Increase Your end-of-life Sales With PIM: Automate the entire process of clearance discounts

Increase Your EOL Sales With PIM

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The festive season is nearly here! It’s the busiest and most profitable time of year for most retailers. However, it’s also the time of year when retailers will be thinking of ways to increase their end-of-life stock sales as the season draws to an end.

Global spending during the festive season was forecast to hit $182 in 2020 with the average consumer budget for the holidays being around $575 per person. Therefore, it’s the perfect time for retailers to cash in on the wave of consumers who’ll be shopping for their nearest and dearest.

This increase in consumer activity also means increasing stock in preparation for the onslaught of sales. However, what do you do if you don’t manage to sell all your stock? Especially if that stock is heavily Christmas, Thanksgiving, or New Year’s themed. It won’t last sitting around waiting for the next year!

End-of-life (EOL) stock can be a huge problem for eCommerce businesses. Essentially, when it’s not sold, it’s a loss in profit.  To avoid this loss, we’ve highlighted some key ways you can increase your end-of-life stock sales. Read on for tips on how and where to sell it, and how you can use your PIM to make the whole process a walk in the park.

Increase Your end-of-life Sales With PIM: Automate the entire process of clearance discounts

How do I sell my end-of-life stock?

The most obvious and effective way to sell your EOL stock is through a clearance sale. This sounds quite simple, but it takes some careful planning to avoid over-using clearance sales. In other words, the overuse of clearance sales reduces their impact. If customers notice your stock is often on sale, they’ll be less impulsive when buying the products in your sale.

Here are some of our tips to maximize your stock clearance sales:

Clearance sales, not discount sales 

There’s an important distinction to be made between a discount sale and a clearance sale. A discount sale is a promotional tactic used to attract more customers. On the other hand, a clearance sale is purpose-made to get rid of excess stock.

Customers know this difference, and this makes stock clearance sales much more effective than discount sales. This is because your customers usually think they’re getting a better deal.

Use prices, not percentages 

It’s the holiday season. Everyone is stressed and trying to maintain a healthy work-life balance.  Nobody wants to be doing mental maths to work out what 34% off $42.60 would be.

Give your customers the new price and the old price so they can easily make the comparison. This is a much more effective way of communicating a discount compared to a percentage off.

Timing is everything 

There’s little point in starting your clearance sale once the season is completely over. The intrepid consumer may snap up some of your deals in preparation for next year, but these customers are few and far between.

Start your sale late into the season with a smaller discount, rather than at the end with a huge discount. In doing this, you’ll be able to sell more stock at a better price. This will lead to a healthier balance sheet because you’ll be making better profit margins, all whilst reducing your would-be excess stock.

Where do I sell my end-of-life stock?

So, we’ve covered some of the best ways to maximize your clearance strategy, but how do we put this into practice? Where are some of the best places to sell your excess stock and implement your clearance strategy?

Website clearance section 

Your eCommerce site is the perfect place to start your clearance sale. Create a dedicated clearance section on your site with all of the excess stock you want to sell. This is a great way to channel customers towards the deals that you want them to see. Having this dedicated section on your website can increase your conversion rates by up to 50%.

Marketplaces 

Even with the most careful inventory management, sometimes excess stock may exceed previous estimates. Diversifying sales channels can help to deal with this kind of situation. Sell on multiple marketplaces to reach a wider pool of consumers. You’ll likely see increased sales, especially given 62% of global online sales took place on marketplaces in 2020.

Email and text alerts 

You’ve likely got access to extensive customer information, especially if you’re using a loyalty program. Use this information to notify previous customers of your upcoming sale via email and text alerts. You can also use this information to send personalized offers on your clearance items to enhance the customer experience.

How can Pimberly help sell my end-of-life Stock?

Time is of the essence when it comes to the busy season. Make it a  memorable one with a powerful PIM solution like Pimberly so you can focus on delivering the best possible results. Here’s how:

Watch the video!

Powerful automation & real-time updates

One of the most frustrating aspects of creating a clearance sale is continuously re-adjusting discount prices depending on stock levels. For instance, you might have a 20% discount on product X. This may mean that product X doesn’t sell very well, leaving you with a large excess stock towards the end of the season.

PIM automates the entire process of clearance discounts based on existing stock levels, so you can ensure you’re always offering the price that will guarantee more sales. Monitor stock levels with powerful connectors and create rules to change the prices when the stock hits a certain level. These changes reflect in real-time across all your sales channels, saving you loads of time. It also means you don’t have to employ additional team members.

Lock n’ load well ahead of time

Because PIM offers vast storage, you can lock n’ load your promotional campaigns well ahead of time. Upload all your promotional assets, prices, and product descriptions so they’re ready to launch at a moment’s notice.

With PIM, you can create rules to set them live on the date you choose, for whatever amount of time you want. Optimize your selling days by reducing the time to market of your end-of-life stock, and maintain your competitive edge – even when you’re at your busiest!

Setting up new sales channels

A great way to increase end-of-life stock sales is to extend your reach across new sales channels. This will give you more scope to sell your products quicker, without having to create further discounted prices. PIM enables you to set up new sales channels in a matter of clicks, so it’s really quick and easy to get your end-of-life stock in front of a wider audience.

Whether you’re selling on social media, or want to ace Amazon sales, you can set specific requirements for each of your sales channels. This means your customers always get the best possible product experience wherever they’re shopping with you.

Overall, there’s lots of automation and functionalities that will put you in good stead to increase your end-of-life stock sales!

Join us on September 22nd to hear eCommerce experts share lessons learned from the holiday season

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DAM Fine Branding for Fashion & Apparel Businesses

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In the world of fashion and apparel, branding can often be the tipping point of whether a customer chooses you or your competitor. That’s why Digital Asset Management (DAM) for fashion and apparel can make a huge difference for businesses in this space.

A DAM solution is a central repository where you can store all branded assets, rich media files relating to your products, and any other type of digital content you want to use to enrich the customer journey.

Product image and video play A key role in the buyer journey. Therefore, they need to set you apart from the competition and grab your customers’ attention. A variety of good quality images and videos, with zoom and 360 views, can lead to conversion rates 40% higher than products without them. In addition to this, your product images are likely the first thing your customers will see.

What we wear reflects our personality, style, and taste. Therefore, it’s no surprise we often look for brands we feel are aligned with our own beliefs and values. In other words, your media assets need to reflect the personality, and the story of your brand to create a bond with your customers.

