5 things we learned at eCommerce Expo

At eCommerce Expo 2017, the IMRG Digital Customer Theatre hosted a two-day programme of roundtables, keynotes, Q&As, and panel sessions to tackle current challenges in online retail, and to interrogate the latest information on customer behaviour, ecommerce logistics, and regulation.

Here are five things we learned.

GDPR isn’t all that scary

In a panel session hosted by IMRG’s head of insight Andrew McClelland, Andy Kimble of Bond Dickinson said, “GDPR is building on existing principles. There’s a lot of scare-mongering.” He went on to explain that “the regulator has been clear that fines [for contravention of GDPR rules] will be proportionate to the severity, to the organisation and its clients, and the due diligence taken. If you put in place relevant measures, that will go a long way.”

There are still some things to beware of:

• Since the new rules require explicit rather than implicit consent, or soft opt-ins to marketing communications, a retailer could be tempted to send a mass email seeking consent from the existing database. “The regulator considers that a direct marketing effort in itself.” Tread carefully.
• Camilla Nightingale, Digital Consultant and director at Holbrook Digital: “The customer has the right to withdraw consent, and that needs to be as easy as giving it.”
• Andrew Kimble: “The law does not just apply to names and email addresses. An IP address can also constitute personal data.” So items like that are subject to the same rules for storage and protection.

A different way to look at ROI

Cally Russel, CEO of aggregate shopping app Mallzee, explained his approach to ROI in his keynote speech ‘Connecting the dots’.

“My mum looked on Instagram for a sofa, looked at a sofa company’s website, looked at another sofa company’s website, then went to M&S and bought a sofa. M&S would think that sale had nothing to do with mobile.”

Cally explained that “experience equals brand-building, and brand-building equals ROI”. On that basis, value doesn’t only come from direct purchases. When a shopper browses your website but makes a purchase elsewhere, if they had a positive experience browsing with you, then that can translate to value in the longer term.

Winning favour with millennials

Millennials are often spoken about as a baffling phenomenon in need of study, or perhaps an exotic ‘other’ with whom anyone older will struggle to connect or empathise.

Freelance marketing director Jason Wills spoke on winning favour with that generation, who may be hard to impress, but are not all that mysterious.

Being a digitally native generation, deeply associated with social media, millennials are inclined to respond to a story. Most social media sites feature built-in biographical information of users — like Twitter ‘bios’ — and apps like Instagram and Snapchat offer ‘stories’ as content formats. Sharing your brand story, if it’s grounded in authenticity, can resonate well with millennials.

Similarly, heritage strikes a chord. Millennials are more than accustomed to internet research, and they’ll be keen to know the facts about your brand and the essence of the company and its offering.

Provenance is another trust-winner. The audience want to know how your product comes to be, where its roots are, and how it reaches them. Millennials grew up in an age of internet-driven transparency, and may not trust a product whose origins are obscure.

Finally, when it comes to publishing the content about your brand, bear in mind what might be ‘shareable’. Social media is of course built around the sharing of information, so make the most of that by producing content that users will want to pass on and show to their friends and followers.

The commercial drivers for UK online retail

IMRG Strategy and Insight Director Andy Mulcahy discussed some of the external influences on online retail.

He shared a view of one pattern in online retail sales, where two years of falling growth rates are followed by a bounce.