Whitepaper Streams Retail Webtrends

8/12/2019 Whitepaper Streams Retail Webtrends

1/13

ENGAGING ONLINE SHOPPERS WITH

CUSTOM, INTHEMOMENT EXPERIENCES

by Rick Weithas | Senior Solutions Marketing ManagerDIGITAL

MEASUREMENTWHITE P

FEB 2013 2013 WEBTRENDS, INC. WWW.WEBTRENDS.COM.


2/13

Rick Weithas, Senior Solutions Marketing Manager

As Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, Rick drives the development of new

and emerging Webtrends product and software solutions. He is a key part of the

Solutions Marketing team that delivers customer value and leads critical Early

Adopter customer programs as well as the Customer Advisory Board for Webtrends.

ENGAGING ONLINE SHOPPERS WITH

CUSTOM, INTHEMOMENT EXPERIENCES

As-it-happens digital intelligence helps retailers gain an edge

with customers, bringing personalized offers and relevant

products to their attention while on site.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TREND

As online shopping soarsprojected to be half of all sales in the U.S. by

2016competition among retailers is at an all time high. Customers now

have an infinite number of shopping choices at their fingertips. Mobile

devices have also altered the retail landscape, with more and more

people using their smartphones and tablets to search for products andmake purchases.

PROBLEM

While shopping is now faster and more convenient, and has given consumers

unlimited purchasing options, it has failed to capture the most important

aspect of the shopping journeythe one-on-one personalized experience

made invaluable by brick-and-mortar stores. Relevancy is just as important

to the digital landscape, but the technology to support a moment-of-truth

interaction with shoppers while they are on a retail site has been elusive.

SOLUTION

Newly developed, in-the-moment digital intelligencethe power to respond

while a visitor is on your site and then impact the result before they

leaveis giving retailers the ability to create a more personalized shopping

experience for each customer. By combining rich historical data with as-it-

happens insights, online retailers will gain greater conversions, revenue and

customer loyalty.

AUTHOR BIO

WEBTRENDS STREAMS WHITE PAPER. 2013 Webtrends, Inc. 2


3/13

THE RAPIDLY GROWING PREFERENCE

FOR ONLINE SHOPPING

You didnt need to be an expert in the retail industr y to notice

that 2012 was a year of unprecedented growth for e-commerce.

If you happened to miss the headlines, take a look at the most

recent statistics:

Online retail is booming, with a year-over-year growth rate

of 28%.

By 2016, it is estimated that the Web will influence more

than half of the dollars spent in U.S. retail.

Mobile channels are influencing retailers, with mobile

purchases reaching 5% of total online sales in the U.S.

Cyber Monday online sales climbed to $1.46 billion,

according to comScore. This is followed closely by Black

Friday online sale totals, which surpassed $1 billion for the

first time ever ($1.04 billion).1

During the third quarter of 2012, $4,423 was transacted per

second via PayPal.

During the third quarter of 2012, U.S. retail e-commerce grew

to $57 billionan increase of 17.3% from the same period a

year ago, according to the Census Bureau of the Department

of Commerce.

Yet, with all the marketplace momentum for online shopping, there

still are a lot of pitfalls facing e-commerce retailers. Competition

is fierce, and the course can be especially tough for those going

up against online retailing superpowers like Amazon and Walmart.

Retailers must also find ways to engage with shoppers that

support an enjoyable and personalized customer experience,

replicating the relationships built by brick-and-mortar retailers.

