Blog articles about eCommerce

Understanding decision-making and choice overload in crowded markets

In today’s highly competitive telecommunications market, consumers face an abundance of choices online. To thrive in this environment, your product portfolio strategy should be optimized based on how decision-making is changing. You need to know how customers identify the best carrier and plan for their needs. And that’s where the most accurate customer and market insights can help.

Is your eCommerce strategy attracting and converting consumers? 

The shift to online ordering for alcohol has grown significantly in recent years, and with it, there have been new challenges and opportunities that brands face in eCommerce. Lisa Caro, Director of Insights & Analytics for Emerging Opportunities, Constellation Brands, and Elizabeth Kadrich, SKIM, discussed how Constellation Brands turned to mobile-optimized images to influence shopper behavior.

Today’s subscription economy not only presents consumers with more choices, but also more personalized experiences. For telecom, tech and online brands these heightened expectations place even greater pressure on maximizing the revenue per user.

Whereas in the past you could position your products and services based on traditional demographic insights, those rules no longer apply today — especially when it comes to pricing.

Cooking up consumer insights for the creative masterminds

Consumers around the world are eating up the convenience, choice and personalization that online meal-kit delivery services offer. Today subscription boxes offer a variety of options for online shoppers and a host of challenges for brands. To stay ahead in this competitive online space, you must delight your customers with every box that hits their doorstep.

But what type of consumer insights are needed to inform the creative masterminds behind what goes in that box every week or month?

We recently set out to help a leading meal-kit delivery company answer just that. 

Using a subscription pricing model to lay stable foundations

Funda is the top online real estate platform in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. It’s been described as the “Amazon of houses” in its homeland, because it’s said that almost every house that’s sold in the country will have been advertised on its platform first.

The online leader generates revenue by charging realtors to promote residential and commercial inventory on its platform. When there are more homes than buyers, properties are advertised longer and funda sees revenue soar. However, when the market is booming, properties sell quickly, listings come and go on the platform, and revenues dip.

With the increased adoption of voice technology, smart speakers and digital assistants, there’s no denying that Alexa, Siri and Google Home are changing consumer behavior. However, to what extent? Are consumers simply curious about these devices? Are their purchase decisions being guided by AI?  Will purchase trials shift to new shopping habits? 

As decision behavior experts, we set out to examine these questions by conducting research on consumer attitudes and adoption of voice technology in the U.S., U.K. and Germany (the markets the technology manufacturers have focused on). This infographic previews some of the research highlights.

Key takeaways on voice and digital assistants from ESOMAR Congress 2018

Artificial Intelligence, voice and digital assistants were all the buzz at ESOMAR Congress 2018. The promise is that when these technologies come together in digital personal assistants, they’ll make our lives easier, remove our “choice stress” and will become our trusted advisors. Sign me up! But, how will voice technology affect consumer behavior and how will brands tackle this new decision environment?

Our recent voice trends research included qualitative interviews with digital and eCommerce experts on this very topic. At ESOMAR, some of these respondents participated in our “Brands on Fire – How to adapt to the new market reality of AI platforms” panel. Danone, Wehkamp, Beiersdorf, Ericsson and SKIM had a lively discussion on the digital implications of AI for brands, marketers and insight professionals. I, along with Yasemin Ozdemir, had the honor to moderate the panel. Here’s what you missed and need to know.

Voice technology and Artificial Intelligence were all the buzz at IFA, Germany’s largest consumer electronics show in September. Established players launched new products in Europe and there were a few surprise offerings from new market entrants.

Google introduced its premium smart speaker -the Google Home Max- here in Germany, along with a bilingual voice assistant feature that responds to queries in English and German interchangeably. And telecom giant Deutsche Telekom introduced plans for its own smart speaker activated with the magic words “Hallo Magenta.” This introduction is the first smart speaker coming from a German company and includes Amazon’s voice assistant “Alexa” too.

As I was setting up our new office in the heart of Berlin, I reflected on how much technology has disrupted consumer behavior from the time I grew up here. Is Voice all hype in Germany? How and will German consumers embrace these AI technologies? What are the implications for brands?

My team and I recently set out to answer these questions in Germany, and also in the US and UK. We explored  from the consumer and brand perspective.

Here I’m sharing the Germany insights, which we unveiled at ESOMAR Congress 2018 in Berlin.

Robots, tech trends and market research innovations take center stage in Rotterdam

Summer in the Netherlands not only blooms tulips, but also inspiration for marketing and market research executives at our annual SKIMspiration event. On June 21st, we opened our headquarter doors to clients and industry peers from leading companies across the Benelux region, such as Unilever, Roche, IKEA, and Aegon. Attendees, ranging from brand marketing and shopper insights managers to net revenue management and healthcare professionals, all joined us to learn how to Drive Digital Success. 

“Alexa: do you remember the last consumer tech “must-have product” to hit the shelves?”

According to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it was the iPhone (2007) and iPad (2012). And now voice-controlled smart speakers, like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, have achieved that coveted status. CTA predicts 56.6 million smart speakers will be sold in the US next year; two years ago that number was just 7.2 million!.

Voice technology is set to fundamentally change the environment in which consumers make decisions, and who (or what) influences that decision. To stay ahead of the competition, brands will need to exhaust every opportunity to optimize their position in this new “4th sales channel” of voice commerce. 

Do you know how voice searches for your product category begin?