Page 22 - AdNews magazine Jul-Aug 2021
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                 Agenda
“To obtain these, brands need to offer something of value in return. This could be compelling content, personalised recommendations, discounts or gamified features.”
Sitecore president, commerce, Mark Johnson says with increasing consumer expectations and demands, the onus is on brands to deliver personalised experiences.
Integrating CDPs, customer relationship management (CRM) software and other components of marketing technology stacks into the digital platforms of a company will all help with deliv- ering a personalised experience for customers. But this is easier said than done.
“Brands require massive amounts of data, technology, and expertise if they are to support marketing and IT teams to con- tinuously build easy, effective and seamless digital experi- ences,” says Johnson.
“This requires executive sup- port to connect the data silos and empower or recruit the right people.
“Marketers who have relied too heavily on third-party platforms to optimise in the acquisition phase need to be educated about the first- party data they have, and how it connects to their own platforms, to find the quick wins.”
A new supply
and retail model
Ecommerce has been completely transformed during the past year. The focus has shifted to having an omni-channel approach in order to connect with customers wher- ever they choose to shop.
Peter Davias, senior manager — digital strategy lead at Accenture Interactive ANZ, coins this as “headless commerce”.
“You need to think about shop- ping being embedded in every single touchpoint,” he says.
“The idea of just opening up a laptop and shopping on a website is ancient. Shopping is every- where and has to be plugged in everywhere.
“This headless commerce expe- rience that we’re talking to clients about now is around how do they move from this state of really pieced together architecture and
breaking that apart and creating a front end on top of their commerce that allows them to plug into all of these channels.”
Meanwhile, in the back end of the ecommerce world, the supply paths in which brands are taking to sell their product are also dra- matically changing. More brands are choosing to sell direct-to-con- sumer (D2C).
Davias says the trend towards D2C has been influenced by the ease of setting up a shop and proliferation of channels a brand can sell through direct to the customer.
“Previously there was a proxy in between, which is a retailer or a wholesaler, but nowadays the brand and the manufacturer are now dealing with the customer,” he says.
Dealing directly with the consumer is one reason Alpha Digital commercial director Tobey Bower sees CX as becoming more important for many brands. D2C presents the opportunity to get to know the customer and what they want even more than they previously did, and with bigger margins.
As a result of this trend, he says the role of the retailer has come into question. He points to other trends that also question this role such as brands opting to sell through influencers across social media.
“When an influencer can stock in their store a range of products from different brands, I’m not sure what the distinction between an influencer and a retailer is,” says Bower.
“They become a retailer. They have a brand and they sell a range of products from other brands.”
Ultimately though, Bower says the decision to supply direct or through an influencer or retailer comes down to the brand’s strategy.
The social shop
 Brands are tapping into the potential that social commerce offers to their overall commerce strategy.
               Accent Group group general manager of digital and loyalty Kasie Heathcote We’ve found that social has been
a really great way for us to build new brands, and within the Accent Group, we’ve got a lot of smaller brands we’re starting to develop and grow. We call these our emerging brands portfolio, and social is critically important for those new brands to try to find the customers we know that product is going to resonate with.
Koh founder and CEO
Adam Lindsay
Back to the genesis of where we came from, farmers’ markets, as
I see with the new [social commerce] products that are coming through, they’re really going to bring us closer to that experience. [It’s all about] social proof, demonstration, and customer engagement. If we can do that at scale and really replicate what you would experience speaking to a brand at a farmers’ market, then I’m really excited about it.
Mecca Brands chief digital officer Sam Bain
With people spending more time online and in their
social communities than ever before, social commerce is
a key consideration in our
360 marketing approach. Blending ecommerce and social community to engage our customers while meeting new expectations for convenience, personalisation and a truly connected shopping experience.































































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