DEFINING SHOPPABLE CONTENT HOW SHOPPABLE ARTICLES AND INTERACTIVE VIDEOS TURN CONTENT CONSUMERS INTO ACTUAL BUYERS

Transcription

1 DEFINING SHOPPABLE CONTENT HOW SHOPPABLE ARTICLES AND INTERACTIVE VIDEOS TURN CONTENT CONSUMERS INTO ACTUAL BUYERS

2 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AT STYLA AND SMARTZER, WE BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF CONTENT. OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, WE VE WATCHED E-COMMERCE BRANDS RISE FROM TRADITIONAL ONLINE CATALOGUES TO INNOVATIVE SHOPPING PLATFORMS THAT PROVIDE MUCH MORE THAN JUST SHOPPING. INSTEAD, MODERN E-SHOPS ARE ALL ABOUT EXPERIENCE, STORYTELLING AND INNOVATION. T his paper provides an insight behind the shift in e-commerce and the role that content has played in it. With the changes in consumer behaviour, and the immediacy of which consumers want products, the whole concept of online shopping is moving towards becoming more experiential. This means that the only way for brands to deliver an experience is to use engaging content content that entertains, educates, encourages interaction and, as a result, drives sales without even trying to sell. Such an element of effortlessness can be introduced by a seamlessly integrated shoppable feature, which, for once, allows brands to focus on telling an inspiring story rather than just pushing sales. AFTER ALL, THE ULTIMATE SECRET TO SUCCESSFUL SELLING IS TO BUILD A BRAND THAT INSPIRES. Together, we have written this paper to explain what shoppable content is, where it currently sits in the innovative e-commerce landscape, and how it can help your brand to stay ahead of the curve. We will look at data to determine the effect that shoppable content can have on consumers, compare two experiences that they can have with it namely, when it comes to shoppable articles and interactive videos and show which KPIs brands can achieve if they make their content shoppable.

3 3 A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERCE A s it stands today, there are up to 24 million stores that sell goods and services online, which makes Think about it. With ever increasing product volumes, today s consumers (i.e. millennials and post-millennials) e-commerce the biggest market in existence. Ever. Having recently reached $1.6 trillion in size [1], e-commerce is projected to grow at double digits in the future. In fact, the slice of the whole e-commerce pie is becoming larger as we speak: offline sales are tanking, more and more people are shopping online, and the global commerce in general is experiencing a dramatic shift from physical to digital retail. are presented with an endless amount of choice. As a result, their purchasing behaviour is changing due to other trends, such as increase in mobile and the expectation to access anything anywhere, anytime. On top of that, today s consumers also have a shorter attention span [2], less time to make decisions and, most importantly, a huge need for unique, authentic value that e-commerce hasn t really offered before. But in order to successfully surf the wave of growth, brands will need to seriously rethink their marketing strategies and adjust to the new e-commerce landscape. If they don t, they run the very real risk of getting lost in the crowd.

4 4 N evertheless, a few brands have already started to obscurely move from a plain catalogue-like model unique, authentic experiences that not only help consumers make better, faster shopping decisions, but to providing something more experiential. Something that instead of just traditional hard selling wraps products also entertain and inspire. The result? Happy consumer, happy brand. in an engaging storytelling package full of beautiful editorial content, rich imagery and interactive videos whilst being seamlessly integrated into the old school But first, let s dig a bit deeper into the definition of shoppable content. shopping process. This leads to the emergence of the latest trend in e-commerce: shoppable content. With the rise of shoppable technologies, online retail brands can merge content and commerce and create

5 5 SHOPPABLE CONTENT I n simple terms, shoppable content is any type of content (i.e. videos, articles, images, etc) that provides a direct purchasing opportunity and allows consumers to either add products to cart directly from what they are viewing or be taken to a product page and continue to shop from there. The need for this innovation lies in the fact that today s consumers are expecting more than what the brands have been offering before. In this technologically advanced age, people don t want to just buy a product they also have to have an interesting story and a memorable experience associated with it. Slowly, more and more brands are embracing this idea, presenting a narrative for their consumers which sparks interest, evokes feeling and inspires them through storytelling. In the long run, this is the key to successfully selling a product.

