Christmas Breakfast to celebrate the launch of the Voyado Elevate integration to GrebCommerce™

From transaction to relation

F: It is definitely not an easy job to make e-commerce thrive and grow, but before the pandemic, there was some kind of blueprint on how to optimise your channels to make things happen. This is not the case today. Today’s customers require something else. Something beyond ads and promotion codes. It all boils down to some key questions that e-commerce brands must be able to answer: What are we selling? Why do we exist, and why should the customers choose us over another brand selling a similar product? Without a clear answer to these questions, the value you bring may go unnoticed by customers.

A: Up until now, e-commerce managers have in somewhat been “spared” when talking about sales. It was just a transaction channel, not a brand building channel. However, since customer relations are much more advanced today, with more touchpoints than transactions, we can’t track and measure sales in the same way as we’ve done before. It requires a more holistic way of thinking with an understanding of all touchpoints that will lead to conversion and customer loyalty.

You need to activate the brand to get the customers to engage with the brand, with or without a transaction. Be a brand that engages people. It could be activation campaigns, like Pen Store which created a contest with thousands of applicants, or like Djerf Avenue and Polarn O. Pyret that drive brand engagement when they facilitate the second hand and re-commerce behaviour on their sites and in their flagship stores.

F: The question is, “How can I get my customers to engage with my brand, not only buy?”. This will, eventually, give you more data which means that you can serve them better and sell more to them in the next phase. The transaction will happen, you just need to be more holistic in your approach instead of giving them small rewards and discounts, give them something to care about.

Those that can engage the customers, and make them keep coming back to your site, will succeed. There are examples of sites that have an average time spent on site over 28min per day. One thing is for sure - if you get your customers to spend half an hour on your site daily, they will eventually buy something!

From a cookie-based world to a 1st party data world

A: I think in 2024, we will feel that the cookie-based e-commerce world will start to come apart. There are too many problems with cookies today, from Apple and Safari, compliance with EU and regulations, analytics and a lot more. We need to be realistic and start to focus on our 1st party data much more, and I think that’s a key trend for 2024.

Too many modules of many e-commerce sites, their digital marketing channels and analysis are today run on cookies data. That will be less and less efficient. Trust me, I love cookies this is not necessarily a good thing for the long run, but we need to be realistic.

F: 1st party data is the new gold. I am biased, but I think it makes sense that we start to realise we have more relevant data to act upon about our customers than some random click data from the internet with attribution problems.

It’s okey to not know how to use it sophisticated yet. Just continue to collect it. Find smart patterns, activities and ways to collect more data. Bring value to your customers by having it, and eventually, you can start to get a lot of opportunities from it.

A: It has never been easier to use 1st party data either. First great CDP and CRM/Personlisation tools like Voyado make it easier than ever before to use 1st party data personalisation to your site and communication channels, not just black box cookie personalisation. But it’s also valuable to use it for great analysis, there are a lot of tools that help you run analytics based on 1st party data today. Tools that help you analyse your LTV and margins, rather than only your conversion rate.

AI and the 2024 playbook for e-commerce

F: AI will increase productivity in your e-commerce department. Make sure to use it, but be mindful. Personally, I think it’s a lot of opportunities for plain productivity enhancements. Just because it’s called AI doesn’t mean it needs to be solving advanced problems. Use it to get more done, more precise and to do things cheaper. Take your Excel export with your sales and product data, and ask GPT how much or less I should buy for next week. The AI chatbots and generative AI will probably be a tool to get 1% more in profit rather than 100% more in growth short-term in an e-commerce context.

A: I totally agree, and in general I think we should be more focused on what AI can predict rather than what it can analyse historically. The most significant difference between a human and an AI is that can make much more accurate predictions based on real data. Maybe board material or budgets will be based on real predictions in 2024, not just assumptions? In terms of assumptions, there is a high probability that most of the SaaS tools we already are paying for will get AI capabilities in 2024. So you don’t need to reinvent something to get your productivity tools, it will hopefully be facilitated by the partners you already trust.