New York, NY—March 20, 2024— Retailers have a key opportunity as they face soaring costs on ecommerce’s most critical acquisition channels, Meta and Google, which have driven up costs per visit by 12.4%–above average by 3%-according to Contentsquare’s new 2024 Retail Digital Experience Benchmark Report. The report highlights influential data and actionable insights retailers can take to meet their customers where they are. Although retailers are hit the hardest, they also have a massive opportunity when considering traffic and revenue trends, especially on mobile, which has become the leading source for ecommerce traffic globally (77%) and accounting for 56% of revenues. With investments in digital customer experience, data shows retailers can experience massive gains in customer retention, conversion, and loyalty.   

“Consumers are strongly voicing their preferences, but data shows brands still have room to meet their expectations. How does that translate to business impact? What brands are losing by not improving customer experience is material, and business leaders need to ask themselves how they can capitalize on understanding customer preferences in order to deliver value,” said Jean-Christophe Pitié, Chief Marketing and Partnerships Officer, Contentsquare. “The data demonstrates a missed opportunity for brands on mobile. It’s clear that they need to evolve the way they think about mobile and optimize the entire mobile journey, not simply the pages or formatting, so it’s imperative to create more seamless experiences.”

Key Data and Takeaways for Brands:

• Despite the growth in mobile traffic share, conversion rates fell 5.8% as shoppers tend to make shorter, micro-visits while using mobile devices, and spend 60% less time per session viewing fewer pages than on desktop.
• Easy-to-remedy frustrations, including slow page loads and poor visitor responses, reduced revenue by $0.56 per visit.
  • Retailers can combat frustration by combining audience insights with proactive monitoring to consistently deliver experiences that delight their customers.
• “Growth at all costs” is outdated.
  • Instead of focusing simply on driving traffic, retailers need to shift their focus to improving the overall customer experience in order to drive profitability.  
• Conversions are 77% higher on desktop than on mobile
• Retail traffic is increasingly dependent on paid, as opposed to organic, sources, with paid driving 42.6% of visits and nearly half (47.8%) of all new visits to ecommerce sites.
  • Instead of chasing higher traffic volume, retailers’ best acquisition strategy may be a retention strategy. Knowing what constitutes an engaging, satisfying experience which encourages customers to stay, convert, and return is key.
• Apps provide a unique opportunity for retailers and they provide a critical role in delivering the returning customer experience, attracting nearly 4X the share of returning visitors compared with mobile web, according to Contentsquare’s 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report.
  • Although apps are typically positioned as a means to foster strong relationships with existing customers, brands were able to expand the breadth of their audience using apps last year – new visitors accounted for 15% of all app visits, up from 10% the prior year.

Download the full report here. 

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Methodology

The Retail Digital Experience Benchmark is a set of aggregated and anonymized insights of digital performance. Strict aggregation measures are employed to ensure anonymity. These measures include requirements on analysis set size, diversity, and consistency, in order to present credible and reliable information that is insulated from concentration risk.

To qualify for inclusion in the year-over-year analysis, each site must have operated throughout the entire analysis period, in this case October 2022 through December 2023. Frustration analyses are calculated for October 2023. All year-over-year analyses are Q4 2023 / Q4 2022. All other analyses represent Q4 2023. Additional data hygiene factors are applied to ensure accurate metric calculation. Additional data hygiene factors are applied to ensure accurate metric calculation.

This edition of the Retail Digital Experience Benchmark analyzed more than 25 billion sessions and 130 billion page views across 1,673 websites. 

About Contentsquare

Contentsquare delivers the power to make the digital world more human. Its AI-powered platform provides rich and contextual insight into customer behaviors, feelings and intent — at every touchpoint in their journey — enabling businesses to build empathy and create lasting impact. The global leader in digital experience analytics, Contentsquare helps brands everywhere transform the way they do business, allowing them to take action at enterprise scale and build customer trust with security, privacy, and accessibility. More than 1,000 leading brands use Contentsquare to grow their business, deliver more customer happiness and move with greater agility in a constantly changing world. Its insights power the customer experience on over 1 million websites worldwide. For more information, visit www.contentsquare.com

Media Contact:

Erica Ashner

Erica.Ashner@Contentsquare.com

The post Retail Sees Shift to Mobile Driving More than Half of Revenue and Nearly 80% of Traffic, According to New Report appeared first on Contentsquare.

Customer experience is increasingly defining brands and becoming a factor that can soar a brand to new heights or sink its ship. It’s shaping the future of online engagement between brand and audience and becoming the battleground on which market leaders (and losers) will be determined. During COVID-19, brands invested in their online presence, and we’re only now beginning to fully understand if and how those efforts paid off. 

