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Category: General

Here’s Everything You Should Know About Marketing Funnel Metrics

Posted on by Amir Levi

Enterprises, big or small, rely on sales to keep operations afloat. With recent changes in buying behavior and trends, it’s critical to ensure that businesses understand how they reach out to their target audience and what they can do to improve their sales and marketing efforts further.

One study found that organizations that provide quick and easy sales processes have a 62% higher chance of winning their buyers. Interestingly, though, only a few businesses exert effort in monitoring and improving their sales funnel KPIs.

In fact, Pardot claims that as many as 68% of companies fail to use sales funnel key performance indicators (KPIs). Ultimately, this leads to poor conversion and dismal sales.

The solution? Understanding marketing funnel KPIs, the role they play, and how to determine which KPI to use at which stage of your customer’s journey.

But, what are marketing funnel metrics, exactly?

What Are Funnel Metrics?

What are Funnel Metrics?

Funnel metrics is a marketing concept that helps salespeople map a customer’s buying journey. This journey is likened to a “funnel” because it follows the influx of potential customers at the top of the funnel (more on this later) until they trickle down at the bottom as they actually become buyers.

Think of it this way: As prospects become customers, they pass through different stages in the sales funnel. The deeper they go, the higher is their level of commitment to buy products and avail of services.

To better understand the concept and use of marketing funnel metrics, it’s important to take note of the four different stages of a basic sales funnel:

Awareness

The first stage of the sales funnel is the awareness stage. It’s the part of the journey where the audience becomes aware of a brand’s products and services. They’ve likely heard about the offering from ads, social media channels, or recommendations.

At this stage, they aren’t customers yet. They are considered prospects, potential leads that you can nurture to help them move to the next stage of the sales funnel.

Interest

At this point, the prospects are more familiar with the company and what products or services it offers. They will then assess the products and services depending on their interest level. If they believe the offering is of value to them, they will do more research, ask around, read reviews, and inquire. This is a critical point for the sales team because it will have an impact on whether the prospect will decide to buy or not.

Decision

With enough knowledge about the company, prospects will dive deeper into what you have to offer. Is it better than what the other vendor is selling? Does it provide more value for money? Is the price justified for the packaging options? The sales team should focus on follow-ups, constant contact, and other promotional campaigns to help convince prospects to buy.

Action

At the last stage of the customer journey is where you can gauge whether your sales and marketing efforts will bear fruit. Will they buy or not? It all depends on how effective the previous campaigns are.

Using sales and marketing funnel metrics helps marketers understand what their prospects are thinking and doing at each stage of their buying journey. Having these useful insights can help craft the appropriate messaging to convert these prospects into paying clients.

If the prospect didn’t buy, it’s important to look back and assess where efforts fell short.

Sales and marketing funnel metrics can help teams align their efforts with objective insights in mind. Studies show that synchronized teams can contribute to revenue growth.

How Do You Calculate Sales And Marketing Funnel Metrics?

How Do You Calculate Sales and Marketing Funnel Metrics?

Here’s how you can calculate different sales and marketing funnel metrics:

Entrances

Entrances refer to the volume of prospects that “enter” the sales funnel within a given timeframe. To accurately measure them, it’s critical to determine the starting point of the sales funnel. Once this is identified, it would be easier to assign the entry point and measure the number of entrances.

While many won’t pay attention to this specific sales metric, it’s actually a vital one since it’s the beginning of the sales funnel.

Here’s How To Calculate It:

Add the number of leads reached during a specific period. It can also be done based on a channel or campaign level. For most e-commerce sites, the calculation can be done based on the cumulative traffic that goes into a website during a given time.

Conversion Rate

Perhaps the most popular sales funnel metric that most marketers are aware of is the conversion rate. It’s the percentage of leads that become paying customers. Defining the conversion rate goal and tracking it over time can help increase process efficiency and improve revenue.

For most businesses, particularly, those in e-commerce, conversion equates to sales. But conversion can also mean the number of downloads, email subscriptions, or actions based on the desired action. It’s among the most direct sales funnel metrics you can measure.

Here’s How To Calculate It:

Get the total number of conversions and divide them by the total leads entering the funnel. Multiply the number by 100 to get the percentage.

Total Conversions / Total Leads in Funnel x 100 = Conversion Rate

If measuring various conversion rates within a funnel, get the conversion rate by dividing the total customer number who reached the conversion stage by the number of customers from the previous stage in the funnel. Then, multiply it by 100.

Total Sales

After conversion, the next goal is to turn these numbers into actual revenue. Measuring total sales can evaluate and identify the sales that come from the funnel.

Here’s How To Calculate It:

Simply add the sales revenue from a given timeframe. Multiplying the number of sales by the unit price of items sold will also give the total sales.

Number of Sales x Unit Price = Total Sales

Total sales are considered the most important of all marketing funnel KPIs for business owners. It helps them analyze the overall success of the sales funnel and company growth over a given period.

A good way to measure success is to compare conversion and total sales. Once they are aligned, it indicates effective sales and marketing campaigns. High conversions but low total sales can signify loopholes in marketing efforts.

Average Order Value

Average order value is the revenue gained from an order. It tracks the average dollar amount spent when a buyer places an order. It’s one of the important sales metric KPIs because it gives an overview of the pricing strategy and online marketing efforts by measuring the long-term value of each customer.

Here’s How To Calculate It:

Divide the total revenue earned by the total orders in a given period. The timeframe should be similar.

Total Revenue / Total Orders = Average Order Value

Expanding the target audience or targeting high spenders for small average order values can help increase their number.

What Are Upper Funnel Metrics?

What are Upper Funnel Metrics?

Upper-funnel metrics or top-of-the-funnel metrics are marketing funnel KPIs that help marketers expose the target audience to the offering by enforcing various brand awareness tactics. Upper funnel metrics help prospects get to know the company and its offerings and see if they can address their problems and challenges based on their standards.

During this stage of setting marketing funnel metrics, marketers should gather as much information about their target audience, including what topics interest them and which ones they are willing to engage in. Through these interactions, it would be easier to build a buyer persona that will eventually become the basis of the campaigns.

Aside from brand awareness, using marketing funnel metrics, such as upper-funnel, also drives demand generation. The goal is to bring excitement about the offerings. In the end, it can help build long-term customer relationships by discovering multiple touchpoints to help highlight unique value propositions and attract more customers.

What Are The Different Top-of-the-Funnel Metrics?

What are the Different Top-of-the-Funnel Metrics?

When it comes to marketing funnel KPIs, here are some of the funnel metrics that you can use to help assess the efficiency of your upper-funnel strategies:

Impressions

One of the most basic marketing funnel KPIs that marketers use is impressions. Impressions are the funnel metrics that refer to the accumulated times each post is served to users. For example, a post was viewed 500 times on different social media channels, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or TikTok. It means that post received 500 impressions. This marketing funnel metric can become the foundation for brand awareness. In such instances, it would be best to use the cost-per-thousand impressions as part of the marketing funnel metrics.

Reach

Don’t confuse impressions with reach. Reach is the marketing funnel KPI that measures the number of unique people a post has served across different platforms. If impressions track how many times the post has been viewed, reach excludes those that have already viewed the post more than once.

But, like impressions, the reach can also give an overview of the effectiveness of a marketing campaign.

Website Traffic

Website traffic is another critical marketing funnel metric you can use to assess the success of your top-of-the-funnel marketing campaigns. However, it’s important to note that it’s also directly related to the other funnel metrics that you may be using, such as lower-funnel metrics and direct response measurements.

Average Session Time

Average session time or average time on the page refers to the length of time visitors spend on the page. It’s a great sales funnel KPI that shows if the prospects interact or engage with the content posted or shared. So, the more time they spend on the page, the greater their interest in the products and services offered.

