Bachir Kassir, founder, MyTradeZone.com

“We know that 40% of B2B marketing budgets are spent on trade shows and that over 95% of marketers use social media content in their campaigns,” he says in his promotional material, adding: “So why is there no social network specifically dedicated to B2B trade?”

That’s where MyTradeZone fills the gap in B2B commerce, he adds.

“On MyTradeZone, each business can both market its products/services and source what it needs, all within the same platform,” he says.

Kassir notes that he founded and launched the site quietly several years ago, building a base of about 50,000 users through word-of-mouth.

A toolset with CRM and email marketing

But he recently publicized MyTradeZone’s official launch in a press release and is considering taking on investment partners to spur growth. He adds that he expects the site to begin generating revenue in the first quarter of next year.

MyTradeZone.com provides built-in features ranging from site search, product listings, and online video chats to email marketing and CRM software applications to help buyers and sellers find and build business relationships with particular types of trading partners.

It offers limited access to these features at no charge under its basic membership plan. Premium plans will provide the same features and higher site search rankings for monthly fees from $20 to $50 based on the volume of activity.

In addition, the top premium plan will let participants earn fees from online ads placed on the social network site. MyTradeZone will take a cut of those ad fees.

MyTradeZone.com does not operate as a conventional ecommerce marketplace hosting product and services sales transactions among participating buyers and sellers, who complete those transactions outside the networking site. But it will let users monetize business communities, such as by setting up industry organizations and charging membership fees through the Stripe online payments system. In that case, MyTradeZone will charge a fee based on a percentage of the membership fees.

Kassir says MyTradeZone has been gaining about 100 members daily — a figure he wants to grow to about 1,000.

To get there, he says he’ll continue to invest in “lots of business tools” available to members and offer premium membership deals to trade shows, business networking groups and trade associations. He adds that while he has mostly self-funded MyTradeZone, he may consider outside investors.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

Sign up

Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact Mark Brohan, vice president of B2B and Market Research Development, at mark@digitalcommerce360.com and follow him on Twitter @markbrohan.

The post MyTradeZone.com launches for B2B networking and lead generation appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Babylist, an online marketplace and baby registry aggregator, treats generative AI as a “co-pilot,” and not necessarily a time-saving tool, says Lee Anne Grant, chief growth officer.

Lee Anne Grant, chief growth officer, Babylist

“It’s a tool to help generate ideas, content and copy,” she says. “In some ways, using it is taking us more time.”
This is because Babylist’s creative team uses the technology to inspire rather than outright write complete blog posts or other marketing content. Marketers ask AI questions and then think about how the results can help them create.

“We had an all-hands meeting [in early 2023] with the goal to approach the technology in an educational development way,” Grant says. “You’re not only allowed to use it for your job, but you’re also expected to.”

More retailers are likely to follow suit as the technology continues to advance and retailers learn how to wield it. 56% of U.S. marketing or advertising decision-makers already use generative AI in their marketing efforts, according to consulting firm Forrester Research Inc.’s June 2023 business-to-consumer marketing survey of 154 executives. These large language models, chatbots and image generator vendors include ChatGPT, DALL-E, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney.

Digital marketers are learning that the more they test, the more the technology learns. This affordable tool can help — but not replace — marketers. Babylist uses ChatGPT to test copy for newsletter and marketing email campaigns. Online florist UrbanStems uses generative AI to write blog posts, and it creates images for social media marketing creative. And men’s footwear brand Koio uses AI-generated copy for brainstorming email and ad ideas. The costs are low, and retailers like UrbanStems are mindful that if they aren’t using it, their competition certainly is.

Retailers must consider the potential upsides — and pain points — when using generative AI

Digital marketers are using generative AI to draft ideas and examples for emails, SEO and other marketing materials. While the potential benefits are vast, there are also concerns, says Jay Pattisall, vice president, principal analyst at Forrester.

Marketers must consider how brands, retailers and agencies are using the technology, Pattisall says. Copyright law does not protect AI-generated art, for example.

But the potential for how brands can use AI is exciting, he says. Advertising agencies are building platforms for their clients as part of their own proprietary technology. Retailers are building in-house, too, he adds.

“But at this stage, it’s more practical to buy because there are more options available on the marketplace. That may change in the future,” he says.

Babylist tests ChatGPT-generated email campaigns

Babylist uses ChatGPT to test newsletter marketing email campaigns. In 2023, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., owner of major baby products retail chain Buy Buy Baby, filed for bankruptcy. Babylist saw this as an opportunity to acquire Buy Buy Baby’s customers.

