Black Friday Follow-Up: Black Friday is Over, Now What?

0:00

Today, we are hopping in a time machine, we’re going to go into the future.

0:05

We’re going to pretend like Black Friday is over and now.

0:09

What do we do?

0:10

How do we take what we learned?

0:12

How do we do something with that positive for the rest of the holiday season and on into 2023?

0:22

My name is Jason Ferrara, I am the chief marketing officer at Searchspring and your host for today’s webinar.

0:32

Want to talk just briefly about Searchspring, and our focus at Searchspring, which is really about driving the ultimate shopper experience.

0:41

We’re all online shoppers, we’re all e-commerce, shoppers, We know what it’s like to go to a site, not find what we want. We hate that. We tend to leave, right when that happens. Maybe we tell somebody else.

0:51

We certainly don’t come back to that, to that site, if we can’t find what we want.

0:57

And the focus at searchspring is to help give merchandisers control, so that that search experience, that discovery experience for a shopper, is as great as it can be.

1:12

And we do that through site search, product merchandising, personalization, and all the insights that go in and around that data.

1:21

So that’s the control that we help our merchants help them get the right product to the right person at the right time.

1:28

So today’s webinar is the fifth in our Black Friday series.

1:35

Like I said, We’re gonna go into the future, just a little bit, but if you missed those in the past, the previous four, you can head to the searchspring website.

1:44

And you will have access to those previous those previous, for some great information and they’re just about prepping and about data, and about sharing information around the company, and things like that. So, love to have you check that out.

2:00

So today, we’re joined by some great panelists. They are e-commerce experts. They are partners of Cirque spring.

2:09

They are opinionated and really interesting people, and my interactions with them read most recently.

2:17

So, what I’d love to do is have them introduce themselves Jordan and Kate and Martin, you can go ahead and turn on your cameras.

2:26

Reveal your face, and Martin, since your camera came on first, why don’t we have you introduce yourself to the, to the listeners today?

2:34

Thank you. Hi everybody, I’m Martin Balaam I’m the CEO and founder of Pimberly and we are a prompts, information management and digital asset management platform. So, we deal with all your product data, all your images, related, videos, Everything like, that, make sure that it’s all enriched, complete, etcetera, and then push it out to the various channels sales channels, which most people, obviously, we will think about in, terms of the e-comm websites and marketplaces.

3:11

Thanks, Martin, Kate, how about you? Next.

3:15

Hi everyone.

3:16

I’m T am the CEO and Co-founder of branch, branch helps. Bridge is a platform that helps omni channel brands create ROI optimized QR code experiences. So, 20 22 has really been the year of the QR code. Not a new technology, we help you do it in an ROI optimized way. So power product re-orders, first party data capture product registration, drive south through through retail. So how do you use that QR code is a new channel to connect with your customers?

3:49

Great. Thank you Kate And Jordan, how about you?

3:51

Sure. Yeah, my name is Jordan Brand and I’m President and co-founder at Coalition. We are a full service, digital marketing agency focused on e-commerce, mainly dealing with the dot com experiences, although we have a great team focused on marketplace support as well. And I’ve been involved in e-commerce and helping brands grow and e-commerce for the last 20 years or so, so it really excited for the conversation today.

4:17

Great, thanks. Yeah. Like I said, I was super excited about the panel and about the work that you guys do, and the insights that you will have. So, I really appreciate your your time today and I should also introduce Charles Summers, he’s behind the scenes is the one moving the slides back and forth and making sure that all of you who are listening, can hear us and, you, know, sending me text messages when I should be paying attention to something else. So, it’s very good, very important role for Charles. So, thanks.

4:44

And Charles, go ahead and jump to the next slide.

4:51

And there we go, See. There he is, he’s actually back there doing that work. So, today, we’re going to touch on a few topics.

4:58

We’re going to talk about setting up and refining data collection. In fact, well, I think we’ll talk a lot about data today. In general, we’ll talk about segmenting your audience, buyers, purchases, using the data for segments.

5:13

We’ll talk about preparing your site now and in the future.

5:20

Preparing your advertising. Prepare your e-mail for personalization. And for upsells and recommendations.

5:30

You know, how, how can you take all the different parts that drive people into your site, and really prepare those for the greatest use by your shoppers?

5:39

And, you know, we’ll talk a little bit about the, the highest converting times of your year, how you take things that you might be learning, and doing a Black Friday, and take those on into the future. So we’ll touch on all of those things, will start with this agenda. We’ll do some polls. Polls are a great way for us to get to understand all of you in the listening audience, when, obviously, it’s hard to have a conversation with all of you, so some, some polls will help us with that. We have a panel discussion related to the polls are related to those topics.

6:14

And then we’ll get some Q and A, Q and A is great time for audience participation.

6:20

Just like polls are, there is a questions, Q When you have questions, just hop on over to that question to queue in GoToWebinar and type it on in there.

6:31

We will either, I’ll either reserve some of those questions to the end and we’ll have a formal Q&A session.

6:38

Or if they’re in line and I like them and want to ask them right in line with everything, you put the conversation. I’ll jump in and do that too. So, love having the questions. It really is a great way to get everybody involved. So let’s start with our first, our first poll. We can, we’ll have, we’ll show you the results of these polls when they come up. I’m just gonna make notes on these right now. So have you already kicked off your Black Friday promotions? Yes, I started in October or earlier.

7:05

Yes, we just launched in November, no, but we’re launching in the next week, or no, we won’t launch until Black Friday. So, I see the results coming in.

7:17

It’s always fun to see those numbers increase and have everybody participating.

7:22

So, I want to love to see that, See here.

7:27

Hmm, hmm, I’m in the know right now, and nobody else can see the results.

7:33

Charles, I think we’re about where we’re going to get. Let’s do that. Alright. So look at this, Just launched in November, launching it in the next week, tied.