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Creating an outfit of stylish product images

Consumers want so much more than basic imagery, so cater to those needs. Here are some of the things you can do to create an outfit of stylish product images:

  • Shoot your product from several angles and include 360 views
  • Ensure images are high res with a zoom functionality
  • Shoot on a white background
  • Avoid flat lay photography and style on models instead
  • Ensure the product takes up at least ½ the image
  • Use video to show what it looks like on
  • Include user-generated content

A fashion-forward digital asset management solution

It’s no wonder more and more businesses in the apparel and fashion industry are turning to Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems to create amazing product experiences. DAM has loads of features that will make brand management a breeze – let’s dive in:

Auto-linking digital assets to products: 

How long does it take you to make sure all your products have the relevant image and video? If the answer is ages, you can make that a thing of the past by auto-linking your digital assets to products. In other words, if your digital assets have file names that match the primary ID of a product, they’ll be automatically linked to that product.

Pimberly AI: 

If you’re using models to shoot your products, you’ll likely be working with them on a contract basis for a specified amount of time. Pimberly AI automatically tags your models, so you can easily keep track of all assets associated with them. It’s powerful by AWS Rekoginition AI image engine, so the more you use it, the more powerful it becomes!

Scoping & localizing: 

Every sales channel you’re selling to will have different requirements when it comes to your digital assets. The same applies to the different markets you’re selling to. Automatically re-size images and videos to meet the requirements of your different sales channels. You can also store multiple versions of images for the same product to tailor it to different geographies.

Personalization: 

A nice touch of personalization can go a long way in making your customer feel special and valued. DAM is a powerful solution that enables you to store vast amounts of digital files. This means you can use browsing history and personal details to show your customers things you know they’ll be interested in. Not only does this enhance the user experience, it’s also really handy when you’re creating “shop the look” recommendations.

Lock n’ load campaigns: 

Seasonal changes and ever-evolving trends mean businesses in the fashion and apparel space always need to be one step ahead. With DAM, you can upload all your promotional and seasonal assets well ahead of time. You can then set the release date so all assets and related campaign content will be automatically released for the amount of time you specify.

The benefits of DAM fine branding

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. This couldn’t be truer for the digital media you’re using to communicate your brand feel and personality. Storytelling is a key element in digital asset management, but there are a multitude of other benefits that come with DAM fine branding.

Not being able to see products in real life is definitely one of the biggest barriers to purchase eCommerce brands have to overcome. Good quality and varied images that give your customers a full view of what they’re buying will give them more confidence in their buying decisions. As a result, conversion rates will increase, and return rates will reduce as there’ll be no nasty surprises on delivery.

Image and video can also massively contribute towards a healthy SEO strategy. Using alt-tags with targeted keywords will ensure your products get in front of the right people at the right time. Video is also a great way of keeping your customers on your product page, which is another important ranking factor. User-generated content will also boost your SEO efforts and will create a stronger bond between your brand and your customers.

Overall, Digital Asset Management systems will give you the power to craft amazing online experiences with striking image and video. Whether customers are browsing your brand on eBay, Instagram, or your eCommerce site, you can ensure brand consistency across all channels. Leverage your digital assets to tell your story and let your personality shine to create unrivaled online experiences.

Book your free, personalized demo today to get started on your DAM fine branding

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Clothing Complexities in Fashion & Apparel

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The fashion and apparel industry is full of complexities and the pace of change is pretty much unrivaled. The seasonal nature of the fashion and apparel industry means new product launches are commonplace. Products need to be available in different sizes, colors, and styles, which means there are tons and tons of attributes to manage.

That’s why Product Information Management systems (PIM) for fashion and apparel businesses are becoming an essential tool. Anyone working in this industry knows that crafting amazing, personalized, and relevant product experiences is key to stay ahead and stand out. But, when you’re managing a large number of SKUs, the complexities start to build up.

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Let’s look at the familiar example of a shirt. We all know what they look like and it’s a pretty basic item of clothing – or so we think! When you start to break it down, the clothing complexities start creeping up. For instance, this single shirt will have a multitude of attributes, such as:

  • Size
  • Color
  • Style
  • Fit
  • Collar type
  • Cuff type
  • Pocket type
  • Cotton weight
  • Details around sustainability

All of a sudden, you end up with endless product variations, countless SKUs, and loads of different attributes to manage for one product. In addition to this, there might be certain combinations that don’t exist because they don’t sell well or could be low stock, discontinued or cheaper in price. In other words, even with something as simple as a shirt, you can quickly have a product information nightmare.

With PIM, you can easily manage all these product variations in one central hub.  So, what’s the hype around PIM for fashion and apparel businesses? Let’s get to it.

How PIM for fashion & apparel simplifies clothing complexities

The beauty of a PIM is the unlimited storage of product data, product content, and digital assets. The opportunities are also endless when it comes to your data sources and how many sales channels you set up. Literally, the sky is the limit.

There are tons of features and functionalities within PIM solutions that are tailored to meet the needs of online fashion retailers. Simplify the clothing complexities you deal with on a daily basis, all whilst streamlining the way you manage your product data.

Product categories & attributes

You can create as many product categories as you like with PIM software. The first step would be to define your data structure, which can be done with schemas. Search engines love well-structured data, so this will improve your SEO strategy and will also help customers navigate your site.

A schema within your PIM system enables you to control the attributes a product should contain. Because you’ve got unlimited storage and total flexibility, you can have as many product attributes as you want. Schemas define how products relate to other products and assets, as well as how they map to SKUs.

Apparel and fashion brands often manage multiple categories and sub-categories. Therefore, schemas will give you the ability to map these directly to product families.

Product data sets

Regardless of how many different feeds you’re sourcing your data from, there’s an easy way of managing all this within your PIM. Whether it’s your internal ERP, or external supplier feeds, you can gather all your data and digital assets in a central hub.

Product sets are basically tables of data that can be imported into Pimberly and then used in various places in the system. Essentially, data sets enable you to effectively transform data into the format you want. For instance, if you receive product information in the following format – “1B” or “BLK”, you can automatically change it to “Black”.

Overall, this means you can save heaps of time and you won’t have to manually change all these values – it’s done automatically. This means you can craft product descriptions that are on brand and clear for your customers.

Scoping and localizing data

Any successful apparel or fashion brand will likely be selling across multiple sales channels, in multiple regions. This is why it’s so important to make sure your product data is suited to your different audiences. On top of this, you need to make sure the information, imagery, and any other digital assets meet the requirements of the different sales channels you’re selling through.

The unlimited storage in PIM means you can store product information, including your descriptions, prices, and sizes in multiple languages. As a result, you can massively improve the customer experience by providing everything your customer needs in the language and format they’ll recognize.

In terms of your sales channels, they’ll all have different requirements for your product information and digital assets. Whether you’re selling swag on social media or acing your apparel on Amazon, scoping your data with PIM is super straightforward. Your images will be automatically resized, and you can store loads of different variations of your product descriptions.

