THE
ULTIMATE
ECOMMERCE

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2 72014–10 2014–11 2014–1 2015–01 2015–02 2015–03 2015–04 2015–05 2015–06 2015–0 2015–08 2015–09 2015–10
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40
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January - 40% drop in revenue from the dizzying heights of the festive season.
February - revenue sits at 20% less than the yearly average.
The Q1 Revenue Drop…

Survival
Guide
Set out to Conquer 2017
THE ULTIMATE
ECOMMERCE
Q1

Here’s to turning
adversity into opportunity!

Problem #1
High level of returns due to the
gift driven sales of December.

Reducing returns by 1% increases net profit by 1%.
As little as 7% of products could be driving up to 50% of
returns.
£415,000 - the amount which M&Co saved after identifying the
top 10% of frequently returned items and removing them from
active promotion.
Combat high returns by identifying troublesome
products in advance.
THE
SOLUTION

Problem #2
Excess of old stock that is no
longer of priority to shoppers.

An alternative to longer January sales.
Create a sense of excitement and instil a sense of urgency.
Have been shown to generate a 35% lift in transaction rates.
You can choose to outsource by going through through third-
party flash sale companies or host them within your store.
Well-advertised flash sales that motivate
shoppers to move quickly
THE
SOLUTION

Caliroots -
Have their flash sale as the
central focus of their site,
directing all attention towards
the imminent reductions.

The length of your sales
• 3 hour flash sales have been shown to generate the best
transaction-to-click rates — 59% higher than other sale lengths.
Effective communication
• Post a countdown to your social pages and emailing your
customers.
• Email represents 18% of the referrals to flash sales websites.
• You can also inform people that come to your site with a pop-up.
Things to consider

Orelia -
use a pop-up to inform people
of their daily one day advent
sales.

Timing
• Flash sales are more effective if they are infrequent
• Transaction rates have been found to be 23% higher for evening
flash sales, with the amount of revenue per email 30% higher.
Preparation
• If your flash sales is successful it will mean a spike in traffic to your
store make sure to load test to make sure your site is up to it.
Things to consider

Problem #3
Lower margins caused by
discounting stock

Driving increases in AOV through automated,
personalised recommendations
THE
SOLUTION

Personalized recommendations
• Recommendations tailored to
an individual’s likes and dislikes
(as documented by their
behavior on your site) are more
appealing
• 54% of retailers that use
automated product
recommendations increased
their average order value year
on year.
KNOMO bags use 1:1 product recommendations on their
homepage in the form of a “recommended for you” section, as
well as curating best selling items in the “most popular lists”

Upsell
• Upselling involves persuading a
shopper to spend a little more than
they had planned, and, according to
Econsultancy, can drive over 4% of
revenue.
• Suggest that they buy the same
model but with higher specs, costing
a little bit more.
Top Office successfully uses a
“Similiar Products”
recommendation section to show
more expensive alternative items.

Cross-sell
• Boosts the average order value
of a customer by
recommending complementary
products to the items a shopper
is already considering.
• Drives less revenue than upsell
at 0.2%, but when automated it
is such a simple thing to do that
it would be silly not to.
Eton successfully use the cross-selling technique by offering ties
to accompany the shirt being viewed.

Experiment with innovative
ways to present these last
minute suggestions- for
example, when
a person adds an item to their
basket why not use a pop-up to
suggest further products?
BONUS TIP FOR
INCREASING AOV
Oka use pop-up technology to recommend items relevant
to the piece which has been added to the cart.

Problem #4
High number of abandoning
shoppers

Nosto customer Greatdays saw a 60% increase in conversion
and 18% increase in average order value from using pop-ups.
Cart based rules to avoid training customer into expecting
discounts.
Trigger a pop-up on exit intent
THE
SOLUTION

An offer
could be just the
thing to make them
reconsider leaving empty
handed.

Abandoned cart pop ups
Shoppers with items in their cart
are already highly engaged - ask
for email details so that they can
save the items in their cart,
greatly increasing the chances of
their return.
Yumi Kim use a pop-up triggered by exit intent to allow
shoppers to save the contents of their cart, making it easier
for them to return and also expanding their database.

Problem #5
Standing out above the noise

• 52% of people said that they felt overwhelmed by the
number of bargain-promoting emails they receive on
a daily basis.
• Over half of all emails received are promotional.

At Nosto, we have seen that personalized triggered emails
have an average click-through rate 10x higher than the
industry standard.
Personalized newsletters
THE
SOLUTION

Use tags
to insert their name and
greet them personally once
the email is open.
Insert
their name into the
subject line.
Offer
them personalized
recommendations from your
inventory to maximize CTR
and conversion.

Browsing history reminder.
Browsing & buying related - Relevant pieces based on what
they looked at or previously bought.
Personalized Top Lists - Highlight the top products on your
store, ordering your recommendations according to to their
previous buying behavior.
to personalized recs that can be used in
personalized newsletters
3 approaches

Meli Melo
tailor their emails to
the individual by
making product
recommendations a
central focus of their
newsletter.

Problem #6
Low customer retention caused
by sale driven buyers

Increase customer retention with
personalised / triggered emails
THE
SOLUTION

We miss you emails
Can be generated automatically and triggered by the lapse of
a set period of time since a customer’s last visit.
To cut through the inevitable email noise, make sure to
personalize the email with recommendations based on their
browsing and buying behavior.