7:44

You don’t often see a tie in these polls, Which is exciting, and then we’ve got, won’t launch until Black Friday or October, coming in much lower. So, what I’ll do is I’ll reserve these questions for the panelists. After we’re done with all the polls, we can get everybody excited about the poll questions right now and then. And then go there. So we’ll do poll number two.

8:10

Poll number two, how long will you be running your Black Friday promotion?

8:14

So just through Black Friday, through Cyber Monday, through the end of the holiday season, into 2023.

8:20

Interesting to understand what that looks like for everybody.

8:29

And I’d say this, this data is actually quite interesting, for a lot of reasons, and relates to what we will talk about today. So, I think, Charles, we’re about where we are going to get.

8:44

So no one is taking their Black Friday promotions into 2023, which I think is interesting. And no, no one is just stopping after Black Friday, which I think probably makes sense to talk about that through Cyber Monday and through the end of the holiday season. So actually, some interesting conversation that we can have there. And then pull number three, Charles, let’s load that one up.

9:09

And this is, do you have plans or methods in place to nurture your Black Friday, Cyber Monday buyers beyond that Black Friday, Cyber Monday weekend?

9:19

So yes or no.

9:24

And actually Interesting results here, I think too we’re about where we’re gonna get Charles’.

9:34

So I get made fun of a lot for using marketing math because I am a Chief marketing officer. I’m going to call that a tie. 5743 P F of you are yes, so we’re going to do and beyond and half of you know So I think there’s some good conversation we can have their based on the based on the prep work we did panelists and Then we’ll load up for their ego, Charles. Which of the following?

10:03

do you think is the most critical Turning Black Friday cyber Monday buyers into long term customers? What’s the most critical of those things?

10:13

And if there is something that you think is critical, that’s not on this list, feel free to drop it in the Questions Journal, and we can talk about that too.

10:22

Results are coming in here.

10:28

Get close to the end here.

10:31

More I see coming in.

10:38

Sure.

10:42

Let’s go, it’s got some chats, alright, so we’ve got nurturing Channel.

10:48

We’ve got like e-mail and SMS. Complimentary recommendations, upsell recommendations and something else right, and via chat, so.

10:58

Fantastic, thank you for, we’re writing a few things in, they open up the chat.

11:06

All right.

11:07

So we’re going to start now, and we’ve done those panels, so now we, we promised a panel discussion. Let me just organize my notes quickly here.

11:16

So panelists, what I’d like to do is just touch on the, the poll results first, and then we can use those as jumping off points to two other questions that we, that we talked about.

11:29

So, poll number one was, have you already kicked off your, your promotions, your Black Friday promotions.

11:38

What it looked like really is yes, What it really looks like here is yet November’s the time, right? Either happens on November first or Dampens the second week in November.

11:48

We’re not doing this in October and, you know, we’re not going to wait all the way up to Black Friday.

11:53

Anything unusual that you see their panelists, just shout it out if there is anything interesting that you that you might think about, Jordan. You just had a little smiley face.

12:05

I think one of the things we’ve been talking a lot with our brands about is, is being prepared for a evolving Black Friday holiday schedule.

12:16

And so, we’ve really talked about being ready with some marketing events and activities in October, I think this year, especially, that’s been successful and important for the brands who have done that.

12:27

You know, certainly, Amazon took sort of a early running start with the Prime Day, and so, really, I think, as marketers being prepared in advance of November, for some more significant marketing and sales type activities. And having really good incentives, and reasons for people to get out of out of that sort of that purchasing holiday mindset a little bit sooner than they normally would. It’s something that I would, I would say, you know, since most people said they didn’t do it this year, queue that up for next year and start thinking about what you’re gonna do in October.

12:58

Yeah. Kate, thoughts about that?

13:01

Just across the board, we’ve been seeing brands just get prepared earlier. So, you know, as Jordan was kind of alluding to, you know, Amazon already made that staff having, you know, another prime day. So, just seeing brands earlier than ever kind of get in front of their customers because it becomes, you know, very crowded in November and of course, you know, on Black Friday itself. So, kind of getting into the mind share or, you know, the inbox. And I know we’ll talk a little bit more about, kind of nurturing in a way that you’re, you know, less competitive with, you know, where every at our brand is coming in.

13:36

Yeah, and, Martin, thoughts on that, on this poll question?

13:40

Yeah. So I think that, you know, a lot of customers, and consumers like cars out there, know that a lot of brands have done their work already, and this are really do we have to wait to that day, you know. And it can be a bit frustrating for consumers. But also we’re seeing some of our brands username, so a really tactically to give Earlybird access. So you know, if you’re a new customer and you sign up early will let you have a snake look, you know, ahead of anybody else. That can be quite a great tactic on that, or orange across, in terms of, you know, you’re in your existing customers, giving them early access as well, so you can, you can make them all feels special. Glass, giving them early access as well, and not frustrating.

14:21

Yeah, so, there are some interesting thoughts to dig into, I think, later in the conversation around that, and you’re making your shoppers feel special. I wanna go back, Jordan, to something you had said. I think it’s interesting.

14:36

I mean, clearly, all three of you believe that, like, start your preparation, get things ready to go in October, whether you launch them in October, and not sort of up to you. But make sure you’re ready.

14:48

You didn’t want to be doing things, and in November, but, Jordan, you had said this year, so what is it about this year as opposed to previous years that you think, like, hey, get out, and now, you know, this, I think I think what you had said was evolving Black Friday. So what? What’s going on? Why is this evolving? How is it different than previous years?

15:13

Yeah, I mean, a midterm elections, the midterm elections are happening, sort of the inflationary environment, you know, a lot of brands that we work with still have some inventory issues, supply chain issues that they’re working through.

15:26

And so, really, I think, whenever you see sort of uncertainty or tumult and sort of what’s happening with with your customers and your brand, you know, being ready further in advance is always important. And we had a lot of indicators that this was going to be happening this holiday season, this quarter four.

