Australia leads the way as online shopping passes $1 trillion worldwide

by Marketing ON 16 April 2013

A recent report from eMarketer finds that in 2012, B2C ecommerce passed a trillion dollars US in a single year for the first time. Of this, Australia’s share was US$36.2 billion with in excess of 10 million people, or almost half of the country’s population, turning to the digital world for their shopping needs in 2012.

Spending an average of US$3547 per person, this average expenditure per online buyer is 54% higher than the US and the highest in the world, next to the UK.

eMarketer estimates the average for Australia will grow by 7.2% to more than US$3800 per online buyer this year.

High levels of dissatisfaction with the physical shopping experience continue to be attributed to shoppers’ dissatisfaction with price, availability of brands, service and visual merchandising.

Although online continues to rise, there still remains a high percentage of sales made in stores, yet eMarketer explains that operators of mainstream shopping centres need to strengthen their physical presence while investing online to capitalise on a multifarious market.

ABC drives mobile-first motto with new companion app

by Marketing ON 6 March 2013

In a further sign that the ABC is an innovator in the new media broadcaster space, it is set to release its second screen ‘companion app’ on 20 March.

Mobile and tablets appear to be the broadcaster’s principal motivation going forward, feeling the television and radio format is not as strong as it once was.

Initial testing of the app will be on the comedy quiz show Tractor Monkeys in order to “trial it to see if it is the way to go,” says the ABC’s head of online and mobile, Mark Dando.

Led by the ABC’s Innovation unit, the team will also conduct a sequence of trials with third-party groups like Zeebox so they can decide on a fit, and see the real potential of this companion app. As the climate of how Australians interact with content is rapidly shifting, The ABC is at the forefront of change.

The ABC’s flagship apps were also restored to permit users to access “all related corporation content in one place”, with Dando confirming that the ABC was “reorganising [itself] to be mobile and tablet first”.

Further, akin to Fairfax’s The Age website, and the Herald Sun before it, the ABC also relaunched its own homepage after user research placed news as a priority for visitors.

With 70% of current homepage views being news related, Dando is using this data to continue to develop a news-focused site with a “simple, intuitive interface that was easy to use on tablets and on mobile phones”.

Online travel insurance decisions not driven by brand awareness

by Marketing ON 21 February 2013

In an interesting finding regarding the competitive travel insurance marketplace, a report released by international customer experience research company, Global Reviews, has found that when consumers look to purchase travel insurance online, brand awareness has very little to do with their final choice.

Of the top three companies named for high brand awareness, only one remained in the top three by the time participants reached their final preference. The company most often shortlisted by consumers only scored 2% brand recall when participants were initially asked to name five travel insurance provider brands.

The purpose of the November 2012 behavioural study was aimed at how consumers perceived travel insurance providers, and the importance of brand recall.

AAMI, Medibank and Allianz were leaders in the initial stage, however, after consumers went through their online research process, the heavyweights appeared unable to capitalise on their high brand awareness.

The reason lesser-known brands succeeded came down to the ‘shortlisting’ and ‘final preference’ phases, where these providers showed up the competition by offering more clear and concise information and options.

When researching their choice, over 90% of people confirmed they would do more than half their research for travel insurance online, while 67% reported they would ultimately purchase the product directly from the provider’s website, with only 18% keen to phone the preferred provider.

And with more than 75% of participants spending up to four hours researching before applying for travel insurance, a total of 86% would spread their research for a suitable provider throughout a period of seven days.

Global Reviews CEO, Greg Muller, believes that while some big brands spend their money on marketing to drive consumers to their respective sites, the inability to convert online visitors into purchasers is damaging to the bottom line.

“The report highlights that brand awareness is not necessarily a driver of sales acquisition and conversely some companies with lower brand awareness were able to gain a higher conversion rate via the use of an effective website sales journey,” says Muller.

Online B2B marketing in 2013: SEO is not a goal

by Marketing ON 5 February 2013

Staying ahead of the game. Being proactive. Reading the play. These are the type of terms marketers have drilled into their ears almost daily. Stand still and you go backwards – there’s another – so how exactly do marketers avoid these catchphrase?