Bounce Rate

The bounce rate helps you understand the number of users who visited the page but left the page without performing any action. It can be derived by dividing the number of single-page sessions by the total number of sessions.

A higher bounce rate can indicate poor interaction or engagement. It may mean that the posts did not rouse the visitors’ interest or are irrelevant to them. This perhaps led them to exit the page without doing anything. In general, a healthy bounce rate is between 30% and 70%.

What Are Lower-Funnel Metrics?

What are Lower-Funnel Metrics?

Also known as bottom-of-the-funnel metrics, lower-funnel metrics refer to the peak of all sales and marketing efforts. It includes all the assets that persuade prospects to buy products and avail of the services offered. As such, sales funnel metrics should focus on effectively showcasing offerings.

In short, it measures the overall impact of the campaign. For many, it’s the metrics that bear the most weight in a sales and marketing funnel. It’s like the best time to seize the opportunity to convert prospects to buyers.

It’s the time when aggressive campaigns must happen since it can mean prospects are ready to buy, and it’s crucial for the sales team’s to know when to tip the bucket so these prospects will favor them over a competitor.

Prospects want to buy, but they also want to make sure they’re making the best decision. This is where marketing tactics should focus on addressing their needs and solidifying your edge over others. In short, their buying journey should be as frictionless as possible.

Some efforts to focus on include:

  • Build buyer confidence
  • Promote brand trust
  • Eliminate product doubt

What Are The Metrics During Acquisition Funnel

What are the Metrics During Acquisition Funnel

The customer acquisition funnel refers to the blueprint that tracks and monitors the effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts in attracting and retaining clients or customers. When effectively applied, it can provide an insight into how campaigns are doing and provide a helpful guideline when it comes to improving the results.

Many prefer building a customer acquisition funnel because it’s critical in attracting, engaging, retaining, and converting customers without making huge investments.

Creating a customer acquisition funnel is relatively easy and simple. However, it can also be tricky, particularly when it comes to choosing the appropriate acquisition channel to use that serves the best interest of the business.

Wondering what funnel metrics are used during the acquisition stage? Here are the most commonly used ones:

Impressions

Impressions, as mentioned, can measure the number of times a page with an ad was visited or content was shared on someone’s feed. It’s often sold and measured based on cost-per-mille (CPM), which refers to the cost to achieve 1,000 impressions.

While it wouldn’t give a holistic picture of how effective the strategies are, it can be a valuable first step to increase brand awareness and assess lead generation strategies.

Click-Through Rate

The Click-Through Rate or CTR is the ratio of the number of people who click on the call-to-action (CTA), such as an email link, landing page, or ads, divided by the impressions. For instance, a post with 15 clicks and 500 impressions will have a CTR of 23%. A high CTR can indicate higher interest in the message or content. A low CTR should signal that changes in the messaging are necessary.

Conversion Rate

Another critical funnel metric at the acquisition funnel stage is the conversion rate. This KPI, when tracked accordingly, can tell the number of people who acted on the messaging and went further into the sales funnel.

Again, further action will depend on the conversion goals set for the given stage within the funnel. Conversion rate can refer to:

  • Request for a callback
  • Purchase of a product
  • Sign-up for a webinar
  • Download of an e-book
  • Subscription to channel

Since the actions can vary, it might be best to break down the conversion into different stages like prospecting, lead conversion, and sales conversion. This way, it’s easier to get an overview of each marketing strategy.

On top of the marketing KPIs mentioned, it’s equally important to have a solid marketing strategy that captures a wide range of funnel metrics, such as getting the cost per lead or cost per customer acquisition is advisable. These funnel metrics will help identify potential return on investment for all the marketing initiatives.

A robust acquisition funnel keeps processes on the right track. It helps businesses avoid losing their prospects as they wade through the different stages of their buying journey.

Similarly, these metrics can also help ensure customers find what they need while enjoying a positive experience.

Conclusion

Finetuning sales and marketing funnel metrics offers several benefits. For starters, it can help determine specific areas that need attention by helping you identify loopholes in the campaign. Second, the insights gathered can help determine which marketing efforts worked. And with this data on hand, there is an objective reason to direct more resources to that particular sales funnel.

How Does iOS 14 Affect E-commerce Marketing?

Posted on by Amir Levi

Apple iOS 14 has seen privacy changes. The corporation seeks to make the processes more transparent. They want to explain to users what data will be transferred to the developer when installing the application. It may collect data about geolocation, unique user IDFA number, personal data, and data about other applications on your phone or the site owner, in case of actions on the site.
All App Store apps, those you’ve already installed or downloaded for the first time, will have to ask users for permission to track their actions through the App Tracking Transparency framework. Suppose the user refuses to transfer personal data; in that case, the unique identifier of the Apple mobile device (IDFA) will not be transferred to the developer of the application or the owner of the site, which will affect the Apple iPhone advertising.
You understand what the user is doing; you can track site visits, purchases, app installs, app actions, thanks to The Identifier for Advertisers, which is very important for iPhone advertising.
You, as a user, will become even more anonymous and the app developer or site owner does not know who subscribes or purchases products.

Impact Of Privacy Changes In Apple iOS 14

Impact of privacy changes in Apple iOS 14
  • Privacy changes in Apple iOS 14. The new advertising for iPhone policy is forcing all web platforms to move to a new framework that restricts and delays event/conversion reporting. These changes have been done in such a way so, even indirectly, you cannot compare the site visitor and their purchase, learn a little more about the user than he is ready to tell us.

Facebook iOS 14 has already responded to this demand and switched to modified attribution windows in all advertising accounts. Now, the windows attributions are installed not at the account level but at the level of ad groups.
What is the impact of changes to attribution windows? IOS update Facebook will have fewer data to optimize in long-term campaigns (with a long decision cycle).

  • Updating ads on iOS 14. Retargeting audiences (site visitors, custom audiences based on in-app actions) will gradually decrease. Though, there are certain tips on how to make your ad more effective. It is still impossible to say how much the volume will change since there is still no understanding of how users will react to push applications requesting tracking permission. According to Facebook iOS 14 forecasts, many users will decline them or give limited access to their data.

It will also be impossible to retarget or exclude those visitors who have opted out of tracking from the site views, as they are in the blind spot for tracking. Therefore, experts expect audience overlap and increased competition, which leads to higher auction prices and CPA.
From the downloaded databases (by phone, email, from CRM), users who have abandoned tracking will also be excluded over time, affecting Apple iPhone advertising.

E-commerce Marketing Changes Related To iOS 14 Update

Who is affected by the iOS 14 update?


Most of the e-commerce brands used Facebook for their products’ promotion. Indeed, for years this social media showed itself as a very profitable platform, as it charged small commissions while offering impressive traffic. Yet, its status as the best ad platform was shaken with its ads revenue policy. 
Facebook has been doing online advertising much longer than other platforms. Facebook is by right regarded as the oldest and profitable social advertising platform. These are essential factors affecting e-commerce, but the Apple iOS 14 privacy changes could alter that.
With the new update, all e-commerce sites need to be adapted to advertising and targeting.
The iOS update for Facebook changes almost everything. We need to look for new ways to reach the audience, not forgetting the new privacy rules.

Who Is Affected By The iOS 14 Update?

The recent iOS 14 update will primarily affect mobile apps creators, online traders, and e-shop businesses. Any e-commerce marketing that relies on online advertising, data collecting services, or retargeting will need to adjust to changes in privacy laws.

Application DevelopersiOS 14 update ads will affect mobile apps that rely on ads. For many years, Facebook has been the primary provider of digital advertising.
Digital MarketersAbout 70% of Apple users share data with app publishers. This number has decreased with the release of privacy updates. But as developers adapt and improve their subscription messages, strategies, and approaches, the number of users will grow.
Small Online BusinessCompanies that have relied entirely on Facebook’s paid digital advertising have found it difficult to reach their target audiences and revenue. Nevertheless, those companies that managed to adapt in time avoided difficult financial situations.

