Praveen Dhama

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MAP Violations: Roadmap to Prevent Pricing Violations

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Summary According to a study, 50% of the time unauthorized sellers violate Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies. MAP violations hamper the brand reputation and dent the profit margin. Brands need to be aware of pricing on every product listing across the eCommerce marketplaces. Tracking MAP violations is the right way forward to build brand trust & loyalty. Why do brands need MAP policies? The pandemic has pushed the boundaries for digital commerce and accelerated its adoption. The wave of evolution in the digital ecosystem has opened doors to enormous growth opportunities. But with great opportunity comes great challenges. Brands need a set of ground rules or policies in place to maintain their brand reputation. The Indian digital ecosystem has been on the flyer with high demand for a convenient and seamless shopping experience. In a race to provide lucrative discounts, brands must ensure they do not lose out on brand reputation and value. Brands need to set a threshold value for Advertised Selling Price (ASP) and track any violations on the minimum advertised price (MAP). According to a study conducted by Harvard Business Review on manufacturers, unauthorized sellers violate Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies 50% of the time, while authorized sellers do that 20% of the time. Of course, this is in the US scenario, but the fact is quite relevant in the global digital ecosystem and the Indian eCommerce market as well. How can a brand prevent MAP violations? The growing demand has led to a rapid rise in the number of 3rd party marketplaces online. Now, products are being sold by multiple sellers and resellers across the digital commerce ecosystem. This makes it essential to formulate MAP policies. The Map violations not only hamper the brand reputation but also dent the profit margin. Brands need to be aware of pricing on every product listing across the eCommerce marketplaces. MAP Policy – A must For Brands in Today’s Digital Ecosystem. MAP or Minimum Advertised Pricing policies are set forth by the manufacturer or brand to set the lowest price point for sellers to advertise the product. Sellers can only advertise on the price set via an agreement between manufacturers and distributors. MAP policies safeguard brand interest and reputation creating a perfect price perception across the digital ecosystem. What are the Benefits of monitoring MAP violations? Brands need to show alacrity and turn towards technology to track pricing and discount violations. The key challenge is monitoring the massive range of products on multiple eCommerce marketplaces. The diversion from the set threshold could be monitored if every listing on the eCommerce marketplace is tracked. Tracking at what price sellers are advertising the product will help brands identify and act upon any pricing violation across their product listings. Switch to Digital commerce intelligence systems to analyze products on multiple KPIs and provide actionable insight to act upon brands to enhance product performance and optimize the customer experience. Track the performance of sellers across platforms and pin codes. The tracking pricing and discount violations will maintain the brand reputation in terms of pricing & discount offered across the digital commerce ecosystem. How to effectively enforce Minimum Advertised Price? Even the thought of monitoring MAP compliance manually is out of context in the ever-evolving digital ecosystem. Every brand with an extensive online presence needs comprehensive MAP policies and a data-driven system to enforce MAP violations. The ecommerce competitive analysis with price monitoring across listed product categories and sub-categories on eCommerce platforms can ease the burden of brands by tracking non-compliance and identifying authorized sellers. Brands enlist numerous sellers who advertise and sell their products online. The widely distributed scale of products means there is more need for monitoring MAP violations across all online channels. A comprehensive system deployed to prevent MAP violations will protect the brand Image and save the profit margin of loyal authorized sellers. The actionable insights on violators will protect the brand interest and allow them to act against non-compliant sellers. Final Thoughts Tracking MAP violations is of utmost importance to protect brand reputation. Brands need to stay a step ahead of their competitors in this cutthroat competitive digital ecosystem and be equipped with the right tools to optimize the customer journey at multiple touchpoints. mScanIt, an eCommerce intelligence solution via its pricing analysis tool tracks any pricing & discount violations across sellers and geographies along with conducting comprehensive pricing analysis across eCommerce platforms. It Identifies which seller is the outlier in the average price threshold. It also main the violator list for product Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) codes across brands, sub-categories, cities, and eCommerce marketplace. As someone rightly said there is no advertisement as powerful as a positive reputation – words travel fast. Plug MAP violations to build brand loyalty and maintain your brand value among retailers and customers. Get in touch with our experts for deeper insights. Reach out to learn more!

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eCommerce Challenges 2023: Demystifying the competitive eCom landscape

