How Ecommerce and Email Marketing Tracked Through Gray November

Each year, I make my predictions for Gray November, a month-long season of discounts, and the rest of the holiday season — but this year I didn’t.

As Dr. Seuss might say, now, please don’t ask me why. I don’t quite know the reason. It could be that my predictions wouldn’t be quite right. But I think the most likely reason of all is that too many mobile emails were optimized two sizes too small.

Whatever the reason, the season, or the screen, let’s take a look at how online shoppers kicked off this holiday season. How did Gray November play out from a consumer spending standpoint? On which devices did consumers shop? Let’s take a look at a few key highlights:

Notable BFCM Spending

Online sales from Nov. 1-Dec. 6 were $80.3 billion according to Adobe Analytics, up 16% from 2017. For the second consecutive year, every single day in November drove over $1 billion in online sales; this is the new daily benchmark for the month. The upcoming benchmark will be $2 billion sales days; 14 of the first 36 days of the holiday season hit this new benchmark.

And for the big three:

• Thanksgiving Day: $3.7 billion in online sales, up 28%.

• Black Friday: $6.2 billion in online sales, up 24%

• Cyber Monday: $7.9 billion in online sales, up 17%

Looking at these individual days, we see larger YoY growth on Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day than Cyber Monday. Thanksgiving has been evolving into a major shopping day over the past several years, and retailers should expect this to continue.

This should come as no surprise, as sales were noticeably ramped up beginning the Monday of Thanksgiving week, following a trend seen the last several years.

Shopping by Devices

We have seen mobile continue to increase its share of web traffic and online sales over desktop. This year we saw a similar yet evolving story from consumers.

Traffic: Mobile once again ruled traffic to websites, taking 57% of it. Of this, 49% was from smartphones. While not apples to apples, if we compare this to the overall holiday season of last year, we begin to see a slight, if predictable, shift.

While the overall percentage is the same as last year’s season, smartphones took some share away from tablets. In 2017, smartphones accounted for 46% of web traffic while tablets accounted for 10%. As screens get larger and tablet usage slowly declines, we see a shift in consumers favoring smartphones as their go-to online search device.

Sales: From a sales standpoint, desktop still owns the day, accounting for 60% of online purchases. While still dominant, this is a decrease from the 67% we saw during the holidays overall last year. Smartphones accounted for 30% of sales, while tablets accounted for the remaining 10%. Bottom line: If you’re not mobile-optimized, you’re not optimized.

Notable Email Marketing Highlights

As I do every year, I track the volume of emails I receive to my personal inbox from the hundreds of retailers I subscribed to. I look at send volumes and advertised subject lines during the season, and here are a few interesting observations.

High-volume send times: High sends were prevalent throughout most of November, although the acceleration started Thanksgiving week, with an average lift of 30% as compared to the three weeks prior. Bronto, which sends hundreds of millions of emails each day, saw a 10% YoY lift in email sends on Black Friday and 21% lift in sends on Cyber Monday. Retailers continue to send, and they send a lot.

The four highest send days in my inbox, in order, were Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Thanksgiving Day and the Tuesday after Cyber Monday. For Bronto, it was Cyber Monday, Black Friday, Thanksgiving Day and the Sunday before Cyber Monday. On Cyber Monday alone, Bronto sent more than half a billion emails!

Subject lines: Starting with the last Friday before Thanksgiving, the term “Black Friday” was being used in at least 18% of all subject lines each day up to and including Black Friday.

Looking at incentives during Thanksgiving week, discounts were deep and widely available. Fifty percent discounts was the most advertised incentive throughout the week, followed by free shipping, 20% discounts and 30% discounts, respectively.

And what about my shopping habits?If you recall, last year I finished my shopping before the Black Friday clock struck midnight. This year, many sales early in the week mirrored the Black Friday offers from 2017. By Black Friday this year I had made all but two purchases. The final two came later that weekend.

All in all, starting in mid-November, I bought lots of toys, ribbons and tags. I bought lots of packages, presents and bags. What does this all mean? It means that me, myself, the ol’ marketer, successfully won Gray November with ease.

All indications are that this holiday season saw the biggest ecommerce sales yet; Adobe won’t release its final figures until NRF’s Big Show in January. If true, we are going to enter 2019 with higher ecommerce expectations than ever; it’s going to be an interesting year.

How did the holiday season look from your vantage point? I’d love to hear. Be sure to let me know.

Amazon 4-Star and What It Could Signal for Amazon’s Future Retail Business

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On a recent trip to New York, I took the lovely ten-minute stroll from my hotel to Amazon’s newly opened SoHo neighborhood retail store, Amazon 4-star. For those that are unfamiliar with the concept, the store showcases only products that are new, trending, or rated 4-stars or above on Amazon. With a simple Google search, you will find plenty written about the store and its layout. But during my visit, I couldn’t help but think there was a much grander plan being rolled out before my eyes.

Let me take a moment to call out some of my own observations and what they could be signaling for the future for Amazon’s brick-and-mortar retail business.

Small sections. The footprint of the store was small (but maybe not for NYC standards). That required the different “departments” to carry fewer products. There just wasn’t a wide selection of products from each category to choose from. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, and here’s why:

Having a limited, random assortment of products that never change won’t be enough to ensure repeat customer visits. After all, how many Instapots does one person need? Carrying fewer products will certainly require the store to rotate products, keeping the store fresh and maintaining consumer interest.

Pricing: Amazon, like many sites, utilizes dynamic pricing. Providing a seamless shopping experience both online and in-store with consistent pricing can be a challenge. Amazon’s answer is electronic shelf tags that can sync from online to in-store. Like many things Amazon does, this provides a more cohesive consumer experience. Amazon also promotes the benefits of being a Prime member by showcasing the Prime member pricing on the price tag.

Product bundling: In-store merchandising has improved over the years. There was a time when putting peanut butter and jelly next to each other on the shelf wasn’t commonplace. Like Amazon does on their site, they brought the product bundling experience to the store. You can see displays of “frequently bought together” products. They also have dedicated tables for products popular in New York City. This demonstrates their focus on using online purchasing data to integrate it into in-store merchandising.

Amazon products: And, of course, it wouldn’t be an Amazon store without drawing attention to some of some of its core products: Alexa-enabled devices, Fire TV, and Ring products were all prominently displayed. I felt like all of the other products in the store were a way to put some window dressing on the fact the store’s whole purpose is to drive adoption of these devices.

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Checkout Process: Unlike the cashier-less Amazon Go stores, Amazon 4-star’s checkout process is more traditional. While I did not purchase anything during my visit, I watched others checkout. To me it seemed a bit clunky. Some were clumsily messing with their phones while cashiers were trying to assist them. This seems far removed from the seamless checkout processes of one-click purchasing and cashier-less stores. I wonder if this will be improved as time goes on.

Overall, the store was inviting and could be useful for grabbing a USB cable, or maybe a new Ring doorbell. But how many of those things do I need? This can’t be all, can it? I mean, what’s the end game?

Maybe This Is Just the Beginning for Amazon

While this store has an interesting concept of bringing the familiarity of the online shopping experience in-store, something has me asking myself, “what’s the deal with this?” Am I to think that Amazon, which is so concerned with customer experience, obstacle-free checkout processes, and ease of fulfillment and delivery would open up a single, small footprint store with a limited, and presumably rotating, inventory?

To me, something doesn’t quite add up.

There are some things this store is noticeably missing, like clothing, which makes up more than half of Amazon’s 70+ private label offerings. And home goods, jewelry, and other private-label categories of products. I immediately start thinking of that interesting Amazon-Kohl’s partnership that no one seemed to make sense of.

I am on record as saying I believe Amazon is looking to move into more large-store formats. It’s worth mentioning that you could easily fit this entire store into a Kohl’s location and have room leftover for lots more products. Could this store concept simply be a test to combine online and in-store purchasing data to determine the best way to merchandise in a larger store format? Doing so would provide them an opportunity to expand their offerings, such as their clothing and other product categories.

While I don’t believe Kohl’s is an acquisition target, I see the Amazon 4-star concept as just another toe in the water of the large brick-and-mortar swimming pool.