Thorough research of the market, knowing your brand better than anyone and believing in the outcome, according to Sarah Pern of g2m Solutions, a Sydney-based B2B marketing agency. Pern has outlined several major trends for online B2B marketing in the year ahead.

Valuable advice

Pern predicts the demise of the culture of pumping out keywords in the hope of sailing to first page placement in search results. Why? Because everyone is doing it, and the market is saturated – plus with Google’s increased focus on personal endorsements and social signals, the area is close to flooding.

So what to do? Shift focus from ‘content creation’ to ‘value creation’ – more creative, unique and insightful use of marketers’ time. By investing more into exactly ‘what’ content target clients are after, you will see benefit. Be at one with them by focusing on neglected niche markets and even becoming thought leaders within that space – before soon word will spread.

Community calling

Relationship building and social interaction trumps mechanically-driven SEO. Many successful B2B online marketers are now spending more of their resources visiting LinkedIn groups, Google Communities and cultivating relevant, interested Twitter followings.

Participation and engagement is the rule here. Don’t just get in to this sphere for content distribution, instead look to create real value and cultivate relationships by personalising everything. Work from a single database, keep it simple and connect at an individual level.

Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm and its new Graph Search application will be integral for marketers, helping us search for content within personal networks and zone in on specific markets.

Content types

Content is king, but context is better. Look into the world of infographics, video, and creative blogging to suit what your audience needs, and be creative it with, like these guys:

Be an expert

“Smart B2B marketers are already focusing on their Klout scores and Google’s author rank, as they have picked up on the fact that personal online reputation impacts search rank, social reach and online influence,” says Pern.

Building relationships, reputation and leveraging social rank also benefits organisations as it is all these factors that will have you informed when converting a sales conversation into a genuine sale. Know your stuff and reap the online marketing rewards.

Ad market: Revenue stumble slight as print-digital shift hastens

by Marketing ON 17 September 2012

While the overall drop in advertising revenue for the first six months of the year was only slight, the gap between the winners and losers in the ad market continues to widen, from a drop of 26.0% for magazines to a gain of 29.8% for online.

Figures from the Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia (CEASA) show total media advertising revenue dropped by 0.4% year on year to $6,745,314,000 for the first six months of 2012.

The divided fortunes of the industry illustrate an accelerated shift from print to digital, with magazines the hardest hard hit, followed by classified directories, down 15.9%, and newspapers which shed 11.5%

Online notched the largest increase followed by subscription televisions, up 17.3% and outdoor advertising revenue, up 2.9%.

Overall the decline was slight compared to other periods of hard time, says CEO of CEASA, Bernard Holt. The media tracking body, which commenced its measurement of the industry in 1960, has seen declines of 8% in 2009, 6.9% in 2001, 6% in 1991 and 2% in 1990 in its 52 year history.

“From 1990 media advertising revenue began to show a boom and bust cycle, and the cycle was not uniform,” Holt says. “It also featured sharp ups and downs. In most cases recovery was strong.”

Other media to record an increase in advertising revenue included total radio, up 1.3%, suburban newspapers, up 0.8% and regional television up 0.6%. The fortunes of free to air metropolitan television dropped by 3.5% while metropolitan radio, down by 0.6%.

Infographic: Online display advertising effectiveness and use in Australia

by Marketing ON 21 July 2012

Long dominated by execution performance metrics, the measurement of online ad effectiveness is shifting towards brand measures such as awareness, favourability or purchase intent, as advertisers seek to be more definitive about ROI.

So which form of display ads deliver? Research from Millward Brown found that rich display and video ads can be up to four times more effective at building brand measures than other formats. When combined, the two formats can be even more powerful, boosting brand favourability by 4.7% and purchase intent by 4.3% in tests conducted.

Video rated as the strongest stand-alone performer for three of the four brand metrics analysed, but for online ad awareness rich formats was the most effective generating a 5.6% uplift among the exposed group compared to the control group in the study.

