Tag: Digital commerce

In digital commerce, the challenge of budget allocation is ever-present. Should marketers channel more resources into attracting the right audience, or should they optimise their websites to convert visitors into customers? This is a question that demands careful consideration. Too often, businesses lean heavily towards one end of the spectrum—either pouring funds into ads for acquisition or investing in their website at the expense of a seamless customer journey. However, in today’s competitive landscape, where every brand vies for attention, the key to success lies in finding the right balance. It’s not just about drawing in customers but strategically engaging those most likely to convert into loyal brand advocates.

The Importance of Balanced Marketing Investment

Effective digital marketing isn’t just about bringing in an audience; it’s about converting this audience into loyal customers. Spending heavily on customer acquisition might drive high traffic, but if the website isn’t optimised, visitors are likely to leave without purchasing. On the other hand, a perfectly optimised website without sufficient traffic is like a beautifully designed store in a deserted area. Both aspects need attention to ensure you can maximise your ROI, and we all know that even the most well-crafted ads can fail to deliver results.

A balanced marketing investment ensures that every dollar spent on attracting an audience is supported by a website capable of delivering a positive user experience. This holistic approach leads to higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction, ultimately supporting business growth.

Understanding Audience Acquisition and Its Impact

Several factors influence the cost of acquiring an audience, such as keyword competition, audience targeting, and content relevance. For example, platforms like Google Ads use a quality score to determine the cost-per-click (CPC) of ads. This score is influenced by the relevance of the ad, the quality of the landing page, and the expected click-through rate.

To optimise customer acquisition and spend, marketers should focus on the following:

  • Keyword Optimisation: Using relevant and specific keywords to effectively reach the target audience.
  • Content Relevance: Crafting messages that closely match the intent and needs of the audience.
  • Quality Score Improvement: Enhancing the quality score by ensuring the landing page offers a good user experience and aligns with the content that attracted the audience. This also includes the website speed performance measurements used by Google PageSpeed.

By managing these factors, marketers can lower their CPC and get more value from their audience acquisition budget.

The Impact of Website Performance on Ad Costs

Website performance directly affects Google Ads Quality Score. A slow-loading website not only frustrates customers but also impacts your Quality Score, therefore increasing CPC. Improving your website’s speed can significantly enhance your ad performance and reduce costs per ad. Focus on optimising page load times, enhancing server response times, and mobile friendliness.

Key elements of website optimisation for a lower CPC include:

  • Speed: Slow-loading websites can frustrate users and increase bounce rates. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can help identify areas for improvement.
  • Mobile Responsiveness: With a significant portion of traffic coming from mobile devices, ensuring your website is mobile-friendly is critical.
  • Intuitive Navigation: A website should be easy to navigate, allowing users to find what they are looking for quickly and effortlessly. 

In addition to Google Ads, platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram are common ways to reach targeted audiences, each with its own cost structure. Facebook Ads, for example, often have a lower CPC compared to Google, while TikTok and Instagram require creative, visually driven content to engage users effectively. Regardless of the platform, it’s essential that your website aligns with the tone and expectations set by your ads. Consistency between the ad and the landing page ensures a seamless user experience, which is crucial for maximising conversions.

Creating a Seamless Journey from Audience to Conversion

Consistency between the content that attracts your audience, and the landing page experience is crucial for a seamless customer journey. When a user engages with your content, they develop certain expectations. If the landing page fails to meet these expectations, it can lead to higher bounce rates, lower conversion rates and wasted ad spend.

Best practices for ensuring alignment include:

  • Matching Ad Content to Your Landing Page: The landing page should deliver on the promises made in the content that attracted the audience. If content promotes a specific offer, the landing page should prominently feature this offer.
  • Consistent Messaging and Design: Maintain a consistent tone, style, and visual design between the content and the landing page to build trust and ensure a smooth transition.
  • Personalised Landing Pages: Use dynamic content to tailor the landing page to the visitor’s interests and behaviours, enhancing relevance and engagement.