How CX is shaping the future of digital will be explored at Contentsquare’s 2021 CX Circle event. This event brings together heavy hitters from various industries to discuss trends shaping digital experience, and share expertise and best practices for how to create, deliver and leverage CX that’s meaningful to audiences and valuable to businesses. Whether it be to connect, to learn, or to buy, our digital lives have been reimagined, our behaviors changed, all due to the efforts brands have put into redefining CX as a part of their identity. 

As Contentsquare’s CMO, I find myself having daily conversations with brands about the changing landscape of digital marketing and how it’s become more challenging to anticipate and meet the changing needs of consumers. This industry is moving at lightning speed, and the need to focus on customers, combined with the pressure to deliver valuable experiences with a lens for privacy, presents a unique challenge. We have designed this event to provide marketers, product leaders, UX/UI experts, digital and analytics professionals and ecommerce pros with expertise, insights and connections that will both inspire and offer practical advice. 

CX Circle attendees will leave the event with the critical elements they need to stay competitive, push boundaries and win customers with their CX. We’ll learn from leaders at Nespresso, Microsoft, Sonos, Dell, Walmart, Contentsquare and others, about: 

• How digital investments are a brand differentiator 
• Best practices to leverage data for customer-centric innovation
• How to maximize app performance to drive conversion and ROI
• Building a digital marketing strategy that bridges the gap between digital and brick-and-mortar
• Important steps to take to deliver experiences that are accessible by all
• Testing your way to success

I’ll be hosting a fireside chat with Zoom’s CMO Janine Pelosi, which will touch on the importance of using experiences to delight customers. In an age where enterprises have gone digital for communication and collaboration, we’ll talk about what Zoom learned during a year of explosive growth, and how customer happiness is a driving force behind innovation.

Join us for this half-day virtual event that will challenge the way brands approach digital experiences and drive us to think beyond the norm, by bringing together some of the most influential minds in digital marketing. Register for CX Circle here. 

If you can’t make it, we understand. We will be sharing a lot of content post-event, so you and your colleagues don’t miss out. Just register and we’ll ensure you receive those as they become available. Who knows, you might win a Peloton, too!  

I look forward to seeing you there!  

-Niki

The post INVITATION: Defining CX’s role in the digital world of tomorrow appeared first on Contentsquare.

About Sheri and her team:

Sheri is responsible for the front-end team, including 4 developers and a UX lead. They’re responsible for website updates and POS, optimizing the conversion funnel, and online sales.

“There have been a lot of ups and downs this year with Covid, but online sales have peaked. This is something we want to continue to keep growing, even when stores are opening up again.”

We asked Sheri, what are your key priorities this year?

“With stores reopening, we want to continue to keep this momentum for online going. To do this, we need to understand user behaviors so we can optimize the journeys that work the best.

With eyewear, it’s a very high-touch product. You want to feel the product, try it on your face, know that the size fits well. There are lots of services you can start to implement like virtual try-on, home-try-on, style advice – but you really need to understand how these work, what the conversion rates are, and new ways to optimize those flows. That’s where Contentsquare comes in.

We know as a company that we need to take an omnichannel approach, as customers getting a prescription is one of the most important parts of the experience. Therefore a key journey we optimize is the eye test booking flow to drive new customers in-store to see an optician. Once they have their prescription we make sure it’s available within their account so making that next purchase online is much easier. Understanding how our customers navigate between channels, and the reasons why, is crucial.”

What challenges are you facing?

“We’ve been relying on Google Analytics, which is a great tool, but comes with its own challenges. Alongside the many hats I wear in my role, I’m also responsible for GA and setting up data layer events, which means knowing beforehand what I want to dig into, setting up those reports, being able to filter them down, and hoping that we’re gathering the right insights.”

Sheri paints us a picture.

“For example, we rebuilt our checkout last year. We have multiple checkouts – regular, home try-on, prescription, and non-prescription. But in GA, that data all gets captured in the regular checkout funnel. 

Segmenting all of those meant I had about 20 segments built in GA to get mobile vs desktop, country, purchase or try-on. This took me about 4 hours a week to pull the data, but it was something I really needed to be on top of, as if anything went wrong in the checkout it could be really detrimental to sales.”

“One of the biggest things we noticed when comparing Contentsquare to competitors, was that they all had the downfall of having to tag everything. With Contentsquare, it’s simple. It’s straight out of the box with one tag, minimal set up, and you’re up and running.”

Who’s going to be using the Contentsquare platform?

“I’m so excited to have data responsibility shared across more people in the team. Product and marketing will definitely be using the customer journey analysis to understand how our landing pages are working, how customers are going through our funnels, and how to optimize our campaigns. 

In GA there is a big learning curve to be able to really dig in and find what you need. With Contentsquare, there’s no getting hung up on where to start. It’s so much simpler and my team feels like they can really achieve something with the data. 