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Gear up to face the challenge with a refreshing approach driven by technology! The eCommerce landscape has hit a massive new high thanks to the pandemic-induced lockdowns years of change occurred in a matter of months – business transformation led to the rise in the digital ecosystem. The rapid rise of digital-first brands is now leading the immense competitive digital marketplaces. During the times when everything seems hunky dory, there are challenges that behest the brands and retailers in the digital ecosystem. Let’s dig a little deep and find out the eCommerce challenges posed in 2023 and ways to move past them. According to a study conducted, by 2040, it is estimated that 95% of purchases will be made online. Thus, this is the perfect time for retailers to confront challenges and seek solutions to edge ahead. With the increasing dependence on online shopping, eCommerce is breaking the door open with enormous opportunities. As there is no rose without its thorns. Here are some challenges with the new opportunities. 1. Targeting the right customer The options for shoppers are immense with a flurry of offers. Pampered by options and impulse buys. It is imperative to target customers at the right place with the right product. So, how do you make sure they pick your product? And how will make sure your product is among the option. Solution: The solution is digital marketing with targeted customers and geographies paired with digital commerce intelligence to boost product discoverability and visibility. Optimize product display pages, and monitor pricing, availability, and other KPIs vis-à-vis competition to reach out to the right customer. 2. Optimizing Customer Experience User experiences or customer experience is one of the major challenges in the digital ecosystem. The shopper looks for a more convenient shopping experience and personalization based on their preferences. Solution: Brands are recognizing the need of optimizing the customer experience for 2023 and beyond. The data-driven business decision could optimize the customer journey at multiple touchpoints. This includes tracking customer sentiments – acknowledging their feedback and concerns. The practice to track positive and negative segments will enhance brand trust and loyalty. For example, let us consider a use case – of an Indian multination brand known for its products like water purifies tracked customer sentiment with mScanIt, Feedback analysis. The brand tracked genuine customers with negative reviews and connected with them to rectify their issues. Such positive initiatives bring a lot of positive value to the brand. 3. Build Brand Trust Loyalty The challenge of building brand trust loyalty is eminent for every brand. The cost of acquiring a new customer is multi-fold higher compared to retaining an existing one. Selling to a current customer is much easier with a 60-70% success rate as compared to a new customer with a 5-20% success rate. The above-stated facts are a testament to the importance of customer retention. So, how can Brands need to build trust and loyalty to retain customers? Solution: There could be multiple ways to customer retention. Providing quality services is of course paramount. The key is staying connected with your current customer and leverage their positive feedback to build trust. Make sure they know about your products, promotions and provide exciting offers to the existing customers. To build trust brands should ensure clarity, accuracy, and transparency in product display page content. 4. Convert visits to purchases! One of the biggest challenges is boosting conversions. Turing the visitors to paying customers. There could be multiple reasons for not converting like pricing, delivery time, and not enough information on the product page. How can a brand make sure once shoppers view the product, they could easily make a purchase? Solution: The answer is quite simple yet complicated – First and foremost understand why your shoppers aren’t converting. What do they seek? Turn to digital commerce intelligence to get actionable insights on multiple KPIs with customized tools to find out what needs to be done to boost product performance on eCommerce platforms. Optimize the shopper’s journey and target the right demographic sentiments. 5. Competition Competitor Analysis How do they stand out from the crowd with so many options available to the customers in your segment? What makes them buy a similar product from a competitor instead of buying from you? Do you know your competitive performance across the platform? Solution: Know your competition! The cut-throat eCommerce market needs brands and retailers to be a step ahead and updated on market changes. The key is to stand out – having a good product is not good enough – your need to tell why you are that good with refined product page content and set the right price and discount in line with trends. Brands need to gear up with solutions like mScanIt, a digital commerce intelligence to set the right content with auto-generated content recommendation, boost the brand share of the shelf based on keywords, optimize SKUs, and track product availability across platforms. Every phase of the customer journey needs to be optimized to stay ahead of competitors. Final Thoughts The growing smartphone penetration and new geographies opening up to online shopping have led to a massive influx of opportunities. To cash in on the opportunities the brands and retailers need to combat challenges at every touchpoint of the customer journey. eCommerce has propelled rapidly in the last few years and conducive conditions of 2023 will push it further. Do not get left behind switch to digital commerce and pave your way through challenges. It’s a year full of exciting and positive changes, but there are still multiple businesses going online or starting digital-first that struggle with the challenges that eCommerce brings. There is no quick fix, but tech-solution are fixes that can help any eCommerce business inch closer to its ideal customers and achieve target sales.

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Beauty & Personal Care Industry: Trends accelerating BPC eCommerce growth in India