15:44

And so just being out in front of that uncertainty really gives you a position. And it puts you in a position where you can be successful.

15:50

And you can really control what happens to you versus just being at the mercy of what’s happening in the market. And so, you know, I think Martin had mentioned that VIP experience. A lot of our brands, their October sales, were really about taking their loyal customers out of the markets. They’re not shopping for another deal later.

16:07

And also looking at sort of cultivating value, like, hey, why are you a VIP customer, or what’s the value for us?

16:13

And so, thinking about those things well in advance, especially in uncertainty, really pays off now, when there’s sort of this high pressure, high performance requirement for marketers.

16:24

Kate, similar thought on that.

16:26

Yeah, I’m going to just add on and you know, specific to, this year, I think the other thing, that we’re seeing is, you know, we’re coming out of this kogod world over the past two years, and there is this I desire to be out and in person and you’re shopping, so now we really talk to our brands about the Omni channel experience.

16:46

So, I think, you know, the way that brands and merchants are thinking about this is not just, you know, what are the Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions that we have, you, know, Direct, but also how does that apply across all of our channels. So, I think, you know, that is a really important consideration to this year, You know, coupled with the iOS 14.5 update and just how that you know More Generally affects the digital acquisition of customers. So, you know, those are two trends that we’re really seeing, you know, reflecting in this. You know, Omni channel kind of approach to Black Friday Cyber Monday preparation that I think is really unique to this year.

17:24

So, Kate, you win an award for the burst panelist in a webinar to bring up.

17:31

And an iOS change four for mobile devices in over a year of me running these webinars.

17:38

And having you do that, it’s amazing to me that that has not come up before, because that is, I mean, that’s how I engage from an e-commerce trip.

17:49

So I imagine, like Martin, I imagine that’s a big you got to like that. There’s a circle on your calendar. When those things happen for, for your clients. Is that, is that? correct?

18:00

Yeah, All right, Any major technology change is obviously.

18:06

net never goes smoothly as well as we all know. And most of us are going to lock down in the run-up to the festive season, et cetera. So it comes a not a great time for us.

18:18

But I think, you know.

18:21

If people have got, you know, decent salt platforms that allow them to sort of prepare, get all there, digital assets, et cetera, all ready, locked and loaded, you know, so ready to go so that can react as well. And coming back to, the other thing as well, it’s always a bit of a gamble, isn’t it?

18:38

You know, because if you go hourly, especially if you’ve got more commoditized products, if you go early and then somebody goes, letters are new, but on a higher, on a higher discount, IE a better value for the end customer.

18:51

Know, you’ve always got the potential of a return to Certainly, certainly less so in the US, But definitely in the K, you know, the law there. It’s, it’s pretty sort of Hartford on the consumer side. And they can return anything within 14 days for any reason, you know, say if the buyer to buy it today. And then suddenly goes in a lower price, though, that if that can be bought it, they can send it back. And then you’re on with the return site, which is, I’m sure we’ll come onto as a, kind of a big thing to think about post post Black Friday.

19:23

Yeah.

19:24

You also win an award today, because no one has ever talked about this, like differences in global shopping and how that might my work with the brands. So, really, really important, I think, to to to mention. So thanks for that. All really good stuff.

19:43

So, thank you. OK. So let’s talk about, let’s talk about poll number two. Because I think there’s some jumping off points and some connection points I want to make here with the other other topics.

19:52

So, how long will you be running Black Friday promotions? So, this was a four choices here.

20:01

70% of the respondents said through Cyber Monday.

20:06

30% of the responded and said through the end of the holiday season, No one said just for Black Friday.

20:12

So, I mean, I think, clearly, Black Friday as now is five days, probably. And no one’s head into 2023. So, any, any thoughts there? Kate, let’s start with you on thoughts on that on that poll.

20:26

I mean, I think what brands are thinking about here is a good thinking about the long term behavior of the consumer, that and that you’re looking to acquire and the brand and that you’re building. So, if you’re, you know, pushing those discounts into 2023, not only is that hurting your Margin, but at that becomes a no away. In a perception that the consumer is seeing your brand, as someone that’s always discounting. So, I think that there is a unique opportunity in Black Friday, Cyber Monday to now acquire new customers, acquire that, you know? Gifting customer that is really unique to that consumer behavior around this time. But to continue that on, an ongoing basis could become, you know, very dangerous as a brand.

21:10

Got it, Yeah.

21:12

Yeah.

21:12

Now, all of a sudden, you just Reset your reservation price with everybody, right, to be whatever the discounted prices, if you run that, Jordan: Got a smile on your face there. What are your thoughts?

21:24

Yeah, I think it’s really it’s a good thought. Mean, I think what is the purpose behind your Black Friday, Cyber Monday sales? You know, most people who are in the market specifically at this time, are looking for that lower price point.

21:36

And so, again, I think you can carry your promotions forward, but if you’re not really operating with a brand that is focused on discounting, you typically want to have a good rationale for why you’re offering money off or offering some incentive Beyond Black Friday because I think there’s ways to sort of continually have some incentive out there.

21:58

For a customer to be motivated to buy with, You just have to have a better story. If you don’t want your brand to be a discount brand. and discount brands are very successful and we have some of our clients are sort of known that way for being sort of the better price point. And frankly that erode some of the value of a Black Friday, cyber Monday and outside of Maria, door buster type situation, because ultimately else is coming down to their level. They’re happy to sort of not be super competitive at that time. We try to be deeper in terms of that. So, again, think about your brand story thing about why you’re offering a discount if you don’t want to be that discounting grand composite, good story and that can carry through to the end of the year in 20 23.

22:36

Yeah, thank you for for mentioning story because I, I talk to people about stories a lot in my day job, and we talk about experience a lot, and I think that’s part of that experience, right? If you, if your experiences a discount brand totally different than if it’s not. And so, yeah, I appreciate those comments.