Achieve eCommerce success with PIM for fashion and apparel

We put the fun back into eCommerce and take the pain out of managing product data, regardless of how many SKUs you have. We’ve developed the Pimberly platform with growth and scalability at the forefront, and we love helping eCommerce businesses create amazing online experiences. Here’s how:

Giving your customers the best possible experience

Making your customers feel special and valued is a great way of building loyalty. A great way of doing that is making intelligent product recommendations. Think “shop the look” to give your customers a bit of inspiration.

Creating product relationships with your PIM makes this super straightforward. It’s also a good way of creating cross-sell and upsell opportunities.

The fast-moving fashion industry means things are constantly changing, and customers are always on the lookout for new looks. So, making sure you’re regularly updating your product ranges is always going to be a priority. With a bulk update functionality, you can “stay on trend” and easily expand your product range with real-time product updates.

Another aspect of keeping your customers happy and loyal is making sure they can make informed buying decisions. There’s nothing more frustrating than ordering something online, only to find it doesn’t fit right. Around 40% of clothing and shoes bought online are returned, and less than half of them can be re-sold.

This is where an auto-sizing functionality will be handy, and it’ll save you tons of time. Automatically populate sizing charts with accurate and up-to-date information so your customers can pick the fit that’s right for them. Make sure you’re including high-quality image and video to bring your product pages to life and give your customers a full view of your products. This is where a powerful digital asset management system will be key!

Keeping a fresh look with PIM

Even the simplest of products can hide a multitude of complexities. Irrespective of the problems you face, PIM for fashion and apparel will help you overcome them. Whether it’s the colors and sizes of a t-shirt, or the color, cup size, and chest size of bras… multi-dimensional, multi-faceted product information is handled seamlessly in Pimberly.

Overall, PIM gives you the power to:

  • Create amazing online experiences that keep customers coming back with new and exciting product launches
  • Improve AOV with recommendations and create “shop the look” offerings
  • Reduce return rates with accurate product information and digital assets that leave no room for confusion
  • Enter new sales channels and geographies

Access your free version of our PIM for fashion & apparel whitepaperpim-for-fashion-and-apparel-whitepaper

 

*We always want to make sure we deliver the highest quality content, which is why we updated this blog in August 2021. This blog was originally published in September 2016.

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How to Use Product Enrichment to Achieve Super SEO

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Getting your product enrichment right will do wonders for your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. If you’re searching for a product, you don’t want to scroll through countless product listings to find what you want. The reality of online shopping in the current climate is that customers want to find products quickly and easily.  

So, what does product enrichment have to do with this? Generate more demand by making sure your products rank well and stand out from the competition. Give your customers top-quality product descriptions with stand-out images and videos to optimize your conversion rates. Let’s dig a little deeper into how rich product content contributes to your SEO strategy.  

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Get your products found

Your products are unique and amazing, right? Let your customers know that by making your product descriptions original and unique. If there’s a feature, benefit, or material that makes your product stand out, this needs to be clearly communicated to your customers.  

Let’s say you’re selling a shirt made from ethically sourced organic cotton. These important product details need to be included in the product title and description to narrow down search results. In doing this, it’ll be easy to target longtail keywords as often, the longer the search term, the higher the buyer intent will be. The customer knows exactly what they’re looking for, and you’re giving them the details they need to make an informed buying decision.  

 If you’re sourcing product information from suppliers or manufacturers, Don’t take the easy route by copying the product description you’re provided with. First off, the way search engines work means they don’t like duplicate content. Secondly, this gives you a chance to apply your brand tone of voice and personality to your product descriptions. 

When it comes to your keywords, make sure they’re placed where they need to be. For example:  

  •   In your title tag  
  •   One in the product title  
  •   Once or twice in the product description  
  •   One in the image alt tag  
  •   Once in the meta description  

Give your customers confidence

Your product descriptions need to instill confidence in your customers. To do this, you need to include rich, accurate, and quality product data coupled with keyword research. With speed and ease being so important, customers should instantly be able to know what they’re going to get from the product. This is where you should focus on the features and benefits.  

Outline what the key features are, and how the customer will benefit from the products you’re offering. Again, if we’re looking at the ethically sourced organic cotton shirt, the description might be as follows:    

“This ethically sourced organic cotton shirt is lightweight and will keep you cool in the hot summer months. The quality organic cotton is machine washable and fast-drying, so it’s an ideal holiday accessory.” 

From the get-go, the description outlines the product features and what that ultimately means if they buy it.  

You should always include images or videos on product pages because they play such an important role in the buyer’s journey. They need to be top-quality so your customers can zoom in and see products from all angles with 360 views. Videos encourage visitors to spend more time on your product page. This is another important ranking factor, so consider having a video as the first digital asset to instantly engage them.   

Very high-resolution images can sometimes have a negative impact on your page load time. Because this is an important ranking factor, make sure your PIM or DAM has an auto-resizing functionality built-in as standard. Failing that, you should use re-sizing apps. This means you won’t compromise the quality of your pictures, and you’ll be able to conserve precious bandwidth.  

Product enrichment for the buying stages

Different stages of the buyer journey will require different levels of detail. For instance, customers with a lower awareness are going to need more information. To cater to the needs of your different audiences, let your customers choose how much product detail they see.  

 This essentially means you’ll need to write two product descriptions, ensuring you include your short and long-tail keywords. For the best results, stick to a limit of 300 – 400 words. Provide the top-level details in the first few lines for your high-awareness customers. You then need to do a deep dive to give low-awareness customers that extra layer of detail.    

What you’re selling should also determine the extent of your product enrichment. Everyone knows what a shirt is and how it should be worn and washed. This won’t be the case if you’ve got very technical or niche products. You need to provide details on how it should be used, maintained, or installed.  

Think about where your customers are interacting with your products. With mobile and social media on the rise, customers will be interacting with your products in a completely different way. Your product page should be mobile-friendly so your customers can browse your products wherever they are.  

Top tips and tricks for product page super SEO

Structured data

Search engines love structured data, so you need to make sure your product categories and attributes are on point. This will help your customers find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. It’s also a great opportunity to create cross-sell and upsell opportunities with kits, bundles, and intelligent product recommendations.  

Your site’s structure should be clearly reflected in your URL slugs (the exact address of a page on your site) and it needs to be something your customers will understand, i.e., not just random symbols. Defining unique URL slugs for your product pages also gives you scope to include your target keywords, which will improve your SEO ranking.  