How Customer-First Policies Can Attract and Retain Customers

Customer service is important – possibly more important than ever.

Consider this: I once spent $720 over seven different orders in an eight-month span – all without a single issue. Then the day came: A piece of clothing, after only one wear and wash, started to come undone. I called customer service but was informed it was outside of their 30-day return window. Sure, this made sense. After all, it was the holiday season and I purchased the item as a gift. Even after explaining that to them, it did not matter. Since it was out of their exchange window, there was nothing they could do.

Strike that.

Nothing they would do.

According to eMarketer, 79% of people are very likely to switch to another company if they have a bad customer service experience. I became one of them.

In today’s retail landscape, products are widely available, and prices are very often comparable amongst companies. In this environment, the challenge retailers face is how to entice a consumer to purchase from them — and not their competitor. This is precisely where customer service can be a difference maker.

Having friendly customer service representatives is a good start but consider the company policies they have to enforce. Are your customer service policies actually helpful to your customers?

Here are two examples of types of policies that can have a major impact on purchasing — especially during peak times like the holiday season.

Return Policies

Like in the example above, a 30-day window might sound good, but it is truly enough time from a customer’s perspective? Did they have enough time to wear and wash a product? Are they allowed to wash a product? Did they have enough time to test out its many features? Did they have enough time for it to stand up to normal wear and tear?

Consider the impact of expanding your return policy to 45 or 60 days, especially during the holiday season. Would you realistically see a vast increase in service requests outside of the original window? If so, it might point to other issues which may need to be resolved. However, you might be able to attract new customers because your policies are more convenient than your competitors.

Price Matching

You’ve likely experienced this situation. You complete an order and the next day you get an email advertising a 40% off sale. You subsequently become a bit perturbed and contact the company to ask for a credit for the difference. When the company obliges, you are satisfied. When they don’t, you become dissatisfied with the brand. Uh oh! Of course, a simple segment could have avoided this email snafu altogether, but let’s talk about what happens now.

Consider reevaluating your policies around situations such as these. Will you need to credit purchases made two weeks ago? Probably not. Should you consider crediting a customer who purchased less than 24 hours ago? Probably. No matter how you structure your policy, ask yourself whether your customer feels valued as a result.

Whether it is the cost and method of shipping and returns, hours and channels of customer service, or one of the policies I mentioned above, all have a major impact on purchases and customer retention. When crafting policies that are customer-first, be sure to promote these to your customers. Highlight them on your website, especially during the checkout process. Include them in your marketing emails, especially in lifecycle messages such as browse and cart abandonment. Constant reinforcement of your commitment to your customers should be paramount.

Seventy percent of people are willing to pay more for a product or service that has a good customer service reputation. Paying more means discounting less, which might also reduce the need to credit people’s orders for newly discounted items.

With my personal experience, I stopped doing business with a brand not because I wanted to, but because I lost confidence in them. To them, the fact I was an engaged customer did not matter. The fact I was a repeat customer did not matter. The only thing that seemingly did matter to them was taking my money. They refused to value me as a customer and paid the price for it.

Don’t underestimate your customers. There are a lot of things in business you can’t control. Customer service isn’t one of them. You have complete control. Making it a strength of your brand can not only amplify your brand’s reputation but also be a major component of attracting and retaining lifelong customers.

7 Ways to Prepare Your Email Marketing for the Holidays

Believe it or not, the holiday season is right around the corner. This year’s holiday season is projected to rake in $123 billion in online sales, a 15.3% growth over last year. Considering nearly 25% of Cyber Monday sales were driven by email marketing, it is imperative to have your holiday email marketing strategy well planned out. Before getting into ways to prepare your holiday email marketing strategy, let’s look at four trends from last year that I expect to continue.

4 Notable 2017 Trends That Will Continue:

1.  Thanksgiving Day generated $2.87 billion in online sales. This day keeps growing in importance for retailers. From my personal inbox, it was the fourth-highest email send day. Bronto reported it was their third-highest email send day. Expect this trend to continue this year.

2. Black Friday drove nearly $1.9 billion in mobile revenue. That made up nearly 37% of all of Black Friday’s online revenue. It is 2018. If you’re not mobile optimized, you’re not optimized.

3. Cyber Monday became the first day ever to reach $2 billion in mobile revenue, setting a new mobile record. Remember that thing I said about being mobile optimized?

4. Gray November, a month-long series of discounting, is a mainstay. In 2017, every day in November drove $1 billion in online sales for the first time. In total, 58 of 61 days of the holiday season crossed this figure. The holidays are not black or white. Like the clouds in the Northeast this time of year, they are very much gray.

With these trends expected to continue how, as retailers, should you prepare your email marketing for success in 2018? While I don’t have enough time to lay out all the potential ways, here are seven important steps to jumpstart your holiday season planning.

7 Ways to Prepare Your Email Marketing for the Holidays

1. Preach your differentiators

Not only will you have your regular customers shop with you, but you will also have seasonal or first-time buyers shopping. Remind or inform them why they should choose to shop with you and not elsewhere. Do you offer extended return policies, gift wrapping, price guarantees, satisfaction guarantees, or other value-adds? If so, shout them from the rooftops. This is especially critical if your brand does not discount.

2. Entice with email design

During the season, the majority of the emails will begin to look like one another. They tend to lack creative design that engages email subscribers. Design your emails to draw attention with the use of flow, color, creative designs, or anything else to break from generic email design. Just as important, design for mobile-first. Last year 46% of all holiday website traffic was from smartphones. This is the new norm.

3. Determine your promotional strategy

Plan which discounts to offer and when (think Gray November). With so many discount options to choose from, you can determine which will have the most benefit and best protect margins. Three trends from last year included retailers offering category-specific sales, free gifts with purchases, and in-store only discounts. These tactics help keep people opening emails throughout the season, allow retailers to sell add-on items with greater margins, and drive in-store traffic. These trends are all likely win-wins for retailers.

Just as importantly, have a promotional contingency plan and prepare backup promotions or variations in advance. Be sure to have the email creative completed and have the promo codes set in your ecommerce platform and email provider in advance. This will eliminate any last-minute scrambling on your email team.

4. Create exclusivity

I saw several retailers offering “exclusive” early access to deals as being a subscriber of the email program. Lulus even asked subscribers to confirm interest by submitting a simple form to gain access. Exclusive access not only reinforces the value of your email program but can also be publicly advertised in advance as a means of growing your email list.

5. Product recommendations

The trend of self-gifting has been rising over the past several years. In fact, it is reported that 25% of holiday purchases are a self-gift. While emails with gift guides and top gifts for the season make sense, they ignore the actual email recipient. In many cases, that person is also a customer. Using intuitive and personalized product recommendations inside of your emails and on your website is a great way to encourage self-gifting while promoting gift sales at the same time.

6. Optimize transactional messages

Be sure to optimize these highly-read messages with product recommendations, upsells, cross-sells, sister brand promotions, prominent customer service info, brand differentiators, and even email subscription callouts. These messages can not only reinforce the value of your brand but help drive sales. I once had a client who drove nearly 20% of their yearly email revenue directly from transactional messages.

7. Adapt life-cycle messaging.

Finally, look at your lifecycle messages and determine tweaks that should be made to account for holiday shoppers. For instance, as more people use their shopping carts as wish lists and do comparison shopping, how might that impact your cart abandonment strategy? Consider adding a fourth message, alter your discount structure, or decreasing time between messages. These can all be effective in recapturing sales.

For a welcome series, promoting top gifts for the season, or focusing the messaging on the season may prove to convert new email subscribers at a higher rate. Be sure to tout differentiators here! If you have a purchase anniversary email sending, consider turning it off for the holiday season. Last year I was greeted with one of these messages. The message we sent during their seasonal 50% off sale. The incentive in the email message was far less and was received on the same day two 50% emails from the brand came through. This message did not provide value.

While not a complete list, they provide some starting points to begin planning for holiday success. With an expected 15% growth for ecommerce sales this holiday season, the question becomes clear. How much of that 15% are you prepared to capture?

Are Your Competitive Differentiators Really Differentiating?