Not only that, the data in Contentsquare is so visual. Yes, other tools have dashboards, but they don’t offer a whole lot more than GA does. But with Contentsquare’s Zoning and Journey Analysis, anyone can grasp what they are showing. No digging, no guessing, just meaningful data.”

Saying goodbye to homepage (and other) debates…

“I’m sure every company everywhere has a similar discussion around their homepage: Should we have a carousel? What content should be there? Should we have more marketing images or conversion-driving content? Should we push people online or to the store?

Before Contentsquare’s Zone-based Heatmaps, we couldn’t definitively say what was working or not. GA can tell us who clicked on what. But what does that tell us? Maybe they were attracted to that image, but it doesn’t indicate the performance of that element. With Contentsquare we can now understand if that click led to conversion, revenue, and the goals that matter to our business. It’s a huge opportunity.”

A little word from us at Contentsquare:

“Ace & Tate has shown impressive growth as a company. I’ve seen the company start in Amsterdam in 2013, and being a customer myself (two pairs at the moment, looking for a third…), I immediately fell in love with the proposition and branding. The experiences I had in-store were always positive and so it’s crucial, now more than ever, that they are able to replicate this experience online. By being one of the early adopters in the Netherlands and taking the step to invest in digital experience analytics, it’s a huge sign to the market.”

• Tjeerd van der Putten, Director Netherlands, Contentsquare

About Contentsquare

We’re on a mission to give every digital team the ability to measure how their actions affect the user experience on their website, mobile sites, and apps. Not just the analysts. Not just some of the time. Not just some of the data.

Our platform tracks billions of digital interactions and turns these behaviors into intelligent recommendations everyone can use to improve digital experiences, grow revenue and fuel innovation. 

About Ace & Tate

Founded in 2013, Ace & Tate is an eyewear brand from Amsterdam, offering thoughtfully-designed frames at transparent prices, from €100 including prescription lenses, and €300 for varifocal. Ace & Tate celebrates bold views by collaborating with and supporting creative, forward-thinking individuals. Through responsible and conscious actions, the brand is on a mission to become an engine for positive change in the industry.

The post Ace & Tate Partner with Contentsquare appeared first on Contentsquare.

To give you some context into who I am, my name is Malvina Courouble-Or and I am a mother of twin boys, the wife of a Cambodian man, and the International eBusiness & Digital Experience Manager at Van Cleef & Arpels. Van Cleef & Arpels is a French high-end jewelry, watch, and perfume company and has been my home for the last 10 years. 

I feel lucky to work at Van Clef & Arpels because it’s a predominantly female-run company. Seventy percent of our employees and almost half of our executive committee members are women. It’s really inspiring to have so many women to look up to in top executive leadership positions and I feel the company does a good job of supporting female employees. I was even promoted while I was pregnant, which I know might not be the case if I worked at a different company. Even after giving birth to my twin boys, the company and my boss supported me and made certain that I felt comfortable returning to work. 

While today I’m very happy with my job, my work, and my life, I did not always have this level of comfort and balance. When I was younger, I held myself to an incredibly high standard and was always trying to do more to prove myself. While I have my ambition and drive to thank for getting me to where I am today, there are some lessons and learnings I have picked up along the way that I wish I would have learned earlier.  

1. Don’t Doubt Yourself 

Don’t hold yourself back, that only makes it harder for you to be successful. It’s easy to focus on your limitations and the qualities or skills you don’t have, but that type of thinking will get you nowhere. You need to shift your mindset and instead focus on how you want to progress and what you can do to reach your goals. According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2019 report, “Women are often hired and promoted based on past accomplishments while men may be hired and promoted based on future potential.”

As women, we need to be advocates for ourselves. We need to know and believe in the value that we bring to a company, to a team, and to a role. Acknowledging your strengths will help you seize opportunities that bring you closer to where you want to be. 

I wish someone had said this to me early on in my career because I was using so much energy and effort focusing on what I couldn’t do and not enough time focusing on what I could. Once I shifted my mindset, I was able to take control of my future.

2. Invest in Your Skills

Whether you’re just starting out in your career or are an established leader, you must continue to learn. It will make you a better employee, manager, and individual. For the last few years, I’ve tried to focus on what I can do to improve my existing skills and learn new ones, especially when it comes to managing my team better. 

Early on in my career, I felt bad for having ambition and for wanting more in my career. As I mentioned above, you should always push and advocate for yourself. And never, ever feel bad for having ambition. There’s a quote from Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook on her distaste for the word “bossy” that I really like. 

“This isn’t a word we should use. Let’s start encouraging girls to lead.” — Sheryl Sandberg

We shouldn’t tell a woman they are bossy, we should tell them they possess leadership skills. Now, I don’t feel bad about having ambition. I just want to be a better version of myself and that ends up benefiting everyone around me. 