“Event Prioritization” Function

To support the e-commerce sellers, Facebook launched an “event prioritization” function. Therefore you will be able to get small analytics of the user’s shopping experience. There are several main peculiarities of this function:

  • The limited list of priority events. Facebook will only be able to register one event made by users who have opted out of tracking. Therefore, you need to prioritize eight events according to your funnel. You can customize up to eight events. 
  • Analysis of the priority. Facebook will let you know about the top priority event. In case a user added a product to the cart but then wondered what else to buy and got distracted by the call and left the site, Facebook will provide you with the analytics of the buyer’s cart.
  • Limited info on user’s activity. If you saw the entire funnel earlier and could count the conversion of each subsequent step/stage. Now you will only know one event from the user’s entire journey.
  • Ads optimization. When you create an ad group, you choose one of 8 designated conversion events to optimize. Consider whether you need to optimize your ads for non-priority events or events at the top of the funnel, such as landing page views or link clicks. Facebook iOS update events can be prioritized, but you will need to pause your ad campaign for three days until the changes take effect.
  • Optimization for value. Facebook has a separate type of optimization for advertising campaigns Value optimization (works for app installs, conversions, sales from the directory). Facebook uses machine learning to predict how much return on investment (ROAS) a user can bring. The ad system receives data on the purchase value and seeks to find users who will purchase with the highest value.
  • Statistics of the purchases. The system will not obtain accurate data on the purchase amount from users who have opted out of tracking. But Facebook will give you the statistics on the popularity of the purchase. The analytics will be based on the number of purchases of the product.

Thus, if you set up events for viewing a product card, adding to cart, shopping, + selecting four price ranges, you occupy six slots out of the available eight. Please be aware that after the Apple iOS 14 privacy changes take effect, it can take up to 72 hours for event priorities, ad groups, and post-edit ads to be published.

Priorities For Event Prioritization Function

Priorities for event prioritization function

These feature has undergone considerable changes:

  • The usage of slots. Unlike the web (where you only have eight slots), there are 63 slots for events and Value Sets for apps; you can use standard and customizable events. You cannot use all 63 slots and set 10 events, where one is the least important and ten are the most important.
  • Additional customizations for an ad. The separate ad account on Facebook iOS 14 has new customization fields and additional notifications. Instead of a column with an attribution window, you’ll see Apple’s SKAdNetwork API. Facebook will remind you that statistical modeling of results is being applied in the metrics columns at the ad and ad group levels.
  • Additional customizations for apps. App campaigns also have a type of Value Optimization. In contrast to the web for applications, it is possible to specify more precise, narrow ranges (from 0 to 1 $). Within applications, there are more different scenarios of user behavior and different actions that carry different values ​​(registration, purchase of different types of subscriptions, in-app purchases, in-game activity, etc.).

What App Owners Need To Do

  • Provide Privacy Policy information to App Store Connect.
  • Update to the latest Facebook SDK (8.1 or later) or Mobile Tracker SDK (Adjust, AppsFlyer, AppMetrica)

For mobile trackers (Adjust, AppsFlyer, AppMetrica), check how they integrate with the SKAd Network framework. Each has its own documentation. For example, AppsFlyer will not see retargeting campaigns and post-view attribution data.
On the whole, these changes might cause some challenges for many online traders. And you have two options in such a case: you can whine and complain, without doing anything, or you can accommodate these innovations and take advantage of them. Anyway, they are unavoidable, but it is only up to you whether they are profitable or limiting. With the right usage of the upgrades, you can magnify your analytics numbers considerably.

FAQ

Apple policy prohibits collecting and sharing certain data unless people choose to be tracked on iOS 14 devices via a hint. As more people move away from tracking on iOS 14 devices, ad personalization and performance reporting will be limited for apps and web conversion events.

Apple uses its iAds program to serve ads directly to iPhone applications. It builds on existing apps that iPhone users have already installed or downloaded on their phones. IAds places small advertisements at the top or bottom of an open application, giving users one-click access to a web link.

Apple is updating its latest operating system to iOS 14, and it will limit user information exchanged with Facebook, prohibiting specific data collection and sharing.

Businesses & brands who run Facebook Ads & Facebook Business Tools to:

  1. Target audiences
  2. Track web conversion events (click, form submission, etc.)
  3. Advertise mobile apps
  4. Optimize ads

Best B2B E-commerce Platforms

Posted on by Amir Levi

The key to successful online trading is not only offering well-demanded products but using the right e-commerce platform. Best B2B e-commerce websites offer various tools to ease the trading and help you to make it more profitable. But is e-commerce worth trying?

The answer is yes, as each year online trading becomes more and more popular. Some analysts forecast that by 2021 the number of online customers is expected to reach 2.14 billion. And that number will grow with each year, making online commerce a very profitable business. Though it also has its drawbacks. A large number of customers makes it a highly competitive sphere. That’s why people are in constant search of the best B2B e-commerce websites.

A subscription to the right e-commerce platform is the best variant if you are a beginner. In this way, you can be sure to have certain assistance. Various sites offer various tools and functions, like additional advertising, or the possibility to display your products to a selected group of customers. Most software offers these functions for an additional fee, but some are free. So, it is important to choose the most convenient for you!

10 Best E-commerce Subscription Platforms

10 Best E-commerce Subscription Platforms

Choosing the best framework for e-commerce is crucial when it comes to online trading. Here we want to give you the list of the best platforms for e-commerce!

1. Shopify Plus

This platform was created in 2014, and by now it is one of the largest e-commerce websites. Over 1.7 million brands and companies work with Shopify from 175 countries. Generally, the number of sales is estimated at around $314 billion. The site is available in 20 languages. The site also offers one of the best search engines to specify your needs. 
The subscription per month depends on your income, but it starts from $2,000.

2. BigCommerce Enterprise

This site is relatively young, as it was founded in 2019, but it has already gained the trust from such companies, like Toyota. This e-commerce platform offers a free-trial subscription model, which is best for newcomers. Moreover, the site is easy to manage. 
BigCommerce offers three subscription models: 

  • Standard. Offers you basic trading features, for $29,95 a month
  • Plus. This one is regarded to be the most popular, as it offers you some extended set of functions for quite a reasonable pricing of $79,95 monthly. 
  • Pro version. Gives you a vast range of tools and functions, for example, the best search engine for profitable e-commerce. This will cost you $299,95 each month.

3. OpenCart

OpenCart is rightfully considered as one of the best frameworks for e-commerce. This one is utterly free to use, with no monthly commissions, which is a great advantage. Besides, it is one of the largest online trading platforms with more than 342,000 customers. 
Also, it offers you around 13,000 different themes and modules for your shopping profile, to help you create a popular e-shop.

4. Presta Shop

This is another framework for e-commerce, which is considered to be among the best ones. The number of its users has exceeded 1 million. This website works with more than 250 agencies that will gladly offer their assistance to you. 
PrestaShop is also free to use, but if you want some additional functions or themes, you will have to pay small fees.

5. Woo Commerce

This is one more e-commerce platform that offers the best features for a $0 subscription a month! WooCommerce was founded in 2011, and now it supports 26% of online shops. This platform offers various functions and security features. For example, you can hide the prices from unregistered users, also you can create a group of customers, who can see certain products, unavailable to others.

6. Oracle Netsuite

This platform is especially popular with mid-sized businesses. The website offers you several themes and also allows you to customize and improve your shop by using JavaScript, HTML, or CSS. 
If you are not very skilled in coding, Oracle Netsuite will gladly offer you already-made templates of themes and codes. To subscribe you will need to pay $2,500 a month.