The frequency of exposure to display ads also plays an important role, with higher frequency not a positive thing in all cases, the study found. Video formats were found to be stronger performers at lower rather than higher frequencies, particularly for brand favourability and purchase intent measures. In fact, over-exposure to high impact formats can drive down attitudes toward a brand, particularly purchase intent.

A constant brand and message presence in the ads showed clear benefits, with awareness, favourability and purchase intent measures more than double for those with 100% logo presence over those with only partial presence. A similar trend was noted for ads with 100% message presence compared to partial message presence.

The days of solely measuring online campaign success on a cost per click or lead-generation basis are fading, says director of Millward Brown’s media and digital solutions, Mark Henning, with these measures indicating engagement with the ad itself rather than its success in improving brand metrics.

The below infographic, developed by Marketing, sources data from Millward Brown case study analysis, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ IAB Online Advertising Expenditure Report, March 2012, analysis of MediaMind’s ad network and Mi9.

Click image for full size

Qantas to leverage social commerce with accommodation site Hooroo

by Marketing ON 18 July 2012

Qantas has created a sub-brand to sell accommodation via social media in an attempt to capitalise on travellers who book after seeing friends post about their trips online.

‘Hooroo’ is the first travel site to integrate social discovery and sharing with the ability to book accommodation directly at destinations Australia‐wide, the airline claims.

Head of marketing for the new venture, Lija Wilson, says the rise of social commerce led Qantas to develop a platform that integrates content, social and the ability to transact in a seamless user experience. “Travel is the most social of all categories – we all ask our friends for inspiration and suggestions and then share our experiences through our networks when we get back from a trip,” Wilson says. “Our launch strategy is centred around seeding the brand via social channels and then allowing travellers to take that real‐life behaviour online.”

In addition to its initial focus of social seeding, Hooroo will launch with a digital campaign created by Badjar Ogilvy Melbourne. For the campaign a group of consumers were charged with the task of developing 24‐hour itineraries for destinations around Australia, which will be shared through hooroo.com, as well as their own blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and other social outlets.

The initiative gives Qantas a road into the high margin, high growth online accommodation market and leverages off the back of Tourism Australia’s launch of ‘There’s nothing like Australia’ domestically.

Research from Tourism Australia shows that social media is rapidly impacting the way Australians travel domestically, with 20% having booked a domestic holiday as a result of viewing their friends’ social media updates.

Tourism Australia chief Andrew McEvoy threw his support behind the site. “We know that compelling destination content and competitive deals can play a big part in stimulating people’s desire to explore and travel, and the creation of the new Hooroo social travel site seems to embrace this insight, which we’re hoping will inspire more Australians to reconsider their own backyard and take the next step by booking a domestic holiday or getaway,” he said.

Consumers go multi-channel for retail

by Marketing ON 16 July 2010

New research conducted by the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) suggests that retailers could miss out on enormous sales opportunities if they do not market to their customers across multiple channels.

Titled ‘Value and Optimisation in Multi-Channel Retailing’, the ACRS report sheds light on how Australian consumers value different channels in terms of their pre-purchase, purchase and after-sales behaviour.

While online sales are expected to increase more than 13% annually over the next two years, the report indicates cross-channel sales are expected to grow by 17%.

The report also found that nearly half of all retail transactions are expected to be made by consumers crossing channels, with approximately 36% of Australians purchasing online at least once a month and 6% purchasing a product once every week.

Research fellow at the ACRS, Dr Sean Sands said, “Our results suggest that if a retailer is going to provide consumers with multiple channels, it is not sufficient to offer just a selection of traditional channels such as the internet and a catalogue.

“Retailers that engage consumers effectively across new and emerging channels (such as the iPad, iPhone applications and social media) have a greater impact on shopper behaviour.”

According to the study social media, SMS and iPhone applications are among the most popular ways retailers communicate with consumers – 68% of Australians have registered to receive emails from retailers and 19% opt into communications via SMS.

Additionally, Sands estmates 7% of consumers engage with retailers through an iPhone application and an impressive 23% of consumers engage through social media.

“Truly innovative retailers are increasingly offering additional channels for consumers to interact before the purchase, at the point of purchase and after purchase. Myer is a great example of an Australian retailer who is striving to make developments in each of these areas, and across multiple new and emerging channels,” explained Sands.