What are your competitive differentiators? When I was consulting, I would ask this question of my clients during our very first meeting. While it may seem like a simple question, answers were often hard to come by. Many times, what a retailer thought was their differentiator was the viewpoint of the employee—not necessarily that of the customer.

In today’s competitive retail environment, differentiation is more important than ever. Yet, as I surf from retailer website to retailer website and endlessly click on hundreds of marketing emails in my inbox, I am struck by one thing: Very few retailers are communicating to me what makes them different from the next guy. This got me thinking: Why is this the case, and what can retailers do to change this?

Who Communicates Differentiators?

Amazon has evolved from the online bookstore it once was by doing things differently to grow their business. They focused on being customer-centric. They provide(d) great customer service and free shipping, and now offer a litany of benefits associated with Prime. They are continuously adding perks that consumers want. And guess what? They want you to know. They promote it at every stage on the shopping experience.

If a non-Prime member navigates to the site they will see the “Try Prime” image in the upper left corner of the screen. When viewing a product, they will see a Prime callout under the pricing touting fast, free shipping. Above the “Add to Cart” button they again see a checkbox asking if the user wants “FREE Two-Day Shipping” by trying Prime. During checkout I am again presenting with the free shipping callout with a trial of Prime. They even offer Prime-Only products. Prime is their differentiator and they constantly reinforce the value of Prime to shoppers.

Looking at one of Amazon’s biggest competitors, Walmart, we know their differentiator is/was selection and low prices. Consumers recognize this but resting on these laurels in today’s age is not good enough. Walmart’s website constantly reinforces free 2-day shipping with no membership fees. As I move through the shopping cart I am again reminded of this. If you look at Walmart’s emails, every one of them has a banner above the main image advertising, “No membership fees with free 2-day shipping.” This is a direct counter to Amazon’s paid Prime service. While their primary differentiator has always been low prices, they know constant reinforcement is one way to attract or retain customers.

But those are both examples of very large companies. Let’s look at a different brand: TOMS. They differentiated through their One for One model, where with each purchase a product donation is made to those in need around the world. Other retailers have also taken to this model, as younger consumers demonstrate their desire to be socially conscious. Upon going to TOMS website, I see a plethora of callouts to this program, including in the navigation and as I scroll down the page. With every email from TOMS this program is again reinforced within their messaging. TOMS is constantly demonstrating to consumers what makes them stand out.

While your company may not be Amazon or Walmart, you likely compete with them. Now, include the smaller competitors into the mix and the market becomes very tight, very quickly. So, how do you differentiate your brand from your competitors and influence consumers to purchase from you?

How Do You Differentiate?

There are many ways to differentiate, including price, shipping speed, return policies, customer service, product quality, product selection, location, in-store experience, rewards programs, consumable content (e.g. how-to videos), technology (e.g. mobile apps), and social causes. Think about ways you can reinforce your brand differentiators at every step of customer engagement. Here are some things to consider:

Website: While this might seem obvious, does your site visibly do this? Visit yours and two of your competitor’s sites. Is there anything on the homepage of these sites that would tell a consumer what differentiates the brands from one another? Don’t let your most valuable asset sit idly by.

Email: Look at reinforcing these in every one of your messages but start with your welcome messaging. I just looked at the last 30 welcome emails I received and only three—I repeat three—of them included any mention of what makes them or their products different. These emails go to brand new email subscribers! This is a prime opportunity to influence a customer. If nothing else, it might make them pause before pulling the trigger with your competitor. Don’t waste this golden opportunity.

Beyond the welcome, look for areas in your promotional emails to reinforce what makes you different. This could be secondary banner callouts or added content to your headers. Cart and browse abandonment messages are often overlooked places to include your differentiators. Remember, these messages are sent to consumers who did not buy. Reinforcing what makes you stand out can overcome the obstacles to conversion.

And yes, personalization can be a differentiator. Always consider using intuitive product recommendations in both your emails and on your website.

Social Media: Be proactive, respond to and engage with your social followers. This is your opportunity to establish a personal connection with consumers. If a consumer knows your brand is receptive and available, it can build consumer confidence. Remember, by publicly communicating with one person, everyone else can also see that. While the immediate focus is on this one person, that exchange will transcend to others.

Customer Service: Customer service is a differentiator all by itself, and, I would argue, more important than ever. If you excel at customer service, shout it from the hilltops. This shows you are customer-centric and care about them. People like shopping with companies knowing they will be taken care of if something goes amiss. Remember that your customer service is an extension of your sales team. One bad experience can cost you a customer for life. Great experiences can keep them shopping for life. Be sure to train them well.

In a retail environment where the consumer has more shopping choices than ever, differentiation is arguably more critical than ever. You need to communicate this to consumers at every step of the customer lifecycle. But before doing so, you need to really think about why someone would purchase from you and not someone else. So, let me ask you: What are your competitive differentiators?

4 Ways to Produce More Authentic Brand Images

Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, email marketing, website images – we live in an image-rich online world. And now that everyone has a camera on hand 24/7, brands can no longer get by with boring, same-old-same-old photos. Thanks to a rise in social influencers and user-generated content (UGC), those old images are losing their effectiveness. Consumers expect more authenticity.

While retailers are beginning to re-evaluate how they use photography to engage customers, they can’t rely on customers to generate all of that authentic imagery for them. Here are four ways to find a good balance.

Include your customers

One reason retailers love UGC is it showcases customers telling their own stories. It is authentic. Unfortunately, most professional lifestyle photos are void of customers, so look for ways to change that. You might include customers browsing products in-store, engaging with a sales rep, purchasing or just using the product in a social way. You know, real people doing real things!

Focus on the story

Whether you’re selling a trendy pair of boots or dental implants, think of the story you’re trying to tell with your imagery and find ways to reinforce it. You might overlay a customer quote on a specific image to better bring that story to life. You could use an image of an end result and ask your audience to caption it. Only when an image has meaning beyond a smiling face will it tell a story.

Set the mood

Images are meant to enhance or showcase emotion. Consider the mood of the images you’re using. While the natural tendency is for every picture to showcase a smile, there may be times where you want to convey a different mood. It could be sassy, defeated, frustration or even shock, to name a few. Capture images of varying moods through change in facial expressions, background and lighting, and use them when communicating your story. That way, if a social media specialist or email marketer needs an image of someone in shock to promote something new and exciting, you’ll have images to compliment the story.

Think of the end game

Is the goal of the image of someone sitting on a futon to drive an immediate sale, seek out more information on a product, digest a piece of content, grow your social following or create community engagement? By thinking through the end goal of the image, your photo shoots can become more strategic. Creating conversation around the gorgeous throw pillow on the futon may generate better sales results than focusing on the futon itself, while focusing on the futon may generate more social conversation. Create imagery that relates to the moment and the goal you’re seeking.

As I discussed in a recent episode of The Commerce Marketer Podcast, finding your brand’s voice and telling a story through authentic images has never been more critical for retailers. The goal is to take and use your photographs in a more strategic and engaging manner. Remember: Just because the photo isn’t a selfie doesn’t mean it can’t still be authentic.

How Customer Service Can Increase Sales and Build Brand Loyalty

Have a question about a product? Need help with an order? Trying to find an item in your local store? Where do you turn? Customer service. Regardless of the reason or the channel you choose, one thing remains clear. At that moment, the customer service representative can make or break the experience and have a significant impact on your overall perception of the brand.

According to CMO Council, 47% of consumers stop doing business with a brand that continues to frustrate them. And a 2017 Blackhawk Network report found that 94% of consumers are loyal to brands that deliver a consistently good customer experience – 73% are loyal because of good customer service. In most cases, you can’t have one without the other.

At a time when customer service is becoming even more important to consumers, why does it seem like companies aren’t investing in making these employees valuable assets as opposed to potential liabilities?

These days, where consumer choice is limitless, retailers who provide excellent customer service can easily separate themselves from the pack. They should focus on how their employees engage with customers at all levels because with good customer service comes consumer trust. And while obtaining that trust is critical and takes effort, losing it requires none.

Arm In-Store Employees With the Right Tools

In an effort to provide a better customer experience, many retailers are looking at offering more technology to in-store shoppers, from smart mirrors to product-less stores. But shouldn’t the same hold true for staff as well?