7. 3dcart

This is one of the oldest online marketing sites, considering that it was established in 2001. The site offers you various functions, including the best e-commerce search engine as it uses the latest SEO optimization. 
It also has a reliable security system, like PCI Certified hosting and SSL technology. The price is also very democratic: only $379 each month.

8. TradeGecko

TradeGecko is among the best b2b e-commerce websites worth trying to work with. The company manages orders worth $14 billion from users worldwide. The company has an easy interface and also tries to simplify the trading experience for its users. 
TradeGecko offers a free 14-day trial. If you are interested in further cooperation, the subscription prices vary between $39 to $599, depending on which function package you choose.

9. Oro Commerce

This is another popular e-commerce platform, with a built-in CRM system and SEO options. It also supports B2B, B2C, and B2X e-commerce. Oro Commerce also provides you with great security functions, trade analytics, and many other tools that will increase your profits. 
The company offers two subscription models:

  • Community is a free source, which you can download from the site.
  • Enterprise, which opens a lot more exclusive functions for you. To get info about your commissions you will have to write to the team.

10. Magento

Magento is powered by AdobeInc and offers vast functions for its customers. It has decent customer support, a security system and is also one of the best e-commerce search engines that use SEO, CRM, etc.
You can submit to a yearly subscription model for $22,000 or pay $2,000 a month.

What Is B2B E-commerce?

What is B2B e-commerce and how to make it successful?

E-commerce is usually subdivided into 2 groups B2B (Business-to-business) and B2C (Business-to-consumer). The division depends on the different customers’ requirements and the customer’s capacity for purchasing.

B2B is a large e-commerce niche, where the sales and purchases are completed between two businesses. Commonly, B2B and B2C stores offer their customers slightly different options, though both provide you with the best e-commerce search engine to improve your trading analytics. And though it is considered to be less popular than B2C, actually it is a lot more profitable than the traditional B2C trading. 

B2C implies that the trade is completed between a company and a common customer. When you order a fancy shirt from an online shop, that is considered as B2C e-commerce.

All the frameworks considered to be the best for e-commerce, offer these two options. But, why do they offer different functions to each of these? The key to this answer lies in the purposes of cooperation.

What is the difference between B2B and B2C? You see, B2B customers are usually big companies, which are involved in manufacturing or massive trading. For example, there’s a company that manufactures fabrics and other raw products required for making clothes. 

These products are sold to distributors, wholesalers, or straight to the common customer. One company that makes clothes completes several B2B transactions to buy these raw materials. Then it sells the final product, shirt, or pants to an ordinary consumer. There are certain differences between these two online trading niches, which mostly concern the targeted purchaser. That’s why the best b2b e-commerce websites offer different functions:

  • Impulsive and Rational buying. Ordinary B2C buyers tend to make impulsive purchases, while B2B tries to plan their spendings.
  • Short and long-term customers. Usually, ordinary people don’t stick to one trader. They buy the desired product and “sail away” to search for another. B2B customers try to establish certain cooperation with each other. 

Fast delivery and fixed delivery. B2C customers usually focus on the speed of delivery, while B2B requires the delivery to stick to the schedule.

FAQ

Different sources name different platforms when asking this question. So, we decided to name 3 platforms, which are usually put into the top 3: Shopify, BigCommerce and OpenCart. These three are considered to be the best, as they offer a wide range of tools and functions, are very popular among people, and have quite democratic submission fees.

Online trading is not difficult to start, yet, to be successful in it you will have to put in some effort. Quite a lot depends on how you will promote your site

First of all, you should decide if you want to focus more on the trade with other businesses or wholesalers, etc, thus you will be a B2B. Or you simply want to work as a private trader, therefore more as C2C. When you finally define what you would like to do, you should select the platform that offers more advantages to your type of business.

Well, it is not particularly safe, but also it is not that dangerous. Just pay attention to the trader’s site. There are a lot of tricks on how to decipher a scammer.

Competitor Analysis In E-commerce

Posted on by Amir Levi

Competitor analysis is an essential part of any business’s marketing because every enterprise operates in a competitive market. And to form a strategy, you need to take into account the specifics of the product or service and understand those external factors that directly or indirectly affect the company’s development.

The e-commerce market is growing from year to year – strong players are strengthening their positions, and there are more and more new ones. The boom in marketplaces around the world is stimulating the active development of the market, creating new user experiences and expectations from online shopping. At the same time, many market participants cannot withstand the competition and fade out, losing in price competition for the buyer. According to a 2019 study, 46% of e-commerce businesses rate their level of competition in the marketplace as very tough. Only 1% said their business is out of the competition!

If you are not one of the latter, then almost any competitor is just a click away from you. Therefore, before entering the e-commerce market, you really should pay attention to one of such priority tasks as competitor analysis before the fight. Even when you don’t see your competitors, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Read our article to the end, and we guarantee that you will discover new knowledge that will help you achieve success in your online business.

In this article, you will find answers to such important questions as:

  • Why do competitor research?
  • What are the stages of systemic competitor analysis?
  • What conclusions can be drawn from the collected data and how to take them into account when developing an online store?

Why Is Competitor Analysis In E-commerce Needed?

Why is competitor analysis in e-commerce needed

It is strange that the competitor analysis is still not part of every marketing strategy because if you use it in various online stores, it will help to:

  • Realize a unique selling proposition (USP) and differentiate yourself from your opponents, or at least, not be inferior to them.
  • Determine your competitors’ internet marketing strategy. Know top traffic sources and marketing budget.
  • Create a budget for advertising campaigns that is not divorced from reality and initially focus on those channels and tools that the competitor pays special attention to.
  • Analyze the functional features of competitors’ sites, identify weaknesses and determine a roadmap for the development of your site
  • To probe the assortment and pricing policy.

Most developers do competitor analysis when developing a website, and rightly so. But the process itself is chaotic:

  • Analyzed are those whom the customer indicated as competitors in brief.
  • Or those whose interface the UX designer liked.
  • The analysis does not take place in the context of all competitors at once.

First, with such a non-systematic approach, there is a high risk of being wrong. It is not a fact that the solutions used on the selected sites are correct. Secondly, it is quite difficult to assess the competitor advantages and form your USP, identify patterns in the interface and cover all the functional features of the competitors’ online store. But this article describes a process where all risks are minimized, and it sets priorities in the roadmap for the successful functional development of the project.

What does a correct competitor analysis consist of?

Since we set ourselves the task of developing a competitive online store and predicting possible ways of developing functionality, our competitor analysis contains the following basic stages:

  • Sources of traffic
  • Usability of the site
  • The selling component of the platform
  • Content
  • Website technical optimization

But before that, you should first think of finding competitors for analysis using the tips below.

Identifying Key Competitors In E-commerce

Identifying key competitors in e-commerce

It is necessary to select competitors based on different marketing characteristics. One of the most important is the “target audience and their needs”. This characteristic is refined based on the questions:

  • Whether your products/services are aimed at the same audience as the offers of this competitor?
  • Whether the products/services of the competing company solve the same needs that you are solving?
  • Do members of your audience meet the products/services of the competitor in question when looking for ways to meet their needs?

If the answer to all questions is yes, then the company is your competitor. It is essential to know that products may differ from each other, but solve similar needs, so you need to consider this stage carefully.

Other criteria are also critical (price/quality ratio, market share, product range, etc.), and it’s okay if you analyze a competitor that is far ahead of you in all respects (that is, choose not quite close). Such an audit will give you a lot of helpful information. The main thing is not to research those who are significantly behind you.

Where to find competitors?