Babylist ran a test for an email marketing campaign on April 29 with ChatGPT for its two newsletter audiences. It sent out one test to 10% of its “pregnant” newsletter recipients (about 59,000 subscribers out of 589,000 on the total list) and 10% of its “parent” newsletter recipients (222,000 recipients of 2.32 million).  Half of each group received one email written by a Babylist editor and the other written by ChatGPT.

The results? For the pregnant group, the editor’s email won with a 2.9% higher open rate compared with the generative AI’s version.

• The Babylist editor’s subject line: “buybuy BABY Bankruptcy & Your Registry: What to Know.”
• The ChatGPT’s subject line: “What the buybuy BABY Bankruptcy Means for Parents.”

For the parent group, ChatGPT gained a slight edge over the human editor with a 0.37% higher open rate.

• The Babylist editor’s subject line: “buybuy BABY Bankruptcy & More Parent News.”
• The ChatGPT’s subject line: “What the buybuy BABY Bankruptcy Means for Parents.”

Babylist found that ChatGPT-generated subject lines increased open rates in half of their tests. It concluded that ChatGPT is a “great resource for when the team needs subject line inspiration or help writing one,” Grant says.

AI helps retailers brainstorm ideas

ChatGPT-generated content helps Babylist’s creative team create better content, Grant adds. The value is in the brainstorming.

“If a copywriter is feeling stuck on a new concept for TikTok video, they can ask ChatGPT to generate a bunch of ideas,” she says.

Using generative AI allows retailers to scale and personalize marketing based upon the brand’s approach, says Forrester’s Pattisall.

“Let the people be in charge of the creativity and let the machines help scale and volumize the marketing,” Pattisall says.

Retailers must consider copyright and liability issues

Babylist employees are instructed not to share proprietary or confidential information with ChatGPT or any other public generative AI platform, Grant says.

This is important because retailers must also take care about what materials they use to “train” the AI model, Pattisall says.

“If those inputs are using data points that are copyrighted material, then the model potentially is violating the copyright by using rights-protected materials,” he says.

One example of this is between visual media company Getty Images and Stability AI Inc. Getty Images accused Stability AI of using more than 12 million photos without permission or payment to use those images. The complaint, filed in February 2023, says that Stability AI unlawfully used Getty’s copyrighted images and text, including metadata, to train its AI text-to-image tool Stable Diffusion.

Metadata is the information used to summarize how and when the data was created as well as the source, type and owner of the data. Stable Diffusion is a text-to-image model that uses deep learning to generate high-quality images from written descriptions.

“All of Getty’s images are copyrighted images,” Pattisall says. “So the liability is a concern for marketers.”

UrbanStems jumps onto generative AI to keep up with competitors

Competition prompted online flower retailer UrbanStems to focus on generative AI, says Katie Hudson, content director. In early 2023, the retailer was already using generative AI to create notes to accompany its flowers. Hudson says she noticed competitors doing the same — and she read about it in the media.

Katie Hudson, brand marketing and content, UrbanStems

UrbanStems decided to look into how it could use the technology beyond brand awareness, Hudson says.

Mother’s Day is UrbanStem’s busiest holiday. It accounts for 15% of the retailer’s total annual revenue. For Mother’s Day 2023, the retailer used ChatGPT to write a blog about the 10 best brunch spots for Mother’s Day in Washington, D.C.

UrbanStems marketers wrote the introduction, AI wrote the rest of it, and the article appeared in the retailer’s blog section on its website.

“During May, which includes Mother’s Day, we saw this local post drive 5% of our organic blog traffic. It was in our top 10 performing posts for the month,” Hudson says.

Blogs are not intended to drive conversion, but rather, improve organic search results, she says.

“Our blog had our highest ever non-brand search traffic during Mother’s Day,” Hudson says.

This could be attributed to the brunch blog, among other marketing efforts, she says. Over the two weeks leading up to Mother’s Day, UrbanStems’ organic search’s conversion rate increased 17%, she says.

UrbanStems used AI to write a top 10 best brunch spots for Mother’s Day in Washington D.C. in April 2023. The post increased organic blog traffic 5% in May. It was in the top 10 performing blog posts of the month.

UrbanStems has not drafted enough generated-AI posts on its blog to truly compare performance, Hudson says. Part of the reason is because it typically takes several months for its blogs to gain traffic and views in search engines like Google, she says.

Digital marketers use AI to automate content creation tasks

Not only did this ChatGPT-post drive traffic to its site, but it saved its marketers time as they did not have to manually research brunch places.