3. Learn from Others

Everyone needs someone to talk to and turn to for feedback, career guidance, and advice — and this is especially important in the digital space. Our industry is constantly evolving and has changed so much in the last 15 years alone. It’s so helpful to have someone, either in your organization or outside, you can go to with questions or to get advice from and brainstorm new ideas with. This can help you be a better eCommerce professional.

It’s also important to have a mentor to help you with your professional development and career advice. I wish I had more people to look up to early on in my career, whether for their confidence, expertise, job, etc. You need someone who can help you ask for a raise, a promotion, practice a pitch, etc. — someone who pushes you to advocate for yourself and fight for what you deserve in your career. 

4. Take Care of Yourself

You can’t pour from an empty cup—take care of yourself first! There were a few years during my career when I wasn’t in the best place. I was overwhelmed by all the things I had to do and how I didn’t have enough time to get everything done. I was exhausted and burnt out at work and it found its way into my personal life too. I was the first person to make excuses and cancel on spending time with friends and family. That’s when I realized I needed to reconsider how to use my time and how to carve out time for myself. 

I think many women in the workforce ask themselves this big question, “How can I find the right balance between work and personal life?” For me, it’s prioritizing “me time.” For me, carving out time in my day to invest in myself, spend time with my family, and learn are what inspire me to keep going and to keep growing. 

When I was younger, I viewed my emotions as a weakness. It took me years to learn to never be embarrassed about how I feel. Embrace your emotions. They mean you are passionate about what you do and engaged in your work. No one can take that away from you. 

This is an excerpt from our first virtual global Women in eCommerce event on August 21, 2020. 

To stay up to date on upcoming Contentsquare Women in eCommerce events, follow the Women in eCommerce LinkedIn Page. Or, to watch the full recording of this session and view other sessions featuring Kathy Ando of Tile, Alexandra Popova of Adidas, and Constantine Gavrykov of Intersport, click here. 

The post 4 Lessons I Wish I Knew Earlier in My Career as a Woman in eCommerce appeared first on Contentsquare.

Violaine began her career in marketing at Club Méditerranée, the high-end holiday resort. In 2004, she joined director Luc Besson’s film production company EuropaCorp, where she developed its digital activities and strategic partnerships. She then went her own way as an entrepreneur, first joining digital concierge service John Paul, acquired by AccorHotels in 2016, followed by Etoile Rouge, a creative agency specializing in luxury, fashion, and beauty, since acquired by agency BETC Luxe. In 2016, she joined Facebook to develop the Luxury Hub, managing luxury companies worldwide from her Paris office. Violaine lives in Paris and has an MBA from the city’s ESSEC Business School.

What major new trends have you spotted in the online luxury market?

As in many other sectors, the lockdown at the beginning of 2020 saw online sales jump, simply because you couldn’t buy offline as stores were closed. What is interesting is that this phenomenon has continued despite stores reopening. We see a 16% increase in eCommerce sales for businesses in the luxury sector, so it’s a trend that is ongoing.

This sudden online shift has forced brands to develop their IT and digital infrastructure much more quickly and think about taking an omnichannel approach overall, rather than just focusing on eCommerce. That is undoubtedly the major challenge for luxury brands: having a real understanding of who their customers are and empowering them to buy where they want and when they want.

Can you see any obstacles to this digital development?

Yes, of course. Many luxury brands don’t have their own websites, or at least not in every country yet; this is particularly true for beauty companies. These brands rely heavily on retailers. However, the rise of eCommerce has certainly got these brands thinking. They’re all stepping up their strategy now! 

Have luxury brands changed the way they use platforms like Instagram and Facebook?

Yes, for sure! Until recently, luxury brands used Facebook and Instagram mainly for branding purposes, performance being much less of a priority, unlike other industries such as retail or mass distribution. Even though using proper Instagram hashtags and targeting the right audience can be helpful, trends keep changing. But this has changed recently. Brands now understand the opportunity that our platforms offer for driving traffic to their websites. Ted Baker managed to increase its conversion among 18 to 24-year-olds by 22%, with a well-orchestrated campaign on Instagram. That goes beyond mere branding.

As well as traffic, luxury brands also see the business potential our platforms can offer.

Facebook Inc. has recently introduced some new products, including the highly anticipated Instagram Checkout, launched in March 2019 and currently only available in the United States. Checkout makes it possible to purchase a branded product directly from Instagram, in just a few clicks, without leaving the app. It was an overnight success! Many brands are now using Checkout in the United States, and there is huge anticipation in Europe. Clearly, people are already talking about the potential of eCommerce on Facebook and Instagram.

Another new feature available in France is Facebook Shops, a digital showcase for brands rolled out in May 2020 to compensate for store closures and for some brands’ lack of visibility. Each brand is able to display its own catalog and manage its own merchandising. The feature is being used more and more by luxury businesses.  

Doesn’t this completely disrupt the traditional ecosystem?