  • Survey of employees and target audience. Ask them what competitors they’ve heard of.
  • Top search results and contextual advertising. Use basic queries for which customers can search for you. For example, if you have 20 queries, select those companies that have appeared in the search results 4 or more times. It is also important to consider those competitors who hit the top for basic search queries in the shortest time.
  • Ratings. Find industry rankings and take the leaderboards. For example, for the query “rating of construction companies”, there are many selections with arguments for the position of companies at the top.
  • Search in social networks. Using keywords, you can find popular groups and social media accounts hosted by your competitors.
  • Services. Special services will help to simplify the task of finding competitors. Their use allows finding statistics (top positions in search results, page meta tags, visibility, traffic from search, semantics) to reveal the strengths of competitors’ sites.

You should pay special attention to sites with the lowest bounce rate, good pageview depth, and traffic from search and social networks. It is necessary to select from three to five companies from the general list – this is the optimal range for assessment. You can expand this list by adding one company that is larger than you in scale or holds a significant share of the market. You can learn from it an interesting experience.

Analysis Steps For Competitor E-commerce Sites

Analysis steps for competitor e-commerce sites

In our article, there are four main areas which it is better to check:

  • Sources of traffic. Particular attention should be paid to the traffic source – the main channel from where rivals get customers; this can be traffic from search results, contextual advertising or referrals from social networks, and so on. You can use Similarweb for this. Thus, you can understand what competitor advertising really works and take this experience into your company. If the main traffic sources are Facebook or Google, then you can use AdScale to create a powerful advertising campaign on these channels to establish new sales options.
  • The convenience of use. The first thing you should pay attention to is how the site is arranged, how many pages, sections, and texts it has, and how the content is designed. It is also equally important how simple and intuitive the catalog is, whether the menu is convenient and whether all the necessary sections are included. What matters is how quickly and easily the user can find all the information they are interested in. For example, your competitor is a large furniture store. The client wants to buy a “Sliding wardrobe” and going to the competitor’s website sees a catalog with a convenient and obvious menu; at the necessary section, it is possible to filter goods that have value, photos, characteristics. All these elements are aimed at ensuring that the visitor takes the targeted action.
  • The selling component of the site. The main goal of any e-commerce site is to sell. Therefore, it is worth assessing the selling component, which consists of:
    • Company’s pricing policy (prices are lower/higher than the market or like everyone else)
    • Range of products
    • Availability of a guarantee for the goods
    • The convenience of contact information
    • Availability of different communication methods
    • Existence of discounts, bonuses, and other loyalty programs

As a result, you can conclude where you are inferior to them from the client’s point of view and find ideas that need to be implemented in your business.

  • Technical optimization check. This stage consists of the analysis of such parameters as page load time, adaptability to mobile devices, broken links, sections, visual elements. Search engine optimization (SEO) also refers to the technical side of websites. Seeking sites for search engines allows you to get more traffic, and therefore leads. The main SEO parameters are positions in search results, phrases for ranking competitors, reference mass. Thus, you will receive information about the technical optimization of competitors. And also a list of shortcomings in your site that need to be corrected.

In addition to these critical parameters of competitor analysis, there is another one called content, which is of great importance for attracting the target audience of a competitor. Let’s take a closer look at it.

Content For A Selling E-commerce Site

Content is a key element of a selling site, whether it is a description of the services provided or an overview of a product. The content should be clear and exciting for the user. Firstly, it is worth checking the text on the main page and the pages of categories of goods or services. Pay attention to:

  • The point. What is the meaning of the text? What is trying to convey to the visitor? Put yourself in the client’s shoes and evaluate how beneficial this text can be for them. This way, you can discover the correct way of writing articles.
  • The quality of the text. The quality of the text is assessed by the excellent uniqueness of the text and its volume. Look at the number of characters in the texts of competitors, and it will be optimal to identify the average value and stick to it. However, you should beware of texts with useless, redundant, and insignificant information. Also, pay attention to the text style- this is how succinctly the text is written. If competitors have low-quality content, you still need to improve your texts. Thus, you can turn them to your advantage.
  • The presence of pictures and videos. Empty text is of little interest to visitors. Pictures, infographics, and videos increase audience engagement and retention. Even if your competitors do not use media content, use it for yourself, and you will benefit.
  • Structure. It is always more pleasant to read the text divided into paragraphs, with bulleted lists, without very long sentences and a single narrative logic; this can be called taking care of the reader. So, it is recommended to use it in any text.

As a result, you will receive a list of improvements for your content, which is best written down in a table convenient for you. Also, pay attention to whether the companies have a blog, what, and how they write. Part of the traffic received from information requests can convert.

Undeniably, internet marketing skills are required to conduct a good audit. The most vital step in competitor analysis in e-commerce is to draw the correct conclusions and highlight good ideas. Whatever your personal feelings, and no matter how objectively you try to approach the assessment, there are statistics, the psychology of human behavior, and other wisdom. In addition, the amount of experience and knowledge may not be enough to identify all the disadvantages, to look deeper than a confusing text about delivery terms. But if you succeed, you can achieve only more. Knowledge in the classical marketing field, presentation of the market situation, and experience will help you determine your strategy for developing your business on the internet. All this together makes it possible to complete the analysis and achieve the goal correctly. And for maximum results, all you need is the perfect advertising to beat any competitor. Use our helpful bits of advice and AdScale to help propel your business to new heights!

FAQ

Each e-commerce competitor has its strengths and weaknesses, but these can be easily identified with the correct analysis.

The main goal of competitor analysis of any industry or market is to obtain sufficient information about the strengths and weaknesses of a competitor, their strategy, intentions, and opportunities to improve the effectiveness of their own actions, both in sales and advertising.

The value of competitor information is great because it allows for more systematic and representative market data in relation to consumer research. In this way, the forecasting of future technology/product market trends can be improved.

A competitor analysis should include a detailed study of the activities of the main players in the industry, starting with price analysis, advertising, assortment, and ending with a detailed SWOT analysis of competitors.


Full Guide On CMS For An E-commerce Site

Posted on by Amir Levi

Surely in some cases, you have heard or talked about the term CMS, but at the same time did not know for sure what it means. When you are deciding to begin an e-commerce business, this term is often used in most conversations. But what exactly is an e-commerce CMS?

Today, it is more than just online sales. Every year, e-commerce content management systems are getting more and more worldwide approval as a great way to handle an online business. According to eMarketer, the e-commerce share of total global retail sales will hit 23% by 2023. In turn, this indicates a huge opportunity to make a name for yourself in the market, expanding your sales and company awareness thanks to CMS.

Therefore, if you still have doubts about what the phrase “CMS for an e-commerce site” is, and you do not know what these systems are for, as well as their characteristics or advantages over other technologies, then it is time for you to start to understand everything. And for this reason, we have prepared a convenient article for you. In it, we will talk with you about what a CMS is and everything connected with it that you should know. In addition, at the end of our article, you can see some of the best CMS for an e-commerce site.

What Is CMS For An E-commerce Site?

What is CMS for an e-commerce site?

A Content Management System is a program that just runs in your browser. It lets you build, organize, and transform a website and its content without any programming knowledge. Such software provides you with an easy graphical user interface. Here you can manage all aspects of your e-commerce site:

  • It helps the user to post messages with handy tools that are easily accessible from the admin panel.
  • Online retailers actively use the content management system to sort the product catalogs of their e-commerce stores.
  • Also, with the help of CMS for an e-commerce site, you can customize the overall design of the site in order to maintain the correct impression of new users from the products being sold on it.

It is fair to collectively call the entire process the creation and editing of digital content, which is not limited only to the actions we have listed. There really are plenty of them! In other words, an e-commerce content management system is a convenient infrastructure that performs all the backend store management functions of an online shop.