Page structure

Trustworthiness and familiarity will be something else your customers (and search engines) will be on the lookout for. Customers expect to see a familiar product page layout when they land on your site. Here’s a great example from our customer, FurnitureBox: 

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Everything the customer needs to know can be found in one place. From price, shipping, and delivery information, to reviews and product recommendations with a clear call to action. If your product page has a familiar feel to it, you’re less likely to get bounce rates. Importantly, the fewer bounce rates you have, the more authority your site will have from the search engine’s perspective.    

Meta titles & descriptions

These are going to be the first bits of information your customers will see. They need to be clear and concise, so customers know exactly what to expect when they click through on your product page. Use your keywords in the meta title and longtail keywords in the description to guarantee a higher click-through rate.   

Stick to a 160-character limit so your meta description isn’t truncated. Higher click-through rates mean better site authority and better SEO rankings. 

User-generated content

This is actually another one of Goggle’s ranking factors. Get your customers to leave reviews as it’s super beneficial from a ranking perspective, and also a sales perspective. Customer reviews give your customers a true representation of the product and will improve the user experience. In addition to this, it also means your customers build a more personable relationship with your brand and products.     

 The benefits of super SEO

Product information management platforms like Pimberly enable you to easily create and manage enriched product content. Because all product information and digital assets are stored in one place, your SEO teams have a central hub to work from. 

Make SEO work for you and enrich your product data to achieve:   

  •   Better product discovery   
  •   Improved conversion rate optimization   
  •   Increased click-through rates 
  •   Lower bounce rates 
  •   Amazing customer experience   

Watch this video to find out how to create structured and optimized

product data with PIM

Watch the video
Creating the Perfect Product Page: Tips & tricks to increase conversion rates

Creating the Perfect Product Page

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Read time: 4 minutes

Your products are your pride and joy, right? So, it makes sense to present them in the best possible light across all your channels. Creating the perfect product page is an essential part of making your products resonate with your customers. Here are tips and tricks that will lead them to believe that they must absolutely buy what you are selling.

Read more

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PIM for Marketing: What It Can Do for You 

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Read time: 6 minutes

Product Information Management (PIM) as a marketing tool can sometimes be overlooked when actually, it gives your marketing teams access to a mine of valuable data. Product data is the heart and soul of any successful eCommerce business. Marketers can gain huge benefits from leveraging the power of product data to create amazing brand experiences. Furthermore, product data is a key component in any product campaign and the overall online experience.

PIM provides a central hub to gather, store, enrich and distribute all product data across unlimited sales channels and geographies. Managing everything in one centralized hub promotes a collaborative way of working. Therefore, for marketing and eCommerce professionals, this will be key in aligning overall business objectives.

PIM for marketing will enable you to:

  • Improve your brand awareness and increase visibility with super SEO to drive demand generation
  • Lock and load campaigns well ahead of time to increase your conversion rates and online sales
  • Use data to make informed decisions on how to create online experiences that will keep customers coming back

Let’s break it down and dig a little deeper into why and how product data can be leveraged by marketing teams.

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Improve brand awareness & visibility

There are several ways in which you can increase your brand awareness and visibility with product data and product content.

Storytelling

We all love a good story. They get our imaginations going and we get attached to the characters in the plot. The same applies to brand storytelling. Using product data and product content, you can build strong and emotive relationships with your customers.

Customers engage more with brands they feel are aligned to their own beliefs and values. This is why it’s important to communicate this across your sales channels and weave it into product descriptions and titles.

For instance, it may be your commitment to sustainability goals, where and how you source products, or charitable donations you’re committed to. In other words, product data needs to be so much more than price, size, and color. Tailored messaging that resonates with your target audience will leave a lasting impression that will keep them coming back.

Increased visibility & super SEO

It’s a well-known fact search engines aren’t a fan of samey content. This is where PIM will enable your SEO teams to shine bright! They can work in PIM’s central hub where all product data and digital assets are stored. Focussing on keywords, they can enrich product descriptions, titles, and the associated digital assets.

Having this optimized data will mean you can create original product content that will make your brand stand out from the crowd. This will massively contribute to making sure your products are getting in front of the right people at the right time. As a result, SEO-optimized product data, content, and imagery will lead to higher demand generation.

Lock & load product campaigns

In the fast-paced world of eCommerce, giving marketing teams the ability to plan well in advance will be key. The collaborative nature of PIM for marketing teams means you can lock and load product campaigns well in advance. Store all your copy, digital assets, and any other related content in one place. You can then set the date for everything to go live using Pimberly’s powerful workflows.

The studio team can make sure all digital assets are ready and raring to go. SEO teams can fully optimize everything for the best demand generation. Marketing teams can provide all the relevant comms around the campaign, so everyone is working off the same hymn sheet.

Importantly, having all this stored in your PIM system means eCommerce teams know what’s coming up and when. As the saying goes – “by failing to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.” PIM for marketing will make this a thing of the past!

Omnichannel & multichannel strategies for more sales

PIM for marketing makes implementing omnichannel and multichannel strategies an absolute dream. Consistency is the obvious omnichannel objective. PIM means you can create a single source of truth for your product data. Consequently, you can communicate the same messaging across all your sales channels.

If you’re looking at a multichannel strategy, PIM for marketing will mean you can determine what types of content and messaging you distribute across multiple channels. Either way, this is a great way of extending the reach of your brand to generate more demand and increased sales.

You can also communicate brand messaging that grasps the attention of your customers across all sales channels. Similarly, this will also apply to any image, video, or media assets. Your studio and marketing teams can work together to ensure they meet brand guidelines. This way, you’ll be certain that only the highest quality digital assets appear in your product campaigns and in product catalogs.

Data-driven decisions

Data for marketers is about as important as oxygen for humans. We simply can’t go without it and, for the best results, it has to be super high-quality. This applies to all forms of data, whether that be prospect, customer, and – here it comes – product data.

To craft the best possible user experience, testing will be the first go-to for marketing teams. Making tweaks and changes based upon customer behavior will enable you to make intelligent decisions based on hard evidence.

The PIM system gives you an indication of stock levels as it’s linked to your eCommerce platforms. As a result, you get insight into how many products are selling, and when they’re being sold. You can use this data to inform the structure of future product campaigns. You may have a load of stock you want to get rid of or a new product release you want to promote. Knowing when those types of products are selling well will mean you can optimize your campaign to get the best possible results. Additionally, you can set up workflows way ahead of time to automate this process.

Data and segmentation go hand-in-hand. In turn, segmentation is vital when you want to create online experiences that go above and beyond customer expectations. Quality product data is essential in creating online experiences that convert browsers into buyers. Any unclear or generic product data leaves room for confusion, which doesn’t instill confidence.

Quality data means you can make data-driven decisions based on facts, not gut feel. You can identify what actually works, and what will keep customers coming back.

