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Episerver

Half of consumers will turn to Amazon for their Christmas shopping this year
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Just under a half of UK shoppers (44%) plan to complete their Christmas shopping online this year — with a majority (42%) looking to turn to Amazon first.

That’s according to findings from the Episerver report “An Interview with The Couch Shopper: The Episerver Holiday Ecommerce Report 2020,” for which the firm surveyed 4,050 online shoppers across the world and performed 1.6 billion website sessions to uncover the behaviors and trends shaping the future of e-commerce.

The survey revealed that 42% of UK shoppers plan to buy most of their Christmas presents on Amazon this year, and 8% say they plan to buy all of their gifts on Amazon.

The study found that in general, 37% of UK online shoppers visit Amazon first when they have a specific product they’re looking to purchase, and 35% begin their shopping journey on Amazon even when they do not have a specific product in mind. 

Whether it’s with Amazon or another retailer, there will be an exponential increase in online Christmas shopping this year, amid the ongoing pandemic, and a majority of which will occur through mobile devices. In its analysis of web traffic, Episerver found that 2020 e-commerce traffic overall spiked 18% year-over-year, and mobile traffic specifically ticked up 5% year-over-year — now accounting for 59% of all traffic to retail websites. 

Episerver’s survey of consumers revealed the most active shoppers are also the most likely to use their smartphones: 53% of consumers who said they shop online every day primarily rely on their smartphones to do so. When viewed as a whole, the report’s findings indicate the need for retailers to tailor their content to consumers across all types of channels and to deliver a mobile-first shopping experience this Christmas and beyond.

“As Amazon claims an increasingly larger share of the market, retailers and brands can no longer compete by using broad promotions to stand out or catch consumers’ eyes,” said Josh Schoonmaker, senior director of strategy, commerce, at Episerver. “Instead, retailers must draw consumers in with intuitive online shopping experiences, compelling content, and personalised recommendations or offers.”

You can download “An Interview with The Couch Shopper: The Episerver Holiday Ecommerce Report 2020” here.

Enhancing the mobile shopping experience (and improving conversion)
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The B2C Retail Benchmark Report from Episerver predicts mobile share of traffic will exceed 60% during peak shopping events. However, the report shows mobile conversion rates are still trailing behind desktop. So, why do so many retailers and brands see this gap between their mobile traffic and sales?

In a guide produced by UX and CRO specialists from digital marketing agency twentysix, we look at common user experience issues when it comes to mobile, unveil opportunities to optimise customer behaviour and influence motivation, as well as discuss the importance of understanding your customers to take the guesswork out of your experience design.

Here are 5 tips to improve your mobile shopping experience, and ultimately, improve your conversion rates.

  1. Make your checkout as seamless as possible: Data shows us that mobile shoppers are often lost at checkout and users find filling in forms more difficult on mobile. Consider offering guest checkout options and efficient payment methods, such as Apple Pay.
  2. Reassure your mobile customers: Design for reassurance and transparency in mind to motivate shoppers. At every step, ask yourself the questions your customers might have e.g. what will they charge me for delivery?
  3. Be relevant: Avoid customers thinking your website and products are not relevant to them by displaying your main product categories on your homepage in an easy-to-scan form. On mobile screens, a clear value proposition, simple product category cards and text links attract attention.
  4. Be recognisable: The mere-exposure effect shows when things feel familiar, they are more appealing. Make sure your search and communications strategies are aligned with your website, using consistent messaging throughout the entire customer journey.
  5. Be personal: We’re more likely to respond to messaging and products that feel tailored to us. Use Customer Journey Mapping to understand your customers and where they are in their journey so that you can deliver timely, relevant content. 

It’s important to understand your customers as well as these wider trends. Consider gaining customer feedback and implementing research and testing to help you improve your customer journey and enhance your sales.

Download the full guide from twentysix here.

GUEST BLOG: Customer Experience – The latest silo in the marketing mix
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Joey Moore, Head of Product Marketing, Episerver

For years, marketers have talked—and written—extensively about the disconnect between marketing and IT. Who should own email lists and sensitive data? Who should have access to the website CMS? Who should decide which marketing automation platforms to install? These are just a few of the questions that have plagued the marketing/IT debate.

In 2019 however, this debate finally feels like it’s come to a close. According to new research from Episerver, 93 percent of marketers now have the ability to directly edit their company’s website, while 80 percent expect to have complete ownership over their brand’s web presence within the next two years.

Instead of seeing this as a ‘land grab’ from IT, however, 62 percent of marketers say they are simply working collaboratively with their IT departments in order to reduce silos and ensure the best customer experiences. While this is great news for customers, the problem of marketing silos has not gone away for good. Instead, a new debate has started to rage—this time between marketers and the new wave of customer experience (CX) professionals.

Over the last few years, customer experience has become a central topic for most businesses, with as many as 35 percent hiring specific teams and individuals to manage the CX journey. In contrast, only 45 percent of marketers feel they have genuine autonomy over the customer experience, with many feeling that CX teams aren’t delivering the same quality of experience that marketers themselves would provide if they were in charge.

As a result, Episerver’s research shows that as many as 80 percent of marketers are planning to take over the CX role by 2020, removing the need for standalone customer experience departments and professionals.

While new technologies are making it easier than ever for marketers to control elements of the customer experience, by attempting to force out CX teams, marketers are falling into the exact same trap they did with IT.

Just as IT teams work across so much more than just marketing technologies, today’s CX teams also provide a far more all-encompassing view. Working with customer service departments, contact centres, HR and employee training courses, the remit of today’s CX professionals goes well beyond just marketing. Given this fact, marketers should be careful about biting off more than they can chew.

Instead, what is needed is a joint approach, one in which marketing and CX teams work together and collaborate in the best interests of the end customer. Technology can enable this collaboration, providing a seamless link through which marketing and customer experience teams can decide the CX direction of their company and ensuring it’s implemented across all levels of the brand. This will be the future of CX, not total marketing ownership, but technology-driven collaboration.