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The astounding rise in the eCommerce segment in Beauty Personal Care (BPC) segment could be credited to the changing lifestyle of the young Indian demographic. The products are not just exclusive segments but daily need products. The Indian beauty and personal care market stands 8th among the top countries in the world with an estimated value of USD 15 billion and growing at a steady rate of approximately 10%. (Based on Euromonitor International Study). The Market is all set to get double by 2030 with skincare products and cosmetics driving growth. The penetration outside metros into Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities has been a major advantage to the Indian BPC market. This provides the Indian BPC e-commerce market with significant headroom to grow and scale up. Lucrative Market with growth opportunities The online BPC market in India expanded significantly in the last few years driven by a steep increase in e-commerce adoption. Across the digital shopping platforms, the beauty personal care segment continues to show accelerated growth post-pandemic. The consistent year-on-year growth over the last 2 years has been the hallmark of the segment. As compared to other emerging segments beauty personal care reported maximum growth with a 143% rise in order volume compared to 2021 along with a rapid rise in order value as well up to 132% in FY22. The emergence of many digital-first brands in the last 2 years has helped the beauty personal Care segment outperform with robust growth. The rising number of “House of Brands” and the flurry of investors hogging on segment potential has been the key factor in its growth. Even the traditional players are leveraging the BPC eCommerce high. eCommerce segment-wise order volume – FY 2021 vs FY 2022 | Source: Unicommerce Report 2022 Technology adoption boosts the BPC e-commerce Segment The adoption of technology has been another factor that led to the rapid rise of the beauty personal Care segment.  The Brands switch to a more personalized customer-centric approach to optimize customer journey at every touch point. The move to improve supply chain and logistics with competitive intelligence has led to rapid strides with technology. Solutions like mScanit ensure that beauty and personal care brands optimize their discoverability, pricing analysis, and track availability across multiple touchpoints. The technology is not just limited to purchase experience monitoring sales and reconciliation but also makes the customer feel valued with a seamless post-purchase experience. Build on Brand Trust and Loyalty In changing eCommerce landscape brands across segments need to build a strong presence online. The goal is to connect with the customer. In the beauty personal care segment customers like to trust the brand they use and seek more of what their trusted brand has to offer building a bond. This ensures conducive customer retention. The Brands need to ensure an elevated shopping experience on their website and in the eCommerce marketplace to develop a connection with consumers. Gen Z and millennials stay quite aware of the options they have and offers available on various channels. This makes having digital commerce of paramount importance. Competitive analytics give brands an added edge over the cut-throat competition. The faith of customers reflects in year-on-year stronger growth on the top brand’s website purchases as compared to marketplaces. The stronger growth above 80% in FY22 on the brand websites is indicative of their potential. Brand Trust and loyalty across platforms leads to astonishing customer retention and positive feedback leads to potential new consumers. The competitive analysis of customer sentiment is key to elevating brand loyalty. eCommerce Watershed Moment Post-Pandemic High Demand in Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities The hinterland of India is steadily getting attracted to convenient shopping. Beauty and personal care products have been the top pick among Tier-2 and Tier-3 new eCommerce shoppers. The remarkable progress and e-commerce penetration have led the shoppers from these cities to make up the major chunk of market share across e-commerce shopping avenues. Post-pandemic the year-on-year growth has been remarkable in Tier- 2 and Tier- 3 cities while the growth rate and slightly lost pace. E-commerce penetration across Indian cities in 2022 | Source: Unicommerce Report In the post-pandemic era, faster delivery and optimized shopping experience have been the driving factors for eCommerce growth. Internet penetration and rapid growth in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are the driving forces leading to this new demographic towards the e-commerce marketplaces. Final thoughts – Target the right consumer The beauty personal Care industry has a major challenge in terms of reaching out to the right customer. High demand in tier 2 and tier 3 cities has opened the door to a massive range of new customers with varied shopping potential and budget brackets. Brands need to tap into these new geographies with ecommerce competitive analysis paving ways to edge ahead. The end-to-end digital commerce intelligence at every touch point can enhance customer experience and boost sales across the digital ecosystem. mScanIt, a digital commerce intelligence solution provides actionable insights and analytics across multiple KPIs for the brand. Tools like content recommendation help brands go beyond analytics with auto-content generation for product display pages and optimize the content across platforms. In the last few years, new business models and multiple segments have emerged across the eCommerce ecosystem. Brands should keep track of new opportunities opening to target consumers across the digital commerce landscape. Get in touch with our experts for deeper insights. Reach out to learn more.

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Think young… Gen Z the future of eCommerce

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Tap on the right demographics sentiment to upswing the conversion rate Change is the only constant. Be it life or shopping behaviour. The different age group has different shopping patterns. The way people in their 20’s shop draws quite a contrast from how people in their 30s shop online. The post-pandemic world has been forced to take rapid strides as does the shopping environment and platforms. We have come a long way from browsing items across the crowded marketplace to browsing the products on your phone across the omnichannel eCommerce landscape. The new generation is driving the new shopping pattern across the eCommerce ecosystem. Even influencing millennials to follow their trait to catch up with the trend empowered with hefty purchase capabilities. Brands need to up with energy-driven restless shoppers pampered with options. Evolve with your shoppers and think young! The turn of a new decade marred with the Coronavirus outbreak has changed the way people shop across the world. Spoilt for choices, just getting a product delivered on time is not enough. Gen Z seeks a seamless, secure and omnichannel eCommerce purchase experience. The competition is more cutthroat than ever. Brands need to be on their toes and optimize every touchpoint of their customer journey. So, what are we waiting for let’s dive deep into what goes behind this change in consumer behaviour, explore the idea and Think Young! Tap on Gen Z Shopping potential – Understand Online Consumer Behaviour A massive wave of evolution has hit online shoppers. The new-generation shoppers are more aware of their options. This evolution in consumer behaviour is a by-product of pandemic lockdowns which brought drastic changes in the eCommerce ecosystem triggering the new age of e-retail on a global scale. What is Consumer Behaviour? In simple terms the process of how consumers make decisions to purchase products on an eCommerce ecosystem. The task is simple – Identify a problem your consumer face while deciding to make a purchase and understand the constantly evolving need and expectations of the consumers. The expectations could be regarding availability, transparency, affordability, or a convenient purchase journey. Brands need to be on their toes and keep track of changing behaviour across platforms, demographics, and a wide range of products. Brands need to be aware of what drives their customers and ensure end-to-end optimization of the eCommerce shopping journey. We can’t generalize the shopping behaviour of the entire generation, as preferences and behaviour could be diverse. How behaviour and consumption patterns have evolved from Gen Y to Gen Z Changing Consumer Behaviour – Think Young for 2023 and Beyond The accelerated pace at which unimaginable changes have happened in the eCommerce marketplaces, what otherwise might have taken a decade happened in days during and post-pandemic. The fact that we are still wondering about it as the curtain draws on 2022 is humongous. Digitization, ordering online, swift delivery and remote working became part of our lives practically overnight. Now, business leaders are moving towards long-term strategic moves, in the new normal scenario and beyond. The challenge is to put the finger on the pulse of evolving consumer sentiment and adapt to data-driven ways to optimize the customer journey. The trends in evolving consumer behaviour are driven by the rapid rise in Gen Z demographics that are more concerned about the convenient shopping experience. The key is to think young tap consumer sentiments and optimize consumer journey at multiple touch points. Shape your strategies to meet consumer expectations and focus on customer journey optimization. The digitally native, mobile-first generation, Gen Z exhibits Search for Convenience and speed Preference for mobile shopping Price sensitivity Choices influenced by social media Omnichannel Shopping If you are looking to reach out to Generation Z or Millennials, do consider the fact that they are well aware of what they need, and the majority of these cohorts already shopped across various eCommerce platforms and have high expectations. Convenience is king. Gen Z and Millennials shoppers bargain for convenience. According to a study, 76% of shoppers vouch for an enhanced shopping experience with convenience being a top priority. Cross-device seamless omnichannel buying experience. Gen Z shoppers do not limit themselves to one shopping avenue. Their buying pattern is all about check-out items when and where they see them in case of tempting impulsive buy. But for focused needs, they check multiple avenues before making a purchase. According to a study, 81% of shoppers are looking for a frictionless, cross-device eCommerce buying experience. According to research, 9 out of 10 shoppers look for seamless and flexible payment options as it speeds up their purchase decisions. To succeed in 2023 and beyond build your visibility across multiple channels and target demographics with competitive intelligence. Invest in creative content and ideally implement media strategy to upscale traffic. Source: Based on McKinsey Gen Z Survey Report Final Thoughts Put your foot on the pedal to keep up with the Gen Z! Do you know what your customer thinks about your product? Are you tracking what they say about it? If you are not, then you are missing out on a lot more than what you think – Rather than shooting in the dark switch to a data-driven digital Intelligence solution to combat new challenges in the new year. Track trends across omnichannel eCommerce to monitor consumer behaviour across platforms. Be there at the right time at the right place with the right price to attract the consumer. Don’t miss out cater to the needs of a rising caravan of new shoppers with mScanIt, ecommerce intelligence solution. Understand what they want and cater to the growing Gen Z demographic. The massive rate of high-speed internet penetration has led to an incredible rise in new shoppers. The tier-1 and tier-2 cities are riding the wave of online shopping over the bustling market rush and Gen Z is leading the way. The new narrative of optimizing the customer journey will shape the eCommerce ecosystem in 2023 and beyond.