I wouldn’t say it disrupts the ecosystem, but rather that these developments are in line with changing consumer behavior. Mobile shopping is now becoming easier and easier; consumers want to make purchases simply and smoothly. Offering the option of buying without leaving the platform, as is the case with Instagram Checkout, responds to this need. And as our users want this to go even further, it’s only natural that brands ask us for it too.

So, it’s actually a logical response to our platforms and mobile shopping becoming widely accepted. What we do is a natural progression: we follow trends and move with them.

What will be the next challenges for luxury brands?

The main challenge, for now, is being able to provide an enriched experience through an omnichannel approach. A brand must be able to offer its products at different points of sale and through different channels.

We should no longer be categorizing consumers as online or offline buyers; their experience should be consistent, no matter which channels they use, especially for luxury brands that by definition are based on unique, extraordinary experiences!

What are the benefits of platforms such as Facebook or Instagram for luxury brands?

The fact that consumers can discover new products and our potential to create streamlined experiences, there’s no doubt about it! By giving users the option of purchasing directly on Instagram or viewing a product catalog on Shops, companies have bypassed frustration points such as loading times being too long on their brand’s website.

By using our platforms, brands are also helping Discovery Commerce to grow, which is the closest thing we can get to a physical shopping experience. When you’re navigating Instagram, you don’t know exactly where you’re going. It’s precisely the same when you’re walking down the street and browsing all the boutiques! Users can wander around and end up with a product without having to leave the platform as they explore.

This can also build customer-brand proximity, through messaging – creating a direct, personal connection. When we developed Shops, we thought it would be a good idea to link up with WhatsApp and Messenger, so users could ask questions about the product directly and enjoy personalized support. 

Are social networks becoming a personalization tool for brands?

Yes, exactly! During the pandemic, messaging platforms skyrocketed, with voice messages up by 50%; imagine the potential! Especially for the luxury sector, it’s enormous. I am a great believer in messaging, particularly in creating restricted or private groups to communicate. In fact, that’s already started; the Victoria Beckham brand has been using Messenger to interact with fashionistas. By setting up a bot on Messenger, the brand communicated individually and simultaneously with thousands of fans. This campaign was a huge success; we saw an average read rate of 86% with push messages, four times more than emails achieve!

Where do you stand when it comes to marketplaces?

We can offer our customers a massive amount of clout through our community, with over three billion people connecting to our platforms every month. This community provides a huge amount of traffic for brands. This is clearly where our difference and advantage lies. 

I would also like to add that we are a great source of data-based customer knowledge! Data that is continuously being enriched, which means we can target the right people to build very precise customer journeys. 

How will your platforms continue to evolve to support brands?

We are continually suggesting changes based on the uses we are seeing. The idea is that we support brands so they can evolve and meet user expectations. That’s our ultimate aim. Checkout, for example, is a very attractive way of promoting limited editions (drops) on Instagram by placing a countdown, and it’s working well! Another feature now available is that an influencer can sell that brand’s product directly on Instagram. So, we are developing a lot of new formats, and we’ll carry on with this, always bearing in mind the user’s point of view.

What should luxury brands pay attention to in the future?

Technological advances, including AI, are certainly something they need to keep their eye on. Brands will be able to create immersive experiences. Combining human and artificial intelligence will make wonderful things! I’m convinced that the success of a great experience lies in balancing the human touch with an optimized experience through technology.

We also need to watch out for Gen Z. This generation represents a vast consumer cluster: 45% of luxury goods buyers in 2025! Understanding their behavior is crucial: they were born with a smartphone in their hands, and brands must make sure they include them in their approaches. 

The post Social Platforms, a New Lease on Life for Luxury Brands appeared first on Contentsquare.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unquestionably impacted many industries, including the luxury goods sector. According to consultancy firm Bain & Company, the luxury industry was hit hard; sales fell by 25% in Q1 2020, with annual sales expected to drop between 20 and 35%.

With customers adopting new online behaviors and many turning to online shopping for the first time, brands have been forced to rethink their digital marketing strategies accordingly.

But, although these major changes haven’t helped the luxury goods industry, they are still a source of opportunity. Some brands have taken a cautious route and are waiting to see how the situation evolves, while others are already experimenting with new digital strategies. 

Many companies and brands have decided to focus on their digital campaigns to boost sales and reach their consumers online. They offer more personalization and greater transparency with their brand values, recruiting data analysts, and UX specialists to set themselves apart online.

For many, this strategy is paying off: the luxury goods industry’s ability to bounce back is indisputable. According to a survey by Opinionway and Cofidis, only 69% of sales are now generated in-store, down 8% compared to early 2020. Now, online sales represent 47% of the market, having grown by 9 points since last year.

We talked to David Sadigh, CEO and founder of DLG (Digital Luxury Group), a digital marketing agency for luxury and lifestyle brands, and Jean-Marc Bellaiche, former Chief Strategy Officer at Contentsquare, about the best ways to adapt your digital marketing strategy in response to this new consumer behavior.