ONLINE SHOPPERS BY

THE NUMBERS

Online shoppers in the UnitedStates will spend $226 billion

in 2012, up from $202 billion

in 2011.*

Average spending by 2016 is

projected to be $1,738 per

online shopper, up 44% from

$1,207 in 2012.*

Analysts estimate that

e-commerce represents

roughly 12% of retail sales

overall, and that figure could

double in the next 10 years.*

Sources: * Forrester Research Inc. ** Aaron

Kessler, Raymond James Financial Advisors

+28%online retail

year-to-year

growth rate

ECOMMERCE REPRESENTS

12% OF RETAIL SALES



4/13

THE ERA OF THE OMNICHANNEL

EXPERIENCE

For online retailers looking to break through in 2013, the mantra that

many are trumpeting is customer experience. How users interact with

brandsin various channels and on various deviceswill need to be

seamless, connected and near perfect in order to be a player in thisnow highly competitive landscape. Industry experts call this the

omni-channel experiencethat is, the abilit y to provide a uniform

experience for shoppers, regardless of the channel.2

SO HOW DO YOU CREATE THE OMNICHANNEL

EXPERIENCE?

According to Chris Raymond, a retail expert who writes for

Success.com, consumers expect to be empowered with tools

that make life easier.

They want relevant offers, time-saving apps, and a seamless and

effortless shopping experience, said Raymond. They want to browse

late at night while nestled in bed, shop for groceries in the train

station, and refil l prescriptions in 20 seconds or less.

THE TRANSITION FROM BRICK TO CLICK

As we become more digital and embrace online everything,

communicating effectively with customers and understanding their

needs isnt as easy as it once was when retailers were almost

exclusively brick-and-mortar. Back then, business owners engaged withtheir customers directlyunderstood their tastes, how they shopped

and what they needed. However, these one-on-one relationships began

to disappear as chain stores grew to dominate the retail landscape.

Yet that the one-on-one relationship with customers enabled store

proprietors, sales people, customer service agents and businesses

to understand shoppers needs through face-to- face communication.

This interaction made it possible to provide personalized, immediate

solutions. It remains a cornerstone of customer satisfaction and loyalty.

GLOBALIZATION VS. PERSONALIZATION

Online digital commerce changed the customer and company

relationship. E-commerce enabled retailers to reach customers across

the globe, expanding their reach and revenue potential while providing

a greater breadth of choice and lower prices. However, the valuable

one-on-one retail relationship suffered a setback in this mass-market

growth period.

The omni-channel

experience is the ability

to provide a uniformexperience for shoppers,

regardless of the

channel.



5/13

STRIKING A BALANCE WITH DIGITAL

PERSONALIZATION

Fortunately, the digital online retail marketer has never had better

access to customer information and insight, enabling them to

make more compelling offers. They are closer than ever to being

able to deliver that one-to-one shopping experience that results ingreater customer satisfaction and loyalty through responsive and

relevant offers. There is really no excuse for a generic, mass-market

approach any longer.

One example of a retailer that found a way to successfully strike

the balance between global reach and personalization is Amazon

the 15th biggest retailer in America by revenue and by far the

largest Internet retailer. According to Greg Girard, an analyst for IDC

Retail Insights, Amazons greatest strength is that its customer

relationships are inherently one-to-one, more akin to what banks and

telecommunication companies have with their customers.

BEEFING UP INVESTMENTS

A number of other high profile retailers are also picking up on

the personalization trend. Macys and Nordstrom are investing

hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years to beef up

their e -commerce operations and integrate their in-store and online

inventoriesfor quicker ship times and free in-store pick-up options.

And these effor ts are already paying dividends: In 2011, Macys

online sales jumped 40 percent.

3

The key to success is to ensure that once customers arrive on your

online store, they dont leave. The customer has already made

the commitment to shop on your site and check out what you

have, which is one of the most costly and difficult parts of digital

marketing. However, more often than not, the reason they leave is

due to the retailer not providing relevant offers and products.

Unfortunately, most companies waste this customer opportunity

by delivering a generic message, offer or products that have no

relevance. This generally results in the customer leaving your site

and you lose that sale entirely. This drives up acquisition costs and

stunts revenue growth.

However, recent advances in digital intelligence can help online

retailers to create a relevant customer experience while the

customer is shopping your site.

