How can brands grow in the ever changing world of ecommerce and succeed in 2022? In the Shopify Corner series, we introduce industry experts to share insights and perspectives about how their teams are supporting omnichannel experiences for Shopify brands. While the past couple of years marked a year of growth for many direct to consumer (DTC) brands, existing challenges became more apparent like supply chains and labor shortages.
This is the reason why we created the Shopify Corner -- a series of educational panels made up of industry experts who share their knowledge and insights. Learn from industry leaders real life, actionable tips about how to keep up with the advances and trends that affect brands, also how to address and navigate challenges in the year ahead.
Shopify Corner series available on-demand now
This panel, hosted by Gorgias Platform Partnership Manager, Rohan Kapoor, features three industry experts:
- Anisha Datwani, Merchant Success at Shopify Plus
- Blake Imperl, Head of Partner Community at Attentive
- Doug Hollinger, VP of Strategy at BVA (The Stable)
Episode Summary:
Omnichannel experience in the new year
Today, nearly everything is conveniently available to shop online, through multiple devices at any time. Brands are learning to navigate the mix between in store and online sales, as well as how to retain customers by providing choices to shop whenever and wherever shoppers desire.
Brands that are able to adopt an omnichannel experience are likely to achieve massive success in the new year, as well as remain relevant with new technological advances, making every interaction ever-evolving and convenient to meet consumers’ growing expectations.
New customer acquisition
It’s no surprise that customer acquisition costs (CAC) are rising. Launching a social media or digital ad campaign is a costly endeavor, and competition for paid search is challenging. Now, more than ever, it’s vital for merchants to retain every new customer they win through data-driven retention programs.
SMS is a critical channel for customer retention campaigns. Consumers look at their phones up to one hundred times per day. Additionally, the average consumer will have ten different email addresses over the course of their lives, but just one mobile phone number.
Customer acquisition is no longer about the first sale or the website, it’s about the entire end-to-end customer experience. Brands can have a long lasting impact on how consumers view and speak about your brands depending on their experience.
Coordinating experiential retail
Many DTC brands are experimenting with various in-person retail experiences, such as pop-up stores and physical showrooms to drive traffic to their stores and customer loyalty. According to a Shopify survey of 12,000 merchants, 59% said coordinating experiential retail is going to be a focus for them this year.
Unifying operational data
The end-to-end customer experience is highly fragmented, and yet building customer retention and loyalty requires a holistic view of the consumer. Consumers expect unified and consistent experiences across channels. It can be challenging to unify operational data from many channels, but there are solutions and many tools to help brands address this challenge.
Privacy and data protection require new strategies
For decades, brands relied on third-party data to build upper funnels and to nurture consumers through the purchasing journeys, but privacy regulations have complicated those tactics.Privacy regulations don’t ban the use of data; they simply require brands to request and record consent, and to adhere to data-protection requirements.
SMS and customer experience
Brands that aren’t deploying SMS are missing out and run the risk of losing relevance to the consumer. Many brands send purchase notifications to consumers (e.g. order on its way, order delivered) but there are opportunities as well to send messages that remind the consumer that they haven’t completed a purchase (cart abandonment) or to simply reengage with your brand.
As a deeply engaging channel, SMS is ideally suited for customer care applications, and brands should absolutely integrate it with their customer support helpdesk.
Automation and personalization
Consumers demand personalized interactions and exceptional customer service, which is achievable through a combination of smart automations and real-time communications that allow customers to engage on a more personal level with your brand.
This panel includes an in-depth discussion of the “low-hanging fruit” for automation, as well as a crawl, walk, run approach to deploying automations and tools to help brands fuel growth.
👉 watch this episode on demand here
Have a Shopify Merchant to refer to Gorgias? Submit here or you can introduce them directly to Rohan Kapoor at rohan@gorgias.com