6 6 THE SCIENCE OF STORYTELLING And indeed, storytelling does sell. In fact, it has been proven to be an essential ingredient when it comes to a successful sales process. According to American neuroeconomist Paul Zak [3], when people hear good stories their brain releases oxytocin (best known as a moral molecule and empathy drug ), which as a result, makes people spend 56% more money, donate to 57% more causes, and express 17% more interest in advertising [4]. In other words, in order to be selling goods and services online, brands need to be selling stories and digital marketers should be fundamentally relying on engaging content. However...

7 7 JUST CONTENT ISN T ENOUGH ANYMORE As popular as content marketing is, it has its problems too specifically when it comes to conversions and measurements. a direct sale because consumers would have to go through several stages of the purchasing process before being able to actually buy it. In many cases they will be unable to find the product and the sale will be lost. This can leave the If you think about it, there s always been a certain difficulty in traditional content marketing to establish a direct consumer feeling frustrated and can have a negative impact on the company image. The truth is connection between a story and a product. While content does grow awareness of a product by creating a story around it, there s still a considerable gap between the act of selling and the act of buying. Whenever content would inspire people to purchase a product, it could fail to deliver

8 8 I n stark contrast, modern shoppable technologies erase the gap between content and product by reducing the number of steps needed to make a purchase. In other words, instead of this model: CONTENT IDENTIFYING & FINDING PRODUCT PRODUCT PAGE ADD TO CART PAYMENT Shoppable technology can shorten the conversion process to something like this: CONTENT PRODUCT PAGE ADD TO CART PAYMENT Or in some cases, even this: CONTENT ADD TO CART PAYMENT As the result, the less steps there are between seeing a product and being able to shop it directly, the higher are the conversion rates.

9 9 Another struggle point in traditional content marketing is that there s been a great difficulty to understand ROIs and accurately measure the effectiveness of content as such. So far, there have been no clear way to estimate conversions and click-through rates, making it incredibly difficult to predict how effective content actually is when it comes to sales (something that 83% of B2C content marketers [5] put as the highest priority, by the way). On the contrary, shoppable content makes it easy to monitor all the click-throughs and see which parts of the story people interact most with. But more on that in the next chapter, where we discuss what shoppable articles and videos actually look like.

10 10 SHOPPABLE ARTICLES: TURNING READERS INTO BUYERS Today s content should provide instant gratification to those who consume it. It is not enough to produce I n today s e-commerce market, millennials and post-millennials are the most powerful driving force behind most purchasing decisions out there. The thing to remember about them (especially about females) is that they favour fun and energizing shopping environments more than anything else. And what s more, they also really value trusted advisers and counselors that help to make better purchasing decisions [6]. In marketing terms, content is the perfect tool to target the modern generation tanks to its brilliant mixture of entertainment and education. But there s another thing about millennials to consider. And no, it s not the fact that millennial consumers attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish. It s the fact that millennials are impatient and want all processes to be fast, efficient, and seamless. They know what they want, and they want what they want beautifully-written stories with a call to action at the end. If a brand is trying to grab people s attention but isn t able to satisfy it, it does nothing but deceive the customer. when they want it. That is, millennials need instant gratification and instant access to get what they want right away. And what s more, the also demand an effortless transition between the experiences the shift from content to purchase must be smooth and quick. - Philipp Rogge, CEO at Styla That s why making articles shoppable is an obvious step to take in content marketing.