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eCom Pathway to 2023

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A Guide to Maximizing Sales, Improving Efficiency and Optimizing Your Customer Journey Time to switch from classic front foot drive to 360-degree play – The world of eCommerce is changing being proactive about trends and evolving customer experience is key to edge ahead of your competitors. The post-pandemic world is riding on a new high to elevate eCommerce business around the world. The massive rate of high-speed internet penetration has led to incredible rise in new shoppers. The tier- 1 and tier-2 cities are riding the wave of online shopping over the bustling market rush. The new narrative of optimizing customer journey will enlighten pathway for eCommerce ecosystem in 2023 and beyond. Here is your complete guide to maximizing sales, improving efficiency, and optimizing customer journey by hopping on to the trends. Speed up on the right path As per the Brain & Co. report, online shoppers in India have crossed well beyond 180 million and all set to surpass the United States to become second-largest shopper base in coming years. The brands need to latch on the opportunity step up their game to cater the new potential customers, understand their need and stay ahead among the stiff competition in eCommerce ecosystem. This profane growth is backed by strong underlying rudiments: A large consumer base with growing affluence Low data prices prompting – growing Internet and smartphone penetration Low shipment costs to back swift order delivery Brands need to align themselves with consumer need and work towards enhancing customer experience for sustained growth in sales. Indian e-retail market is estimated to grow at more than 25% per annum to scale to $150–$170B by 2027 Source: Statista Make it a smooth ride – Optimize your Customer Journey The Evolution of eCommerce retail in India: Phase 1 (Before 2015) – An Era of cautious early adoption. Limited to typically affluent at metro and tier-1 cities with major categories being mobile and fashion. Phase 2 (2015-2020) – An Era of growth & massification. The expansion of eCommerce retail touched the masses engaging new shoppers across tier-2 cities and a wide new range of categories flooded the eCommerce retail landscape. Phase 3 (2020 and beyond) – An Era of eCommerce Customer Journey Optimization An era of innovation – Time to address the needs of distinct micro-segments, innovate with new business models making business decisions based on data, and differentiate on customer experience. The covid induced lockdown has led to multi-fold expansion of eCommerce industry juxtaposed with innovative affordability constructs like low-cost equated monthly instalments (EMIs), Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), and the scale-up of third-party logistics. In last couple of years, three distinct hallmarks of Phase 3.0 have emerged which mark the advent of new era of change where optimization on every step of customer journey is the way towards the future. Emergence of shopper micro-segments The use of technology to deliver a bespoke product Effort to enhance customer experience In this phase of sustained growth, brands need to cater distinct shopper micro-segments across geographies, incomes, and age groups. Specially during the time when 1 in 3 shoppers is Gen Z, 3 out of 5 shoppers belong to tier-2 or smaller cities, and 1 in 3 shoppers belong to low-to-middle income segments. Every innovation in eCommerce ecosystem caters to distinct customer micro-segments. The current phase is led by tech innovation – data driven AI & ML guiding business decisions and enhancing customer experience. E-Retail market projections | Source: Bain Analysis eCommerce Trends for 2023 – What future hold? The new post pandemic world has set the new world order for eCommerce. The rising inflation around the world, Ukraine-Russia crisis is talking a toll on the global scenario. But still things are looking bright for India and neighbouring South-East Asian region as the eCommerce ecosystem is soaring high on massive internet penetration and influx of new generation shoppers. Let’s cherish the last two-plus years of astronomical eCommerce growth and wonder what 2023 could transpire for online retails and brands in future. The eCommerce habits of the shoppers are set now with higher preference to eCommerce marketplace as compared to brick & mortar stores. The change in shopping habits has prompted expert to predict sales to soar above US$ 8 trillion from now existing US$ 5 trillion by 2026. Keep an eye on changing consumer expectations and preferences to latch on this growth trend. Sustainable growth to be key. Share of new ecommerce to continue growth especially in key categories like beauty, fashion, and grocery as they continue to effectively serve a key need for specific consumer cohorts. Trends that will shape the future in 2023 1. Don’t overlook your shoppers’ experience and omnichannel avenues The fluid omnichannel shopping experiences is way to the future. A major chunk of buyers around 75% use multiple channels before making a purchase and during their customer journey 73% of e-commerce consumers report using various channels. This highlights the desperate need to eliminate friction in customer journey. The shopping is no longer limited to eCommerce marketplace or brand website – social commerce is rising as a new avenue for shoppers where they can buy product as when and where they see it. Brands offering omnichannel shopping experiences will continue to thrive in 2023.2. Can you hear me now? Customer sentiments will drive sales for e-commerce in 2023 Listen to what your customers have to say. The customer sentiments do matter. The right measure will not just ensure customer retention but also build brand trust and help cater to customer needs. Brands need to make rating, reviews, and Q&A assessments their top priority. The record amount of time spent online not only increases shopping spend but also engages customers to provide feedback. Unsurprisingly most customers do especially when their product experience is not satisfactory provide feedback. Switch to Rating & Review Tracker with Time Trend Analysis and Brand-Wise Analysis for your own vis-à-vis competition to ensure the voice of your customer is heard and acted upon. Take the help of