22:55

Martin, thoughts around carrying promotions past, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Anything like that?

23:02

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think, You know, you can also think about, you know, the, the consumer behavior.

23:06

I mean, we’ve conditioned count of we are we are consumers as well, and we are conditioned collectively that if we’ve got sort of non immediate essential items, semi luxury, or whatever, then, if we can weigh and a lot of people do, we’ll wait until the Black Friday cycle starts because that’s when we know know. There’s a lot of data out there to actually show factually that is correct, that you will get the best prices and and and, you know, and that demand, You know, at the end of the day, that demand, all that pool of people buying just does fit now, after awhile, You know. So, And then, coming back to the point, It really then comes from our brands on a view. You know.

23:49

No, absolutely.

23:50

You don’t want to be damaging your brand by being seen to be saying, well, actually, is, is this really a discount? Or is this just, is this a real prizes, the normal price, and you just sort of like, I took the price before, anti call it a discount and you don’t wanna get into that sort of area. And then the final bit is about what is your what what is it that you’re trying to achieve? You know, usually it’s about acquiring customers and all about, you know, getting rid of stop position, whether you bought in specifically for Black Friday and the holiday season, or whether you are actually got some stop that you are trying to pass through. And so, I guess there is some argument for very small amounts of you. Start that really. You do want to ultimately get rid of, but then again. it’s about How do you keep going? And Maybe, you take it away from a general sale to actually back to a secret sale to, to to sort of try and get some will not repeat business to get that loyalty going.

24:46

Uh, so, I do want to think about this maybe a little bit differently.

24:51

Every time I hear the word discount, I think of, you know, X percent off.

24:56

I know you buy one, get one free as it is a discount as a price discount to write, but, Jordan, how do you how do you think about that in terms of, I don’t want to be a discount brand?

25:08

But, but, I also want to offer value.

25:11

Are there, are there ways to offer value that probably technically are discounts, but are, but won’t be perceived as that?

25:18

Yeah, I mean, there’s, there’s quite a few different ways that you can tackle that, and I think looking at some of the larger e-commerce brands, what has made them successful. I think about Amazon, we kind of say, Well, Amazon, so far out of reach. You know, small, you know, dot com, E com store.

25:33

I can’t possibly be Amazon, but, but think about some of what Amazon does and does successfully, you know, they certainly have been pursuing sort of products with a story more.

25:43

You’ve seen them trying to move into sort of that collaboration space where they’re bringing in influencers, are bloggers or other brands even that are maybe aren’t your typical Amazon type brand and setting up and promoting these sort of collaborations stories. Offering that sort of bundling approach, where you are sort of, you have that story. You have this other brand that’s maybe coming in, You’re offering a free gifts with purchase attached to that.

26:09

It can be really great. As a marketer. Again, that’s our main focus.

26:12

I love to be able to bring together two very similar audiences, but really, that don’t have a lot of overlap between our clients and then be able to say, Look, we can offer essentially a discount to net new audience.

26:23

So, they’re not thinking of view as being a repeat discounter, but it’s a big marketing acquisition opportunity for you across social and e-mail and SMS, and paid and all these other channels.

26:34

And so, that’s sort of a, you know, approach to discounting is really strong. And then, as you touched on, I think, just, there’s a lot of different ways to offer the same dollars off, but in a new presentation.

26:45

And just that change can really help refresh customers and keep them sort of from falling into this trap of, they are always 50% off, they’re always 50% off, they can think about in a different way.

26:56

This is conversation so great, personally, because I, I looked at an e-mail from a merchant, and can I, I absolutely looked at it last night. I recognize it as a discount, but I loved what they were doing. And it was a bundling of products, and it was adding value.

27:12

It was at, you know, there was a limited quantity and it was it was just a really well done tasteful keys that fit their brand.

27:20

And No, I think before we go any further, Jordan, I would say that’s your award for today, which is this? This brand story piece, which is so important.

27:31

and I think that the more we talk about how do you deal with promotions during during Black Friday, Cyber Monday? It’s easy to lose sight of this. What’s your brand, like, what do you stand for? Is that experience what you want people to have? And I think that’s an incredibly important part of this. We got a question from the audience that. I want to ask everybody. The question is what’s your advice to brands, not willing to lessen their value by offering promotions through all of November?

27:59

So, I think, Jordan, you touched on that a little bit, but but, Kate, thoughts on, you know, what if, what if I don’t want it, offer promotions in November? What or what do I do now?

28:11

So, I mean sending that we’ve seen be very successful for our brands and not to jump ahead into kind of that nurturing conversation, but to Jordan’s point about brand storytelling. If you’re thinking about who your unique customer, and there’s a lot that you can do about content and valuable content that will be important to your specific customer. So, we, you know, we have a customer that that, a sponge brand, that delivers cleaning tips and tricks to their consumer. And that becomes, you know, a value exchange for e-mail sign up. And then the ability to nurture and grow that customer with that brand story. So. thinking about how you can use content that is valuable to your customer and builds on this brand, storytelling.

28:57

And that’s, you know, how you can continue to drive, like that lifetime value or the repeat purchase of your customer, in a way that you don’t necessarily need to think about a discount as that value transfer, that you’re, you’re there for that reason, too, to exchange.

29:16

Yeah, great, Martin, thoughts on thoughts on, on that?

29:20

Yeah, I think that, you know, if you, if you’ve not done it before, and you don’t want to do it, and that is sort of, part of your brand and expected then then, no, I don’t think there’s any downside to, to actually doing it. I mean, the, the only thing you, obviously, violence against is that there’s a, there’s a, there’s a huge volume of potential new customers out there.

29:41

And it’s sort of thinking, well, know, is this something I can do that does fit in with my brand values? That might allow me to engage with these because they’re, you know, the clearly if you, if you just look at the stats about the number of people that are buying online during this, people, you know, it’s phenomenally higher. So I certainly sympathize with that. But I do think that maybe, then, it’s about talking you know, to internally. Or maybe to whoever you, you might go to for you, your marketing expertise, or whatever to actually say, Well, how can we engage with these consumers?