Tools and Metrics to Measure Success

Effectively balancing your investment between acquisition and conversion requires careful analysis of key performance indicators. By consistently monitoring these metrics, you can make data-driven decisions that optimise both your marketing strategies and your website’s ability to convert customers. Focus on understanding user behaviour, identifying where drop off is happening, and assessing the overall effectiveness of your conversion efforts.

Key metrics to look out for include:

  • Bounce Rate: Indicates the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page, helping you identify potential irrelevant content or experience design issues.
  • Conversion Rate: Measures the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, usually a purchase, revealing how effectively your site turns traffic into sales.
  • Average Session Duration: Shows how long visitors spend on your site, reflecting their engagement and interest in your content.
  • Page Load Time: Provided by tools like Google PageSpeed, this metric measures how quickly your pages load, which directly impacts user experience and conversion rates.

Conclusion

Achieving the right balance between marketing investment and website performance is essential for Digital Commerce success. It’s not just about where you allocate your budget, but how well your ads and website collaborate to create a seamless customer journey. By strategically aligning your marketing spend with website optimisation, you can maximise ROI and drive higher conversions. Evaluate your current strategies, make the necessary adjustments, and ensure that every step of the digital experience—from ad click to purchase—guides your audience toward becoming loyal customers.

This thought leadership is written by Sebastian Klett, General Manager at Balance.

Today’s digital commerce landscape is evolving rapidly, presenting a challenging, complex and competitive landscape for business leaders to navigate. A combination of a deep understanding of market dynamics, upcoming trends, and strategic partnerships is key for businesses to truly thrive. By leveraging advanced technology, data-driven strategies, and comprehensive market intelligence solutions, businesses can equip themselves with the tools adequate for success.

The essential elements required to win in today’s complex digital commerce landscape 

Winning today’s digital commerce landscape depends on several essential elements. First, data-driven decision-making. The ability to consolidate and analyse data provides a significant edge to businesses. By leveraging market intelligence to understand marketplace and category movements, identify competitor best practices and boost overall operational efficiency. With this data-driven approach, business leaders can make more informed decisions that will optimise online store presence and enhance product visibility.

Next, operational excellence. Operational excellence includes ensuring product availability, enhancing visibility, and optimising conversion rates. Businesses need to maintain seamless fulfilment processes, dominate search results for high-volume keywords and ensure product pages are optimised for conversion. Investing in tools that can monitor stock levels, analyse Share of Search, and track content compliance, pricing, promotions and customer reviews are important. Many businesses have benefited from leveraging a digital shelf solution which automates the tracking of these essential metrics and provides alerts for timely actions when key changes are detected.

Additionally, a seamless omni-channel strategy is key to providing a unified customer experience across multiple touchpoints. Businesses need to identify ways to integrate their online and offline channels, enabling consumers to move seamlessly and effortlessly between them. Intelligence that connects data from these touchpoints can significantly enhance customer engagement and marketing strategies, enabling businesses to meet customers’ needs wherever they are in their journey.

Last but not least, understanding and adapting strategies to regional and local market nuances in the digital commerce market. Every market has its distinctive marketplace characteristics, category preferences and cultural nuances. Adjusting these approaches to fit these local elements while leveraging insights from more mature markets can help provide businesses with the competitive advantage needed to thrive.

The future of digital commerce data analytics

Digital commerce data analytics empowers all of the topics mentioned above while itself is being shaped by several emerging trends and technological advancements. One significant development is the shift towards actionable insights derived from comprehensive data analysis. Future digital commerce strategies will increasingly rely on analytics that not only identify trends but also provide clear, actionable recommendations. This approach ensures that businesses can swiftly and effectively respond to market changes.

AI-powered analysis is another critical trend shaping the future of digital commerce. The integration of AI and machine learning offers sophisticated tools for sentiment analysis, customer behaviour prediction, and personalised marketing. Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming how businesses understand and engage with customers, uncovering hidden patterns and opportunities within vast datasets. This technology allows businesses to deliver more personalised and relevant experiences.

Enhanced integration and automation will also play a significant role in the future of digital commerce. The focus will be on integrating data points collected from the front end with those available in the back end to provide a holistic view of the business. Automation will streamline operations, from inventory management to customer service, enabling businesses to respond more swiftly and accurately to market demands. This level of integration and automation will help businesses maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving market.