Think about it. If I call a customer service department, the associate is sitting in front of a computer and able to look up product and order info. They are there to assist me. But why isn’t the interaction in a store the same? Typically, I either have to hope they know the information off the top of their head, or they have to walk me to the customer service desk. And chances are I’ve already tried to find the info on my phone before seeking help. Is that a good customer experience? I might as well have stayed home and shopped online, maybe even with another company.

The time has come for retailers to provide in-store shoppers with all of the conveniences of online shopping, including an informed staff. They need to arm their associates with the tools to assist customers. In an age where every retailer is trying to compete with Amazon – and their customer service – this is one area where brick-and-mortar retailers have an advantage … at least for now. So make the most of it!

Invest in Training and Onboarding

A key part of making customer service associates an extension of your sales team is your training and onboarding process. You must invest time in training them on not only company policies but also how to take a customer-first approach to sales and service. Associates must be friendly and helpful, but they must also be able to assist customers and recommend alternate or add-on products. In instances where a customer’s experience is not going well, such as with returns or damaged items, they must be empathetic as well as helpful.

One challenge many retailers face is the associates’ lack of investment in the company’s well-being. Maybe they’re temporary or seasonal employees. Perhaps it’s “just a job” to them, such as with high-school or college students. Maybe the company work environment just isn’t that friendly. The individual situation doesn’t really matter. In that role, they’re the face of the company. They are extremely important to the success of your business. So creating buy-in is essential in having them provide the level of service you want. This is where onboarding comes into play.

Take a look at your training process, and redefine it in a way that not only empowers the employee but results in happy customers. Do you offer attainable bonuses to these employees for sales or positive review scores? Are they cross-trained on other areas of the company that would be helpful for them? Do they have visible and attainable advancement opportunities? If employees aren’t invested, there will be no consistency. And remember: 94% of consumers are loyal to those that provide consistency.

Earn Trust and Repeat Sales

Customers not only expect the customer service associate to resolve their current issue, but they also have a level of blind trust in them. They’re receptive to employee recommendations or feelings toward a product. And this becomes even more powerful if the employee is able to solve their initial request. The customer is then likely more willing to seek out, rather than simply receive, guidance from this employee, which can go a long way toward upsells or cross-sells.

The more knowledgeable an employee is, the better experience they can provide, and the more trust and satisfaction the consumer will have. This is how you build loyalty and create brand advocates!

Make it Easy for Consumers

Consumers are increasingly wanting more convenience when it comes to reaching customer service. Can you expand your current offerings? With so many ways to deliver support, think about the methods your customers may want, such as live chat, text, social media, phone or email, to name a few.

Live chat is rapidly becoming a favorable method, ranking just behind phone as the preferred method for contacting customer service, according to a 2018 Bizrate Insights report. Chat is a bit more informal and allows for a more conversational style of support, which can make it easier for employees to make product suggestions and guide a purchase decision. Don’t feel like you have to enable every channel for customers, but be sure to provide the methods they prefer, not the ones you prefer.

Customer service is the land of opportunity where retailers can compete, get ahead and build customer loyalty and brand advocates. People expect good customer service and experiences. Do your best to give them what they want. If you don’t, someone else will.

When Is the Best Time to Send Your Brand Emails?

When is the best time to send emails?

This question has been around as long as email marketing itself. If you do a quick search, you’ll find tons of different studies pointing to a variety of answers, leaving retailers just as confused as before. The common result: Brands are flooding consumers' inboxes with emails at seemingly random times throughout the day.

This over-saturation, especially when combined with a lack of relevant content, can quickly lead customers to unsubscribe or let unread promotions sink to the bottom of their inbox—never to be opened.

Let’s explore some of the nuances of the “best” email send times, debunk a few common myths, and review why you should be looking beyond the email open.

The Best Time of Day to Send Marketing Emails

Identifying the best time to send depends greatly on the products you sell and the makeup of your audience. For example, millennials and Gen Zers are digitally-native consumers. They have their mobile devices with them at all hours of the day and use them all the time. Assuming they’re only opening their emails somewhere around the 10 a.m. lull at work is a very misguided and antiquated notion. Sure, it might be true for some, but it’s not likely for both generational cohorts.

While millennials may be working, Gen Z consumers may be at school or just hanging out with their friends. The same principle holds true for evening sends. Does your target audience interact late in the evenings? For younger cohorts, the answer may be yes, but for baby boomers, it may be less likely. For me, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. is a marketing black hole. During that time, I’m eating dinner, playing with my children, and getting them ready for bed. Sending me an email at 6 p.m. is a wasted effort. But for households without children, it might be the perfect send time.

Another thing to consider when sending an email is the dreaded time zone. Even though you may want to reach your West Coast customers at 10 a.m., remember that means the same email will reach your East Coast fan base at 1 p.m. Always be sure to factor this into the equation, especially for particular messages. If you run a “lunchtime” flash sale and send the email just before noon West Coast time, your message may miss the mark for those in other time zones who are already well into the afternoon.

The Best Day of the Week to Send Marketing Emails

A very popular school of thought has been that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were the best days to send, and weekends should be avoided. More on this in a moment. But this is another rule that has since gone by the wayside. Brands are sending more now than ever before, so focusing on one singular send day for your emails is not an option for most.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t find the optimal days for your customers. As I mentioned with determining the best email send times, when trying to find the ideal day, look at the products you sell, as well as your audience and their social lifestyle. Sure, some brands or products may not have much success on the weekends, but others may find that weekends are the best days. I have worked with companies on both ends of this spectrum. It’s all about understanding how your product appeals to your consumers and knowing how to engage with them.

Now, for those pesky weekends. Times have changed. People now have access to their email in their pocket 24/7. Are we really supposed to believe they don’t check it or shop on the weekends? Does Amazon not sell products on the weekend? Of course, people shop on the weekends! And with the ease and ability to shop whenever you want, there’s almost no reason to avoid sending on those days.

One more note: This shopping convenience has also given rise to the, let’s say, “tipsy” shopping phenomenon. This tendency to shop while feeling a little loose likely accelerates on Friday and Saturday nights. Based on your target audience, these days of the week may actually be quite powerful.

More on which days are the best to send your marketing emails here.

The Next Step

If you want to determine the best day and best time to send emails, testing and tools are critical. Use them to understand your audience. Using data analytics is a must. Take time to review your previous send data. Organize your email open and click-through results by the time and day when your brand emails were sent. But remember: If you’ve typically been sending on a particular day of the week, your data will be skewed and show that the best open rate comes from that day.

Begin by looking at the time of opens. You should see a relatively consistent pattern here, but try to look for patterns. For example, when sending an email, the majority of your opens will happen closest to the send time and decline accordingly. But if you routinely send emails at 9 a.m., but your opens spike at 1 p.m., this should tell you something.

Once you’ve determined your general baseline, formulate a testing plan for both send times and days of the week, but preferably not at the same time. Focus on one before the other. You can then optimize as you go along. Be sure to use the send time optimization tools your commerce marketing platform provides. This can help you maximize the effectiveness of your email send times.

Go Beyond the Email Open

While I’ve focused on the best days and times to send emails, the open rate is only a piece of the bigger email marketing puzzle. Of course, you want as many people to see the emails as possible, but if they don’t result in conversions, what good are they doing?

Finding the balance between improving open rates and conversion rates is critical. If you find your open rates increasing but conversions lagging, something is missing. We know that consumers today are predominantly checking their email on their mobile devices. Are your emails mobile-friendly? If not, you not only lose the potential sale, but the consumer may stop opening your emails altogether, knowing the experience will be lacking. Is the content of your emails relevant, helpful, and engaging?

Sending batch-and-blast messages is not meant to engage individuals. If you do send batch-and-blast messages, incorporate individual and engaging elements in them, such as intuitive, subscriber-specific product recommendations or user-generated content. If you’re sending an email about preparing for the snowstorm in the northeast to those who live in Miami, don’t expect strong conversions from that segment, even if they all open your email.