Adapt to Survive

The luxury goods industry has recently seen a digital revolution, which seems to be changing things for the better.

Some luxury eCommerce brands that had previously given little thought to digital marketing have adopted a proactive approach to developing their online presence and boosting their conversion rates.

“We have seen new types of behavior emerging,” says Jean-Marc Bellaiche, now the Chief Executive Officer at Printemps Group. 

“Going digital was already a major focus before the pandemic. But it’s now become the number one priority for brands. They’re all looking forways to expand their online presence and increase their conversion rates.”

Jean-Marc Bellaiche, former Chief Strategy Officer, Contentsquare

“Some sectors have used these strange times to fine-tune their digital strategies. Everything has sped up: some eCommerce improvements that would normally take two or three years have been achieved in less than two or three months,” explains Jean-Marc Bellaiche. “And brands began making plenty of changes at the beginning of the year, such as optimizing checkout, upgrading customer support tools, and cutting the number of sales partners.”

David Sadigh agrees. “Lots of brands have been testing new things and will continue to do so because if they want to survive, they have no choice,” he says. In his view, there is no shortage of ways luxury brands can adapt.

“Some luxury businesses that are lost when it comes to communication have done nothing. Others have chosen to bounce back and make the most of this opportunity to develop their eCommerce strategy by investing in more of an omnichannel approach. And brands that already had eCommerce sites have automatically profited from a migration effect: in-store or offline customers have now become online customers.”

New Communication and Sales Channels

By changing the way they operate online, luxury businesses have focused on new sales channels such as WhatsApp and Zoom to offer more personalized transactions, among other things, says Sadigh and Bellaiche.

“Many of our customers, especially in luxury watches, fine jewelry, and cars, are using WhatsApp for transactions with their customers,” Sadigh points out. “If customers already know which car they want to buy, all they need to do is ask the sales staff. WhatsApp and Zoom are similar to the services offered in China by WeChat. These trends are impacting American businesses such as Facebook, which absolutely have to integrate these new services. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook launched a new version of its platform, complete with video and trading services.”

Bellaiche agrees. “Luxury eCommerce sales staff have been calling their customers to show them new collections and items. Some have even delivered them to their customers’ homes. In Neiman Marcus’ mobile app, customers can talk directly to their personal shoppers about what to buy during the crisis.”

“Companies will carry on using these sales channels; they are attractive to luxury brands as they can help them offer a personalized service,” he adds.

In terms of communication, luxury brands have shown that they are innovative and have their ear to the ground. Chanel organized a concert on Instagram with the singer Angèle. The fashion brand Jacquemus asked top model Bella Hadid to take photos in her own home while wearing pieces from a collection that it was launching. These moves play an essential role in a brand’s image and make the most of new channels, especially with so many buyers being there: 74% have a presence on social networks, 32% follow luxury brands and influencers on social networks, and 70% of them admit to being swayed in their purchases by influencers’ accounts.

New Perspectives through Data 

Another crucial issue for luxury brands, and in no small measure, is knowing how to effectively use all the data available to them. This includes finding the best solutions and the most appropriate tools to improve results, particularly in terms of user experience.

For example, a brand must be able to identify why some users visit its site, browse its content, and add items to their shopping cart, while not completing their purchase.

It’s just as important to understand visitors’ intentions when they visit a site. Many go to a brand’s website to find out more about a product before leaving to buy the item on a distributor’s website.

By understanding the ins and outs of customer data, brands can optimize the digital experience they offer users and boost sales accordingly. During lockdown, businesses with a robust online presence and a wide eCommerce range saw a surge in traffic and sales, primarily due to business models that were already in place. This was particularly the case with online luxury fashion retail platform, Farfetch, which saw a 48% increase in new customers and upped revenue by 74% in the second quarter of 2020. 

Companies that had already adopted a click-and-mortar strategy were also less affected by the crisis, as they were able to migrate their market share from offline to online. These are all examples that illustrate the importance of harnessing customer data to better understand their expectations and come out of the crisis successfully.

Brand Values: Time for Transparency

Many brands have taken advantage of the change of pace in the fashion and luxury sectors to redefine their values, taking time to invest and launch the social and sustainable development projects they had in mind.

According to a July 2020 McKinsey study, consumers expect the fashion industry to prioritize social and environmental responsibility commitments during the crisis. For 67% of respondents, the use of sustainable materials is a significant factor in deciding to make a purchase, and 63% think it is just as important for a brand to promote sustainable development.

The study also concluded that although 70% of respondents have remained loyal to the brands they knew and trusted during the crisis, young consumers (especially Generation Z and millennials) are more likely to try out smaller, less well-known brands.