Why customisation prevents innovation

by Marketing ON 7 July 2010

All businesses are not the same, but they’re not all that different.

Marketers and agencies alike are trained to ‘spot the difference. To differentiate their brands and associated campaigns as much as possible to stand out from the crowd and reach customers and prospects in new and exciting ways. And while it is this talent for creating unique user experiences that has taken the most successful to where they are today; in a business sense, and from a digital perspective, when it comes the web it can often be this same perception of individuality that prevents ongoing innovation.

Companies can find benefit in what has been done for many rather than reinventing the wheel every time. And customisation for customisation’s sake is often just not worth it. In the short term you might appear to be doing yourself a favour, but in the long term, no matter what technology you’re using, extensive customisation will limit innovation, stifle your ability to achieve ROI and increase costs across the board. Remember for every customised system there has to be somebody there to support that particular version.

Looking at digital design and development from both the supplier’s side and the client’s side, sometimes when you’re asked to customise you’re hurting your business more than you think. The effort required for that extra 5% is much greater than if you took the standard approach, and the long term impact of that customisation is far more dramatic as well. In essence, it costs you more and it’s difficult to upgrade. You can’t innovate a highly customised system at the same pace as you would be able to across a system that is more standardised, maintenance is more difficult and you as the user won’t continue to receive the ongoing innovation you need to keep up. And what happens when your business changes with the marketplace and you need to change? You’re starting from scratch all over again.

This is all assuming your budget is finite. If you don’t care about scalability or your position on the learning curve and you have all the time, resources and money to throw at bespoke projects then go on ahead. Wouldn’t the rest of us like to know how you do it! If you’re one of the many however, it may be worth asking yourself: can I change or alter the concept to accommodate the technology without extensive customisation, or do I want to attempt to change the technology to accommodate the concept?

I meet people all the time who are constantly coming up with new campaigns to try and reach their targets. Fantastic. Develop the concept (let’s call it an online competition), plan the who, what, which, when and why, build an all new website to manage that competition, and then… when it’s all said and done, tear down the website and never use it again. Why not create that competition on a flexible system that allows you to reuse?

I liken this to the implementation of new systems in business. Having been involved in many large scale development projects over the years, I’ve seen the impact of attempting to change systems to fit the business, and the costs that these changes have. And when looking back in hindsight it is often easier to introduce new processes to suit the new system coming in.

Helpful questions I like to ask myself are:

 What is the outcome I want from the technology? 
What is the return I’m looking for in relation to that outcome? 
How best can I deliver that with minimal impact to the business and at a fair cost?

And then be willing to accept that if necessary, I may have to change processes in my businesses to accommodate.

There is a long term cost associated with taking a short term view of new technology, and it is important to consider the longer term ramifications that may hinder your ability to continue to innovate and continue to stand out from the crowd as you do so well. Unless its vanilla you’re going to encounter challenges along the way. The question is, can you vary the impact of these challenges on your business? Bump in the road or full blown obstacle in your path to success. Your choice.

My advice to businesses attempting to streamline and achieve maximum ROI is to accept that there are similarities across business models, and try and make the most of them. The reality is, you can achieve the best economies of scale when you’re dealing with a specialist supplier who can do this for many clients rather than a single developer who has to research and learn.

Mums evolving online media habits

by Marketing ON 28 May 2010

If Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are serious in their attempts to woo working mothers, then research reveals they should be spending more time targeting them online.

The research from pregnancy and parenting sites Birth.com.au and Kidspot.com.au has shown when asked how their media consumption had changed since becoming a mother, the majority of respondents had increased their internet usage but had reduced consumption of magazines and newspapers.

The survey, which questioned 2,891 mums and mums-to-be, found that 82% of mums seek opinions online to help them make a purchasing decision, while 75% regularly research products online (‘regularly’ defined as more often than once a month).

When asked to rank various websites by the level of trust they place in them, specialist sites that understand and engage their audience with a unique, non-commercial relationship are trusted twice as much by mums as a brand’s own website.