Remembering your recent

shopping selections,

making purchasesuggestions and

bundling items are just

a few examples of the

ways in which Amazon

personalizes customers

shopping experiences

DIGITAL SHOPPING APPS

Online shoppers now have easier

methods for price shopping.

Sites such as P riceGrabber and

Bizrate make online comparison

shopp ing a quick exerci se.

There are also a number of apps,

including Amazons Price Check,that does comparison shopping,

and alerts you if a better deal on

the same purchase can be found

elsewhere online.



6/13

FROM MARKETING INSIGHT TO ACTION

In the Webtrends white paper,Staying Relevant Through In-the-

Moment Digital Intelligence,4key concepts illustrate how marketers

can view customer behavior to enable more effective insight

and action.

Marketers need to look at customer behavior from dif ferent

perspectives and understand behavior both in the past as well as

in the present to drive positive results in the future. Understanding

the historical, recent and as- it-happens customer data helps the

marketer to create relevant and truly compelling offers that drive

conversion in the moment. In other words, dont give customers a

reason to leave the site.

THE FOUR RS OF DATA RELEVANCE

Understanding the differences between historical, recent and as-

it-happens customer data is critical in order for retailers to moveforward from gathering insights to taking meaningful action on

those insights.

The Four Rs become important to the online retailer as they adopt

digital intelligence to drive results.

1. DATA RECENCY

How current is the data from the time of the event and how

important is it to know what is happening immediately?

2. DATA RETENTION

How far back does the data set go and how critical is it to know

what the history of the data provides?

3. DATA RICHNESS

How much information about the visitor profile is available and

how does this help the decision-making process?

4. DATA REALIZATION

How will the data be used or consumed? Will it be used to

develop reports, dashboard or drive marketing programs?

Will it be consumed through APIs, or extracted for used in a

data warehouse?

RECENCY

RETENTION

RICHNESS

REALIZATION



7/13

THE VIRTUAL RETAIL SALESPERSON

COMES TO LIFE

Online retailers rely heavily on historical customer information and

its deep and rich data set, built up over a long period of time, to

power their marketing programs. Information about order history,

location, buying preferences, demographics and geographicallocation are all contained in a database that can be leveraged to

create a more tailored customer experience each time the customer

enters the site. This data provides valuable insight that allows semi-

customization of sites at an individual level.

For example, one online travel retailer had accumulated data on

the purchasing habits of customers, and its analysis indicated that

Apple device users had greater preference for more expensive hotel

rooms. When serving hotel room offers, this retailer displayed the

options it believed its Apple device customers wanted to see first,

saving them time and frustration.

This level of segmentation and targeting, even at a relatively basic

level, can have a positive impact on customer experience. Never

underestimate the power of saving someones time or improving the

shopping experience by catering to a customers preferences.

REMEMBERING YOUR LAST VISIT TO THE STORE

Another good example of how improved targeting can help the

shopping experience is to think about the last time you were

shopping online. With historical data, your favorite online retailerknows that the last time you were on the site you placed a jacket in

the shopping car t but didnt buy it. On your next site visit, they can

market that same coat plus similar coats.

Additionally, if they knew that you were a valuable customer (a

frequent shopper), they could of fer an incentive to get you to

purchase, such as free shipping or a coupon. This improves the

customer shopping experience by eliminating time-consuming steps

in the purchasing process and creating customer loyalty.

Historical data is a major advantage of online shopping compared totraditional brick-and-mor tar shopping. The online retailer has deep

insight into the buyer and their behavior that allows them to market

to them to more effectively. Only in rare situations now does a big

box sales clerk have any historical background on a customer

shopping in the store.

Segmentation and targeting,

even at a basic level, can

have a positive impact oncustomer experience.



8/13

POWER OF CUSTOMER OBSERVATION

One of the key advantages of a traditional retail store, however, is

that a store clerk can observe the actions of a customer as they

shop, and then intervene at the right time to answer key questions

and help the customer find what they need to facilitate a sale.

