The Coming of Age of ECommerce During COVID19
Why eCommerce is witnessing a renaissance because of the pandemic and how you can leverage some key strategies to support your business.
It goes without saying that consumer behaviour has had to adapt pretty quickly to life in ‘lockdown’. Over the past 2 months and moving forward brands and companies will witness many customers looking to buy products online for the first time ever. It is key to ensure your business is set up properly to deliver.
Spending on eCommerce in Asia, particularly China during the crisis has increased 7 fold according to research done by The Drum in March. In fact it increased so much that ad revenue overtook 2019’s spend in the first quarter of 2020. According to Business Insider 74.6% of US internet users said they’d be likely to avoid shopping centres and malls if the coronavirus outbreak in the country worsens, and over half would avoid shops in general.
We are seeing 3 types of purchase behaviour across the ecosystem:
1: Survival — What Can I Buy To Protect My Family + My Business
According to data from Nielsen, items like hygienic and medical mask sales are up by more than 300%.
2: Embracing Quarantine — Tools For Working At Home, Home Office Equipment + Entertainment
It’s not surprising the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Disney+ seeing huge gains in subscribers in the first quarter of 2020, the biggest winner I feel in this crisis has to be Zoom. The video conferencing service which has really great tips on how to use its various services to stay in touch with work colleagues and friends. I used it last night to have a virtual school reunion with 4 other girls. It was so much fun we will be doing it every 2 weeks until the crisis is over.
3. Self Improvement — Making The Most Out of A Crisis
Access to online classes for a variety of hobbies is becoming really popular. Yoga, fitness, music, business, leadership and coaching have all witnessed a huge surge in people requesting training or access to streamed classes where they can improve their skill levels.
So what are the five core strategies for you to be successful with your website during these the age of eCommerce?
Be Found — sounds obvious right but given consumers are in different shopping modes as outlined above, ensure through strong ratings and reviews, SEO, PPC and product discovery tactics your products can be found easily. What I’m seeing fashion brands do is focus down on loungewear or athleisure wear. Nike has done extremely well through its integrated ecosystem across mobile apps, social media and its eComm store as people focus on shopping mode number 3 above.
Page Upload Speed — believe it or not, page speed is a ranking factor in Google, there is a positive relationship between the speed of a page and the number of conversions. One such study by Amazon showed that an increase in load times of just one second reduced conversions by 7%. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but for Amazon at that time, 7% represented $1.6 Billion in sales! Optimisation of page load times is a genuine opportunity to improve baseline revenue.
Establish Consumer Trust Quickly — as I mentioned earlier it could be the first time your customers have ever bought your product online. You will need to reassure your customers that they will firstly get their products when they need them and secondly, and probably more importantly, get them without passing on the virus. The World Health Organization addresses the concern as well, by saying that it is safe to receive packages from locations with reported COVID-19 cases. From their website: “The likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low.
Contact Your High-Value Customers
Since roughly 20% of your customers contribute 80% of your revenue, consider prioritizing your high-value customers to ensure their lifetime loyalty. You can do this pretty quickly by adding online chat to your online store. Or work with apps like Endear who can act as a customer relationship management system and a messaging platform, all in one. You can then stay in touch with your customers, send personalized recommendations and lookbooks that include links to purchase online.
Offer Free Shipping, Local Pick Up/Delivery
Shipping cost is a barrier for online shoppers, so if you can, consider offering free shipping. Or offer an option where you local customers can purchase a product online and pick it up from your store (even if you’re not technically open). This is working really well for my local chippie EJ’s!
As always please feel free to share this with your friends, colleagues and leave your comments below!