11 11 T he first thing to understand about shoppable articles is that they are, first and foremost, like any other articles: following the basic narration principle, they are aiming at bringing true value by educating, entertaining, inspiring and engaging the readers. The storytelling aspect is still a priority. But what makes shoppable articles stand out from the crowd of content is drum roll, please! the seamlessly integrated shopping opportunity. Here s how it works: The shoppable technology builds a bridge between an e-commerce store and a content platform (e.g. online blog or digital magazine), integrating existing products from an online shop into an article. Then, every product image (be it a photo or a gif) is assigned a Buy It Now or Go To Shop option that allows to either add the product directly to cart or proceed to a product page for a full description. This way, a single piece of content becomes a powerful shopping channel that smoothly converts readers into consumers without any effort. BUY IT NOW

12 12 O ne of the very first examples of shoppable articles comes from Net-A-Porter, which built a shoppable magazine called The Edit. The reader can hover over any product, click on it and instantly get referred to the product page to get the look there.

13 13 A lternatively, articles can also be directly shoppable, in which case the reading experience isn t interrupted. A good example to illustrate comes from Baukjen, a London-based womenswear brand. On their website, Baukjen runs a digital magazine where readers can immediately add any product from content to cart, be it directly from articles or the whole blog feed.

14 14 A nother good example coming from a fashion brand could also be Graziashop, an online retail project of Grazia Magazine. On their e-commerce platform, the brand has integrated a blog called Your Fashion Stories, which is essentially a source of inspiration that drives readers to Grazia s online shop.

15 15 The following numbers illustrate shoppable content KPIs based on Styla clients performance (until March 2016). +60% 22% +57% TIME SPENT ON PAGE The amount of time spent on page is increased by 60% (3.2 minutes on average) CLICK-THROUGH-RATE The click-through-rate to product pages reaches up to 22% NON-PAID TRAFFIC 57% more non-paid traffic to the content site (25x more from social and 2x more direct) x3 112% +65% RETENTION RATE 3x higher rate of returning visitors SOCIAL SHARES 112% more social shares coming from content PRODUCTIVITY 65% saved time for content creation

16 16 O n average, the conversion rate in e-commerce is 5% from website to basket and 1.4% from website to sales [7]. Shoppable content let brands to attract potential customers before the buying decision is made, when they are looking for the inspiration. Taking them into the buying funnel earlier decreases the Acquisition Costs and increases the Retention rate. The boost of purchasing interest can be explained by the ease of access of the shoppable features, which allow modern consumers to satisfy their purchasing desires immediately, upon a spark of inspiration or a simple whim. This is something that brands even those doing content marketing were simply unable to offer before. But it s not only articles that are getting shoppified now: videos, which offer a slightly different user experience, are becoming shoppable, too. However, how exactly the KPIs form shoppable videos look is something we ll take a closer look at in the next chapter.

17 17 SHOPPABLE VIDEOS: TURNING VIEWERS INTO SHOPPERS Video in itself is a powerful storytelling tool. Alongside the fast growing trends of shoppable content, a seamless connection between video and commerce should B y 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic [8], while 64% of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in the near future [9]. These figures show that video has become a popular and fast growing digital marketing tool across verticals. However, as previously mentioned, there has been very little understanding of how this actually impacts sales as the connection between video and purchases can be very difficult to track. Just as shoppable articles engage the millennials amongst us, the emergence of interactive and shoppable video technology aims to do the same by allowing consumers to click on products in a video to see more details with the option to shop. This creates a seamless journey from inspiration to purchase, making it as easy as possible for the consumer to explore and shop items from videos. be a given. It is also very important to have access to detailed video analytics for brands to start to really understand how consumers interact with video and what type of content works best for their customers. - Karoline Gross, CEO at Smartzer

18 18 S hoppable videos are relevant for various types of content, whether it be product-focused or geared more towards storytelling. Marks & Spencer [10] released a perfect example of a shoppable video that was largely focused on storytelling but also intended to educate the consumer on the products that were featured. The shoppable functionality was used in this instance to allow consumers to explore the content much further, and linked the story to the products that could be purchased from the immediate pop up once the consumer had clicked on the product in the video.