Yumi Kim
allow their product led email
to draw customers back to
their store, reminding
customers of the pieces they
had previously been
interested and then
highlighting trending items
on top.

Order follow-up
A customer becomes increasingly more likely to buy from you
as their amount of purchases increases.
Good customer service but it also gives you an opportunity to
suggest further purchase; either accessories to go with their
recent purchases or other items that their buying habits
indicate to be of interest.

Organic Surge
follow up with recent
customers by highlighting
further possibilities for
purchase by showing them
products related to their
previous purchases.

Problem #7
Acquiring new customers in a period
when shoppers aren’t as active

Increasing and personalising
your advertising efforts
Retargeting = ‘Online advertising [that is] is targeted to
consumers based on their previous Internet actions’.
54% of consumers find personalised ads to be more engaging
and 45% find them more memorable.
Compared to “static-one-size-fits-all” ads - automated,
dynamic product ads can generate performance
improvements of up to 400%.
THE
SOLUTION

Ad types
Personal re-
engagement ads
Post-purchase
ads
Abandoned cart
recovery ads
Best seller
product ads
Highlighting real-time
trending items from
your store. Nosto
customer Eton, saw
13 x CTR on
prospecting Best
Seller product ads.
Target customers who have
visited your store previously
by recommending products
picked just for them based
on their previous shopping
behavior. Eton saw
11 x ROAS on ads of these
type.
Encourage shoppers who
selected items but didn’t quite
make it to checkout by
recommending products related
to what they had in their cart.
Eton saw 19 x ROAS on
Abandoned cart recovery ads.
Encourage converted
customers to continue
their spree by
suggesting items that
are relevant to what
they have already
bought.

Problem #8
Low traffic contributing to
low revenue

Drive traffic to your store
with social competitions
The average internet user spending 1.72 hours per day on
social media platforms.
Promote your brand, encourage certain social interactions and
ultimately highlight items in your inventory in a way that is
more interesting to your customers.
THE
SOLUTION

Photo or video contests
• Have been shown to get the
most engagement and are a
good way to turn your
customers into promoters.
• Ask customers to include your
products in their entries and all
of a sudden they are creating
the adverts for you!
• Get them to tag your store or
use a hashtag so you, and
anyone who is interested, can
keep abreast of all the entries. Om Nom Nom Cookies encourage their social followers to take
and share a photo of themselves with their product to be in with
a chance to win a t-shirt.

Caption competitions
A fun way to interact with your
customer, encouraging people to
comment on a post which will
result in it naturally feature higher
in people’s timelines and
extending your reach.
Tauck ask their followers to come up with a funny cation for their
photo, allowing them a fun way to engage with the brand.

Problem #9
There’s finally some breathing space
- how to invest the time?

Invest in your blog
Drives customers to your store.
Improves your website’s SEO.
Allows you to craft stories around your products,
brand and industry that will help you to convert visitors.
Should be relevant but not boastful.
THE
SOLUTION

Blog types
Behind the scenes
• Your chance to give real insight
into your company, this shows a
level of transparency that many
shoppers find reassuring.
• Consider showing how your
products are made, or where
your materials are sourced.
John Mackey Co-CEO of Whole Foods, hosts his blog directly on
the Whole Foods website and uses it to discuss the issues that
matter to him and his company.

Google did a really good job of this type of storytelling in their
advert series that showed small businesses such as the
Cambridge Satchel Company setting up shop, going from small
home-based businesses to international best-sellers.
Company vision
Talk about the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of
your company story.

M&S gives their take on the issues affecting their industry and
that of their suppliers in an insightful and current blog.
Commentary pieces
• Become a thought leader by
reporting and commenting on
your industry hot topics, trends
and industry news.
• M&S is a good example,
discussing issues such as the UK
bag plastic bag tax and fair
prices for milk farmers - all
issues that have recently been in
the news…

Topshop interview social media star Anais Gallagher about her
Christmas wish-list, which, of course, includes a number of
Topshop items.
Product lead /
instructional pieces
• Should promote your products
in interesting and innovative
ways.
• A form particularly suited to
food merchants, with recipe
based pieces and the fashion
vertical with “What to wear it
with” style blogs.

Problem #10
Shoppers don’t convert into
long-term sales

Knowing what drives a
customer is half of the
battle- encourage loyalty
from these otherwise fickle
shoppers by rewarding
repeat business.
Offering points in exchange
for purchases made has
been shown to increase a
shopper’s annual visit by up
to 20%.
Implement a loyalty
reward scheme
THE SOLUTION Estée Lauder offer loyalty program members a discount, as well as
the chance to accumulate points. This encourages repeat purchases.

What now?
Nosto enables online retailers to deliver their customers personalized shopping experiences at every touch point, across every
device. A powerful personalization platform designed for ease of use, Nosto empowers retailers to build, launch and optimize 1:1
multi-channel marketing campaigns without the need for dedicated IT resources. Over 20,000 ecommerce professionals in over
100 countries are using Nosto to grow their business and delight their customers. Nosto supports its retailers from its offices in
Helsinki, Berlin, Stockholm, London and New York.
sales@nosto.com I www.nosto.com
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