The retailer is drafting at least one AI-generated blog post a week to test how the posts perform, Hudson says. UrbanStems marketers use templates to help guide the AI. Marketers can use saved templates and copy and paste information like name insert and word count requirements, she says.

“We don’t have to do everything from scratch,” Hudson says.

What’s left is copyediting.

“I find where it’s saving us time is truly the structure of the blog. It builds it out. We give it all the key questions you might want answered and it will give us some interesting facts. We then go in and tweak as needed,” Hudson says. “Instead of a blog post taking a couple of hours, it will take 20 minutes.”

AI results need human assistance

The AI results aren’t perfect, as sometimes the AI will make up descriptions for products it does not know, or it will not write in the tone UrbanStems’ brand voice, Hudson says.

“We asked ChatGPT to write about a bouquet with a certain kind of flower and the description was way off. It didn’t know our products at all,” Hudson says, without revealing more. “It was kind of guessing. So, we had to go back and do tweaks.”

UrbanStems is feeding ChatGPT its own product descriptions. This will help it better understand the tone of the “brand’s voice” as it learns, Hudson says.

“We’re still working on having AI understand our brand voice. AI tends to create cheesy writing [for descriptions],” she says.

So for now, UrbanStems is still writing its own product descriptions.

“We are using AI to draft all our SEO content, some of our blog content, and all our meta descriptions and title tags for SEO purposes,” she says.

Retailers use AI to generate marketing content

Babylist also uses generative AI for search engine optimization. The online marketplace uses Frase, a generative AI content writing software vendor.

Typically, marketers log into Google Webmaster Tools to search what to use for SEO, Babylist’s Grant says. Now, Frase generates frequently asked questions keywords that Babylist should use to make sure an article they’re writing is SEO-optimized, she says.

“That frees up our editors to take the time to write an article and create better quality content,” Grant says, without revealing more.

Forrester’s Pattisall says generative AI will allow retailers to send more relevant communication. Marketers can uncover new ways to grow and acquire new customers. They can also use the technology to keep existing customers at a cost that does not exponentially increase year after year, he says.

“[Retailers] can maintain their business margins,” he says “They can provide the type of marketing services that they’re good at in a way that doesn’t break the bank. [The technology] allows them to be profitable,” he says.

Generative AI produces images for social media

Another way marketers can use generative AI is to create images. UrbanStems uses AI software program Midjourney that creates images from text prompts. Marketers ask it to create an image of a 10-stem red and white arrangement of peonies, in a glass vase on a white background.

Hudson says the results were encouraging.

“While it still looked like AI — not quite like a true image — it was a great starting off point,” Hudson says. “I sent that off to the merchandising team and they were able to use that image for vendors to use as a reference. That’s a huge value to us.”

AI-generated images allow UrbanStems to experiment and create new bouquet designs quickly. They do not have to buy the flowers and conduct a photo shoot to mock up new designs, she says.

Hudson says the retailer uses the standard tier of Midjourney, which means it has limits on how many images it can have the AI create in a month. Businesses can also pay more to have the AI generate images in seconds or create images in 10 minutes for cheaper.  A basic plan can cost $10 a month to $120 per month for a mega plan.

UrbanStems uses Midjourney to create images of flower arrangements to use as product mock ups to share with vendors.

Using generative AI to generate social media images

During the summer of 2023, UrbanStems ran a test via social media to see if it could gain consumers insights using AI generated images.
The test used products UrbanStems already sells, but the goal was to see if it could gain insights before actually creating new products.

The retailer launched “This or That” polls using Instagram Stories, where viewers could vote on which bouquet they preferred. The stories were live for 24 hours. UrbanStems paired similar bouquets together that have similar price points and color schemes.

The retailer’s average interaction rate for Instagram stories is 20% of its 233,000 followers view the story.

The poll’s results reflected real-life sales, Hudson says. The winning bouquets had higher
online sales compared with the bouquets with fewer votes, she says. The bouquets Sol vs. Neon Lights polled from July 12-13, 2023, with Neon Lights as the clear favorite with 79% of the vote compared to Sol’s 21%.

In UrbanStem’s Summer 2023 summer poll “This or That,” in its Instagram Stories, The Sol received 21% vs. The Neon Lights (79%).

These results give Hudson confidence that the brand could do a poll like this with AI-generated images so UrbanStems will know what shoppers’ preferences are before going to market with those products.

What’s more, it’s insights like these that Hudson believes will lead to further investment from its management team in Midjourney and generative AI applications in general.