“It will be interesting to track these sustainable development initiatives in the medium and long term, as we know that today’s customers are more conscious about a product’s origin and of the type of company offering it,” explains Sadigh. “It will also be interesting to see if the brands supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, for example, will stay as engaged in the medium and long term.”

For brands, one thing is certain: it’s no longer enough to show a fleeting interest in something that is close to the heart of consumers and potential customers. They need to take the time to listen, learn, and invest in the causes that they want to stand up for, to be open and transparent with their audience. Being sincere about these issues has become an absolute must. Many brands have taken advantage of the change of pace in the fashion and luxury sectors to redefine their values, taking time to invest and launch the social and sustainable development projects they had in mind.

Corporate Culture Re-Imagined

For Bellaiche, the best way for a luxury brand to bring about real change within its company is to transform its culture, making it more innovative, agile, and collaborative. The “try, fail, learn” concept is a good example to follow. For instance, A

mazon tried mobile phones and failed, but the company learned enough from this experience to successfully launch Alexa and Prime Video.

“Businesses need to be agile. If they have a well-oiled supply chain and sound customer knowledge and data, they will be better positioned to meet the challenges of this new era.”

David Sadigh, CEO and founder of DLG

Sadigh cites Moncler as an example. The company has adopted a digital-first approach within its organization by managing its online business directly, in-house. 

Moncler has prioritized contact by implementing pioneering solutions to change its corporate culture. Its Energy Plan program encourages teams to meet at least once a day and its private, staff-only @Monclertogether Instagram account to organize various employee activities.

Culture can even go beyond strategy, as Bellaiche explains. “One of the most important lessons of my career as a consultant and leader was a quote by Harvard Professor Peter Drucker: ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ Corporate culture is more important than strategy alone because it defines your ability to react during good times and bad. Luxury businesses have to seek out new talent, especially from start-ups, which can innovate, collaborate, and react quickly.”

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As businesses continue to be affected by the Coronavirus outbreak, a picture has emerged over the past few weeks of which sectors are recording a steady influx of online visitors, and which are seeing only a fraction of the traffic they enjoyed pre-quarantine. 

And while the positive trends observed across “essential” businesses such as grocery stores may be obvious, other verticals have seen a more staggered return to conversions, as consumers resume some of their shopping habits and turn to digital to compensate for a brick-and-mortar economy on pause.

We’re analyzing billions of digital visitor sessions each week to bring you the freshest data from across industries. To do this, we’re capturing user sessions across more than 900+ websites from all over the world — that’s 32 billion pages, 26 countries and 22 industries. To chart the progression of several KPIs (traffic, transactions, pageviews, and more), we’ve been comparing the most recent data to the period immediately preceding the global reporting of the outbreak (or, the first 6 weeks of the year which we call the reference period).

Here’s what we found this week:

Traffic And Transactions Continue To Grow As Online Shopping Habits Resume

Traffic and pageviews are still growing steadily week on week (+6.9% and +8.3% this week, respectively), contributing to a significant increase to both KPIs since the onset of the outbreak. Compared to the pre-Covid-19 reference period, the volume of digital sessions has shot up by +17.4% across industries, with visitors viewing almost +25% more pages today than they were pre-quarantine. 

Transactions have also surged dramatically since the first stay-at-home orders in the West, but this past week recorded a slightly more subdued increase than the previous week (+2.1%). Still, overall, the shutting down of brick-and-mortar commerce in many regions of the world has led to a +39.9% surge in the number of transactions.

Grocery Sector Continues To Grapple With Huge Digital Checkout Lines 

Traffic to grocery sites is still surging, with +26% more visits last week than the previous week. Transactions are stable with a slight drop (-2% last week), suggesting many grocery stores are still ironing out some of their supply chain issues.

Despite this minor dip last week, transactions are still up +75.5% from the beginning of the crisis, reflecting the mass adoption of online grocery delivery services over the past few weeks.

Retail Tech And Home Decor Still On Growth Path

Traffic to retail tech sites was up +12% last week from the previous week, contributing to a whopping +78% increase in visits since mid february  when the outbreak started in the west. The volume of transactions is also up — +9% this past week and +62% compared to pre-covid19 levels. With a huge swath of the population now working from home, and quarantine measures refocusing entertainment spend, having up-to-date tech gear has shifted from nice-to-have to necessity.

And all this working from home has contributed to the increased traffic to home decor / DIY sites. Last week saw a +9% increase in the volume of visits, driving a +19% surge since the start of the crisis. And home sector transactions have followed suit — up +120% from the start and +17% since the previous week.

Jewelry / Watch, Luxury and Fashion Sectors Bounce Back And Beauty Purchases Slightly Down

While traffic to jewelry sites is much below normal levels, it was slightly up this past week, with a +13% increase from the previous week. And while transactions did grow by +24% over the same period, the industry is still reeling from a -20% drop in sales since the beginning of the crisis.

