Our Key Take Aways from Shopify’s “The Future Of E-Commerce” report.
Shopifys recent 150 page report on the “Future of E commerce” and how product lead brands need to revaluate their omin-channel adverting, was a fascinating one. However, not everyone has the time to read 150 pages, so we did the hard work for you and are popping down the key take aways for our clients here at INTERFLIX.
We have always known that shoppable ads is a no brainer for E-Com businesses. But the main barrier we have faced as the first solely interactive production house in the UK is education around this. Standard video content is routed in tradition, heritage and every brand under the son can create standard video. When something is so comfortable and familiar its hard to break the mould and step outside the comfort zone.
But as the digital landscape shifts at a rapid pace and consumption becomes more and more diversified, it's vital for brands and businesses to move with this evolution and not resist that change.
The number one take away from this report for us won’t be a shocker:
“Format your videos so they’re shoppable”
INTERFLIX: We told you first but we couldn’t be happier to hear the leaders in this field eco this statement. Here are their key statements around shoppable content:
SHOPIFY: “Stick to one or two products per video and show them in action. Film with interactivity in mind, providing clickable calls to action throughout the video. Shoppable videos are still new to some viewers, especially those outside Southeast Asia, so let your customers know that your videos are shoppable.”
“Develop a shoppable attribution model Use shoppable video ads for a clear view
of conversion data, including click-to-view, click-to-buy, and click-to-share interactions.”
“Because every attribution model is only an approximate picture of how each touchpoint affects a customer’s path to conversion, use a combination of data sources to validate your top- performing channels and activities. Besides using UTM parameters in Google Analytics to study your users’ behaviour flow, look at your ad account data, study your click journey, and ask customers how they found you with app integrations like Enquire Post Purchase Survey.”
Advertising costs are skyrocketing across platforms.
SHOPIFY: Digital advertising costs are eating up marketing budgets, putting performance marketing– heavy customer acquisition models in jeopard.
Brand building is helping attract and retain customers. Businesses are overcoming the competition by investing in brand building, which increases customer lifetime value, boosts conversion rates in the short term, and attracts out-of-market buyers in the long term.
“As more businesses are online, it’s harder and harder to be found by new customers. Because it’s so easy to start online now, there are definitely rising costs of customer acquisition. Paid ads are getting really expensive, not to mention the Apple iOS 14 release, which has made it more difficult to track results in ad spend.”
Mel Ho
Senior Product Marketing Lead, Shopify
Competition is the biggest obstacle to achieving growth in 2022, according to the 350 global commerce decision makers surveyed for this report. With privacy laws that limit marketers’ ability to target ads and consumers who are better at blocking ad interruptions, it’s becoming tougher to get a decent return on advertising spend. The cost per click for paid search ads increased by 15-20% between the second and third quarters of 2021 alone.
“Our July 2021 report showed a 15–20% drop in the advertising reach of Instagram in Europe,” says Kepios founder and CEO Simon Kemp. “That’s huge. Tens of millions of impressions disappeared because of certain kinds of laws and changes in Apple’s policies.”
“Some brands are seeing ad costs go five times higher than [before] to drive the same amount of traffic.”
Get ahead of the competition by investing in your brand
SHOPIFY: Marketers who want immediate, measurable results tend to undervalue brand, which is a longer-term investment. That’s why 70% of marketers who are cutting their budgets in 2022 will sacrifice investments in brand building, and only 13% will reduce performance marketing spending.
But performance-based advertising is only part of the equation.
While conversion rates are important, most consumers already have a brand in mind by the time they’re ready to buy. In fact, Google reports that more than 80% of customers conduct their research online before making a purchase decision. A business needs a strong brand to earn their place in the minds of consumers.
A strong brand not only makes performance marketing more effective in the short term, it’s
also the foundation of sustainable growth. Strong brands draw more organic acquisition, retain more customers, and can raise prices— the most powerful lever you can pull to increase profits. As the digital space becomes more crowded, brand identity and brand awareness will only become more crucial.
The brands that speak to everyone speak to no one. Whether brand differentiation means what the brand stands for, the way the product is made, or the way they engage their audience, consumers are looking for differentiated experiences and brands they can connect to.
Morgan Brown
VP Growth Marketing, Shopify
INTERFLIX: By allowing your customers to interact with your brand on a bespoke level you build brand trust. We work with our clients to build brand awareness campaigns that span different areas of their business that people can explore. One customer might be interested in their suitability model, whilst another might be interested in the ethic attributes of a brand. By allowing customers to explore points about your brand that interest them, you are building a relationship that keeps them engaged and exploring more.
Death of third-party cookies forces brands to rethink data.
Consumers are demanding personalisation
Consumers continue to demand personalised shopping experiences, even as regulations make data tracking harder, and the biggest players phase out support for third-party cookies.
Consumer behaviour and privacy laws complicate personalisation efforts
Internet users are exercising their privacy rights, and governments are making it easier for them to do so. At least 28% of technology decision makers around the world expect changes to customer data and privacy regulations to hinder their 2022 growth goals. Apple, Firefox, and Brave already automatically block third- party cookies. Google Chrome, representing over 60% of search engine market share, announced in July 2021 that it will delay third-party cookie blocking until late 2023.But that doesn’t mean brands should rely on Google’s cookies in 2022. In a commerce world where omni-channel is king, the fragmented customer experience offered by the third- party cookie isn’t cutting it anymore. More importantly, customers are more privacy aware than ever before and trust is getting harder to earn. Brands are turning to first-party data to fill the void third- party cookies will leave. This is the data a brand collects directly from their customer, with their customer’s consent. In 2022, 42% of brands plan to offer their customers personalised product recommendations through tools like quizzes, custom mobile apps, and first- party or third-party behavioural data. And to encourage data sharing, 44% of brands already plan to be more transparent around how they use customer information.
INTERFLIX: We help our clients personalise their video content, whilst obtaining unobtrusive preference lead data directly from their consumers. We have no direct need for Third-party cookies. Instead we deliver our clients with first-party information through shoppable, quizzes, informative or brand awareness video content. We work with our clients to understand what preference data they are most reliant or interested in, helping them develop their larger marketing strategy.
So there we go, Shopify who hosts over 2,297 million live websites including Gymshark, Unilever and Tesla, believes that the future for E-Commerce in regards to advertorial content lies in Shoppable, interactive video.
Contact us to find out more about how we work with you and your brand, helping you stay relevant with your customers.