Are you going to consider PIM for marketing?

PIM for marketing is a great tool that marketers should and can make use of to make their brand stand out from the crowd. Product data will always play an important role in eCommerce and marketing campaigns. Therefore, it should be an important consideration for marketing departments.

Different departments can work together in a streamlined way to make sure everything is totally in line with brand guidelines. This creates a consistent and seamless experience for your customers. Improve your brand awareness with stand-out content and create more demand for your products with super SEO.

All this contributes to a superior customer experience, creating happy loyal customers who have a higher lifetime value. PIM for marketing is really a no-brainer!

Find out more about the benefits of PIM for marketing

Find out more
ecommerce-holiday-season-campaign-checklist

The eCommerce Holiday Season Campaign Checklist

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Read time: 4 minutes

The holiday season is fast approaching! With lots of key dates to keep track of all around the world, it can be hard to keep up. However, it’s the perfect time for eCommerce businesses to maximize sales and round up 2021 on a high!

We’ve put together a holiday season checklist with all the celebrations taking place across the globe. Consequently, you’ll be able to plan well in advance and get your campaigns locked and loaded. From the best-performing products to top tips and tricks to make the festive season memorable, you can find it all here.

ecommerce-holiday-season-campaign-checklist

 October:

  • 31 – Halloween

This celebration can prove to be more of a treat than a trick for retailers. Make the most of spooktacular and creative campaigns to generate interest from your audience. Halloween is widely celebrated in the US and it’s also becoming more and more popular around the world.

Keep it creepy with: Costumes, sweet treats, and haunting home decorations, lanterns & candles (mostly in the Netherlands).

Tricks to make a treat: Localize your campaigns and make sure they’re ready to launch at the start of October.

November:

  • 04 – Diwali

Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, lasts five days. It’s a time to celebrate good over evil, and it’s now become a time where customers expect to find great deals. The preparation that goes into Diwali sales is comparable to Black Friday celebrated here in the UK and the US.

Light up your customers’ faces with: Jewellery, clothing, sweet treats, floral decorations, and lamps. Electronics are also becoming more and more popular for this celebration.

Shine a light on new product releases and great deals in the week preceding Diwali to get your customers glowing with excitement.

  • 05- Bonfire Night

Another great opportunity to get your customers fired up. Bonfire night (celebrated in the UK) brings people together all over the country to watch firework displays and eat toffee apples. It’s a time for people to wrap up warm and brave the cold November nights.

Keep your customers snug and smug with: Firepits, fireworks (to be sold between October 15th and November 10th), sparklers, and winter woollies.

Spark your eCommerce success by offering rapid delivery options just in time for the big bang.

  • 11 – Singles Day

Celebrated in China and is gaining popularity around the world. Singles Day or Double 11 is the unofficial public holiday for those who are single and looking to mingle. It has turned into a day of shopping where people can show some retail love.

Put your customers on cloud nine with: Cosmetic and beauty products, fashion & apparel, and electronics.

Pair up with popular online marketplaces such as Alibaba or JD. Localization will be key and appeal to your customers’ generosity with kits and bundles.

  • 25 – Thanksgiving (US) – October 11 (Canada)

Thanksgiving day is a big deal in the US and Canada. It’s a time to celebrate the harvest and blessings over the year. It is a time of year where families and friends exchange gifts and get prepared for the mass sales over the next coming days.

Let your customers feast on: Cookware, festive decorations, personalized gifts for hosts, and party games.

Give your customers thanks with segmented campaigns and make sure your stock is ready for the preparations which generally start 3-4 weeks before the big day.

  • 26  – Black Friday

Originally celebrated in the United States, Black Friday see’s crazy deals hit our stores and screens in the US, UK, and over Europe. In 2020, online sales grew drastically due to the pandemic, with $4.8BN global sales on Amazon alone!

The Black Friday bargains customers will be looking to bag range from: Televisions, phones, tablets, appliances, and, surprisingly, jewelry.

Create the best Black Friday experience by focusing on your best-performing products and consider selling on Amazon. Landing pages featuring your Black Friday bargains could see you increase conversion rates by over 50%.

  • 29 – Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday or Blue Monday is Black Fridays’ online counterpart. Black Friday deals have moved away from being deals only offered in-store to being online. This means these three days are a mass shopping spree.

Like Black Friday, make sure your Cyber Monday deals get your customers’ tech tastebuds tingling.

For a super Cyber Monday, make sure your eCommerce store is optimized for mobile. You can also build hype around your holiday season deals with a countdown banner to the big day.

December:

06 – Hanukkah

Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday that lasts eight days. This festival of lights is celebrated with nightly menorah lightings, special prayers, and fried foods. Hanukkah gift-giving mostly includes small gifts to children and food items.

Let your customers light up the cold December nights with: Holiday inspired candles, classy cookware, party games, and delicacies for all the family to enjoy.

  • 13 – Green Monday (US)

With only twelve days to Christmas, Green Monday (coined by eBay in 2007) marks one of the retail industry’s most profitable days during the holiday season. It represents the day where many online shoppers rush to get last-minute presents and deals.

Make your customers green with envy by making sure you’ve got a range of payment methods. Easy checkout options are also a must, so think guest checkout.

  • 14 – Free Shipping Day

Free Shipping Day, unsurprisingly is a day where online retailers offer free shipping to customers. You also need to guarantee the items will be delivered before Christmas for those last dash shoppers.

Free your customers’ desires with: Great deals on last-minute Christmas present gifts.

Make the most of the last shopping sprint in the run-up to Christmas by offering your steepest reductions. It’s a one-day-only event, so you’ll be guaranteed to generate a lot of customer interest.

  • 18 – Super Saturday

Super Saturday, or Panic Saturday, is the last Saturday before Christmas. It’s a major day of revenue marking the near close of the holiday season shopping spree. Brands that offer free shipping with guaranteed delivery before Christmas will reap the benefits of sales from panic shoppers.

To make this Saturday super special, make sure your stock levels will cater to demand. Importantly, make sure you offer super reliable delivery.

  • 24 – Christmas Eve and Christmas

It’s common in Europe to exchange gifts on the eve of Christmas. With that in mind, this will really be the last-minute sprint to stock up on goods and goodies before settling down for the festive celebrations.

Make Christmas special by localizing your campaigns to ensure you aren’t sending last-minute Christmas Eve deals to those countries. It’s also a good time to start gearing up for the big New Year’s Day sales.

  • 31- New Year’s Eve

The end of the year is often a time to reflect. More importantly for retailers, it’s the last day to make the final adjustments before the next sale season starts. New Year’s Day sees mass discounts in-store and online attracts crowds to match.