Final Thoughts

Connecting the right time to the best day to the right content will help you create a more consumer-friendly customer experience. Your goal is to refine your marketing programs, create unique customer journeys, and ultimately earn more revenue. Need help?

Email campaigns serve as a bridge between brands and consumers. When done correctly, they allow you to effectively communicate and interact with your customers. So don’t waste the opportunity. Adapt to the changing consumer behavior and look beyond the outdated “myths” to find the send time that’s right for you.

Is Marketing to Millennials Making Us Miss the Obvious?

My fellow Gen Xers and I are growing older with each passing day. And aging right along with us are two of the most talked about cohorts — millennials and Generation Z. If you work in marketing, you can’t go a day without hearing about them. After all, they currently make up over 40% of the U.S. population. And we all know their narrative. In addition to wielding lots of spending power, they’re unique and perplexing. They’re enigmas. They’re changing retail.

Maybe these characteristics are true, or maybe they’re just half-truths. Either way, these groups are much more than that. Dare I say it, they’re people.

Here’s a radical theory for you. Maybe generational differences don’t matter quite as much as we make them out to. As marketers, it would be foolish of us to ignore the unique characteristics of our consumer base. But some retailers focus so much on catering to certain generational cohorts that they ignore the common desires of all consumers, regardless of generation.

No consumer wants a bad experience. Doesn’t everyone want to receive their purchased products sooner than later? Wouldn’t everyone choose a more convenient shopping experience over an inconvenient one? Wouldn’t everyone prefer assistance from a friendly store associate rather than a rude one? Doesn’t everyone want to pay less, not more?

At the end of the day, consumers today want the same thing they’ve always wanted: a good experience. They want good customer service. They want a pleasant shopping experience. They want good value — a good product at a fair price. Of course, the term “fair” is relative. It doesn’t always mean cheapest but is based instead on all aspects of the product and buying process, such as overall quality, return policies, shipping speed and customer service, to name a few.

It’s up to the retailer to understand these basic consumer needs. Sure, you can focus on sending a mobile-optimized email, have a great social media presence and provide a frictionless checkout, but if your product breaks easily, can’t be returned and you can’t contact customer service except through a web form, the overall experience is still a poor one. And the customer won’t come back to buy again, no matter how many products were donated to the less fortunate thanks to that order. Amazon didn’t wait for millennials to tell them to provide a convenient shopping experience. They simply gave it to them.

Try improving all aspects of your business, regardless of the generational cohort you’re targeting. Make your email marketing as relevant, timely and mobile-optimized as possible. Streamline your website experience, have an engaged social media presence, create customer-centric shipping and return policies and offer exceptional customer service. Without these fundamental building blocks, meeting the expectations of today’s consumers will be next to impossible.

Now, I’m not saying these generations don’t have their differences. Of course they do. Gen Z are digital natives. Sending them an email that’s not optimized for mobile and asking them to print a copy of it to redeem a coupon in-store isn’t an effective strategy. And failing to provide friendly, convenient customer service, whether it be live chat or in-store associates, isn’t going to win over your millennial customer base.

But while each group has its own unique behaviors and preferences, the underlying principle is constant. Choosing to cater to those differences instead of improving the experience for all customers is a faulty strategy for retailers today.

Maybe it’s time to talk a little less about millennials and Generation Z and spend a little more time talking about people. After all, happy customers are happy people. And happy people are your best brand advocates.

Don’t You Know Me at All? The Importance of Relevant Recommendations

Imagine this scenario. You’re staying at a hotel, and you visit the concierge for a great dinner recommendation. You give him all sorts of information, including your craving for surf and turf. You tell him about the vintage red wine you like and your wife’s favorite chardonnay. You say you want a relaxed, romantic atmosphere – nothing too loud. After sharing all of those details, the concierge recommends the local sports bar. Wouldn’t you have expected more? Would you think less of the concierge and even the hotel chain as a whole? This same kind of interaction happens between retailers and consumers every day.

Such a disconnect can quickly turn consumers off and send them searching for other options. They are demanding personalized experiences and have come to expect relevant recommendations in exchange for sharing information about themselves. In fact, according to a Bronto-commissioned survey of U.S. consumers, 60% of millennials and 45% of Gen Xers expect retailers to make product recommendations based on their past purchases. Yet just 21% of millennials and 9% of Gen Xers are always satisfied with the recommendations they receive. What a major gap between expectation and reality.

When they’re done well, product recommendations are a powerful tool for connecting with consumers and making them feel like you truly understand them. They can be used in virtually any email, from day-to-day promotional emails and automated lifecycle messages, such as post-purchase and browse recovery, to order and shipping confirmations. They can even stand on their own as recommendation-only emails. And the best part is they don’t cause any additional strain for your likely lean email marketing team.

Let’s explore some of the dos and don’ts.

Make Your Product Recommendations Stand Out

Be specific to the individual. Recommendations are just that, recommendations. But showing me something my neighbor wants isn’t going to necessarily help me. Whenever possible, create recommendations that are subscriber-specific. “Listen” to the data. Email subscribers give you all sorts of digital cues – click activity, browse history, preference data and purchase behavior. This data allows you to generate more relevant results, which is particularly critical when using recommendations in a batch-and-blast message. By nature, these emails are often irrelevant to a majority of recipients. But including targeted recommendations based on individual data can often be enough to capture interest and inspire action.

Combine them with lifecycle messages. Lifecycle messages are already more relevant than standard messages because they’re based on consumer behavior. Recommendations will only take them to the next level. For example, I received a message last year reminding me that my son’s third birthday was coming up. It said finding the perfect toy for a three-year-old can be hard, but they were there to make it easier. It was a timely and engaging message by itself. But what made it even better was it included recommendations for gift ideas for three-year-old boys.

Target your purchase-related messages. Using recommendations in both transactional and post-purchase messages should be a no-brainer. You can offer specific recommendations to sell complementary items. Did a customer buy a pair of boots without waterproof spray or a hat and scarf without the matching gloves? This is the perfect place to cross-sell the customer.

Avoid These Potential Pitfalls

“Just for you” subject lines. Have you ever received a message that claims to be “Just for you?” Yet when you open the message, the results aren’t relevant to you and your behavior, and all credibility is lost? I know I have. If you were to receive another message from this brand containing that same subject line, would you open it? Doubtful. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice … you know the rest.

Static recommendations. Using static, non-intuitive recommendations can still benefit retailers if they’re done right. But be mindful of the language you use in your message. When including recommendations as a secondary or tertiary section of an email message, forego the “just for you” strategy for less specific language. Instead, go with something like top sellers, customer favorites, highest rated, new additions, picks of the month, most viewed or staff picks. This will set the right expectation for subscribers.

Recommendation-only messages. As I said earlier, sending a message with nothing but recommendations isn’t a bad thing. They can be great messages, but be wary of how you present the information. When recommendations are irrelevant, you’ll quickly lose your credibility. One such email I received suggested stylus pens and ladies jewelry, which didn’t really go along with the iPhone accessory I had purchased. For these messages, be sure the majority, if not all, of your recommendations are appropriate for the individual recipient. If not, heed my earlier advice and set the right expectations with your subject line and email copy.

Make Email Recommendations Work for You

When it comes to recommendations, ignoring your data is the worst thing you can do. Think of yourself as that concierge. When your customers offer you information, use it to meet their needs and expectations. If you don’t, they’ll begin to feel undervalued and lose faith in your brand. They trust you – don’t give them a reason to stop.

Are Loyalty Programs Still Doing Their Job?

It’s a pretty disloyal world out there, but can you really blame the consumer? Online shopping has never been easier, and stores have been stepping over each other to see who can offer the deepest discount. While discounting your way to a one-time purchase might work in the short term, at the end of the day, you need to aim for a higher prize: customer loyalty.

Many retailers attempt to accomplish this with an official loyalty program. There’s just one problem – they rarely work.

What’s Your Loyalty Program Really Worth?

Have you ever eaten at a terrible restaurant but continued to go back because of their loyalty program? Of course not! Seinfeld did an entire episode on this, so you know it’s worth questioning. These days, most loyalty programs have simply outgrown their usefulness – and they no longer create loyalty.