This is the key missing link of online retail.

Actionable information has been limited to historical information

and doesnt consider what the customer is doing right now. An

online retailer has not had access to the same type of meaningful

information during the time the customer is shopping on the digital

store. They may be shopping for something entirely different than

the last t ime they were onsite, such as shoes, but are sti ll presented

with images and offers of coats they looked at during the previous

shopping experience. This leads to customer frustration, wasted

time and a missed opportunity by the retailer to more quickly get the

customer what they want.

ONLINE SHOPPING

REVOLUTIONIZED

New and emerging as-it-happens technology is changing the

customer experience game for online retailers. It helps them to

not only market to customers based on historical information, but

also based on customers actions while on the site. With as-it-

happens capabilities, online retailers can create an experience that

approaches that of a salesperson working with you to make sureyour expectations are metwith the added benefit of a rich data

history of that individual.

As-it-happens technology gives marketers the ability to develop

systems that identify and segment customers as they come on the

site, and then analyze their behavior while they shop. Action systems

can be created ahead of time to serve offers and specific messages

to customers, based on certain shopping behaviors or interest in

specific items. Realizing the full value of this new technology, and

having intelligent systems respond to every action individually may

be in the future, but key expected actions can be predicted now.

Being able to intervene

at the right time to help

a customer as they shophas been the missing link

in online retailing.

As-it-happens technologycreates a customer

experience much like that

of a salesperson working

to make sure shopping

expectations are met.



9/13

For example, a high value customer that has placed the same

product in the shopping cart more than once, and then leaves the

shopping cart each time, could immediately be served a special

coupon or offer to help close the sale. It could be based on the

types of offers the customer has been most l ikely to use in the

past. This makes the of fer both relevant and in the moment,

dramatically improving the likelihood of conversion. It simulates howa salesperson would work with a customer to find the right product

at the right price at the right time.

ONLINE SHOPPING GOES SOCIAL

For retailers in par ticular, who are masters of the conversion funnel,

the value of social media is a black box.

Brands are rightly frustrated with the difficulty of tying tangible value

to their social media efforts. All marketing efforts should lead back

to the bottom line, right? But tracing the long and looping path of the

social landscape back to revenue can seem impossible. The path iscomplex because there are so many disparate data variables.

In marketing, relevance is king. And in the social world, data about

prospects and customers is everywhere. By applying lessons from

analytics data, you can slice and serve content to user segments

that is more relevant and more successful than ever before.

INSTANT SHOPPING WITH FRIENDS

At one time, the key fashion pastime for young people was shopping

at the mall with friends, trying on the latest styles and getting your

friends best advice on f it, value and overall hip factor. Although this

is still prevalent today, it is not what it once was.

An emerging trend is taking its place, becoming the new best friend

in the shopping sense. Social sites such as Facebook and Pinterest

are driving fashion. You shop on your own and post an outfit you like.

Your friends can instantly see it and post feedback. The retailers

website link is in the post as well, so all your friends can shop for the

very same item.

One very hip fashion retailer indicated that almost half of their

Facebook social traffic comes directly from Pinterest, attributed tosocial sharing of fashion. By blending historical information about

the customers and their previous orders and trends with as- it-

happens information on where they are coming from and what they

are searching for gives retailers actionable insights. They can offer

special pricing, treat these social followers with unique messaging to

drive conversion, or create a fast follow-up social campaign, such as

a tweet or blog.

TYING SOCIAL TO THE BOTTOM L

59% of retailers say the return

on their social marketing

strategies are u nclear.

50% of retailers say the primar

ROI from social marketing is

listening and better understan

customers.