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5 Marketing Strategies for Black Friday 2022

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Black Friday is the Super Bowl for marketers! Prepare well off-season to score big during the season. Oh! You didn’t get that reference. Let’s lay it down in Indian terms, it’s like an IPL, a once-in-a-year where your brand talent meets sale opportunity. It’s a massive occasion for sellers to cash in on the global sale phenomenon. The global brands on this day offer exclusive offers and massive discounts ranging from apparel, and fashion, to trendy electronic items. It’s time for sellers to entice the shoppers with attractive offers and push their products on an eCommerce marketplace as Indian Millennials and Gen Zs are well aware of the day and prep their wish lists in advance. Black Friday 2021, Share of total offline and online expenditure – Generation Z and millennial consumers in the U. S. Just rolling out exciting offers and deals to swiftly attract the customer might not be enough for your product needs to move up the ladder, increase online traffic and visibility. A Well-thought of strategies are needed to make the most of this occasion. Here are some strategies that could help your brand do so. 1. Promote Shoppable Content Over the years, Shopping as an idea and practice has gone through transitions, intending to make shopping more exciting, engaging, and seamless for the shoppers. One such transit is the promotion of shoppable content. Integration of the new-age shopping venue with social media helps find consumers who are persistently browsing, exploring, sharing, and engaging with different forms of content to fulfil their shopping needs. Content or posts that features products with checkout link, price, details, etc., for users to purchase directly from the posts. Shoppable content makes their purchasing efforts minimal like whenever they come across any content product images, or videos, etc., Shoppers can instantly buy the product at that spot rather than going to that another website, app, or eCommerce platform. The idea is to merge the point of inspiration with the point of sale through content. 87% of people say social media helps shoppers decide what to buy. Shoppers want inspiration, information and shoppability at their fingertips in one frame. It is an excellent strategy for eCommerce & online brands to boost sales, increase user engagement, build brand awareness, grow trust, and much more with minimum investments. Average Anticipated Consumer Spend by Country on Black Friday 2022 Consumers spend on Black Friday – The Indian holiday season is quite different from the western world where Thanksgiving weekend with shopping extravaganza like Black Friday drags on for the entire weekend ending with Cyber Monday. As most Indian shoppers exhaust their yearly send during Diwali Sale the sales figures on Black Friday are comparatively lower as compared to the global sales but still, they are still extremely impressive. 2. Create a Pre-Sale Brand Curiosity The perfect way to make more sales is to prompt Shoppers to involve in the sale as the timer beside the product provokes the customer to stimulate and magnetize your customers towards the Friday sale, entice to make the immediate purchase without giving any thought of abandoning the product. Pre-Black Friday Sale fosters the customer’s interest to plan their purchase even before the sale starts. Offer pre-order to skip waiting & stock Issues: Provide the same offers as Black Friday in advance. It will help manage stock accordingly and skip the hassle-free purchase. Nykaa, turning the Black Friday into Pink Friday Sale for their biggest beauty sale | Source: Nykaa Offer 24 Hours exclusive Black Friday deals Every hour surprise shoppers with attractive and interesting Black Friday deals and offers. Cheer them up and encourages them to revisit your online store frequently to avail of the offers. Don’t forget to create an attractive homepage banner for displaying the smashing deals and offers every hour. Stay free from chaotic and hectic promotions and stay organized this weekend. Promote deals of an hour on social media networks using the scheduling app. Attract shoppers with free shipping, easy returns, cash backs, bonus points, rewards, gift cards, etc. Run last-chance or extended Black Friday deals. The long Black Friday weekend doesn’t have to end with Cyber Monday sales. All this comes with this festive sale to make the customers feel overwhelmed about the brand. It is an effective way to gain your customer reach and amplify the number of loyal customers. 3. Personalized Black Friday marketing campaigns The best way to engage customers is personalization, adding a touch of personalization to your Black Friday marketing campaigns. Boosts open rates and help your campaigns stand out! Target different customer groups using segmentation. Grab your subscribers’ attention by putting first names in your Black Friday email subject lines. For Black Friday marketing, or any other Exclusive Sale Day update your email list. It is the most important tools in your arsenal. Target the customers demographics who are most interested in your Black Friday promotions. Start a special Black Friday email marketing list Create an email signup form weeks ahead of your Black Friday sale or any upcoming sale QR codes can also be handy for lead generation, Link QR codes to a signup form for your Black Friday email list Use SMS marketing The fast and direct way to engage customers during the busy holiday season is SMS. Utilize an SMS campaign to engage customers as part of the Black Friday marketing strategy. In addition to social media marketing and email campaigns Send targeted Black Friday texts SMS campaigns have high open rates and near instant opening times Remind customers about Black Friday promos and share discount codes via SMS 4. Frictionless Customer’s Journey One of the biggest problems for an online retailer is abandoned products in shopping carts. Creating a frictionless shopper’s journey is crucial during big sales days like Black Friday. Shoppers often traverse through adding products to their carts but abandon them due to complex purchase barriers like hefty shipping charges, additional charges, or taxes. Customers have proved their interest in the brands by adding products