Let’s finish the year on a high! Make the most of this years’ holiday season and watch out for those key dates.

Download your very own Holiday Season Campaign Checklist

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*We always want to make sure we deliver the highest quality content, which is why we updated this blog in August 2021. This blog was originally published in November 2020. 

the-digital-transformation-journey

The Digital Transformation Journey: A Manufacturer’s View

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Read time: 4 minutes

Regardless of where you’re up to with your digital transformation journey, you need to put your customers at the heart of it. For many manufacturers, the need to digitize processes has been twofold. Streamlining internal processes is clearly a priority, and it can also improve the customer experience you offer.

We recently ran a joint webinar with our partners at Swiftcloud to discuss the importance of digital transformation in manufacturing. At the Webinar, were joined by eCommerce professionals from J Rosenthal and Staedtler who spoke about their digital transformation journeys.

Meet the panel:

digital-transformation-panel

During the webinar, we asked attendees how far along they were in their digital transformation journeys. Here are the results:

digital-tranformation-poll-results.

This goes to show that driving digital transformation is front-of-mind in the manufacturing industry.

Some of the steps to take on the digital transformation journey

Starting the digital transformation doesn’t have to be daunting, and you don’t have to take everything on at once. If anything, the mantra “slow and steady wins the race” might be best applied.

Our panelists have first-hand experience in implementing digital transformation strategies in manufacturing. Here are some of the key pieces of advice they offered up:

Getting started

First off, you’ll need to identify the internal processes you want to improve. Anything manual that can be digitized should be the priority. Spending inordinate amounts of time dealing with lengthy manufacturing processes, or supply chain issues, means you won’t be offering the best possible customer experience.

Think really carefully about what you want to achieve and why. At the end of the day, you want to provide high-quality goods and services to your customers. This was a primary concern for Simon Fu, eCommerce Manager at J Rosenthal.

“Traditionally, we were using erroneous spreadsheets to manage our product data. We also had data stored in our ERP and individual user files. As a result, the time to market from design to our products being eCommerce ready was super long. This is when we knew we had to find an all-in-one solution that all departments could use to work more efficiently.”

Who to involve

It’s all well and good knowing what you want to improve. What’s equally as important is knowing who will be impacted by these improvements. Think of the team members who use the internal systems. Ultimately, they’re the ones who keep everything running.

Avoid unnecessary downtime and educate your team members on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

Jim De Jong, Business Development Manager at Swiftcloud recommended having a “Digital Transformation Champion”

“You need someone who can gather information on your internal systems, how they work and why you have them. They can then draw all this information together from the different teams to create a clear understanding of how everything works. Start small and then move on to the next stage. If you’re a global business, you also need to think about how your strategy can be rolled out internationally.”

Natalie O’Rourke-Jones, Head of Category Management at Staedtler further reinforces the importance of a collaborative approach.

“We liaised closely with our development team to see what we could actually do. Depending on your timeframe, you also need to determine how long everything is going to take. Staedtler is a global business, so collaboration was key in guiding regional teams when rolling out new digital technologies.”

Think about your customers

Remember the days of trawling through product catalogs and bookmarking the products you wanted to order? For B2B buyers, this is often the reality of their day-to-day situations when dealing with manufacturers. The order is then emailed (in some cases faxed…) over and manually processed by a sales representative. For some manufacturers, it may even be the case that customers had to organize a visit from a sales representative to get their orders in.

These old-school business models aren’t synonymous with a slick and seamless customer experience. Both J Rosenthal and Staedtler were all too familiar with issues like this. This was a big deciding factor for them to start thinking about digital initiatives that would transform business processes.

“The way we were working previously meant customers could only place orders when sales representatives were going to see them. This meant there were limitations as to when the customers could get their orders in. Sales representatives would then manually enter the order into our systems, so there was a higher risk of human error. Customers preferred to place orders online, so this is where the idea of a B2B ordering platform came from.”

Natalie O’Rourke-Jones, Head of Category Management at Staedtler

“Orders came in either by fax or email, and it was a lengthy process to manage because we didn’t have a sales team. As a result, we were processing and shipping orders individually as and when they came in. We found a solution that would enable us to import all orders from CSV files and then the whole process would be taken care of. This massively improved our service levels.”

Simon Fu, eCommerce Manager at J Rosenthal

Implementing and promoting change

Progress is impossible without change. Adapting to any form of change can be a struggle, especially if that change is taking place across an entire business. One of the things both our panelists relied on was demonstrating the value of the changes they were implementing. This went all the way from C-suite to end-user.

If the changes you’re making will increase productivity, make life easier, and provide a better customer experience, inform your team. For Staedtler, it was a case of creating a constant flow of communication between departments. Natalie also ensures there are regular reports to show improved performance.

If you’re looking at a variety of different solutions, you need to make sure the functionalities will suit the end-user. You also need to get buy-in from the C-suite as you’ll likely be looking at a long-term investment. Simon of J Rosenthal always makes sure any new solutions are scalable and future-proof to get buy-in from the C-suite.

Advice and guidance

There are loads of different solutions out there that can help you on your way to digital business excellence. Providers are there to help, so don’t be afraid to ask how they can help you resolve the challenges you’re facing.

Putting your customers at the heart of your digital transformation strategy will go a long way in ensuring its success. Speak to your customers and speak to your team members who know and understand them.

Your digital transformation journey is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. It will continuously evolve with your business, and your business will consequently improve overall.

Working in a more joined-up, streamlined way results in improved efficiencies and increased sales. Give you and your team members more time to focus on what really matters – providing the best possible customer experience.

We select our partners based on synergies and common values. Swiftcloud is an innovative B2B Mobile App that makes ordering products from wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors quick and easy. We both believe in streamlining processes, boosting efficiencies, and offering seamless integrations to boost results.  All of these things contribute towards creating a digital transformation strategy that will take your business operations to the next level. 

Check out the full recording for even more insights from our expert panel

Check it out
online-marketplaces

Online Marketplaces: Why to Get Started Right Now

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In 2020, online marketplace sites accounted for 62% of global online sales. Some of the largest marketplaces in the world generate billions of customer visits each month. They offer customers a quick and convenient online shopping experience with plenty of variety, which is exactly what they want.

Effective site searches right through to easy delivery and returns mean online marketplaces are fast becoming the preferred online shopping option. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that more product searches took place on Amazon than on Google in 2020. In summary, online marketplaces represent a massive opportunity for any business looking to take its eCommerce strategy to the next level.

online-marketplaces

Benefits for Businesses

International expansion

Online marketplaces provide networks and systems for global eCommerce. Everything from translated websites, good search authority, fulfillment, and shipping can often be handled by the marketplace.