Furthermore, understanding and adapting to regional differences will continue to be crucial. As digital commerce expands globally, successful businesses will need to tailor their strategies to local market conditions and consumer behaviours. For instance, the Asia Pacific region, characterised by diverse markets with varying infrastructure and consumer behaviour, requires a nuanced approach. Leveraging insights from more mature markets like China can inform strategies in emerging markets, ensuring that businesses remain competitive and relevant.

The solution? Invest in the right strategic partnerships

Selecting the right analytics partner is essential for digital commerce success. A solid combination of expertise and experience are crucial. Businesses need to look for partners with a proven track record in digital commerce success, extensive experience across multiple marketplaces and categories and a comprehensive understanding of market dynamics. Collaborating with seasoned experts ensures a business’ digital commerce strategies are grounded in a solid understanding of the industry and its distinct challenges.

Next, businesses should ensure their partners are equipped with the advanced technology capabilities needed to support the business requirements. This entails robust data analytics tools, AI-driven insights, and seamless integration capabilities. Partners should be able to provide actionable intelligence and help businesses leverage it effectively to optimise operations and strategies. Advanced technological support ensures that businesses can adapt to the fast-changing digital commerce landscape with agility.

Local and regional expertise is another crucial consideration. Factoring the unique landscape, especially in Southeast Asia, it is essential to collaborate with partners who have a strong local presence and understanding of the regional nuances. This ensures that strategies are both effective and customised to the local market conditions and consumer preferences.A partner with deep regional insights can help businesses navigate the complexities of different markets and capitalise on local opportunities.

Finally, a commitment to innovation is essential. The digital commerce industry is constantly evolving, with new trends and technologies emerging regularly. Businesses should select partners who are committed to staying ahead of the curve and can help them adapt to these changes. The chosen partner should be proactive in incorporating new tools and techniques that can give businesses a competitive edge. A partner that prioritises innovation will ensure that the business strategies remain cutting-edge and effective in the long term.

What’s next for digital commerce leaders?

In a nutshell, today’s business leaders need a combination of the right knowledge and tools to thrive in the fast-paced digital commerce world. The winning recipe requires a data-driven approach, operational efficiency and the seamless integration of omni-channel strategies. Businesses will need to select the right partners with these capabilities – advanced and innovative technology and regional expertise to navigate the digital commerce world’s complexities and excel in a dynamic environment.

This thought leadership is written by Annie Yao, Head of Growth, Market Intelligence at Flywheel

MARKETECH APAC is leading the conversation on the future of e-commerce marketing strategies this 2024 and beyond with the E-Commerce Marketing in Malaysia 2024 conference on July 25, 2024 at Sheraton Petaling Jaya and the E-Commerce Marketing in the Philippines 2024 conference on August 14, 2024 at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria. Join us and become an integral part of a dynamic community committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation and fostering unparalleled growth in the e-commerce domain.

Singapore – Southeast Asian digital solution partner Intrepid has recently announced its integration with its 10 Ascential digital commerce sister brands and rebranding to form a single, global brand known as Flywheel.

This integration marks a significant brand transformation and underscores Flywheel’s commitment to evolving with the dynamic digital commerce landscape, promising sustainable growth in the world’s vast and complex digital marketplaces.

Through the integration, Flywheel incorporates the unique capabilities of 11 brands, which were all under the Ascential Digital Commerce umbrella, allowing for comprehensive services ranging from media and retail, managed and self-service to consulting and retail insights.

Furthermore, this combination of companies also amplifies Flywheel’s client list, with clients carrying over from previous brands, notably having over half of 2022’s top 100 publicly listed companies by revenue.

As an integrated brand, Flywheel offerings include AI-powered ad optimization to ensure maximum reach and conversion, advanced analytics and machine learning provide clarity on market trends, as well as automation and bespoke consulting to help brands navigate the intricate media landscape.

Jasper Knoben, chief executive officer of Flywheel SEA, said, “I am excited for this next chapter as we become Flywheel. This evolution will allow us to tap into our global network, expertise and technology much more effectively, allowing us to accelerate partnerships and bring more sophisticated technology and a wider range of services and capabilities to South East Asia, to deliver even better outcomes and offer more competitive advantages for our clients.”

