Weekly Recap of eCommerce News - W25

The internet is a great, yet overwhelming source of information. Every week, we read the articles published on eCommerce blogs, journals, and websites. We then curate and sum up what's hot and what’s not in eCommerce, and link to the information that matters to you. 

Here’s the lowdown on some of the hot topics in the industry last week:

• Advertising & Marketing Trends: consumer habits in 2021; Goodbye, Facebook Analytics; SEO vs. PPC; how to use competitors price history in your business strategy 
• Plugins & Products: autonomous robots for last-mile delivery
• Design & Customer Experience: omnichannel shopping; Google Page Experience
• Conversion Optimization: eCommerce quizzes
• Things to read or listen to: 3 ways to grow a brand with Anthony Mink;  Adobe Experience Maker Awards; Neil Patel on the future of digital marketing
• The eCommerce week in numbers: Prime Day Reports

Marketing and Advertising

Consumer behaviors are ever-changing and quite unpredictable. But they must be followed attentively by brands if they are to be successful. After last year’s hiatus, there are even more changes in sight and business owners are fretting about how to respond to them. Based on data from McKinsey and Lucid, Pamela Bump analyses the already seen and yet to be seen changes in consumer behaviors and gives business owners a few tips on how to prepare and react to them. You can find them all in this piece. 

Marketers and Facebook Analytics have had a good run. Facebook Analytics gave marketers more information than they could sometimes process, valuable insights into their customers, as well as endless possibilities to reach new audiences. All that will be gone on June 30th, and many don’t know how they will cope with the loss. If you are one of these people, this article explains everything you need to know about the changes and will hopefully, put your mind at ease.

Marketers have many options when it comes to promoting their brand online and therefore, constantly risk an option paralysis. To help businesses figure out what works for them, Corinne McGinley has written at length about the difference between SEO and PPC, their benefits and pitfalls. The conclusion is that SEO and PPC are not competing, but different products serving different needs. To make the decision easier, all businesses have to do is figure out what their goals are and which of the two can better help them reach those goals. Easy right? If it still sounds overwhelming, head over to this article for some clarity.

Business strategies, and in particular price strategies are not dictated only by the product or the business model, but by the entire milieu around them, and in particular by competitors. In this article, Betul Parlak makes the case for the importance of analyzing your competitors’ price history and how to approach the analysis to get the most out of it. 

Plugins & Products

Robots to the rescue. For those who watched sci-fi moves hoping they will live in that reality at some point, that time has come. You now actually run the risk of bumping into a robot on the street, on its way to deliver a package for the neighbors. Practical eCommerce has put together a list of ten companies currently working on and testing autonomous robots for last-mile delivery. All companies are now in beta stages, but Kiwibot, for example, has already made 150,000 deliveries.

Design & Customer Experience

Most businesses operate online nowadays, but there are still those who additionally offer real-life shopping experiences. As we come out of the pandemic, omnichannel sales are likely to increase, and with it navigating the complexities of online and online channels and offering outstanding customer experiences on both becomes a real challenge. In this article, Leigh Doyle provides businesses with five essential questions they should be asking themselves to be able to build a strong omnichanel sales strategy. 

Google Page Experience introduces a new set of “Core Web Vital” signals on top of its existing search ranking factors, such as mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS, and intrusive interstitial guidelines. This article sums up and explains the three new Core Web Vitals, and takes readers through the process of assessing a webpage. Finally, it explains in detail how testing and personalization can have an impact on these signals and how they, in turn, influence UX design. Definitely worth a read. 

Conversion Optimization

eCommerce quizzes are yet another way for marketers to get to know their customers better. Yet, using them to your advantage is not as straightforward as one might think. In this article, Gen Furukawa explains how the changes brought about by the pandemic have changed digital marketing for good and how quizzes fit into the future of eCommerce marketing. What’s more, he compiles a list of proven ways to use quizzes to your advantage.

Things to read and listen to

Last week, Ezra Firestone spoke to Anthony Mink, Co-Founder & CEO of Live Bearded about their journey to becoming an 8-figure eCommerce brand with one of the most passionate communities ever seen. In this podcast, you can learn why increasing your customer acquisition, customer frequency and average order value should be seen as steps towards achieving a bigger goal rather than goals in themselves.

Like every year, Adobe celebrates the creators of outstanding digital experiences with their Adobe Experience Maker Awards. Check out this year’s winners here to get your weekly dose of inspiration. 

Neil Patel posted a new video last week sharing his predictions on what the future of digital marketing will look like. He promises to be a surprise and we believe him. Tune in to see how both Google and Facebook Ads will continue to bring in profits despite the foreseen recession, and why going viral is now a thing of the past. 

The eCommerce week in numbers

Since its launch in 2015, when it celebrated the 20th anniversary of Amazon, Prime Day has become some sort of an annual event for the eCommerce industry, simply because Amazon’s performance remains a good indicator of the state of the eCommerce industry. Digital Commerce 360 estimates Amazon’s sales on Prime Day hit $11.19 billion globally over the two days spanning June 21 and June 22, up 7.6% from the 48-hour event in October 2020 when sales reached $10.39 billion. However, for the second year in a row, marketplace sales growth - estimated at 12% - overtook the sales of Amazon products - estimated at 5%. In this article, Digital Commerce 360 wrote about this year’s Prime Day putting the numbers in context.