The State of Retailing Online 2011: Marke

Social and Mobile Forrester Research



10/13

SHORT SHELF LIFE OF SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS

Social campaigns only last hours and in the fashion world it can

be even shorter. Its likely that a customers friends have all seen

the latest Pinterest favorite within a matter of secondsor minutes

if they have to wait until class is over to check Facebook. Thats

why as-it-happens information, coupled with historical customer

data and insight, is vital to online retailers. It enables the shopping

experience to travel at the speed of social.

There is high value in engaging with customers and being able to

share news about new products and interests. Retailers are seeing

the increasing importance of blogs and customer feedback to drive

online purchasing. The ability to track traffic from these social sites

and remarket based on interest and success of conversion is key to

accelerating social campaigns.

DIALING IN ON THE IMPACT OF MOBILE

Consumers can interact with brands more immediately and

intimately than ever before. Anywhere, anytime, through the touch of

a button, customers relationships with brands are swayed by digital

and mobile interactions. The experiences with brands on tablets and

smartphones, as with other online retail, all drive toward one of two

things: purchase or abandonment.

Imagine you are a typical shopper. Youre sprawled on a couch, TV

in the background, perusing Facebook on your smar tphone, and a

commercial comes on for a new kind of board game. You love board

games. On your smartphone, you initially go to the website of the

company promoting the game, but after a little clicking around, you

find a dif ferent retailer thats offering free, two-day shipping for

the game.

Even though youre eager to buy right then, that retailers shopping

cart button isnt clicking correctly, so you quickly go to another site

and complete the purchase there. The site you ultimately purchase

from has everything to do with your experience.

If a company is losing selling opportunities because of less than

satisfactory mobile experiences, its only going to get worseand

more costly.

If a company is losing selling

opportunities because of

less than satisfactory mobile

experiences, its only going to

get worseand more costly.



11/13

MOBILE PURCHASERS SOARING

Consider this: On Cyber Monday 2012, mobile devices accounted

for 18% of visits to retailer websites and 13% of sales. That was up

70% and 96%, respectively, compared with the same day in 2011.5

According to Forrester Research, more than 75 million mobile users

accessed the mobile Internet in 2011, and that number will grow to

nearly 117 million by 2015. More than 30% of smartphone owners

are using their devices for product research at some time during

the sales cycle, and 13% are using their smar tphones to purchase.

Consider how mobile is an enabler of social media, and the

consumer touch points driven by mobile grow exponentially.

THE HOLY GRAIL OF RETAIL:CUSTOMIZING OFFERSINTHEMOMENTAs digital marketers, we always talk about the Holy Grail in-session

conversion optimization. That is, the ability to af fect a customers

actions while theyre still on your site.

Historically, marketers have only been able to respond to visitor

behavior and events by optimizing and improving their next visit.

While real-time analytics enables more timely insights, it is not

always possible to impact the current visit. Additionally, it lacks

the depth of information about the visitor that allows the marketer

to take immediate meaningful action. This is important, because

there is a risk that the visitor may leave the site and not come back,

perhaps purchasing a particular item or reading a certain article on

other sites.

IMPACTING THE IMMEDIATE ONLINE EXPERIENCE

What if it were possible to respond while the visitor was on your

site and impact the result before they leave? Its the same as a

highly knowledgeable salesperson in a store who monitors what the

customer is browsing for, viewing or reading, and then intervening

to help that customer find exactly what they needleading to a

purchase during that visit. As-it-happens data intelligence enables

this type of intervention to drive customer conversion. It is truly

revolutionary compared to the after-the-fact reporting approaches of

historical and real-time analytics.

As-it-happens digital

intelligence has the power t

engage the customer at the

moment of truth, the very

instant when the shopper

discovers a need that takesan online experience from

expected to exceptional.



12/13

For both historical and real-time analytics, humans read data

reports and dashboards. However, in order to take immediate action

on in-the-moment analytics, the data has to be read by a marketing

application. Thats because being able to react instantly requires

pushing digital intelligence into content management systems,

dynamic ad-serving engines, and the marketing ecosystem as

a whole. Customers are moving quickly and if the system is not ableto push digital intelligence into the ecosystem eff iciently, valuable

opportunities will be missed.

