At StrategiQ, we love getting out and about to hear from the best in our field. This time, it was the turn of StrategiQ CX Executive Emily Berriman, who headed down to London alongside StrategiQ Business Growth Manager, Jordan Bambridge, to attend day two of the UK’s biggest and best-loved event for retail, ecommerce and marketing technology: the eCommerce Expo.
The event was full of insightful, educational talks from some of the industry’s best, discussing a huge variety of topics from the power of personalisation and data to CX optimisation and consumer expectations. Here is Emily’s account of her day.
eCommerce Expo – highlights & takeaways
Speakers on day 2 included:
Jim Kelly
James Heery
Sara Davies
Kier Humphreys & Jan Barthelemy
Scott Abrahams
Matthew Walsh
Jim Kelly – Principal Consultant at Algonomy – The power of data and personalisation: customer-centred marketing
Overview: With traditional differentiation approaches such as product portfolio, pricing or offers not being as effective, personalisation emerges as the go-to strategy to win customer trust and long-term loyalty.
Key takeaways:
In 2022, 80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a company that offers personalised experiences, 60% of consumers expect brands to understand their individual needs and 71% of consumers are frustrated by impersonal shopping experiences.
Consumers now understand that omnichannel behaviour works in their favour. So the more we know about our consumers, the more the AI engine can do – knowledge is key! AI data is like memories and when these memories become despaired, customer experience is destroyed.
James Heery – SMB & CX Account Executive at Reputation – 5 tips to maximise CX in your SMB
Overview: James discussed 5 ways you can take actionable change at your SMB and create a CX programme that works for you and your customers. Whether it’s customer feedback, social media, reviews, Google or more.
Key takeaways:
- It is increasingly important to leverage, at as many touchpoints as possible, your positive reputation and evidence of it. Understand that a brand’s reputation is a function of:
- Brand promise
- What others say
- The customer experience
Sara Davies – Founder, Crafter’s Companion, Dragon on BBC’s Dragons’ Den: From fabulous TV shopping presenter to successful ecommerce business
Overview: A rapid fire dash through a myriad of innovative ideas from Sara Davies’ time in TV (before Dragon’s Den and Strictly) and lessons learned from running her own dynamic ecommerce business.
Key takeaways:
It’s all about community and your content needs to build a community and drive engagement and consumer behaviour. A question to ask yourself when creating a content strategy, how can you become a part of your consumers’ life?
Introducing the domino effect: train the behaviour of your customers in communities to fuel the behaviours of other customers to help spread brand advocacy.
To drive sales, you need to create a sense of urgency amongst your audience – tell them why they should buy now, from you, at this price.
Most importantly, Always stay true to your brand and core proposition and if you try to be something to everyone, you won’t be anything to anyone.
Kier Humphreys – Experience Director at Hallam & Jan Barthelemy VP at Leadoo Marketing Technologies – How the power of website personalisation impacts CX and revenue growth
Overview: GDPR, cookie-free future and privacy regulation make it tougher for marketers to target messaging and thus personalise the buyer’s journey. What are the different ways for marketers to create personalised experiences in this new era?
Key takeaways:
Digital native buyers are now the norm and 48% of these buyers spend more money when their experience with the brand is personalised. Personalisation is absolutely crucial for success – but there is such a thing as too much personalisation. Personalisation is supposed to nudge consumers to make a decision, not make their decision for them.
- Five top tips to consider when starting your website personalisation journey:
- Check your current baseline experience before you start personalising.
- Make sure you genuinely understand who your consumers are.
- Start small – personalisation is hard.
- Hyper-personalise the website experience with conversations.
- Offer your consumers multiple engagement opportunities throughout their digital journey.
Scott Abrahams – Executive Vice President, Channel Partnerships, Global Commercialization Office at MASTERCARD – Macro trends, consumer expectations and the evolving ecommerce ecosystem
Overview: Global eCommerce sales are expected to total $5.5 trillion worldwide in 2022, but there are signs that growth is beginning to slow as shoppers return to the high street. Building on the latest spending data, this session will explore the macro payments trends influencing the landscape, identify the themes influencing consumer expectations and look at ways to strengthen the digital commerce ecosystem.
Key takeaways:
Consumers are no longer just looking at products, but brands and how they approach:
- Purpose – what they stand for
- Glassbox – how transparent they are
- Loyalty – how they reward their loyal customers
So, what will always remain themes in consumer spending?
Control and choice – this includes aspects such as delivery, subscriptions, returns and payment options.
Security and safety – consumers need to trust that their information will be protected.
Convenience – an easy and quick journey helps nudge consumers to make a purchase or decision.
Matthew Walsh – Director of Data and Retail at IMRG – Top tips for optimising the checkout
Overview: A look at the best strategies for checkout page structure, and customer conversion, looking at what impact different payment methods have. We’ll also reveal techniques for optimising the buy button on your ecommerce site.
Key takeaways:
There are four essential elements for a checkout – customer details, delivery address, delivery option and payment option. IMRG’s research showed that the best performing checkout structure was two pages, with the payment option having a standalone page.
Credit or debit card options should always be offered to your consumers. Offer ONE buy now pay later option, for example, either Klarna or Paypal. With the world becoming evermore digital, e-wallets should now also be offered as a payment option for consumers.
To optimise the buy button, it is important that your call to action is simple and direct. IMRG’s research showed six popular phrases used for the buy button, but the top two that drove the most conversions were place order, and pay now.
- Don’t hesitate to add some additional features to your checkout to give consumers more control over their order. For example:
- Gift wrapping
- Delivery note
- Eco-friendly packaging
Closing thoughts…
It’s safe to say, by the end of the ecommerce Expo, my brain felt like it was ready to explode! As always with big conferences like this, there was so much to take away and think about. Thank you to the organisers of the event, Closerstill Media, the team behind the scenes and of course the sponsors that help make this great event possible year on year.
That’s all for now but we look forward to seeing you all again at the next eCommerce Expo! If you’d like to discuss how StrategiQ can help you grow your business, or if you fancy joining us on our next expedition as a member of the team, get in touch today.