For marketers this means that they should still continue to invest in their own website – over a third of mums put some level of trust in the product information available there.

According to the research, however, the brands that partner with specialist editors that are experts in the audience’s subject matter enjoy far greater cut-through in user engagement (82% of mums feel some level of trust in specialist sites versus 53% in portals).

Although mums have been quick to embrace sites like Facebook, online forums continue to win the majority of mums trust – 79% of respondents said they either somewhat trusted or completely trusted mum’s opinions posted on a forum while only 44% trusted opinions shared on social networking sites like Facebook.

“(Mum’s) penchant for online is triggered by a persistent hunger for information and advice during pregnancy that shows her the merit of the medium in a whole new way. She quickly learns the value of specialist editors plus online forums full of mums that have done it all before. Her fondness grows, her dependence deepens and the trust she puts in websites exceeds any other option – online or offline,” said Kidspot CEO Katie May.

Weak search strategy equals sales slump

by Marketing ON 20 May 2010

Australian retailers looking to boost in-store foot traffic must ensure they have an effective online search strategy, says a report released by Outrider.

According to the report, up to 82% of online users who use search to find a product say they will go into the store to buy, and 63% of people changed their mind in terms of the store they would visit as a result of the search process.

Outrider general manager Marcelo Silva indicated that this is a wake-up call for retailers who may not traditionally pay a lot of attention to online search.

“Web-influenced purchases in-store is vital to success in the High Street, particularly when you consider 91% of test participants used a search engine at some point when asked to buy. A successful search campaign is vital to winning both web traffic and foot traffic,” said Silva.

The research, conducted by Global Reviews, was prompted by US findings showing that the annual growth forecast for web-influenced store sales was 19%, compared with a 12% rate for retail ecommerce.

It also found that retailers can win over three out of five people online who already have other existing brand preferences if their store is well-placed in search engine results pages.

The research tracked the behaviour of 100 participants who were asked to buy jeans, a lounge suite or air conditioner.

The research tracked the websites they visited, on-site behavior and surveyed them about their experience. The project collected details on over 550 searches, 5,000 unique page views and tracked 24,000 clicks.

Interestingly, though, a high position alone is not always enough to win consumers – King Furniture, for example, was consistently placed number one in the search for lounges, but only 9% visited the site.

Harvey Norman emerged strongly from the research as both the most popular chosen shop to visit after online research and the most popular brand name searched.

“Customers were 40% more likely to purchase from an offline shop when the shop’s website has confirmed that the shop stocks the desired product,” explained to Adam Goodvach, CEO of Global Reviews.

Local retailers under threat from overseas competition

by Marketing ON 14 May 2010

Overseas web retailers are reaping sales from Australian consumers with little challenge from local businesses.

A US-based internet retailer survey has revealed that Australia ranks in top three markets for generating web sales outside of the US. Some of the 36.8% of web retailers who responded to the survey admitted to winning business without offering the necessary features and functions designed to cater for international shoppers.

Bing Lee head of ecommerce Peter Krideras says tech-savvy consumers are reluctantly buying from international businesses because they are starved of brand choice.

“The delay in Australian retailers embracing selling online has made it easy for overseas ventures to tap into the Australian market,” said Krideras.

“The quicker local organisations embrace the power of the web, the quicker we can capture this growing market before we lose more money overseas.”

Forrester Research has revealed that online spending is expected to grow to $32 billion in Australia by 2012.

Figures from IBISWorld show that online sales may reach $75 billion as more retailers increase the efficiency and reliability of their online channels. The figures also found that Australian online sales currently represent just 5.5% of the country’s total retail sales

However, research by the Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA) found that in 2005, 86% of local online spend was domestic. By 2008, this had already plummeted to 57%, with close to half of total online sales being directed to overseas competitors.

Online Retailer Expo and Conference managing director, Mark Harvey, says more retailers need to ask themselves why Australian consumers are behaving this way.

“A whole new generation of consumers have taken control and are changing the game for the retail industry. With access to a wealth of information online, customers are speaking to us loud and clear by putting their credit cards on the line and transacting,” explained Harvey.