Re-Imagining Commerce Survey 2020 - Live From Etail West - Episode 128

INTERVIEW WITH ED KENNEDY

 

DESCRIPTION

We're coming to you live today from the eTail West Conference in beautiful Palm Springs. Our guest for today's show is Ed Kennedy, from Episerver, and he will be sharing some of his insights about current retail trends.

Ed Kennedy has spent the last 10 years designing and implementing e-commerce platforms for consumer brands, B2B manufacturers and wholesale distributors. As a Senior Director of Commerce at Episerver, Kennedy is responsible for successful adoption of the Episerver platform by customers.

Episerver is a software vendor that runs thousands of e-commerce websites, and powers the experiences for retailers and brands that sell online. Episerver has polled over 4,000 consumers across five key geographies: the US, UK, Australia, Germany and Sweden to research their buying trends and behaviors, in order to understand how online shopping is changing currently. The following trends highlight the direction e-commerce is headed in 2020.

Be sure to tune in today, to hear what Ed has to say about the latest trends in online retail.

“The Re-imagining Commerce Survey is a treasure-trove of data for any retailer or brand who’s trying to understand what they should be doing, or considering, about how consumers are changing their behavior.”
— Ed Kennedy

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Continued focus on shipping - 76% of consumers would be dissuaded from making a planned purchase if shipping costs were too expensive. Priorities for consumers include free standard shipping (#1 request, followed by the ability to track shipments and free returns).

  • About 53% of those who said they shop online every day rely on their smartphones. Of the most frequent shoppers (once per day), nearly half (48%) have significantly increased their reliance on their smartphones for shopping in the last year. Mobile optimization is the key, mobile-first ideally.

  • Over 80% of consumers in each of the five countries Episerver polled said they’re most likely to be on the couch when shopping online. 

  • Online shopping has become a passive activity for most of the world’s consumers, posing new challenges and unique opportunities for brands and retailers to turn casual browsers into motivated buyers. 

  • There’s a correlation between age and couch shopping: the older you get, the more likely you are to shop from the couch (versus other options like work, waiting rooms, taxis, airports, etc.). 

  • A quarter of respondents said they’ve returned to a retail website to make a purchase after being re-targeted with ads because the ads reminded them of what they wanted to buy.

  • Since the majority of online shopping is done from the couch, where people are frequently participating in other activities like watching TV, talking with relatives or scrolling through social media, many absentminded consumers simply need a nudge to jog their memory.

  • The behavioral differences between US, UK, Australia, Germany and Sweden markets noted in the report. Interesting findings on what might be opportunities in markets where Amazon doesn't have deep/any penetration.

  • In his report, Ed mentions that there are different stages of adoption with e-commerce.

  • In Australia, people tend to do less online shopping than in other countries. And 20% of Australians don't even shop online for holiday shopping. 

  • In the US, the starting journey for consumers is online. 

  • It's very common for multiple devices to be used for online shopping.

  • Episerver powers a lot of display ads through its software, and it personalizes them with recommendations based on the customer's previous journey.

  • Ed discusses some of the challenges associated with re-targeting.

  • People tend to browse more on social media to get detailed information about products. But they price-check on Amazon or Google.

  • Google is the front door to most retailers' websites.

  • Getting their baseline in place is important for online retailers. And there is always more money to be made from optimizing the checkout experience.

  • What progressive web apps allow you to do.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

  • Win a copy of Kiri's book, Amazon for CMOs! All you need to do is write a review of this podcast in iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to this podcast, take a screenshot of the review that you wrote, and email it to Kiri at kiri@bobsledmarketing.com or send it to her on LinkedIn.

Season 3Kiri MastersComment