30:16

Because there’ll be a huge segment of them that, that you would like as a customer?

30:25

I would jump in. I’m assuming, generally. I think we have a brand that refuses to discount. Even around this time or just does not want to. Usually, they’re very confident in some some other portion of their brand story, but pause, Because I also hate when Marketers talk about branding and brand storytelling, because it often becomes very abstract.

30:41

And for me, I think this should always be something we can measure in kind of concrete terms.

30:45

And so if you’re a brand and you really don’t feel like price as a part of your brand story, then you have to really hang your hat on. On the substance, the quality, style, there’s gotta be something else that you feel like.

30:58

Or content, as Kate had mentioned, that you can really hang your hat on and say, this is what our brand is sort of built on.

31:03

And for a lot of our customers, we think about when they’re in that position, they are really confident price is not what drives their customers and their purchases.

31:11

We really look at what are sort of the unique gifting related opportunities to use Black Friday and Cyber Monday as a promotion.

31:19

So if I’m super confident that I’ve got the best quality or best style, a lot of people who are already purchasing from you and are on your e-mail list are going to be looking to gift to somebody this this year. And so talking about gifting as sort of being the main reason that you’re doing your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions is really great.

31:35

Sometimes some sort of non product related discounts can be very helpful.

31:40

So, again, like a free shipping offer, we have one client who’s going to be trialing a free shipping when you are purchasing and mailing to separate addresses.

31:47

So instead of having separate shipping charges to each of these different addresses, if you send it to five different family members, guess what? Free shipping And that’s sort of as how they’re approaching. Some of these are some limits to that.

31:58

Or Early Access, I think someone earlier touched on, just Early Access and product exclusives. Maybe it’s a holiday bundle, we’ve touched on that. And so, really kind of playing off that gifting story where you’re giving the gift to, why you’re giving the gift.

32:09

What makes them interested in your product, that can go a long ways in terms of helping fill the void of a price oriented story.

32:16

Yeah.

32:16

Yeah, I think that’s, that’s important, and, yeah, there are lots, there are lots of ways to drive experience, that isn’t just 30% off or whatever. Whatever the, whatever the number will be, I’d like to sort of segue away from the polls quickly.

32:34

Intuits into some of that prepared questions and conversations that we, we had had, and I think data segmentation is the right spot to jump in.

32:42

We covered a lot about promotions just now, so I want to jump into data segmentation and data collection.

32:49

So Martin, you had talked about, You know, if you don’t want to offer promotions, that may be fine.

32:58

Understand the segments that are buying from you, though, so that you can hone in on what’s, what’s important, And I think everybody touched a little bit on that.

33:07

Maybe, Martin, why don’t we start with you and on that topic like when you look at segments?

33:15

How should we be segmenting our data? I think that’s the first question that I would ask all of you. Martin, let’s start with you. How should we be segmenting our data?

33:23

I think, ultimately, it comes down to know your customer designate, you know, so, the first first thing that you will normally looks at, is, is who are your customers that you, buying them, who are your best customers, and, and, and what can you find out. You know, what can you find out about those customers, in terms of, you know, what were, they are, the demographics that they are, the types of products that they buy from, you know, what other types of products are buying from you?

33:50

And then, to try, and be able to sort of curate a more, a personalized story for them when they come onto your site. You know, so, especially if it’s somebody that’s, that’s, you know, repeat buying unregulated, and regularly the, you know, the, the, the last thing that the one is for you to be promoting in you, For example, you merchandising promote. Something that they feel will you should know me by now. You want why you, while you’re presenting me with these products, that you know that I never buy our adult like. Or it’s not my type, because you were. So. So, I think it’s really powerful for being able to, say, look at your existing customers. Understand those, and then, and then start moving that towards your new customers in terms of being able to say, well, you know, what? What is the behaviors and which, which route should I take them down?

34:40

You know, and and, know, do I have the tech that allows me to actually give them that personalized journey as well?

34:47

Kate, how about you on this notion of segmentation?

34:52

Sure. So, the other thing that, you know, I like to think about as you, as you’re segmenting your data or what are the gaps in the data that you do have? So, I think we talked already about how gifting is a big part of that Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and about 20% of this ban will be on gifting sell.

35:11

You know, is that and consumer of that gift and how can, you know, build some of that data? So that some of that, you know, net new customer, that, you know, Martin, talking about how do you bring them into your ecosystem? You know, is that different on your knowing your customer or this or similar to kind of that customer profile that Maybe the buyer versus the end user of that that gap. So thinking about bringing in or filling the gaps for, for the data that you do have with the idea that you do not have? So, you know, whether that selling through, you know, retail, this intermediate channels where you don’t have the customers, I think that, that, I’m bringing that in and comparing that to your segmentation. And then, also, having the ability to tie and personalized, as Martin really mentioned, too, that customers and unique purchase journey, south.

36:01

What are the complementary products that you can be suggesting to that, that customer, based off of their purchase history in the past, and that profile that, that you now now know and have.

36:15

Greg, sorry, I’m just making a note, because I want to come back to something you said, I want to talk about gaps in just a second. Jordan, so talk about segmentation that add additives to the conversation here.

36:27

Maybe, just as a quick caveat.

36:28

I think one thing is, that there’s a little bit of a trap that’s been said, I think, with this sort of push, the first party data and a lot of the new sort of data acquisition that’s happening. There is a big push on the kind of government and oversight side of things, too.

36:42

Really make sure you’re responsible parties. So, I would say, just as you’re beginning to think about how to collect more data, or if you are collecting more data, make sure you also have a records process where you are sort of tracking that.

36:52

A, we have the right to this data and be responsible party to it, I think sort of on the segmentation side of things.