If you’re looking to test out a new market, online marketplaces are a great option. Save time and resources, all whilst extending your reach without committing to a whole international operation.

Existing marketing model

You can benefit from a large customer base and robust marketing programs with online marketplaces. Having access to quality data about your customers means you can offer a much more effective and personalized experience.

This data goes beyond just which of your products they purchased or showed an interest in. For instance, you can set abandoned cart email reminders and promote relevant product categories. To sum up, these are all clearly additional perks to using online marketplaces.

Improved product visibility

Online marketplaces have their own internal search engines that help users easily find what they’re looking for. In more niche marketplaces these are often powerful, specialized tools for the sector they serve. This renders your product range more visible and easy to navigate.

Large and established marketplaces, such as Amazon and Zalando, are highly authoritative sites with lots of traffic. Consequently, they often rank much higher in organic product searches than smaller eCommerce sites. In highly competitive product sectors, like fashion, selling on large marketplaces could be a quick win for organic customer acquisition.

Create customer trust

The growing popularity of online marketplaces has led to consumers becoming more familiar with them. As a result, customers build trust with the marketplace which is then transferred to your brand and products. If we take Amazon as an example, 89% of customers said they’d be more comfortable using Amazon over other eCommerce sites.

What kind of marketplaces are there?

There are hundreds of established online marketplaces. Whatever you’re selling, or whoever you’re selling to, there‘s sure to be a perfect marketplace for your business. Consider the audience and locations that you’re trying to reach, and research what marketplaces operate in those areas.

Quick Tip: You’ll often find relevant marketplace listings in the search engine results for your own products. If you’re after those search impressions, the marketplaces will be too! To summarize, you need to get searching for your best keywords in the areas you want to grow.

Global

Global

Amazon – Needs no introduction: the world’s largest online consumer marketplace, with an unparalleled global distribution network and over 5200M monthly visits. 

eBay – what started as the world’s first online auction site is now a marketplace that generated $21.3 billion in revenue in Q1 of 2020. It generates 1700M monthly visits and has 174M active global shoppers.

AliExpress – Owned by the Alibaba Group, AliExpress serves 230 different countries and regions. In January 2021, this cross-border eCommerce platform generated 528M monthly visits. 

USA

USA

Walmart.com – This household name in the US had global net sales of $555BN in 2021 and generates 410.3M monthly visits. 

Target.com – Similar to Walmart, Target is a household name in the US and has made huge leaps in the world of digital commerce. 182.2M customers visit Target.com every month.  

Poshmark – This online marketplace is dedicated to fashion and has over 75 million product listings. Every month, Poshmark attracts 46.9 customer visits. 

Asia

Asia

Rakuten – This multi-national eCommerce company based in Japan had almost 120 member ID’s in Q4 of 2020. It has 575.8M monthly visits and generated revenues of $13,682M in 2020. 

Shopee – Headquartered in Singapore and founded in 2015, Shopee is considered the leading eCommerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. The monthly visits amount to an impressive 457.9M. 

Taobao – This is one of the go-to online shopping destinations for Chinese consumers. In FY 2021, it generated $853TR and receives 329.4M monthly visits.

Europe

Europe

Trendyol – This is the largest eCommerce platform in Turkey and sells over 70 million products every year. This top online marketplace in Europe sees over 206M monthly visits. 

Allegro – Based in Poland, Allegro is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms in Europe. Marketplace sellers on this platform can benefit from exposure to 190.2 monthly customer visits. 

Zalando – In 2019, over 145M orders were placed on Zalando. As a key player in the world of fashion eCommerce sales, it’s unsurprising this platform has nearly 135M monthly visits.

B2B

Like B2C buyers, B2B customers are increasingly looking for convenience and functionality in their shopping experiences. Another thing to note is that they often have extra requirements around payment and purchase approval processes. Marketplaces focusing on this type of buyer cater specifically to these requirements and it’s a rapidly growing sector.

Alibaba.com – the original B2B marketplace offering from Alibaba Group, the world’s largest online retail entity. Although based in China, Alibaba is a truly global marketplace, offering product categories from health & beauty to industrial parts & tools to business buyers.

TradeWheel – US-based TradeWheel sells chemical, energy, and machine products and has 1.7 million sellers worldwide. It connects brands with suppliers in over 240 countries.

Amazon Business – already having access to a huge consumer market, Amazon has also tapped into the business purchasing power of its users, with corporate-focused features.

B2C

Nowadays, consumers are looking for speed and convenience when it comes to the online shopping experience. Some of the most popular B2C marketplaces include:

Wish – Wish is a leading mobile-based marketplace that has 300M shoppers worldwide, with mostly low-value fashion & home goods.

CDiscount – a French discount marketplace with over 1M daily visitors

Bol.com – One of the Netherland largest online stores, selling a broad range of home goods from school supplies, to electronics and car accessories.

Product-Specific

Unlike the so-called ‘mega marketplaces’, trying to do everything for everyone, more niche marketplaces are starting to appear. they focus on the specific customer experience needs of a particular industry or product category:

Wayfair – A global marketplace selling furniture and homewares at all price points. Wayfair offers highly specialized internal search/filtering/navigation that gives an excellent user experience.

Not On The High Street & Etsy – UK marketplaces that focus on bespoke/handmade and gift items, that are, you guessed it, hard to find in conventional high street stores.

We’ve only touched the surface here. Webretailer has created our favorite resource about all the different marketplaces out there, so check that out for a much more detailed list!

Win across all your sales channels with smarter product data

Marketplaces give your brand easy access to new markets and channels, and ultimately to new customers. Tailoring your marketing efforts for these channels is crucial. Make the most of your product data to ensure you’re offering the best possible product experience.

Each marketplace has its own search engine. As a result, you need to ensure your products are optimized to get them in front of the right people at the right time. We developed the Pimberly PIM system with this in mind.

There are plenty of features that give you the power to optimize everything from one central hub. Think keywords, metadata, right through to the Alt. Text on your digital assets. Your SEO team will also benefit from doing all this in Pimberly.

Our lifecycle stages enable you to set product data requirements that need to be met for each channel before product content is distributed. This means only fully optimized product information and digital assets are being pushed out. This massively increases your chances of gaining a wider audience and overall better results.

If you’re embarking on your global eCommerce journey, make sure your customers can shop in their language. You should also provide prices in the relevant currencies, and give product details in units of measurement they know and understand.

Pimberly has huge localization capabilities. Translate product data, store prices in different currencies, and scope different product attributes depending on the country you’re selling to.