Similarly, Luxury has continued its recovery, with transactions trending up (+6% last week), and while traffic was flat this past week, engagement was up, with +4% page views last week.

Fashion also continues its recovery: for 4 weeks in a row now the sector has recorded transaction increases, adding another +5% increase to the previous week’s +30% surge, with the sector now exceeding normal levels. As consumers everywhere reintroduce some of their regular shopping patterns into their homebound routine, some industries that were experiencing upward trends were less strong this past week. Recent increases in traffic for the beauty / cosmetics have resulted in a +9% increase in visits since start of the outbreak, while transactions are now up +70% over the same period, despite a -13% drop this past week.

Join our webinar next week, From Convenience to Necessity: How the Coronavirus Is Impacting the Grocery Sector. Featuring our Chief Strategy Officer Jean-Marc Bellaiche, this insight-packed webinar will share our latest findings on customer behavior and how the grocery industry is adapting to the new reality — April 16th, 1pm.

Hero image via Adobe Stock, by triocean

The post Impact of Coronavirus on eCommerce: A Week Of Consolidation And Stabilization (Update 7) appeared first on Contentsquare.

Luxury Industry Reels From Coronavirus Impact

While many markets are feeling the negative effects of the ongoing crisis, the luxury sector is hurting more than many adjacent industries such as fashion and beauty. 

Overall traffic to luxury sites was down -26% last week (Sunday April 5th) compared to before the beginning of the outbreak (or, reference week), while transactions dropped -18%.

In comparison, traffic to fashion retail sites is up +4%, while the volume of transactions has grown by +23%. The beauty sector tells a similar story, with visits up +14% and transactions more than doubling (+106%).

The volume of pages viewed by visitors to these sites has followed the traffic trend, with a significant decrease since the start of the oubreak. The time spent per session however has remained stable, indicating that for visitors who are browsing luxury sites, engagement has not been particularly affected by the crisis.

Good News In The Last Two Weeks As Traffic & Transactions Grow

It’s not all doom and gloom for the sector though, as the last two weeks have marked a turning point: traffic was up last week, and transactions have been growing steadily now for two weeks. This shows that consumers are now settled in quarantine and most of the spend goes online today, including for non-necessary products such as luxury goods. 

Traffic in Asia, in particular, picked up significantly last week, forecasting perhaps a similar uptick in the west as restrictions ease up. Overall, global brand websites seem to be doing better than local eCommerce stores.

Affordable Luxury Most Severely Impacted By Coronavirus

High-end luxury is proving more resilient in the face of changing eCommerce habits than the more affordable end of the market. Affordable luxury brands have seen a -32% drop in the volume of transactions since the beginning of the outbreak. 

And while high-end luxury is seeing a greater shortfall in traffic, transactions have actually increased by +8% over the past seven weeks. 

With many consumers feeling the negative impact of the current situation on their finances and refocusing their budgets on necessities or needed improvements to improve the circumstances of their quarantine (upgrading their home office or tech equipment, for example), luxuries are some of the first to be cut. 

Customers of the very high-end luxury market, however, appear to be feeling less stress on their finances, accounting for the stable — even positive — trend in transactions. 

Super high end luxury and mega brands are also less impacted because the intrinsic value of the products is often higher than that of accessible luxury goods. Some mega brands are even able to keep most, if not all, their value in the second-hand market, which can be reassuring in times of crisis.

Traffic of high and affordable luxury in over a month

Transactions of high and affordable luxury in over a month

Hard Luxury Is Slightly Less Hurt Than Soft Luxury Sector

Hard luxury (jewelry, watches) and soft luxury (clothing, leather accessories, etc) are similarly impacted in terms of traffic, with approximately one quarter fewer site visits than before the outbreak.

When it comes to transactions, however, hard luxury is faring slightly better than soft luxury, recording a -10% decrease in purchases versus soft luxury’s -20%. It could be that these often higher price point items are associated with the higher-end brands, which are weathering the storm better than their more affordable competitors. 

Another explanation could also be that hard luxury goods are often associated with gifting, and while self-indulgence might be on pause these days, the need for gifting continues (birthday, anniversary…), with purchases now all moving online because of the interruption of brick-and-mortar commerce.

Traffic of hard and soft luxury in over a month

Transactions of soft and hard luxury in over a month

Join our webinar next week, From Convenience to Necessity: How the Coronavirus Is Impacting the Grocery Sector. Featuring our Chief Strategy Officer Jean-Marc Bellaiche, this insight-packed webinar will share our latest findings on customer behavior and how the grocery industry is adapting to the new reality — April 16th, 1pm.

Hero image via Adobe Stock, by artmim

The post Luxury Digital Retail Hits Turning Point After Weeks Of Declining Traffic & Purchases appeared first on Contentsquare.