Meanwhile, Duncan Painter, chief executive of Flywheel, commented, “The retail world is fiendishly complex and ever changing. But the goal of each brand remains the same – to use all the available data and the best technology to drive sales and scale profitably. Today we enter a new chapter. With our unique capabilities and expertise, close marketplace partnerships, and unrivalled data sets, the new Flywheel empowers brands to not just adapt but thrive in the rapidly evolving digital landscape.”

Singapore – CREA, the one-stop omnichannel solution for brands established by Lazada co-founders, has recently secured a US$25m investment from SuperOrdinary, the global distributor of leading beauty brands. SuperOrdinary will be taking a minority stake in the SEA-based commerce enabler, and within this, the two announced that it will be developing a new cross-border global platform network.

SuperOrdinary’s portfolio includes beauty brands Drunk Elephant, Malin + Goetz, The Ordinary, and Supergoop!, among others. The new global platform network will allow each company’s respective portfolio to expand into new markets. 

The partnership means consumers in Thailand and Southeast Asia will have an increased choice of global beauty brands to choose from when shopping. CREA said that brands will also benefit from easier regional market entry via a single solution. 

Aimone Ripa di Meana, CREA’s co-founder, said that Southeast Asia presents a unique opportunity for global brands with young digital-savvy consumers increasing their consumption power and avidly engaging with global trends through digital media. 

“Entering these markets with a digital-first approach is key and CREA is uniquely positioned to enable this opportunity with an omnichannel strategy,” di Meana said. 

CREA Co-Founder Alessandro Piscini added, “CREA has built a unique value proposition through our proprietary technology, CUSP, logistics infrastructure, and a world-class team that makes entering Southeast Asia simple for global brands.”

CUSP is CREA’s omnichannel technology platform which carries business insight, order management, purchase management, and catalogue management capabilities. 

Julian Reis, CEO and founder of SuperOrdinary, commented, “Digital commerce in Southeast Asia is experiencing an unprecedented boom and CREA’s team has played an integral role in allowing its portfolio of more than 70 prominent lifestyle brands to capitalize on this trend.”

CREA started in Thailand in 2019 with current presence expanding to Malaysia and Singapore. The company said it’s eyeing to open in Vietnam, Indonesia, and The Philippines in the near future. 

Singapore – E-commerce enabler SmartOSC and marketing tech Antsomi has announced a new partnership to offer an end-to-end omnichannel retail solution for both of their clients. As such, SmartOSC will become Antsomi’s global reseller as of 2021, mainly focusing on the growing APAC market. 

The end-to-end omnichannel retail solution is powered by Antsomi’s customer data platform, Antsomi CDP 365. The software unifies multiple data sources to create a 360-degree customer view and provide an omnichannel experience. 

SmartOSC is an e-commerce solution agency that specializes in scalable enterprise services. For the agency, the partnership is significant as it allows them to continue building data-driven e-commerce solutions and comprehensive digital transformation for their clients. 

Founder and CEO of SmartOSC, Thai Son Nguyen, said, “This new partnership with Antsomi will strengthen the offering of both companies and allow us to keep delivering cutting-edge omnichannel solutions to our clients.”

Meawhile, Serm Teck Choon, co-founder and CEO of Antsomi, commented, “We are thrilled to partner with SmartOSC, which is a reputable full-service e-commerce agency. We hope such partnership can empower our clients with omnichannel marketing solutions, particularly from data unification, data activation, and marketing automation standpoints.” 

Antsomi is a regional marketing technology company that launched CDP 365 in June 2020. Antsomi helps clients unify and activate their customer data via CDP 365 with custom solutions, when necessary, on top of clients’ existing martech stack. The new partnership allows Antsomi to access SmartOSC’s extensive client coverage, covering key markets in Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia as well as in Vietnam, and Thailand. 

For their first regional client, the partnership has recently won ASUS Singapore. SmartOSC and Antsomi will be working together to deliver a data-driven omnichannel retail solution to the tech brand.

In June, Antsomi has officially announced its entry to Indonesia with Ilona Juwita appointed as country director.