A while back, I was speaking with someone at Macy’s about the retail landscape. When I asked about their biggest competitor, he said it was Amazon. Is anyone shocked? Then we got onto the topic of loyalty programs. As he explained theirs, I was a bit puzzled. Here’s why.

First, you need a Macy’s credit card to be eligible, which eliminates many people right from the start – those who either don’t want another store credit card or aren’t yet loyal enough to Macy’s to want theirs. At a high level, If someone spends $500 in a year, they qualify for free shipping for the rest of the year. Is free shipping really a perk anymore, especially when the free shipping threshold on the site is only $25? These members are likely getting this “perk” anyway.

At $1,200, you earn 5% cash back on purchases, which equates to $60. Will that $60 be what prevents someone from shopping elsewhere? Remember: This person likely won’t even qualify for these perks from day one of the year, unless they buy some high-ticket items. That means they may only receive these benefits for part of the year. Come January 1, they’re back to square one.

I can’t help but think that a Macy’s credit card holder who spends $1,200 each year is already fairly loyal. And with Amazon as their biggest competitor, why should shoppers spend $500 to get free shipping when they can get the same perk for just $99?

Let’s look at another well-known brand: Starbucks. Everyone I know who drinks Starbucks coffee is pretty loyal to that brand, and it’s not because of their rewards program. It’s the customer experience. Of course, they have drive-through locations, which is convenient, but they also offer a great in-store experience. Their app allows you to order ahead, and they offer mobile payment options. Their baristas are friendly, and the store is inviting. Simplicity and convenience. Will people be more loyal to Starbucks because of the rewards program? I highly doubt it.

Bruegger’s Bagels offers a bottomless mug program, which is more or less a membership program. The price of the mug can vary by location. By my house, it’s $185 for 365 days of free refills on coffee, tea, or soda. The program is simple. One price, one benefit, for one year. At around $2 for a small coffee, frequent visitors can really rack up some savings.

But would a first-time or infrequent customer buy the bottomless cup? Not likely.

That’s a big investment for a casual visitor. While I do think it has the potential to bring an already frequent customer into the store slightly more often, I think they missed the mark of what I see as their true goal – selling food. I assume Bruegger’s is banking on customers ordering some food while waiting in line for their bottomless mug refill. But what would compel a person to make that extra purchase? I bet an incentive of 5-10% off food purchases (with cup in hand) would do the trick.

Amazon doesn’t even have a loyalty program. They have a membership program, yet people are still very loyal to them – including some Macy’s shoppers. The perks of membership, such as the convenience of quick, free delivery and access to streaming video, work to keep people shopping with them. Prime members spend roughly $1,300 a year on Amazon, almost double that of non-members. They also get cash back with an Amazon credit card (like Macy’s), but the card is not a requirement for membership. Their customer experience is why over 80 million U.S. households choose to pay for Prime membership.

What Does it all Mean?

Most loyalty programs don’t seem to generate loyalty anymore. Strong brands that provide consistently good experiences are the ones earning their customers’ loyalty. If Amazon had horrendous service and delivered a poor experience, shoppers wouldn’t keep going back to them time and time again.

Maybe we should just remove the term “loyalty program” from our lexicon altogether and refer to them as what they are: rewards programs. If done right, rewards programs can be used to create and foster customer engagement, which helps create that all-important emotional connection. Think beyond the traditional model of “buying products to accumulate points” and reward customers for interacting with your brand. Invite them to play a game or write a review to earn rewards.

If you’re banking on a loyalty program to keep customers from straying, you’ve already lost them. Take a hard look at your program. Could the time and effort of maintaining it be better spent engaging your audience with more personalized email, social media and other marketing strategies? At the end of the day, the success of your program is only as good as the success of your brand.

The Threat of Disappearing Brands in the Age of Voice Assistants

When you see a red and white can of soda or a Peter Pan silhouette on a jar, you see a brand. You know the product. But what happens when you don’t have those visual cues to draw you to certain items when you shop?

Brands used to rely on traditional advertising to embed their brand imagery in our minds and remain visible and relevant to their audience. But in today’s digital-first world, consumer attention is more fragmented. Television screen time is declining, while time spent on smartphones and other mediums is increasing. This has created challenges for brands trying to stay in front of consumers.

Voice assistants add an additional layer of uncertainty to the traditional means of keeping us brand loyal. With devices like Siri, Google Home, and Amazon’s Alexa-enabled options, consumers are relying more and more on browserless interactions. In fact, comScore predicts that 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020. That’s not that far away.

But while performing informational searches is one thing, the idea of searching for products and actually buying them via browserless commerce is quite another. This begs the question: if consumers are searching and buying via voice, will this erode the value of brands as we know them?

The Age of Voice Is Upon Us

Amazon claims it sold millions of Alexa devices over the Black Friday weekend and that the Echo Dot was the top-selling item on the website worldwide during the holiday season. That equates to a lot of people saying, “Hey Alexa, order me batteries.” In this scenario, the first result you get is for Amazon private-label batteries. So how do Duracell and Energizer compete with this? How do their branding efforts influence a consumer’s purchasing decision when those visual brand cues are no longer available? Are either of these two brands stronger than Amazon? Battery sales figures from Amazon indicate they’re not.

And what about those instances when Alexa fails to deliver the brand name you’re looking for and suggests you open a browser to find it? With convenience so in demand, you may opt to purchase the suggested non-branded product just to avoid spending one more second shopping for batteries. If you’re willing to take the extra step to switch devices just to make the purchase, you must really love the brand.

What Do Voice-Assisted Consumers Want?

There is no doubt that the post-Gen Z generation, often referred to as Generation Alpha, will have voice assistants as a part of their everyday life. Gen Z is coming of consumer age during this evolutionary period, and they have the spending power and skills to navigate technology. And what about millennials? According to eMarketer, thirty million were expected to use voice assistants monthly in 2017. So, what do these consumers want from the experience, and how can brands provide it?

Millennials are loyal to strong brands. And they’re drawn to both value and hyper-convenience. What does this have to do with browserless commerce? In a recent conversation with millennial marketing expert Jeff Fromm, he said this age group is loyal to brands when the brand is strong, but will trade down when it is weak. If you pair that idea with the millennial interest in value and convenience, you understand the magnitude of the challenge brands are facing. Voice assistants are the definition of hyper-convenience.

Millennials also appreciate value, which doesn’t always mean the lowest price. Think bang for the buck. It’s one reason millennials often mix brand names and private labels. If we use the Amazon battery example, Amazon hits the trifecta: a strong brand, value, and convenience. How can brand-name battery makers compete?

But millennials are just one example. Other generational groups share many of the same values. In a browserless era, brand-name paper towels, peanut butter, ketchup, underwear, mouthwash, or any other branded basic runs the risk of fading away without the visual cues that advertising built and in-person shopping enhanced.

What Can Marketers Do?

Focus on communicating your value in a way that gives consumers a reason to verbally request your brand. For example. I love Utz’s old-fashioned hard sourdough pretzels. Not pretzel rods, or small twists, but the big ones that crack my teeth! I need to convey to my wife, who does the majority of shopping, why she should specifically request that product and not settle for the recommended sourdough rods.

The same goes for when the household’s usual shopper isn’t the one ordering from the voice assistant. In the store, I might be able to recognize the laundry detergent we use by its color and logo. Without that visual, how do I choose the right one? My instinct might be to order the recommended product or the cheapest one. How you differentiate your product from generic brands is critical.

Voice assistants also change the SEO game. How we speak will become more important than the words we type into a search engine. As a non-SEO expert, I would optimize for voice by writing and producing web content in a conversational style. Consider what consumers might ask when searching for your product and how your product or content might help solve their needs. For example, I might ask, “Hey Google, what’s the best way to keep my toes warm in cold weather?” Would the content you produce or the way you write your sock’s product description be relevant enough to return a query result?

In an age of voice, the potential for brand erosion certainly exists. How far will it go? Frankly, we don’t know yet. This evolution should force existing brands to rethink how they target and interact with their audience. Staying top of mind at a time when consumers are constantly connected, value is weighted, price comparison is commonplace, and convenience is essential is difficult. And it’s especially true when the actual device returning the consumer’s request may be a direct competitor. Will brands as we currently know them be forever changed by this evolution?

