Growth thanks to e-commerce: how brands benefit from digital sales
Many brand owners are missing out on growth potential on new digital retail platforms because their marketing and sales teams are pursuing different objectives. This is the key finding of Zenith's latest global research on brand growth.
Traditionally, brands have had separate sales and marketing teams, often with different objectives. Marketing teams need to reach the right customer at the right time and are measured on awareness and reach metrics. Sales teams, on the other hand, need to achieve sales targets and are often evaluated on short-term sales metrics.
As part of the digital transformation process, which enables holistic planning of the consumer journey for the end consumer, brands must close the gap between sales and marketing. This is the only way they can maximize the returns from e-commerce. In collaboration with a group of specialist research partners*, Zenith has set out five commandments for what brands should do to maximize their ROI in retail:
1. break open silos
The growth of online and digital platforms has meant that no two consumer journeys are the same. To connect consumer experiences through to purchase, brands need to break down their silos and understand the differences in individual customer journeys. A brand's marketing and sales specialists must work together to develop commerce strategies and cross-functional models to make the right investment decisions.
2. use the experience of the trade
Retailers today are behaving more like publishers, so brands need to approach retailers in the way they do media, working together to plan and activate the right placements. Consumers expect a seamless connected shopping experience. Therefore, brands need to work with their retail partners to develop plans that meet consumer expectations.
3. identify growth areas
In times when "pure" e-commerce companies such as Amazon are gaining more and more market share and expanding their customer base, brands need to rethink how they distribute their products. Shoppers are known to be loyal to where they shop. Brands therefore need to focus their partnerships on those retailers that offer the greatest growth potential.
4. use marketing solutions from trading platforms
Amazon has proven itself in the development of self-service marketing solutions and supports brand owners in promoting their products on its platform. However, many traditional retailers are lagging behind in this respect. Brand owners must therefore encourage them to develop digital marketing solutions quickly. Like digital marketing, investments in digital commerce need to be optimized.
5. improvement of partnerships
Advances in data and technology solutions offer the opportunity for seamless integration between brands and retailers. To capitalize on these opportunities, brands need to connect communications with retailers. One way to do this is to use retail e-commerce data to optimize a brand's digital marketing.
*Zenith's research partners for "Five Commerce Imperatives for Marketers" were: GlobalWebIndex, Jumpshot, Criteo, dunnhumby and ChannelSight.
"Five Commerce Imperatives for Marketers" as PDF:
