Making it special also can mean products, services or programs available only to certain shoppers at certain touchpoints. Facebook’s VP-Business Opportunities Shiva Rajaraman cites more brands producing limited edition products available online, sometimes collaborations with other brands. “What you buy is a form of self-expression,” he says, and for a brand’s customer, “These exclusive products are an expression of my identity, and show that I’m a fan.”
Omnichannel. Really, this time
As Watson says, “It sounds so old-fashioned, but omnichannel matters. Brands are going to have to make it easy and fast to shop any way customers want. Period.”
But Garf says in Salesforce research, “What we hear from shoppers is how disjointed and fragmented it is across channels. We need to keep working to streamline that experience.”
Padelford believes the industry is “actually finally getting to true omnichannel. People are online, on mobile, on social, in a physical store—all at the same time. It’s actually a true thing now. So now, the goal is that consumers can buy where they are. That’s what omnichannel was supposed to mean, after all. You are in the channel that your customers are in, rather than trying to move your customer.”
Create a shopping experience
Says Braun, “As e-commerce began to accelerate so rapidly, all brands began to realize it’s not just a place to test and dabble any more. It’s a place to grow their business—and take share if they do it right. They are focusing more on what they look like on the digital shelf—whether they have the right SKUs and products, and developing actual brand pages.”
Experts say e-commerce needs to create more of an experience, especially to compete with brick-and-mortar stores. Part of that experience is the ability to browse. “What if you don’t know what you want? In a real store, you might wander through the aisles. In e-commerce, there’s often very little inspiration right now,” Profitero President Sarah Hofstetter says. “E-commerce hasn’t been built for that; it’s one of those things that’s a trade-off. It can be improved.”
Make sure advertising adds something
“It’s easy to put an ad on any page, and in an online marketplace like ours, any ad for an alcoholic beverage is semi-relevant. But if I’m on the bourbon page and seeing an ad for light beer, that’s not additive,” Drizly’s Braun says. “Within the e-commerce environment we’re asking: How can we get better at this? How can we make the advertising additive to the customer’s experience, with relevance to the placement and the customer?” At Drizly, that means providing expert recommendations, expanded information and sampling opportunities—just like a customer might encounter in a liquor store.