In the age of voice, a familiar logo is no longer enough.

Millennials: From Punchline to Powerful Consumers

By now, you’ve heard the term “millennial” a million times over — and with good reason. They represent 25% of the US population and hold $1.3 trillion in spending power, which has turned them into quite a powerful consumer group.

Millennials have mostly been given the credit, for better or worse, for redefining consumer expectations. These expectations now go well beyond millennials, prompting retailers to change how they engage and market to consumers of all ages.

So, what do millennial consumers want? What do they care about? And how can retailers adapt?

It all starts with the smartphone. Thanks to the access these devices grant, millennials are consuming a lot of content. They read – and value – things like product reviews. They digest what’s happening on social media, both from brands and their peers. They watch videos. And yes, they communicate with their friends and family.

While content consumption is one thing, how brands drive action from them is another.

Building Millennial Loyalty

There is a notion that millennials are not loyal to brands, but this isn’t quite accurate. In fact, millennials are loyal to brands that clearly communicate a meaningful purpose and core values – and stand by them. They’re also more likely to stand behind a company that makes philanthropy part of its mission. They’re not going to go with a brand based on name alone, no matter how long the brand has been around.

For this generation, convenience is not only important, but it’s also essential. And ultimately, the consumer, not the company, defines convenience. Your brand may think four-day shipping serves its needs, but in this age of two-day, same-day, and even two-hour delivery, it may not be enough. To some consumers, four days can seem like an inconvenient eternity.

Millennial marketing expert Jeff Fromm takes it one step further and says it’s not convenience they care about, it’s hyper-convenience. As a retailer not named Amazon, you should think of ways to create customer experiences that make people want to engage with you and talk about your brand. After all, people don’t Google or ask Siri to find them an average restaurant or an average pair of shoes. To appeal to millennials, you need both a good product and good service. Here are a few ways to think about upping the experience you offer to millennial consumers.

Employees: Think about your frontline employees. Customer service representatives and store associates can help create an exceptional consumer experience. Train them to be advocates for the company. They are, after all, the face (or voice) of the business. If they’re unhelpful or treat people poorly, don’t expect repeat customers. In today’s age, news travels fast.

Content: The strategic focus here is to give consumers the information they desire when they go to look for it. Are your in-store product counts online accurate? Do you offer product reviews or how-to videos? Can I easily reach your customer service department to ask them a question? Providing easy-to-access content helps millennials navigate their customer journey.

Inspiration: Great brands inspire people to create great content. Does your brand inspire content creation, such as Instagram posts or product reviews? I don’t mean simply sending an email asking customers to review their purchase, but actually providing inspiration for doing so. Do you make consumers want to share with you on social media? Look at your messaging strategy – does it feel authentic or forced?

Email Marketing: Are your emails relevant and timely? Consumers, especially millennials, will quickly tune out generic batch-and-blast emails. Think of opportunities to send a more targeted email, such as browse recovery messaging, or adding product recommendations and user-generated content to your messages. In fact, according to one of our recent studies, 60% of US millennials fully expect stores to provide recommendations based on their past online purchases.

The customer journey today is more fragmented than ever before, especially for digitally native shoppers. Consumers today may still touch all four bases on a baseball field, but they may not do it in order. But if you can optimize your strategy and give them what they want at each stop, you’ll be a brand they remember and come back to time and time again.

For more information on marketing to millennials, check out episode 14 of the Commerce Marketer Podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Holiday Predictions Recap: Did I Hit the Mark or Shoot My Eye Out?

The holiday season exploded, much like a shot fired from a Red Rider carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time. Back in October, I laid out my predictions for the 2017 holiday season. Now it’s time to take aim at my predictions and see whether I had Black Bart in the crosshairs or ended up shooting my eye out.

Where I Hit the Mark

Prediction: More Mobile Sales

Last year, mobile accounted for 30% of all online sales. I predicted mobile sales would increase to roughly 35%.

Result: We all saw this coming. Mobile accounted for 40% of online purchases, 33% of online revenue, and 56% of traffic, according to Adobe. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times; if you’re not optimized for mobile, you’re not optimized.

Prediction: Early Sales

Online holiday sales will start in October.

Result: Seeing as every day in November drove $1 billion in online sales, we know people were shopping the deals early. From my personal inbox, the incentives offered by retailers during the final week in October were right in line with those offered in November.

Prediction: Exclusions Apply

You will see fewer “off everything” promotions and an increase in discounts on “select items.”

Result: I did notice an uptick in select categories of sale items, such as discounts on pajamas one day and sweaters the next. While I did see exclusionary sales, I think they were handled much better than last year. Last year, in many instances, I would cart items only to find out at checkout that they were not discounted. This year, I noticed the sales having their own sections on websites and emails clearly defining which categories of products were on sale.

Prediction: Black Friday and Cyber Monday

I predicted both days would drive over $1 billion in mobile commerce and that the promotions for these days would start on Sunday or Monday prior.

Result: Black Friday raked in nearly $1.9 billion in mobile revenue, nearly 37% of all of Black Friday’s online revenue. Cyber Monday became the first day ever to reach $2 billion in mobile revenue, setting a new mobile benchmark.

Black Friday wasn’t just a day – it was a week-long event. Even though Gray November was in full effect, many retailers started their Black Friday earlier that week. I made 92% of my purchases prior to Black Friday, and the other 8% on Black Friday itself. The deals were out early.

Prediction: Thanksgiving Day

I predicted that Thanksgiving Day would cross $2 billion in online sales for the first time ever.

Result: Online sales clocked in at $2.87 billion for the day. This day keeps growing as a critical online shopping day.

Prediction: Browserless Commerce

I predicted voice assistants would be the hottest sellers of the season, with Amazon devices being the No. 1 sellers in this group.

Result: Well, Apple’s HomePod was delayed until 2018, handing market share to Google and Amazon, and Google did not disclose how many devices were sold during the holidays.

But does it even matter? Amazon appears to be the big winner here. Amazon’s David Limp, head of devices, said that millions of Alexa-enabled devices were sold over Black Friday weekend. Amazon later said the Echo Dot was the top-selling item on the website worldwide during the holiday season, while the Fire TV Stick was runner-up. Can households claim Alexa as a dependent?

Prediction: Amazon’s Take

Amazon captured 38% of the online holiday sales in 2016, and I predicted this figure would inch up to the 45% mark.

Result: Amazon is king. GBH Insights estimated Amazon accounted for between 45% and 50% of online sales during the holidays. On Thanksgiving and Black Friday, Amazon accounted for 45% of online transactions among the 50 top retailers, according to Hitwise. Amazon also announced Cyber Monday was its best day ever, surpassing even Prime Day. Considering they were responsible for 44% of all online sales in 2017, this all sounds like just another day in Amazon-land.

A Few Half-Baked Holiday Results

Prediction: Even More Mobile Clicks

In Q4 2016, mobile accounted for nearly 57% of paid search clicks, with 47% coming from smartphones. I predicted we would see continued increases.

Result: At the time of writing, the data is not yet available. However, with 56% of holiday traffic coming from mobile, I would expect this prediction to be a successful one.

Prediction: In-Store Exclusives

In an attempt to drive in-store traffic, I predicted you might see a rise in brick-and-mortar retailers offering “off everything” or deeper discount sales for in-store only.

Result: There was a noticeable increase in retailers offering an additional discount, on top of the online discount, for shopping in-store. However, a relatively small number offered store-only discounts. In fact, I was astounded to see some omnichannel retailers make specific mention of the discounts being for online purchases only. Why would they not want their customers to come into the store? If anything, make it available in both places.

Prediction: Re-engineering the Brick-and-Mortar Experience

I predicted we’d see a lot of in-store-only Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, as well as some in-store price-matching.

Result: While there was a noticeable rise in extra in-store incentives, there seemed to be relatively few in-store-only sales for these signature days. This might be why Shopertrak reported that foot traffic to physical retail stores was down 1% on Black Friday.

And to no one’s surprise, Black Friday deals were widely available for the entire week (and weekend) of Thanksgiving. Looking at my own inbox, more than 20% of all email subject lines contained the term “Black Friday” on the Monday before.