It is also worth considering that e-commerce CMS software comes in two main kinds:

  • SaaS CMS (software as a service). It is a way to distribute an e-commerce content management system on a rental basis. That is, you do not need to buy a CMS and order an individual development. You just need to configure the product issued by the supplier for your tasks and pay a monthly (or yearly) subscription fee. One of the best CMS for an e-commerce site is BigCommerce and Shopify.
  • Open-source CMS. This software meets the following conditions: the program can be freely used for any purpose; availability of the source code of the program; you can freely distribute copies of the program; the program is free to improve and publish your improved version. Thus, using this software, which is often placed on its own hosting, is absolutely free, and users have complete control over the website’s functionality. Some free systems include payment for additional features. The best CMS for this type are WooCommerce and Magento.

How Does The E-commerce Content Management System Work?

Now that you know what a CMS is, it’s time to understand how they work, and the best way is to give you an example. Imagine you need to create a web page with books. When you put a new book on the market, you need to create your web page, which takes time because you need to create the HTML structure, make sure it works, integrate it with the entire page, put the appropriate links on the main page and much more. It might take an hour at the very least. But would it be best to use CMS for an e-commerce site in this case? Definitely yes. It will be a matter of five minutes because it saves you from the whole process of creating a page from scratch because it is already in charge of programming this structure. You just need to specify what content should be on this page, URL, and photos, and that’s it. As a user, you don’t need to worry about the technical part because the CMS will take care of it, giving you more time to focus on your database, content, and strategies to make your online store visible.

Pros And Cons Of Using A CMS For An E-commerce Site

A content management system is a perfect choice for many website owners. However, it can also come with some drawbacks. Here are the most important pros and cons of using an e-commerce content management system:

Pros:

  • Using the CMS does not require any programming knowledge.
  • It is very easy to install and update both the CMS and the related themes, plugins, and extensions.
  • You can choose from hundreds or thousands of pre-designed themes.
  • You can also add additional functionality with plugins or extensions such as SEO, security, newsletters, social media buttons, and online stores.
  • CMSs come with user role management features. You can quickly set up various user roles such as subscriber, author, editor, and administrator.
  • Most have a huge community, including support forums, online chats, Slack channels, group meetings, and more.
  • CMS is well documented. You can access online docs, FAQ pages, theme and plugin descriptions, tutorials, and videos.
  • Most of the systems are free to use, so you only need to pay for the domain and web hosting.

Cons:

  • Pre-designed themes sometimes look so-so. Although the themes are customizable, you may come across many other sites with similar designs if you choose the popular one.
  • CMSs are less flexible than handwritten websites. If you need a unique feature, you may need to hire a programmer to implement it.
  • Websites using popular CMS are most often the targets of hacker attacks. However, security risks can be significantly mitigated by using a security plugin.
  • CMS can slow down websites. Pages usually do not load as quickly as on a hand-coded website. In most cases, you will need additional plugins and extensions to increase your page load time.

How To Choose The Right CMS For An E-commerce Site?

How to choose the right CMS for an e-commerce site?

When choosing a CMS, there are many things to consider. A CMS that works great for one site may not work as well for another. It is always helpful to listen to the experiences of others, but you also need to assess your own needs before making a choice.

Here are the most important questions you need to answer:

  • What type of site do you need? For an online store, choose an e-commerce CMS like WooCommerce or Magento, or similar. Of course, many have heard of WordPress, but this system is a better choice for a blog.
  • What kind of design do you want? Before choosing a CMS, look at the themes they offer. Do they have any that you can choose for your site?
  • What features do you need? Check if the CMS has plugins or extensions for everything you need, including security, caching, marketing, social media sharing, advertising, and SEO.
  • How much can you spend on your website? You have to pay for the domain and web hosting. While most plugins, extensions, and themes are free, some more advanced ones come at a price. Calculate the total cost you have to pay each year.
  • Will you have additional needs in the future? For example, if you’re planning to build an online portfolio, choose a CMS with a decent selection of portfolio plugins.

To make sure you’re picking a good CMS for an e-commerce site, you must consider that the platform you are interested in includes the optimal level of automation, navigation, and link management. Support for documents and multimedia files, that is, formats that can be downloaded, the ability to manage images, documents, videos, etc. Don’t forget that the best CMS for an e-commerce site should have excellent search capabilities, be SEO-optimized for search engine rankings, support for user rights and features, as well as have multilingual support and the ability to return to a previous page version quickly.

The Best CMS For An E-commerce Site

The best CMS for an e-commerce site
  • Shopify. It is one of the most famous e-commerce companies. Shopify offers five pricing plans, with Basic Shopify being the most popular and Shopify Lite the cheapest. Newcomers are better off working in BigCommerce Essentials. It has the ability to add any number of managers, unlimited disk space, and no commission for payments. Dealing with the platform is easy, thanks to the convenient admin panel. Integration mainly with foreign systems: Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, PayPal, eBay. The plus is the integration with Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. There are built-in SEO features like custom URLs, metadata editing, and robots.txt.
  • WooCommerce. It is a great and famous e-commerce plugin built with WordPress. The system is open source and can transform a WordPress website into an online shop. For those who have previously worked with WordPress, WooCommerce will be easy to navigate. Basic tools for online trading are presented here, and there are hundreds of free and paid extensions. The platform is customizable, but it is not particularly suitable for large projects. It is more tailored for microbusiness. In terms of search engine optimization, the plugin manifests itself at a high level: sitemap, meta tag markup, URL, and more.
  • Magento. One of the most convincing and famous e-commerce engines in the world. It has broad functionality for multi-channel interaction with customers. At the same time, Magento Commerce combines incredible flexibility and versatility. So it is possible to create projects of any level on it: from traditional retail online stores to large-scale B2B portals and marketplaces. Experts talk primarily about the possibilities for scaling and growth, transparent architecture, flexibility, and security, which allow stores to withstand high loads and support many integrations without losing performance. The platform is presented in two editions Magento Commerce (formerly Enterprise Edition) and Magento Open Source (formerly Community), the platform’s free version.
  • PrestaShop. Serious enough platform for creating a medium to a large online store. Developed on the Smarty framework, which allows you to customize templates for different niches. This CMS can withstand loads in the form of a large number of modules, products, and content. However, for full-fledged work, you need to choose a certain hosting. Multilingualism and multi-currency allow you to create online stores around the world. The management of goods and the catalog is also well organized: discounts and promotions, coupons, blocks with recommended products and bestsellers, product comparison, customer comments, import using CSV files, personalization in the design of product cards.
  • BigCommerce. A well-known internet builder that provides ready-made solutions for various company formats and popular niches. BigCommerce positions itself as a service for medium and large businesses. For companies that are just starting their online business, there is a simplified version of BigCommerce Essentials. This option is one of the best CMS for e-commerce sites and can download products from Excel and easily upload to popular marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Pinterest, and Facebook. There are all the standard tools that packaged CMS offer: filters, brands, SKUs, reviews.
  • Wix. Suitable for small sites, one-page projects, and online stores. The service estimates that there are more than 150 million Wix builder users in the world. It can be used to create not very large but high-quality stores. A proprietary feature of Wix Code allows you to create databases and program the behavior of elements depending on the given conditions. Kind of like scripting, but in a GUI, no coding. This builder is suitable for both beginners and web development gurus.
  • OpenCart. An extremely popular e-commerce content management system in the Chinese market. OpenCart is free and has over 1,000 design templates and decent functionality. It has 14 thousand additional extensions from accepting payments to integration with courier services. OpenCart for e-commerce newcomers is one of the best free solutions, as even the basic version is enough for the development of an online store.

Content management systems make it possible for anyone to have a successful online presence, whether you are an individual performer, a startup, or a founded company. And a great addition to this kind of software is AdScale, an e-commerce advertising platform. Thus, utilizing advanced technologies in combination, you can achieve the most positive result in promoting your business!

FAQ

MS is a web template to build your own online page.

An e-commerce content management system is a pre-installed, configured, and ready-to-use resource content management system, which is a set of scripts and templates with broad functionality for creating full-fledged online stores on their basis.