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What Does Your Search Rank on Marketplaces Say About Your Brand?

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Turning visitors into customers starts with achieving high search rankings. The higher search rank directly results in high visibility and more probability of getting picked up by the shoppers. It is just like a physical shopping scenario where your product is placed at a perfect place to catch the shopper’s eye and at a distance to be easily picked up from the shelf. In an eCommerce marketplace, most shoppers buy the top product on the list unless they are looking for something specific not featured in the list. A higher search rank also means the product will be available to more shoppers online based on the search. The goal is to create an attractive Product page, grab shoppers’ attention – convert that add-to-cart decision to an instant buy. eCommerce platforms like Amazon use their own search algorithm to list a product that is completely different from Google’s. When a buyer searches for a product on Amazon, results are delivered through a two-step process. Firstly, they pull relevant results from their catalogue and then they rank them according to relevancy. They continually evaluate their algorithms using human judgments, programmatic analysis, key business metrics, and performance metrics. Here are some important things that your search rank on the eCommerce marketplace says about your brand 1. Identifies your product position vis-a-vis competitor product in the products category or sub-category The product with the best search rank on the digital shelf gets the highest visibility and, eventually, has a chance at achieving higher sales. The search algorithm of eCommerce marketplaces shows results based on historical purchases, best sellers, reviews & ratings, and other factors. Brands try their best to make their product easily discoverable, especially on the top keywords. One of the methods of optimizing the pages is by identifying the most relevant keyword for a specific product and product category on the product’s page. By doing so, they can evaluate the leader and measure their overall performance on the organic and sponsored search results. Analyzing the search results would show the top-ranking product under a category and enable making strategies around the same too. But a more diversified method of knowing the top performer and runner-up would include measuring search results across the platform, variants, pin code, and other levels. 2. Does your product have the best SEO? Or could the product achieve a higher organic ranking? Brands only select a few keywords on which they display their sponsored listings. One of the key components affecting the search rank of the digital shelf of the remaining organic product listings is SEO. Regularly monitoring such search results on the organic keywords helps to find the product with the best page optimization. Analyzing the top search results against the competitors enables brands to find the brand leading the search rank on the digital shelf. A higher search rank on organic results only requires efforts from marketers. So, the brand saves money whenever the product has a high search rank without additional bidding costs. This is how high search ranking will impact your business: Established authority and good reputation Round-the-clock promotion Higher Organic search traffic High-quality visitors and increased conversion Such product listings help brands to achieve a higher conversion rate. The biggest factors influencing page optimization include the images, video, title, description, and any other form of content in the hands of the brand. The most effective method of measuring the performance of each of these components is by analyzing them with the competitors. Once the results display the product pages with the best results, marketers can use the information to enhance the page performance for each listing. 3. Does your Product Listing have the Potential to Influence Customer’s Buying Decisions? The urgency to buy a product is higher on quick commerce apps like BlinkIt or Dunzo than on Amazon or Flipkart because they offer fast delivery. If you want brown bread and search for it, the tendency to buy from the top results due to urgency is the highest. Wouldn’t you agree? Maybe not, but many do the same. Most visitors across a pin code often see similar results on eCom apps, so the demand for products on the top search results is higher than others. Therefore, the top results often go Out-of-Stock (OOS) faster than others. The top results on Amazon and other eCommerce marketplaces can change the buyer’s perspective. For example, if you searched for ‘shoes for men’ and saw a variety of sporty shoes, you might not go for a known brand and opt for a new one, just because of the design and features. The designs shown in the top results convince the online shopper that the results display the trending forms of shoes, and sport shoe buyers must have them. The top results on the keyword searches influenced the buyer’s perspective about the sport shoe designs. Final Thoughts The search rank of a product on sponsored and organic keyword-based results tells a lot of tales to brands and e-commerce marketers. Brands need to focus on the results of the digital shelf as it enables them to achieve higher visibility and, eventually, sales. Moreover, digital shelf analytics enables brands to understand more about the areas of improvement of their products. Measuring the product’s performance at this level would require measuring the performance of the competitors with real-time actionable insights. Our eCommerce competitive intelligence solution, mScanIt, is helping brands to measure the performance of their product pages. It also helps brand marketers to find factors enabling competitors to achieve higher results and earn the trust of customers.