Scoping capabilities are also particularly useful if you’re looking at moving between B2B, B2C, and D2C. The messaging for each of these audiences is massively different. Personalize what they see with the power of PIM and online marketplace success will soon follow.

Key takeaways

Do your research – Find the right marketplace/s for the customers you want to reach. It’s also important to ensure the features it offers align with your business objectives.

Put your best foot forward – Follow best practices for your chosen marketplaces, and test what works best if possible. Marketplace users can behave differently than on single-vendor sites, and marketplace SEO is a growing topic of discussion.

The world is your oyster – What other features of the marketplace can you take advantage of to grow your business? Most larger marketplaces offer online shop-fronts, run internal ad networks, as well as their own marketing programs.

Product Information Management (PIM) solutions are designed to enrich product data for multiple sales channels & marketplaces. You can set up new sales channels in a matter of minutes and it’s a total breeze, which means you can aim for complete eCommerce success!

Watch our super quick video on how a PIM enables you to quickly reach new channels and marketplaces

Watch now

*We always want to make sure we deliver the highest quality content, which is why we updated this blog in July 2021. This blog was originally published in September 2020. 

say-hello-to-the-future-of-online-payment-methods

Say Hello to the Future of Online Payment Methods

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Despite the re-opening of physical stores, a lot of consumers are sticking to their online shopping habits. With that in mind, now seems the perfect time to say hello to the future of online payment methods.

With digital commerce on the upward trend, nailing the payment experience should be front of mind for all online businesses. Getting your customers to the checkout point of the buyer journey is obviously the end goal. Making sure you’re not losing them when they’ve got there is an exercise in itself. The payment methods you have on offer will hugely influence your customers’ final decision.

Around 50% of consumers will abandon their carts if their preferred payment option isn’t available. This is why it’s so important to offer a range of online payment methods to cater to the different needs and requirements of your customers. Regardless of whether you serve B2B, B2C, or D2C customers, make sure you’re offering a seamless checkout process. For it to be a seamless process, it needs to involve as few steps as possible.

In this blog, we’re going to take a look at some of the emerging online payment methods that are taking the market by storm.

say-hello-to-the-future-of-online-payment-methods

The Future of Online Payment Methods

The range of payment methods you provide can play a key role in setting you apart from the competition. eCommerce platforms host a wide variety of payment systems, so take advantage and make sure you’re offering exceptional customer service.  Here are the ones to look out for:

BNPL (buy now, pay later)

The buy now, pay later trend can almost be considered as a marketing tool, not just a payment method. Understandably, it’s massively popular and can help you reach new customers. Payments made with BNPL are set to reach $1tr by 2026 so, if you’re not offering it at checkout, you may want to reconsider.

There are many advantages for businesses and buyers alike. Customers can buy higher-priced, better-quality products that are built to last without being hit in the pocket right away. The “try before you buy” aspect is also really appealing to customers, and it’ll help reduce return rates.

Our customer, Ellis Brigham, has been using Klarna to open up new avenues in terms of its customer base. There’s been a surge of millennials shopping with them, which is a new demographic. Because they have a lower disposable income, being able to spread payments over a period of time is much more practical.

This goes to show that BNPL payment methods can be a huge driver for growth. You can attract a wider audience, achieve higher basket values and better conversion rates by giving customers more flexibility.

Buy now, pay later methods also represent a massive opportunity for B2B businesses. With the B2B eCommerce payment market reaching $4tr, it’s time to start transitioning from old to new.

Because business buyers are often spending larger amounts, there’ll be a bigger need to spread payments. They also want the same sort of payment service they’d receive as a consumer. One that’s easy, seamless, and straightforward.

Digital currencies

Digital currencies have been causing a racket in the online payment arena for quite some time now. Cryptocurrencies are racing ahead, seemingly undeterred by the recent crypto crash. Younger demographics are mainly driving the investment mania in digital currencies. With that in mind, it’s likely they’d appreciate having this as an option to complete purchases.

While there was a lot of stigma surrounding the aspiring global currency, a lot of businesses are embracing it. From small local restaurants to large multinational B2B traders, they’re accepting cryptocurrencies as a legitimate source of funds.

The rising popularity led Shopify to take the leap towards enabling its customers to accept multiple cryptocurrencies via their platform. Coinbase Commerce has built plugins for other major eCommerce platforms too, so this is clearly a trend that’s set to continue.

The advantages of accepting cryptocurrencies are vast. The transaction is completed quickly, the processing fees are low, and you can accept payments from all over the world. On top of this, you won’t have to deal with any chargebacks either.

It’s important to note that the value does fluctuate as it’s not tied to any tangible assets, but it remains a viable option if you’re looking to broaden your payment horizon.

eWallets

Over half of all eCommerce transactions take place on mobile these days, which is unsurprising given the amount of time we spend on our phones. In 2020, around 1 billion consumers are said to have made purchases with mobile payment apps.

Services like Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, eBay Managed Payments, and Google Pay are all massively popular. By 2024, eWallet payments are set to account for 51.7% of total worldwide eCommerce transactions.

Their popularity is unsurprising given how easy it makes checkout. Native in-app payment processing means customers don’t have to jump from one site to another. This makes for a slick and easy online experience, especially with biometric verifications which enable you to complete a purchase without having to enter any details whatsoever.

Cart abandonment on mobile stands to be one of the biggest issues you’ll need to overcome. Customers are using a smaller screen, so the process needs to be totally frictionless. If you encourage the use of eWallets, you can see your conversion rates increase threefold. It’s also a really secure payment method, so your customers will have total confidence in the transaction.

Dynamic pricing

Dynamic pricing is a great way of maximizing sales. Make small changes to the cost of your products depending on any number of variables you choose to determine. You can do this with PIM by creating API keys to whichever data sources you want to use as a basis for your variables.

For instance, connect your PIM to a weather app and increase the cost of umbrellas when it rains. Alternatively, you can base it on market trends to make sure you’re getting your products in front of the right people at the right time.

The advantages of having different payment methods

Every one of your customers is unique, and so are their needs and preferences. Offering a variety of online payment methods means you can extend the reach of your products. Making the shopping experience easy is also a great way to keep customers coming back. Remember, if a customer’s been on your website and previously submitted their details, they shouldn’t have to do it again. Make sure you have an auto-fill capability, and always offer guest check-out.

Here are some other areas of consideration:

  • If customers can’t use their preferred payment method, they’ll often go elsewhere
  • Use your payment methods as a differentiator from competitors who aren’t as forward-thinking
  • Achieve better online conversion rates and drive more customer loyalty
  • Lower basket abandon rate and increase higher basket values

Keep buyers coming back and encourage repeat purchases with a seamless and satisfying customer experience.

Find out more about diversifying your eCommerce operations

Find out more