Shopify is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms on the internet and an excellent CMS for an e-commerce site.

CMS for e-commerce simplifies the user’s work without requiring any programming knowledge; therefore, it is very necessary for beginners who want to create a quickly successful business from

How To Use Your E-commerce Store Data To Build Highly Targeted Audiences

Posted on by Amir Levi

Like most e-commerce stores, your advertising today probably relies on third-party data from Google & Facebook tracking pixels to create targeted ads for your products. The problem is that with the new Facebook pixel update that significantly limits your ability to track users, it is time to look beyond third-party data.
If you haven’t already, now is the time to start collecting first-party data to build your own custom audiences and find alternative ways to target customers.

What Are First-party Data Audiences?

First-party data audiences are audiences you create based on data that you collect from your own store. Essentially, these are audiences that are built without help from the Facebook pixel or any third-party cookies. Using your store’s data, including behavioral data, purchase data, and more, you can build audiences based on users who:

  • buy a certain type of product
  • make regular purchases
  • are based in a particular location
  • have certain interests
  • interact with your site in a specific way

You can then target these audiences with greater accuracy by using a range of marketing techniques.
AdScale Audiences List

How To Use First-party Data Audiences

AdScale Advertising Plan

Once you have collected first-party data, you can use it in several ways to create more personalized experiences for your users. For example, you could create an audience based on those users who are interested in a specific type of product in your store, then target them with ads on Facebook or Google.
You could send highly personalized e-mail and SMS campaigns featuring specific products and discounts that they have a high possibility of being interested in. Or you could create personalized content based on their specific interests to use in your marketing campaigns.

Benefits Of Using First-party Data Audiences

Using first-party data audiences has several advantages for your e-commerce business:

  • It’s free—You can collect first-party data for free and use it to deliver personalized experiences over and over again without having to pay for it.
  • Create customized messaging—You will know exactly what your customers want, meaning you can target them with the right message at the right time according to their stage in the customer journey.
  • Highly accurate—First-party data is detailed, precise, and up-to-date, so you can use it to target your customers and predict purchasing behavior with confidence.
  • It’s yours—You are never dependent on third-party data so you don’t have to rely on any other sources.

How To Generate Audiences From Your Data

Hopefully, you can see the power of first-party data for your e-commerce business. But how should you actually generate audiences based on your own data? Manually generating audiences is tedious and involves analyzing and segmenting each audience. It’s not a dynamic process, and the audience is only correct at the specific time of the analysis rather than being updated when new data is collected after generating the audience.
AdScale is here to help. We do all the hard work for you by dynamically generating audiences based on your own set of rules. You can then use the audiences in your own advertising campaigns using AdScale to create personalized, highly targeted campaigns that generate more conversions and sales.

How To Protect Against The Expected Cut Of 60% In Facebook Ads Revenue

Posted on by Amir Levi

We know the latest limitations of Facebook pixel probably made you feel uncomfortable due to the expected reduction in advertising performance.
According to Facebook: “The recent ad tracking changes will have a devastating impact on small businesses. The average small business advertiser stands to see a cut of over 60% in their sales for every dollar they spend.”

The good news is that e-commerce merchants can limit the impact of the cut and turn the threat into a real opportunity.

In this video, you’ll learn:

  1. The changes made by Facebook and their impact on our advertising.
  2. How can you use the power of your store data in advertising to protect and grow your sales.
  3. How you can turn the crisis into an opportunity and boost your ad revenue using AdScale.

Why Repurchase Frequency Is The Most Important Metric Of Your Online Store

Posted on by Amir Levi

Having repeat customers is always a good thing for e-commerce stores. The more repeat customers you have, the more their Average Order Value (AOV) increases, and the more you can reduce your advertising costs and optimize your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).

But how often they return is also important, and this is where the Repurchase Frequency metric becomes so crucial. Here we look at what this is, why it matters so much, and how to improve it in your store.

What Is Repurchase Frequency?

Repurchase frequency is the average time in days between two or more orders made by a specific customer. Essentially: how often they return to your store to make purchases. For example, a customer may return every 30 days, 60 days, or once a year.

This is not to be confused with the repurchase rate, which refers to the average percentage of customers that make another purchase within a set period of time. For example, if 100 customers make their first order in a given month and 15 of them return to make a second order within a period of 30 days, the repurchase rate for 30 days would be 15%. You could also have a repurchase rate for 60 days, 90 days, or more.

Why Repurchase Frequency Matters

The reason why repurchase frequency matters is simple: the better the repurchase frequency, the more orders your store will receive in a set period of time. If the average repurchase frequency is 120 days, that means the average customer makes 3 purchases a year. If you reduce it to 90 days, this translates into 4 purchases a year, increasing orders by 25%.

How Does Repurchase Frequency Affect Your Store’s Performance?

When the repurchase frequency is improved (the time between purchases is reduced), your customers are making more purchases over a given time period. This means:

  • AOV increases – statistics show that customer AOV increases with each purchase made.
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) increases – the amount each customer contributes over their lifetime at the store increases.
  • Advertising costs go down – it’s five times cheaper to convert repeat customers compared to bringing in new ones.
Orders Analysis Example

How To Improve Your Store’s Repurchase Frequency

First, you need to work out what your store’s repurchase frequency is, which involves analyzing your store’s data. Once you know what it is, you can set a goal for what you want the average repurchase frequency to be, which will depend on your store and the products you sell. To improve your repurchase frequency:

  • Target customers with advertising. For example, if customers buy once then disappear or only return after a few months, reach out to them with ads before they slip away.
  • If you sell consumable products, target your customers with ads at the moment when they are thinking about replacing their product.
  • Set up a subscription option for certain products and provide your customers with a discount when they subscribe.
  • Target existing customers with unique benefits and discounts based on their purchase history to encourage them to return.
  • Create a Rewards Program. Encourage customers to return more frequently by earning points with each purchase that they can redeem for discounts.
  • Use a Returning Customer Flow to provide customers with discounts when they make a follow-up purchase, or set up a VIP Flow to welcome them to your VIP club once they have spent a certain amount in the store.

Conclusion

While there are many ways to improve your repurchase frequency, the trouble often comes down to analyzing your store data effectively. Doing this manually can be a difficult process—not to mention tedious.

That’s where AdScale comes in. AdScale automatically analyzes your store data and provides you with detailed insights as well as recommendations like a ready-to-use advertising plan. This will make improving your repurchase frequency a lot quicker and easier, leading to faster and better results for your store.

Using Store Data To Increase Your Repeat Customer Rates & Boost Revenue

Posted on by Amir Levi

Attracting new customers to your business costs around five times more than retaining existing ones. Encouraging repeat customers is a cost-effective way to grow your business and it provides a healthy revenue stream. In fact, the average e-commerce store’s repeat customer rate is 19% and generates 41% of the total revenue. Plus, studies suggest that a repeat customer’s average order value (AOV) increases every time they make a purchase.

In our cutthroat digital age, customer loyalty will empower your business to thrive, niche or sector aside. Here we’re going to explore how using your store data can help you improve your repeat customer rates and boost your revenue over time.

How Store Data Can Help You Increase Your Repeat Customers

Taking a data-driven approach to increasing your repeat customer rates is effective as it will offer you a wealth of concrete insights into your performance as well as the behaviors of your existing customers. Here are some of the key ways that store data can help you earn more repeat customers:

Overall Performance

You can use your store data to measure your repeat customer rate and compare it to the industry average. If your repeat customer rates fall below the industry average, you will be able to take targeted actions to encourage loyalty.

AdScale Customer Performance

Analyzing your store’s data will allow you to identify potential weaknesses in your processes or service offerings while identifying emerging trends and opportunities you can leverage to your advantage.

