Each week, we publish a mishmash of ecommerce related, insight infused articles for you to smash through. Just as we collect business information across all of a merchant’s channels in a single place, we’re doing the same for ecommerce related content from a variety of top-tier content creators. If you find the material filling your appetite for knowledge, feel free to share this post, as well as any article you see here.
Who doesn’t like beautiful, easy-to-understand charts that illustrate some insightful ecommerce-related studies? We’re once again relying on Marketing Charts for some slick, online marketing graphics this week. As for the topics in store, we’ll touch on consumers’ most preferred activities online, loyal-brand buying habits, the importance of brand authenticity, and ways you can make your own content-rich graphics.
Chatting
How do consumers spend their time on the worldwide web? There’s a lot more to do these days compared to its wee beginnings, but one of the first uses of the web — communication — seems to reign supreme to this day. According to survey data by comScore, one in every five minutes that a consumer spends online is devoted to some sort of social media usage, with the vast majority of consumption (61%) done through smartphone apps. On the retail side of things, it’s interesting to see that mobile usage dominated desktop — 62% of all the time spent related to retail was done via mobile devices, with consumers most likely researching and reviewing products.
Buying
Consumers are loyal to their favorite brands’ products, but they’re definitely not opposed to getting a good deal on them. Global research by McKinsey shows that although many consumers across the world will stick with their favored brands, they will go to another store or sales channel to get a preferable, lower price. An alternate strategy for some of the respondents was to deal with higher or average prices; they forego looking for lower prices and instead buy less of an amount.
Measuring
Marketing to boost visibility and customer acquisition can seem like an enormous black hole that sucks up money at times. An easy way to prevent any waste and determine which channels may be the best for investing time and money? Measuring ROI. Econsultancy and Oracle Marketing Cloud surveyed hundreds of marketers to find out which digital channel — like email marketing, social media, or PPC — was easiest to measure for ROI. PPC and email marketing, two of the most widespread forms of outreach, were naturally the champs, while other ways, like content marketing and social media, ended up being the hardest to determine any sort of return.
Authenticity
Let’s be clear, consumers know you want to sell them something, and they can smell a fake brand and business from a long way away. According to a survey by Cohn & Wolfe, consumers are a bit more pessimistic about brands’ trustworthiness and authenticity these days, but they’re very quick to reward those that embody such ideals, going so far as to recommend, stay loyal, and purchase from them. The word of the day here is “authenticity,” but it can be interpreted in a variety of ways depending on the customer. Some define an authentic brand as one that’s real — they communicate honestly — others as respectful — the brand keeps customer information secure and has top-notch service — and some believe authenticity to be reliable — they deliver on promises, and are about quality.
DIY Infographics
There’s a reason we keep presenting insightful ecommerce info in a visual format. Graphics can be processed faster than words at times, and there’s a degree of expertness that comes from a more visual format. Curious about using infographics in your own content efforts? Here are several free resources out there that provide the infographic tools to put your own data into an attractive looking format for enjoyable viewing. That said, that d-word is key. Before you can have a stellar infographic, you need some interesting information to share.
Image: Flickr, Timothy Vollmer