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3 Things to Consider While Writing Product Descriptions

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Do you remember when you had to visit the nearest retail store (Kirana-wala) and check out the product’s qualities by reading its description? We still have an audience that does the same as their preferred choice. Product description in an e-marketplace, like Amazon or BigBasket displayed after clicking on a product listing. It is much more than the standard description written on a product’s label. It signifies the product’s audience, benefits or features, suitability criteria, and more. The question that ecommerce marketers come across while writing a compelling description is ‘How to make the product description convincing to potential customers?’. A convincing description would increase the buyer’s interest in purchasing and re-purchasing the same product while simultaneously increasing interest in exploring more about it. Here are the 3 things to consider for writing a great product description Leave No Room for Doubts If you have ever visited a clothing outlet in a shopping mall, you must have been greeted by a salesperson who can assist you in searching for a section or finding the product for you. The salesperson leaves no room for doubt and helps you out with every possible detail. Also, create a user-centric content product description that provide answers to all possible questions that a customer may have about the product Understand customer needs Evaluate customer reviews and Q&As Address every possible customer concern in description This would not just increase customer’s interest in purchasing the product but will give the existing shoppers a loud and clear message, ‘we are hearing your voice’. It also leaves no doubt in the minds of the buyers. Include All Essentials Convincing a customer to buy a product takes more than stating the benefits or features of a product. It demands showing off humbly. It requires stating the obvious and the not-so-obvious factors. The product description should have sufficient room for all the qualities, which also helps in removing repetition. Keep it precise and informative Use Story telling style – engage with facts and benefits Include all essentials that customer seeks For example, people searching for hiking backpacks would want to know its capacity, whether it is waterproof, materials, and ‘unsuitable for’ criteria. But, ensuring that everything the product offers is mentioned requires knowing the aspects mentioned in similar listings of your competitor. Sometimes, you may not regard a feature as desirable, but the competitor might use it to scale up sales of similar products. Our eCom Competitive Analytics solutihelps brands analyze product descriptions and discover the critical aspects through a word cloud. The most mentioned words often appear the largest and using them in their description helps in page optimization. Use high performing keywords for your brand Writing a similar description for almost similar products gives a wrong impression to the online shopper. On the other hand, it also makes it easier for regular buyers to distinguish between the products and makes buying decisions easier. So, it’s a slippery slope for ecommerce marketers whenever the demand for new product descriptions arises for similar listings. Keywords play a significant role in product discoverability on ecommerce marketplaces. An ecommerce marketer writing a one-paragraph description could include 2-3 keywords at the most. However, deciding the right keywords becomes essential as it can place similar listings together or under different search results. The best way to find the correct keywords would be to look at competitors’ listings. Doing so helps to know the approach they are following for similar listings of their products. Our solution, mScanIt, shows the top keywords used by your competitors along with your keywords. The analysis through mScanIt helps to know their most used keywords and measure whether their keywords have been used in your description or not. Conclusion A powerful product description can increase an online shopper’s interest in the product and convince them to buy it. Ecommerce marketers know that descriptions should be crisp, enriched with keywords, and scannable. However, eCom marketers should also include customers’ interests, all the ‘need-to-know’ aspects and know competitor’s keywords. Doing so would help to make a much better product description. Ecommerce Competitive Intelligence Solution helps brands to evaluate the differences between their product descriptions against their competitors. The analysis helps brand marketers to achieve their description goals and optimize their content for search engines.

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Why is Seller Analysis Important for eCom Brands?

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The eCommerce marketplaces have become hotspots for brands to ensure they capture the maximum market share through their omnichannel approach. To execute this, brands have two options, sell online directly or appoint authorized sellers. Unfortunately, there is one more category of sellers that are unauthorized or third-party (3P) sellers and they tap into the same eCommerce marketplaces and drive away the potential customer base towards their listings. The issue with third party sellers is that you can’t control them for the activities they are performing on the platform. To start with, they don’t necessarily provide genuine products of the brand. In fact, they continuously find ways to increase their financial base by enlisting counterfeit listings actively. Although the bigger issue with such sellers is that they continuously engage in Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) violations, which lead to many repercussions to brands, including damaged brand reputation, loss of genuine/authorized sellers, etc. The biggest disadvantage of MAP violations through unauthorized sellers is that it destroys the price parity of the brand and creates consumer distrust in the brand. Moreover, loyal consumers may ignore the brand’s product listings, opt for alternatives, or go to another store to find better products. When consumer’s product demand from authorized sellers is diverted on eCommerce marketplaces by 3P sellers, the demand and supply relationship between the brand and its sellers is also affected. This unexpected change in demand and supply often leads to overstocking, which is more dangerous in case of perishable products. Third party sellers also take the maximum benefit when brands run out of stock, and they scale their sales creating more damaging situation for brands. While these might seem concerning to you as a brand, the story doesn’t stop here. 3P sellers also engage in copyright and brand infringement by using images, content, or videos of genuine products to sell their counterfeits without the brand’s permission. The eCommerce marketplaces, like Amazon, Flipkart, Shopee, Lazada, etc., have also been flooded with sellers of lookalike products. What Should Brands Do to Monitor their eCom Platform Sellers? Monitoring sellers across eCommerce platforms to flag unauthorized sellers is challenging. To cater to this major issue of eCommerce players, we help them with our eCommerce Competitive Analytics solutions, mScanIt, to review seller activities in real-time. mScanIt has capabilities to perform Seller Analysis that reveals the stock availability of products across eCommerce platforms. Brands can use the list of sellers on each platform, the type of products they are selling, the stock availability of sellers, and more. Also, the solution can help brands in identifying which seller is winning the buy box. By reviewing these details in real-time, brands can detect unknown sellers and check out their activities on different eCommerce platforms. Simultaneously, a brand can view and compare the product availability of 3P seller’s vis-a-vis authorized sellers within a time frame. If the percentage of product available with authorized sellers is lower than the 3P sellers, consumers could opt for products from alternate sellers or even visit alternate stores. The scenario is persistently noticed in the FMCG industry, as grocery is an everyday need of consumers and is one of the categories with the highest demands since the launch of Quick Commerce (Q-Com) brands and apps. Brands can leverage mScanIt to inform their Key Account Managers or Category Managers to report 3P or unauthorized sellers. Doing so would diminish the chance of MAP violations and effectively maintain the product price of different variants under multiple categories. Moreover, brands can know the exact sellers of their products functioning on eCommerce platforms. It would likely avoid copyright, trademark, and content infringement. Conclusion Seller analysis is an important facet of E-Commerce Competitive Analytics. Brands need to analyze the activity of their sellers to check their stocking needs. Simultaneously, they need to know the sellers active across E-Commerce platforms like Amazon, Blinkit, Flipkart, and others. The seller analysis is also important for eliminating counterfeit, unauthorized, or 3P sellers from the eCommerce platforms, directly impacting the trust between a brand and its consumers. Schedule a demo with us to learn about the advantages of the eCommerce Competitive Analytics solution for your brand.