Trends & opportunities

Product Personalization

Product personalization

By gaining an insight into the products that your repeat customers purchase more frequently, you can make personalization recommendations that are likely to result in a sale. And, by offering a personal approach to your communications, you will increase customer loyalty (which will result in even more repeat sales).

Campaign Messaging

If you use your store data to identify your top customers and what they value most, you can develop targeted campaigns with content, messaging, and offers tailored to their exact needs.

Campaign messaging

Actionable Ways To Increase Your Repeat Customer Rates

To boost your repeat customer rates, you should use your data to transform insight into action. These are the metrics you should work with:

  • Average Order Value (AOV)
  • Repeat customer rate
  • Repurchase rate

By tracking these essential e-commerce store metrics, you will gain a balanced overview of how your repeat customers are interacting with your site and spending their money. Once you’ve gathered your consumer insights, you can roll out targeted strategies including:

  • Personalized product recommendations
  • Tailored content that fits to their current stage in the customer journey
  • Exclusive deals and discounts to attract them back to your store.

Using AdScale To Increase Repeat Customers With Store Data

“The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing”.— John Russell

Repeat customers are essential to the ongoing success of your business. But, as invaluable a pursuit as it is, analyzing your store data regularly is a very time-consuming process. To help you get the most from your store data and create targeted strategies to help you increase your repeat customer rates, AdScale’s cutting-edge Advertising platform will analyze your store’s most valuable data automatically, delivering insights that will help you increase customer loyalty across the board.

איך שימוש נכון בסגמנטים של לקוחות יכול להקפיץ את מכירות האיקומרס שלכם

Posted on by Amir Levi

 

העדכונים האחרונים של iOS 14 מציבים אתגר רציני לחנויות איקומרס אשר מנסות להגביר את החשיפה שלהם דרך פלטפורמות הפרסום. שינויי הפיקסל בפייסבוק לאור עדכונים אלו יצרו מגבלות משמעותיות בניטור ומיקוד קהלים, מה שפוגע ישירות בבעלי חנויות האיקומרס המנסים לפרסם מוצרים לקהל היעד הרלוונטי. לפי פייסבוק, עסקים קטנים ובינוניים יכולים לספוג ירידה של עד 60% במכירות מפרסום לאור שינויים אלו.

אבל לפני שאתם מתחילים לתלוש שערות, ישנה דרך להפוך את המשבר הזה להזדמנות. באמצעות שימוש חכם בדאטה הקיים של החנות שלכם ניתן ליצור סגמנטים של לקוחות שבהם אתם יכולים להשתמש כדי ליצור קמפיינים עם קהל ממוקד ורלוונטי, שלא רק ימנעו את הירידה הצפויה, אלא יעלו לכם את המכירות יותר מבעבר.

מה הם סגמנטים של לקוחות?

סגמנטים של לקוחות אלו הם קבוצות לקוחות אשר מאוגדות על בסיס מאפיינים דומים בהתנהגות הצרכנית שלהם. לדוגמה, סגמנט לקוחות חוזרים (Repeat Customers) מאגד לתוכו את כל הלקוחות בחנות שלכם שקנו יותר מפעם אחת. סגמנט High AOV מאגד לתוכו את קבוצת הלקוחות שההזמנה הממוצעת שלהם גבוהה יותר מהממוצע של כל ההזמנות בחנות, וכן הלאה…

מה אפשר להשיג על ידי שימוש בסגמנטים של לקוחות?

1. מסרים ממוקדים ומותאמים אישית

באמצעות שימוש סגמנטים של לקוחות, ניתן ליצור מודעות עם מסרים ממוקדים ומותאמים ללקוח בהתאם להעדפותיו, התנהגותו או השלב בו הוא נמצא בתהליך הרכישה. לדוגמה, נוכל ליצור קמפיין פרסום לסגמנט Lost Customers (לקוחות שרכשו בפעם האחרונה לפני הרבה זמן) ולכתוב להם מודעות מותאמות לשלב בו הם נמצאים.

Lost Customers

2. ללמוד מה החוזקות והחולשות של החנות שלכם

על יד שימוש בסגמנטים של לקוחות, אתם יכולים להפיק ידע רב על ביצועי החנות שלכם באמצעות תובנות עסקיות ומדדים שלא היו זמינים לכם. זה יעזור לכם לגלות איפה החוזקות של החנות שלכם, איפה החולשות שלה, ומה ניתן לעשות בכדי לשפר אותם. לדוגמה, באמצעות סגמנטים של לקוחות ניתן לראות לראות שאחוז הלקוחות החוזרים עומד על 13% בלבד, אבל מייצר 43% מהכנסות החנות. נתון זה מאפשר לנו להבין שהגדלת אחוז הלקוחות החוזרים ולו בקצת, יגדיל לנו משמעותית את הכנסות החנות.

Repeat Customers

3. יצירת רשימות לקוחות לקמפייני פרסום בגוגל ופייסבוק

באמצעות סגמנטים של לקוחות, תוכלו ליצור רשימות לקוחות (Customer Lists) שבהם תוכלו להשתמש בקמפייני הפרסום שלכם לטרגט קהלי רימרקטינג או קהלים חדשים שעוד לא נחשפו למוצרים שלכם בעבר (באמצעות יצירת קהלי Lookalike). באמצעות שימוש בסמגנטי הלקוחות לטרגט רשימות, תוכלו להסתמך פחות ופחות על המידע הקיים בפיקסל של פייסבוק ויותר להסתמך על הדאטה של החנות שלכם. כך, תיצרו לכם הזדמנויות להרצת קמפייני פרסום סופר ממוקדים אשר לא תלויים בפיקסל ויכולים להגדיל לכם את ההכנסות בחנות.

Audiences

4. הרצת קמפייני פרסום סופר ממוקדים

אחד היתרונות המשמעותיים בשימוש סגמנטים של לקוחות, הוא היכולת לטרגט את קמפייני הפרסום שלך בצורה מאוד ממוקדת וכך להתאים את הפרסום לטיפול ספציפי במה שיגדיל לכם את ההכנסות. לדוגמה, אם זיהיתם שאחת החולשות שלכם היא שתדירות הקנייה של הלקוחות שלכם היא נמוכה מדי, אז אתם יכולים להריץ קמפיין שמטרגט רשימת לקוחות עם תדירות קנייה נמוכה, למצוא את הזמן האופטימלי להתחיל לפרסם להם לאחר הקנייה האחרונה שלהם, ולהציע להם מוצרים שנקנים בתדירות גבוהה.

Repurchase Frequency

סיכום

שימוש בסגמנטים של לקוחות יכול להוות יתרון משמעותי בקמפייני הפרסום שלכם ומקפצה להגדלת ההכנסות בחנות. אולם, ניתוח ויצירת הסגמנטים הינה משימה מורכבת שיכולה לקחת זמן רב ודורשת ידע אנליטי וטכני כאחד. בנוסף לכך, יצירת סגמנטים בצורה ידנית נותנת לכם תמונה לאותה נקודת זמן בה הם נוצרו, שכנראה לא תהיה רלוונטית בשלב מאוחר יותר.


כאן אנחנו נכנסים לעזרה. מערכת AdScale מייצרת עבורכם בצורה אוטומטית סגמנטים של לקוחות שבהם תוכלו להשתמש לבניית קהלי CUSTOM וקהלי LOOKALIKE, תוך כדי שהיא מעדכנת בצורה דינמית את הקהלים. באמצעות AdScale תוכלו לנתח את ביצועי החנות שלכם, ליצור קמפייני פרסום עם קהלים ממוקדים, ליצור מודעות בכל פלטפורמות הפרסום בצורה קלה, ולהנות מאופטימיזיה 24/7 של הקמפיינים באמצעות טכנולוגיית AI.


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