19 19 A lternatively, there can be a different interactive video experience, in which each click upon a product is registered simultaneously. In order to view the coveted products, the consumer must click there to extend a large panel on the side and from here, they can then discover more about the product if they wish. A good example of this would be the Rebecca Minkoff runway show:

20 20 S hoppable videos can also offer other functionalities for the consumer, such as entering competitions via a simple form, signing up to alerts regarding unavailable items, sending themselves wish-lists of products they like, and booking in-store appointments [12] all from within the video player.

21 21 The results that Smartzer have seen from their own video technology have exceeded e-commerce standards. Here are the numbers that illustrate the results from the players up until February % 24% 15% COMPLETED VIEWS Consumers who watched the video in full CLICKTHROUGH Click-through rates to product pages at up to 24% and exceeds $10 per CTR on average VIEW TO BUY NOW % of views resulting in a Buy Now click-through 75% 56% 9% INTERACTION RATE Interaction rates exceeded at over 70% SIGNUPS Engagement rates on competition forms around 56% CONVERSION TO SHOP Conversion to purchase from product page

22 22 T hese positive results could serve as a benchmark in the industry, especially if Marketing teams adopt this digital strategy for their companies and a large increase in shoppable video does become a reality. Shoppable video is already seeing an increasing adoption rate amongst some high profile brands in a bid to enhance their digital marketing campaigns, backed by highly successful metrics. The results only help to prove the effectiveness of shoppable videos, as the technology turns them into a highly engaging marketing tool, allowing consumers interest in products to convert into sales. The availability of this data is a key element in shaping future video strategies and creating videos with the best possible engagement from consumers.

23 23 IN CONCLUSION SO HERE WE ARE, LIVING IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL CONTENT. THAT CONTENT BE IT IN THE FORM OF ARTICLES, VIDEOS OR SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY WILL GROW AND CONTINUE TO PLAY A LARGE PART IN KEEPING CONSUMERS INSPIRED AND ENGAGED. B ut from what we ve seen, more often than not, traditional digital content is lacking the essential elements of storytelling, as well as a fast and convenient route to purchase products. This is the reason why content is currently going through a phase of digital innovation in order to become more seamless, more interesting, and more experiential for today s consumer. And what are the perks, you might ask? Well, as content goes shoppable, it turns into a multifunctional shopping & entertainment device that engages people and makes them come back time after time for a new purchase. Based on the KPIs, the boost in engagement directly increases click-through rates to products, which in turn, makes shoppable content a smooth-running sales channel. Sounds like every marketer s dream, doesn t it? But that s not all. By using shoppable content, brands can better recognize the exact tipping points that trigger consumers to click on a product and make a purchase. With the use of data that they would have otherwise struggled to obtain, brands can proceed with informed and coherent facts about what really drives their audience. They will eventually be able to let the technology personalise content to specific readers which means that content would be perfectly tailored to the likes and preferences of every single individual. This would mean personalised, directly shoppable content for everyone and that sounds like the future of digital marketing is happening now.

24 SMARTZER CASE STUDY VON STYLA 24 ABOUT AUTHORS Styla is the first content commerce solution for shoppable online magazines. Thanks to its seamless shopping integration, Styla can easily transform content into an exciting shopping experience, which lets brands and online retailers inspire their customers with captivating stories and encourage them to make a purchase. Top e-commerce stores and brands, such as Speedo, Boohoo, DeBeers, RTL and OBI, are already providing their clients with a memorable shopping experience by engaging them through online magazines powered by Styla. Smartzer is a London based video technology company. Their shoppable video players allow online brands to generate sales and capture detailed analytical data directly from the videos. Consumers can click on items within a video to see further information and follow the link to purchase. Smartzer s video tagging technology allows for the video players to be created at a fast turnaround. And already brands like Whistles, Puma and Marks & Spencer have adopted the Smartzer technology to enhance their consumer s online shopping experience. GET IN TOUCH contact@styla.com GET IN TOUCH info@smartzer.com

25 25 USED RESOURCES [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]