36:58

I would really say, look at some of the really obvious points where you have structured data about what’s driving success for you as a brand.

37:06

And so a lot of our talk on segmentation does focus on the customer, but we don’t honestly know that much about our customer most of the time.

37:14

You know, we don’t do polls, We don’t do surveys. We make a lot of assumptions about them already rely on third party marketing platforms like Facebook or Google to give us automated intelligence and insights, which can be pretty erroneous and so, I would say, look at what you really do know, what did they buy?

37:29

You know, I love that, we have a solution on the call today, because I really sort of managing your product catalog and having that setup as part of your segmentation story is a big deal.

37:40

If you’re not in the market And you don’t maybe have the budget for a full on prem solution, a lot of the big e-commerce platforms like Shopify have solutions in place that you can use natively. Shopify has its … functionality, Big Commerce as meta fields as well.

37:53

We have an app for Meta Fields within Commerce, but you can actually take your product catalog, which most of us know really well.

37:59

And that can be a brilliant strategy in terms of creating additional segmentation, you know, understanding size, fit, quality, rate, of return.

38:07

And, having that data sort of built into your pen solution or into your e-commerce store, you can get some quick data insights for future segmentation.

38:15

So, I would say that, you know, again, if you don’t actually have that segmentation in place, think about the data. you do. Have, time of day that they’re purchasing, where the address is going, when the shipping and billing address match.

38:25

You know, repeat purchases versus non repeat purchases, you know, again, that product catalog information. You know what, size the cell, the most, what color sell, the most that really can help tell that story and create additional segment opportunities for you to work off of.

38:40

Great, thank you. Kate, I wanted to go back to the where you have gaps.

38:45

Jordan gave us a good rundown of Specific things you’d like the we should be looking at with, In your business, you know, you were talking about the your, the QR code. I completely agree with you, by the way.

39:00

What?

39:01

Like are you able to capture some of the gaps? Using a QR code is really a mechanism to go, some place, that I can capture that information out?

39:11

How are you, how are you using a QR Code to sort of like, they help build segmentation and stuff like that?

39:19

So, I mean, if you think about a customer that comes to your website, you do start to collect data and information about them.

39:29

But if that customer didn’t come to your website, so, you know, they got a gift, or, you know, they purchase it through another channel like retail, Wholesale or Amazon. Or they didn’t, you know, directly come to your site, and QR code just becomes that mechanism to, you know, start to collect more information. So, just from scanning a QR code, you can, you know, know, the basic location and some attributes about a customer, but then, you know, taking that a step further, helping a brand deliver value, transfer to that consumer. For an opt into providing their e-mail, then that becomes like, you know, a very important element and attribute to a brand. Knowing their customer, taking that one step further in a drawer and talked about knowing what that customer purchased. So, now you can tie that e-mail to the, exactly, the product that customer purchased. You know, if you’re doing skews specific QR codes, or have some sort of, you know, survey methodology, incorporated in that QR codes.

40:25

So, how can you build out the data that is super valuable to you in building these customer attributes for these, you know, dis intermediate channels through the QR code, which, you know, just becomes a frictionless way to connect to that customer, captured our first party data, but importantly to Jordan’s point, doing so in a responsible way that now has the correct recordkeeping processes. So that’s, you know, that’s kind of the basic analysis there.

40:54

Got it. Great. Thank you.

40:55

And Martin, who, who in the business is responsible for, knowing this data exists, seeing the gap’s, understanding that there may be an opportunity within that data.

41:09

Like who’s who would not like if you don’t know, until you don’t? Until you know you don’t know, right? It’s like, it’s one of those things like work. Who knows this? Who knows to go capture these, these things?

41:22

Well, I mean, I think it starts by having having that data visible.

41:28

So, if you look in terms of your …, you know, it’s understanding, Well, what they are, are we collecting?

41:36

And taking, you know, obviously, taking on GDPR, et cetera, well, you know, what can we make visible and to whom?

41:43

Because at the end of that, there’s a lot I’d say, you know, everyone in, most people in your team will want to, should be able to see relevant data that can get insight. Because you know, and you know what? I mean where, pim so are all about we’re all about finding the gaps, filling the gaps and enriching, etcetera.

42:04

So one of the primary objectives of what a pim does, and also being able to give back the business insight in terms of, Well, what is cellular? Life take returns by other things getting returned?

42:18

I mean over 20% of the time it’s because it’s not as in a consumer’s perception is not as described on your website. You know, so they get in it, and it’s either the wrong color or in their eyes. So, it’s, it’s just now got the right description or whatever.

42:35

And so, know, you can sometimes find correlation between, you know, high return items and actually, you know, the completeness and accuracy of your product data, et cetera.

42:46

And, and also, in terms of, you know, what a journey on the web, you do, at least have that, you might not know who it is, but, you know where they’ve come from, and how they’ve got to that product page. And, again, you can then determine from that. Sometimes, you know, what?

43:01

what what is the actual product detail that I want to show for that journey, you know? And, do I want to, for example, you know, cannot detect that? It’s, it’s somebody that’s looking for a gift or somebody that’s looking for themselves. And, therefore, do I want to actually present them with different imagery slash under marketing text around what I perceive the journeys brought in to this particular point.

43:27

And, again, it’s all having being able to do these things, and In the rights of the tech around it, and people that have got the vision to do that.

43:41

Yeah. So, I really appreciate that. It is.

43:47

The, the understanding in the collection of this, of the data about your shoppers is. So incredibly important.

43:55

Is there, I mean, who does it, who does it roll up to Jordan, who who are you talking to when they come to you? And they say, OK, Well, I’ve got, I’ve got these issues and you say, Great.

44:06

We’re going to handle issues like that.

44:08

I need this information, go get it, and they looked blankly at you, or is there somebody sitting on top of this information? They will get that for you.

44:16

Yeah, it’s It’s interesting question.