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Why Should Brands Pay Attention to Perfect Page Analysis or Content Benchmarking?

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A Perfect Page Analysis is a complete overview of the brand’s product listing across ecommerce platforms like Amazon, BigBasket, Flipkart, etc. Generally, it evaluates the content aspects such as usage of top-performing category keywords, title, bullet points, product description, content placement, presence of product images/videos, SEO friendliness of title, rating, and review count. The character and word limitations might alter across platforms; however, the approach might remain almost similar. Consumers often look at the product page content before making their final buying decision. In fact, 22% of online shoppers make a transaction because of accurate and informative product descriptions. On the other hand, product positioning measures the average ranking of a product listing based on keywords on eCom platforms. The position of the listing matters because most people tend to choose from the top visible listings or the products listed on the top three pages. According to Statista, 40, 38, and 35 percent of consumers find products through search engines, Amazon, and other marketplaces, respectively. Certainly, higher visibility would boost the consumer’s interest in the product listing. However, most brands hardly pay attention to page analysis and positioning, which diminishes their opportunity of grabbing the potential customer base and thus the revenue/sale. Importance of a Perfect Product Page and Positioning A perfect page analysis curates a higher score if it has a specific number of reviews, SEO content, accurate product description, etc. The question is ‘Why?’ Why are these aspects important for a perfect page on an ecommerce marketplace? Having a high perfect page summary score means the consumers are likely to trust your product listing and brand, which might increase the transaction/conversion rate. Besides, it becomes a great factor in ensuring long-term relationships with your brands. For example, SEO-friendly keywords make the product more appealing to the customers and would likely enhance discoverability, even on search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Improving product page content aspects could, in turn, enhance ranking if it is a part of the eCom platform’s algorithm. Another positioning aspect is this – Imagine you searched for a ‘smart watch’ on Amazon and repeatedly came across Brand A compared to others. You would probably trust this brand on this factor and visit any of its variants. Price, rating, and delivery would also become important before visiting the page, but you might visit it because it repeatedly occurs and see what it has to offer? – It’s a likely scenario. Right? According to Praveen Dhama, Manager, mScanIt, powered by mFilterIt “Lower the search rank (brand to be among the top listings of the search page on an ecommerce marketplace), higher the chance of a product being noticed and bought by the consumer.“ We can assume that search ranks on ecommerce marketplaces can alter based on the best, most helpful, and most popular results for the consumers. It is just like search engines like Google and Bing. But how can we be sure about it? Maintaining perfect product pages would likely enhance consumer experience by including images, videos, and texts relevant to the product. Moreover, the pages include optimum reviews and ratings, and 35% of online shoppers make purchasing decisions based on other customers’ reviews. Given this fact and the importance of accurate information (stated earlier), it is certain that eCom marketplaces would likely offer results matching our criteria, as mentioned above. How is Perfect Page Analysis or Content Benchmarking Done? Perfect page analysis is done by reviewing the contents of a product listing, such as the title, bullet points, product description, A+ content, etc. Content benchmarking reviews the brand’s score versus the competition in all such aspects. Analyzing these aspects helps brands review their market positioning’s possibility of consumer interactions, especially through organic keywords, best/worst performing sections, etc., and take measures to enhance the underscoring aspects. We analyzed the average search rank for SKUs of one of our ecommerce clients and discovered it was between 5-20. However, after post-reviewing these aspects and comparing them with the competitors through mScanIt, the brand discovered that using specific keywords in the desired number of times within the ecommerce product listings could alter their ranking. Our eCom Competitive Analytics team found the best keywords using share-of-shelf metrics, Google keyword planner, and Amazon PI keywords. After using the keywords, the brand SKUs ranked among the top three products under various keyword searches, which increased their product page visits and conversions/sales. Conclusion Brands that want to optimize their search results on eCommerce platforms and search engines must pay attention to page analysis and positioning of their SKUs. Measuring their results versus the competition would give an accurate picture of their score and ranking and help detect improvement areas. eCom Competitive Analytics offers such results to brands and insights that they can use to resolve their page analysis issues. Moreover, the automated solution detects such results in real-time and offers an option for exporting reports. For more information about the advantages of mScanIt for your brand, connect with us through email, or leave us a message in the comment or contact section. To know more, get in touch with our experts today!

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