Chris Raymond, the digital retailing expert, says technology can

break down the barriers between consumers and merchants, and

restore some of that rarefied one-on-one attention. It has the

power to engage the customer at the moment of truth, the very

instant when that shopper discovers a need that takes a shopping

experience from expected to exceptional. Thats exactly what

in-the-moment digital intelligence can do for online customers

and retailers.

THE WAYS IMMEDIATE ONLINE CUSTOMER

INTERVENTIONS CAN BE VALUABLE

An online retailer or online media outlet could enable content

curators to change the featured products and articles on the

fly, based on interest or preference. As-it-happens data would

provide immediate insight into the impacts that those changes

made. Pricing and position on new items can be changed with

immediate feedback to test elasticity, a key value for launchingnew products and content.

An online media company would be able to take advantage

of historical behaviors combined with in-session visitor

information about the content being viewed. This rich

information could be served into an ad network or to their own

advertising program to increase the likelihood of conversion,

resulting in higher advertising revenue.

A travel site would be able to leverage both historical and as-it-

happens information to provide offers and recommendations to

their visitors based on their past trip history and current search

profile. Providing relevant travel offers that are consistent with

past purchase history as visitors are searching or moving to the

next page dramatically increases the likelihood of conversion.



13/13

CALL OR EMAIL US WITH YOUR QUESTIONS

North America

1.888.932.8736

[email protected]

Europe, Middle East, Africa

+44 (0) 1784 415 700

[email protected]

Australia, Asia

+61 (0) 3 9935 2939

[email protected]

For offices worldwide, visit:

www.Webtrends.com

CONTACT

ABOUT WEBTRENDS INC.

Inspiration drives us.

Digital intelligence guides us.

Innovation remains our goal as we help

brands re-imagine digital marketing.

Webtrends dramatically improves digital

marketing results for many of the worlds

most admired and innovative companies. Our

solutions have set a gold standard for innovation,

performance and value since we helped

establish the web analytics industry in 1993.

Our diverse portfolio includes customer

intelligence and behavioral segmentation,

targeting + scoring, optimization + testing, mobile

and social apps creation and Facebook Page

management, professional consulting services,

real-time web analytics, unified digital analytics

across mobile, social and web and general digital

marketing wizardry.

2013 Webtrends, Inc.

THE POWER TO DRIVE ENGAGEMENT AND CONVERSION

Staying relevant with customers and delivering compelling offers and content

at the right time to drive conversion is the ultimate goal of all marketers.

The transition from brick to click to modern online retailing created endless

possibilities for marketers to reach customers across the globe. This transition

also empowered customers with easy access to price comparisons and product

offers, driving up competition for a share of the vir tual wallet. Successful

companies will be those that engage with customers throughout the shopping

experience, leveraging new, in-the-moment insights to drive engagement and

ultimately conversion.

References

1. Black Friday Billion: Kick-Off to Brick-and-Mort ar Shopping Season Surges Past $1 Billion in E-Commerce Spendingfor the First Time. comScore. November 25, 2012. http://bit.ly/10T0SGf

2. 13 E-Commerce Trends for 2013. Website Magazine. January 2, 2013. http://bit.ly/THInS1 http://www.

websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/01/02/13-e-commerce-trends-for-2013.aspx

3. Brick vs. Click. Success.com. http://www.succes s.com/art icles/1912--- brick-vs--click

4. From Insight to Action: Staying Relevant Through In-the-Moment Digital Intelligence. Webtrends, 2012. http://

webtrends.com/files/whitepaper/Whitepaper-StreamingMarketingRelevance-Webtrends.pdf

5. Cyber Monday 2012: The Results. PFS Web. November 30, 2012. http://www.pfsweb.com/bl og/cyber-monday-

2012-the-results/

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