44:17

I think one of the things that is, is sort of funny from the agency perspective, and, again, having been at it for 20 years now, is just how much, some very capable marketers and e-commerce brand representatives or managers, just don’t know about what’s out there, because a lot of what we’re doing is fairly new.

44:37

And, as I think, you know, just in terms of who’s responsible, I would say, you know, from a marketer’s perspective, assuming that a lot of the people attending are marketers or merchandisers, in some fashion, I think all of us have a certain responsibility to step into that role. And this is as segmentation is not a new and surprising strategy to most of us. And so I think really the onus is on us to stop accepting that. We don’t know.

45:05

And begin to go look and find out what’s there. And I think typically, what you’ll find is that from a marketer’s perspective, as there’s usually more data than you know what to do with.

45:14

And so it really becomes more of a focus on prioritization. And that’s where you see great marketers stand up and kind of show themselves.

45:20

And so, I would say, you know, really, whomever is running that marketing team, there’s just gotta be a responsibility to say like, Yes. I have to find this data and find out how we can access this.

45:31

And if it’s not findable, I need to find that solution that will help me make it more discoverable to my team and to the different people that are working with us from an agency perspective. You know, that’s part of the value we bring.

45:41

We’re big, were mature. We have decades of experience in most industries above sea com platforms and plugins and things like that.

45:48

So certainly, I know I’ll toot our own horn here and say like, hey, if you, if you don’t know we probably do.

45:54

And so we can help stand that up in some way.

45:57

Yeah, Go ahead again, really quick, because I think that one thing that we find, and I agree, like marketers often have more data than they know what to do with. And I think what we’ve seen be effective, is when you can find solutions, that you can set up automated flow, so that you’re using, you know, data and insights in a way that, of course, like, your, you’ll need to revisit and tasks. But when you can set that up and automate with those different personalization and tweaks that that’s like, how you can make marketing teams most successful.

46:32

So thank you, and let’s transition quickly into another topic around personalization.

46:38

You know, I think what we, what we want to talk a little bit about, the big picture here is personalization now for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, personalization through holiday season, personalization as we go into the next year, and all the pieces, that feed into that, into that personalization.

47:00

It’s a really wide open topic in general.

47:04

So I’ll let you attack that, how you’d like to, but, Kate, why don’t we start with you in terms of, how are you thinking about personalization? The conversations you’re involved in when it comes to personalization. Where do you take that conversation?

47:19

Sure, so I’m going to have focused on the post purchase environment because that’s where we, you know, branch and typically playing in the personalization side. So, you know, in getting set up or a Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Now, what we’d highly recommend is putting a QR Code on app product insert so that you’re getting so that that customer is getting it when they’re purchasing their product and then that’s where that personalization element can really come into play. If you know that QR code can be a few specific QR Codes such that you’re giving that post purchase experience. Now. Really tailored and personalized to that customer and that unique product that they’ve purchased So let’s take you just bought a coffee coffee machine So you can have setup instructions all of that content You know how to re-order the Pot?

48:11

All that information in a very beautiful post purchase experience with one QR Code and then when you’re, you know have that data. Connected to the customer. You now know exactly You know, what that what that specific product that customer purchased? You know, whether it was a gift, whether it was sold through retail, whether they got it direct. So, that’s how, you know, one of the ways we think about setting up that personalization is knowing, you know, the exact product, giving that customer, that personalized post purchase experience.

48:41

And then connecting that to, you know, that unique fire for, purposes of nurturing going forward.

48:48

And, Jordan, your thoughts around personalization. How do you start having this conversation?

48:54

I can, I can absolutely see someone coming to you and saying, I know exactly what I want to do, because I’ve done a bunch of research on this, And I can imagine people coming to you and saying, I hear this word.

49:06

I think this is important, and I have no idea what to do next.

49:10

And for us, we are, again, we are a marketing agency focused on e-commerce, But we have really an amazing design and development reputation as well. So a big part of what we like to do, is we’d like to look at what are the low hanging fruit with your e-commerce platform, today?

49:24

What is sort of the easily accessible, easy to implement, sort of technology solutions that will help with personalization, whether that’s a data discovery piece.

49:33

You know, we have different tools that we work with, and certainly can make some recommendations that help sort of connect all of your different customer information sources. So, you can really have sort of a good picture of what your first party and third party data is around customers and begin to work on some personalization off of that. We have great personalization apps that are available.

49:53

And we can do custom things.

49:54

So, you know, so a lot of the platforms that we work with from an e-commerce solutions standpoint, also, I have a great technology natively to them where you can begin to implement, you know, cross sell up, sell, even just design and content experiences that are unique, and I know you touched on QR codes, katyn. Yeah. So, some of what you do very much sort of ties into some of what we’re doing with our customers, where solutions already exist.

50:18

And, again, part of what an agency often is going to do is say, Hey, We’ve seen this work ninety five out of one hundred times.

50:25

Let’s let’s go there. And that’s 999, a month, instead of, you know, there’s a big sprint cycle.

50:32

Martin, I want to go to you next about personalization. But I’m going to pause real quick to say, had a question come in that said, What is first party data? What is third party data?

50:40

And the person who asked this question is near and dear to my heart, because I love stuff that maybe the four of us would just throw out there, like, It’s no big deal.

50:49

And then, know, some of us have no idea what that it’s. So, the first party third party data, Jordan, you want to tackle that within the definition of that?

50:58

Yeah. So, first party data, the data you get directly, it’s your data. So, this is, you know, think about what customer puts into your contact form or puts into your checkout solution.

51:07

It’s essentially yours, third party data as data that’s essentially passed through someone else.

51:13

And probably the most common example is, you know, information about Facebook, users that you get as part of Facebook and Instagram, or meta Advertising. So, they own the data. You get access to the data as part of the advertiser. Sort of agreement. You have, you don’t get a lot of it necessarily, but how you can get some information in terms of being able to create some segmentation.

