail-marketing-ecommerce-trends-smart-insights-2021.pdf

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