Mike Austin, CEO of Fresh Relevance, explains why AI, automation, and direct-to-consumer strategies will be the trends that will outlast the pandemic.
2020 has been quite a year for the e-commerce world. The industry has adapted at a breakneck pace to the changes in the pandemic, from shifting consumer demands to new shopping behaviors and spending patterns.
In many ways, the pandemic has accelerated existing trends. Ecommerce and marketing professionals need to respond by updating systems, adopting new technologies, and adapting to new ways of measuring results. In many cases, projects that would normally have taken years have been completed in weeks.
This rapid pace of change is expected to continue through 2021. Although it is still uncertain how long we will be affected by COVID-19, it is clear that we have entered a new era for digital marketing and e-commerce. Here are three trends from 2020 that we at Fresh Relevance are expected to accelerate this year.
2021 will be the year of D2C
Due to Covid restrictions forcing more people to turn to e-commerce, online retail rose from 22% in March to 36% in November 2020. That surge could just be the beginning. Online retailers have invested heavily in the battle for market share against Amazon and eBay, which has resulted in greater innovation in online retail.
As part of this development, brands like Lindt introduced direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies in 2020 that allow them to completely switch off the retailer and introduce their own e-commerce offering to give themselves a higher margin and a more direct and more detailed understanding of their strategies to provide customers.
D2C opens up a host of new opportunities, including subscription models and the ability to market directly to consumers through low-cost channels such as email, mobile apps and social media platforms. This also gives brands a more detailed understanding of their customers, which allows them to get a better customer experience.
Automation enables marketers to deliver campaigns with better conversion
As a result of the economic decline triggered by the pandemic, many e-commerce companies have had to downsize their teams, forcing marketers to respond to the reduced workforce with increasing automation. By pulling customer data into segments in real time and triggering campaign resources based on customer actions and interactions, companies can engage customers with targeted content across the purchase funnel and customer lifecycle.
For example, a uniform campaign to abandon the shopping cart is a reliable sales driver. However, just imagine how much more effective a shopping cart get-off campaign can be when different emails are sent based on the customer segment. Expiring customers, VIPs, and recently re-engaged customers can receive different messages or a series of messages, whichever is most likely to resonate, with no manual labor beyond the initial campaign setup.
Striving for the perfect customer experience increases AI adoption
While automation makes e-commerce marketing more effective, using AI is helping companies get smarter. Many e-commerce and marketing teams have added AI-based solutions to their tech stack to respond to increasing competition and smaller budgets in 2020.
Best Practice Guide for AI, Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics
Decision engines use machine learning and predictive algorithms to understand patterns in large amounts of data and take the guesswork out of campaign planning and execution. AI-driven segmentation, content selection, channel execution and campaign optimization are at the heart of a customer experience that inspires the buyer and at the same time contributes to the achievement of the e-commerce goals.
Refinement of e-commerce strategies continues
It is an exciting time for e-commerce in truly unprecedented circumstances. The introduction of vaccines is good news for everyone. But it’s hard to say when we can return to a new normal and what that new normal will look like. However, it is clear that the adoption of e-commerce has been catapulted forward and will continue to grow in importance. For marketers, this means they need to further refine the strategies and tactics that have been used in response to the pandemic, and the e-commerce experiences are becoming increasingly sophisticated and creative.
Summary of Statistics: The Impact of Covid-19 on E-Commerce