51:34

Thank you, I appreciate that. And thanks for the questions. Everybody. Keep them. Keep them coming. I know we are getting to the top of the hour, but we want to cover a couple more things. So if you’ve got questions, feel free to stick them in. Acute alright, Martin, let’s talk about personalization from your perspective. What, you know, probably the same question could be applied to use. Some people come to you and say, I know exactly what I want to do, and some people come to you and say, what the **** are we talking about? So, so, help us understand what’s going on.

52:01

Yeah, I mean, obviously, we’re about the product, and so, you know, it really comes into two sort of format, so, one is being able to actually present the product descriptions, even attributes, and images, et cetera. Specific to a use case. So, it could either be, if we take a Garmin, you know, I want to show we know that somebody’s looking for a government for a party offer a formal off of whatever? We can, you know, we can show that the government will provide the images in the actual text, et cetera. That are specific to the use case and we do personalization. Wherever it’s to do with, for example, body shape, you know, or it might be for example, to do with actual use case. You know, whatever. Especially, if it’s a B2B product.

52:53

You know, somebody might want to have a set of images, et cetera, that are specific to that sector, and it’s exactly the same product. But, you know, if you take high vis jackets, I always mentioned ivies jackets. Completely different images, et cetera, selling to the police and fire. Guess what, they want to see police men and women wearing the IRBs jacket, so that is the construction.

53:15

So, barriers to same SKU and that’s that’s one element from our point of view in terms of the product.

53:21

Then the other thing is in the PMU. You’ve got a heck of tons and tons a day are all about the products, et cetera. And we’ll, we’ll also be feeding in, for example, into the likes of Searchspring, so rather than just getting your data from the … platform, which has, probably, I’d say, you know, 30% of you. That Actually, being able to set to, to serve into the likes of Searchspring gives a much richer sort of experience. In terms of being able to do you saw you search emerged as well, because you’re not just getting the data from the, from what you’ve put in your E com platform.

54:00

Great.

54:01

Thank you. All right. We’re getting so close to the top of the hour. I have, like, all these questions. And I’m like, if we can extend by another hour, I would love to. Really, thank you for your opinions and your input and everything. one question. We’re just gonna go around, give an answer.

54:17

What should brands be doing after Black Friday, Cyber Monday or whatever they consider to be their holiday period?

54:26

two, to take what happened during that holiday period and build what, What should, what should brands be doing. Martin, let’s start with you.

54:35

I would say do your research at the end of eight. So easy isn’t it? You surf shattered by the end of a. It’s easy to sort of like say, you know, thank God, that server with a sector. But it’s not the unit to plan for the next year is about learning about what happened. You know, said. You know, most people know what they need to do is just sitting down and doing it and research in the data that’s come in. You know, what cell what didn’t sell interestingly sometimes? You might have two products that both sell really well one that you’ve pushed really hard on on promoting one that you did and it’s like, well, what what what what? What happened? Why is that? Why spend? It’s just putting in the hard work afterwards. We all know what needs to be done. It’s just so easy to Sort of back instead.

55:22

Kate, how about you?

55:23

Then after you do that hard work and you know identify as Cities new buckets of customers that You Brought in sat at the personalized e-mail cadences to nurture these customers And how do you take this? new? Add new? Pot of customers? And make them long term customers at e-mail? Is the cheapest way to you know continue to engage with that customer. Tell that brand story and Get them to purchase again from you and that’s really where you know the personalization can come into your your e-mail flaws. I would say, you know, nurture those new customers and set that up so that you can automate it.

56:03

Excellent. Thanks. And, Jordan, how about you?

56:06

Yeah, one, I’d make sure you are creating that personalization and segmentation around Black Friday shoppers. I mean, you know, who purchased now, so that’s usually going to be someone who’s going to come back for some of these bigger buying events. So make sure you get that in place. Don’t sort of ignore the real obvious one.

56:21

The SEO in me wants to also say, you know, don’t get rid of your URLs in your content for this year.

56:27

I keep them alive. If you look at the Amazon and Best Buy and Wal-Mart that they’re Black Friday, Cyber Monday URLs, they live here, route, may not have the most content and may not be the most visited page.

56:37

It allows them to accumulate link value and awareness around that particular URL. That can continue to grow over time, so that that one is really important for me, as well.

56:46

And then, again, I think sort of the other piece, maybe tactically speaking from the marketer’s perspective, evangelize what you found out, one of the interesting things we’re seeing with e-commerce brands is there’s a lot of change in personnel.

56:57

And if you’re the only one who happens to know where all of these wonderful things are hidden and where they exist, you do the brand. You’re working with a disservice, if you hang onto that, and you walk away.

57:07

Or, you know, if you’re in sort of a position where you’re planning on running the team next year, you know, again, make sure you’re evangelizing to operations, to inventory, to the C suite, about what really worked, What didn’t work? What we need to be ready for next year.

57:21

That usually puts you in a lot better position again when that rolls around, where someone isn’t starting from scratch, and were talking about, and how do I get data, again? How do I segment data? Again? It is not a new conversation. We start back at the beginning. Yeah. Repeat this webinar.

57:35

Well, I’d like to thank the three of you so much, Jordan, and Kate and Martin: Your opinions have been great. Your thoughts have been great.

57:43

I guarantee, there’s a, there’s a kernel of knowledge for every single person who was listening today, including me. That last list was, was outstanding for me, and we’ll take that to the team meeting on Monday. So, thank you so much, and for everybody who is on the line listening, thanks for being here. Check out the next webinar in December, December 14th, talking about five Steps for Killer site Search. Me a great opportunity. After some of this Black Friday craziness has died down to think a little bit about Site Search and optimize that for 420, 23.

58:17

So, feel free to register for that and hopefully we’ll see you there Again, Martin Jordan and Kate, thank you so much. Really, really appreciate it. Have great Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

58:30

Thank you, everyone.