And yes, price-matching was seemingly everywhere. Stores like Dick’s, Walmart, Best Buy, Sears, Newegg, and even Amazon, in some cases, all deployed price-matching strategies during the holidays.

Prediction: Email Marketing Will Continue to Dominate

Result: This one is still pending, as complete data is still being analyzed. Adobe did report that on Cyber Monday, email drove 24.9% of sales, closely followed by the 22.9% from paid search. My inbox was extremely busy. In November, I received almost 25% more emails this year than last year. Year over year, Bronto sent more than 25% more emails on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Email continues to be a highly effective marketing tool for retailers.

Where I Shot My Eye Out

Prediction: More Billion Dollar Days.

I predicted we’d see 60 of the 61 days in November and December rake in $1 billion in online sales, up from the 57 days in 2017.

Result: 58 of 61 days topped the $1 billion mark. Every day in November reached this milestone, further reinforcing Gray November as a mainstay, not a trend. While improving upon last year, December let me down. Come on, December!

Prediction: The largest online shopping day of the year

I predicted that for the first time, Black Friday – not Cyber Monday – would be the largest online shopping day of the year.

Result: Here’s the big one. I predicted Black Friday to be the online king of the year. My reasoning was based on the industry-accepted benchmark of 2016 Black Friday and Cyber Monday online sales of $3.34 and $3.45 billion, respectively. We have been seeing this gap seemingly close year over year. Inexplicably, when the 2016 baselines were referenced, these numbers were surprisingly different, at over $4.3 and $5.65 billion each day, respectively. What a difference! While the industry thought Black Friday was about to catch Cyber Monday in sales, these adjusted numbers show that this wasn’t quite the case.

All in all, this year’s Cyber Monday reportedly clocked in at $6.59 billion, and outperformed Black Friday by $1.5 billion. Although Cyber Monday has some breathing room as king of online sales, Black Friday, at over $5 billion, is no day to smirk at.

And What About My “Bold” Predictions?

Predictions:

• Starbucks will take flak over its holiday cup design. ‘Tis the season!

• I will once again purchase my tree on Black Friday.

• Fruitcake, while good in theory, will continue to be a poor party dessert.

Results: A little, yes, and yes!

The Starbucks cup design faced only minor controversy this year. Hey, someone has to complain, right?

I again purchased my tree on Black Friday, but not from the usual store. Upon arriving at my usual retailer, I was greeted with a ghost town. My local fire department’s tree lot was the winner this year. I absolutely loved my tree, and that usual retailer may have just lost my tree business forever.

And no, I did not serve fruitcake at my holiday party.

While not all of my predictions for 2017 hit the target, coming up with them is always fun. And by all accounts, this holiday season was great for consumers looking for a deal. Although retailer margins may have been squeezed, retailers certainly benefited from the high shopping turnout. This year, I look forward to seeing who Amazon acquires (I have my thoughts), how consumer behaviors will shift, and how retailers will adapt to meet their needs. These will, of course, all affect my predictions. Hopefully, next year, my predictions will be more like a Red Rider and less like pink bunny pajamas. Only time will tell.

Confessions of a Holiday Shopper: Why I Didn’t Wait Until Black Friday

This holiday season was predicted to be the best yet for online retailers – and it was. Fifty-eight out of 61 days drove over $1 billion in online sales, including every single day in November. Gray November, the month-long period of deep discounts, is now commonplace. But do people buy more or simply buy earlier?

This year, I wanted to find out how early discounts affected my own shopping behavior and see what lessons it might offer for retailers. So, I conducted a little experiment.

A Little Background

My yearly holiday shopping comes with a double whammy. See, my wife’s birthday falls one week before Christmas. After buying gifts for my wife and the kids, my digital wallet looks more like a countdown clock in an email message, getting smaller and smaller as the seconds tick away.

I traditionally draft my gift list a few days before Black Friday and then purchase over that weekend. But this year, I pivoted. Having tracked the Gray November phenomena over the past several years, I felt confident that the discounts would be just as strong prior to Black Friday weekend as during it.

You can’t write about holiday shopping (or conduct your own holiday shopping experiment) without addressing the elephant in the room – Amazon. Although I purchase from Amazon, I am not a Prime member. Am I allowed to say that? I guess the first step is admitting it. As a non-Prime member, here's what I was looking for in my shopping experience:

• Could other retailers compete with Amazon for my attention and wallet?

• Would I regret buying “early”

• Was Amazon the right retailer, or did someone else offer value or service that was better?

• In the end, how much wallet share would Amazon nab, and why?

Let the Purchasing Begin

Although my very first purchase took place on November 13, my primary shopping started on November 16. I completed 75% of my shopping prior to Thanksgiving Day and 92% prior to Black Friday.

To Amazon or Not to Amazon?

HitWise reported that Amazon accounted for 55% of Black Friday sales and 45% of Thanksgiving Day sales. For the holidays overall, GBH Insights estimates Amazon accounted for about a 50% share of online revenue.

For me, 33% of my purchases were made on Amazon, accounting for 11% of my wallet. However, my November 13 purchase was a one-time, big-ticket item. By removing this specialty purchase, the adjusted wallet share Amazon earned from me jumps to 29%. Even though money spent is money spent, I view this adjusted 29% as a more accurate number, as it's based on my typical gifting habits.

One of the main reasons I chose Amazon was the convenience of buying many diverse products in a single order at a price that was comparable to or better than a competitor’s. When the price was comparable, I mostly leaned toward Amazon for value-add reasons, such as my confidence in their customer service.

But Amazon certainly lost out on a few of my purchases. Twenty-five percent of the time, the price was higher. Another 25% of the time, I was concerned about the quality of the Amazon offerings (particularly the private-label offerings), and 17% of the time, Amazon didn’t carry what I was looking for.

My Black Friday purchases all came from Amazon. I purposely shopped for the items prior to Black Friday, placed them in my cart, and left them abandoned. The prices at this time were comparable to other sites, and I knew that come Black Friday, I’d get a deal somewhere. Interestingly enough, Amazon was the one that came through with the largest price drops.

Customer Service and the Consumer Experience

I had two notable customer service experiences while shopping. The first was from Amazon. For one purchase, I ordered a product that was fulfilled by Amazon. The product quantity showed there were six remaining. One full day after placing my order, I received an email from Amazon stating the item could not be fulfilled due to the product not being in stock. But the website still showed the product as in stock and ready to ship. Needless to say, I found this to be a very poor customer experience.

On November 18, I placed an order from a national omnichannel retailer. They had a 50% off sale on several items I was shopping for. However, one of the items on my list was not on sale. The question became: do I purchase now or wait to see if the other item goes on sale? I assessed the situation. Because they offered free shipping and free returns, I had nothing to lose. After all, if they discounted the item later, I could simply return the order and place a new one with all of the items on sale.

So I purchased, paying full price for the one item. The very next morning, the full-price item went on sale at 50% off. Because it was less than 24 hours since the order was placed, I emailed customer service asking if they would credit the difference. They declined to do so, instead instructing me to sign up for their emails so I don’t miss a future sale. Umm, OK. Instead, I let them incur the cost for not only shipping the new order but also processing the return. This incident reduces my chances of doing business with them in the future.

These two experiences highlight a lesson for retailers: Be sure the product counts on your website are accurate and that your customer service policies allow you to meet customer expectations. In both cases, I had a negative experience. For Amazon purchases, I’m skeptical of the value of paying for Prime. For the other retailer, knowing they won’t address a simple price adjustment gives me little confidence that they would satisfactorily address a more complex customer service issue.

Final Thoughts

I’m just one shopper, but I feel confident my buying behaviors are fairly representative – customer service and value trump price. Don’t leave the success of your business dependent on discounts. If you're a retailer, spend the next six months forging stronger relationships with your customers. Review your customer service policies. When issues arise, don’t just say you’re sorry. Go out of your way to make things right! Communicate value-adds that are meaningful for your customers.

When it comes to purchasing from you or a competitor, give shoppers a reason to choose you. If you rely on price alone, you’ll eventually lose.