“I feel confident I could get our company on board investing in [higher-cost plans],” Hudson says. “It will take some of the heavy lifting off our junior marketers that no longer have to be in the weeds looking up SEO terms, for example. We want our employees to grow in their role and not be bogged down.”

Marketers test and learn from AI

Another way retailers are using AI is to help alleviate the workload for junior marketers. Some retailers like men’s footwear brand Koio are just getting started using generative AI.

For about six months, Koio has used ChatGPT for email subject lines, says Joe Anhalt, vice president, marketing, growth.

“It’s one of the first places we go for inspiration,” Anhalt says. “It might take a few times and we have to make tweaks on our own, but the prompts are showing us results.”

The shoe retailer uses the AI-generated copy for performance ads on Facebook and Instagram, he says, without revealing more. The brand uses software vendor Zenlytic with generative AI tool Zoe. Zoe answers questions and generates reports about how marketing campaigns and specific promotions are performing.

While Koio hasn’t tracked how AI is performing compared with human marketers, the tool has saved it considerable time, he says.

“The larger win for us has been not needing a full-time employee to produce some of these tasks,” Anhalt says.

AI has helped marketers free up time to do other tasks, Anhalt says. However, there is a learning curve for junior marketers, he says. The retailer typically pairs a junior marketer with a copywriter until they are confident the junior marketers can use ChatGPT or a similar tool to craft emails, banner ads and other site content, he says.

What does it cost to use AI?

Overall, Babylist, UrbanStems and Koio said the cost to use generative AI technology is affordable. For certain applications, ChatGPT is free and services like Midjourney and Frase charge “reasonable” rates, according to UrbanStems and Babylist.

It’s not about the cost, Forrester’s Pattisall says. “Retailers’ knee-jerk reaction tends to be, ‘how much money is this,’ or ‘how much money will this save us?’” Those are the wrong questions, he says. “The better way to think about this is how effective it’s going to be.”

Generative AI continues to evolve at an accelerated rate. As marketers learn how to use it, the technology itself improves. It’s an idea generator if nothing else, Babylist’s Grant says.

“An editor might ask ChatGPT to come up with 40 ideas for an Instagram post,” Grant says. “30 out of 40 of those ideas might be bad — but you end up with a gem of an idea from all the wacky weirdness.”

The post Why digital marketers should not fear generative AI  appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

“It’s coming here to the U.S. But first, we have to start changing shoppers’ mindsets,” he says.

Jak Benardete, CEO, Orchard Mile

To differentiate itself from other retailers, Benardete says it made sense for the online marketplace to build its own livestreaming capabilities and host it on its website.

Orchard Mile sells over 55,000 SKUs from more than 250 brands, Benardete says.

“We thought we already had the most difficult part of the equation — the product to sell,” he says. “The next step was to build a livestream player on top of that.”

That involved building a social media influencer community that could pick out products they love that Orchard Mile sells, he says.

“They sell what they love to shoppers while being authentic to themselves,” Benardete says.

Livestreaming catches on in the US

Currently, China leads the way with livestreaming shopping events, according to consultant group McKinsey & Company. 57% of live-commerce users in the country have used the shopping format for more than three years, according McKinsey’s Global Live Commerce Study from August 2022 to September 2022. Only 5%-7% of Europe, Latin America and U.S. consumers have used the shopping format for more than three years.

But popularity is shifting as 78% of live-commerce users surveyed in the U.S. used the shopping format for the first time within the last year, according to the survey.

Orchard Mile’s use of influencers taps into consumer desire for an authentic experience, Benardete says. Livestream viewers want transparency from their hosts, according to a survey by Coresight Research conducted on April 11, 2023, of 500 respondents, December 20, 2022 (954 respondents) and September 20, 2022 (1,187 respondents). Over half (53%) of all livestream viewers surveyed in Q2 2023 expect to see “expert” reviews.

Influencers guide shoppers during livestream shopping events

Orchard Mile built its livestream player with livestreaming product vendor Agora in Spring 2022. Agora charges Orchard Mile per minute, which Benardete says is feasible because the cost per minute decreases the more minutes you buy to stream. Agora gave Orchard Mile 10,000 minutes a month to start, he says.

Prices change depending on the quality of the livestreaming as well. It costs more for high-definition 4K resolution, for example.

Since launching its livestreaming capabilities, Orchard Mile has accumulated over 60 videos.

“Live streaming is a different type of hustle [for influencers],” Benardete says. “It’s not they take pictures, or make a video and get paid a flat fee of $1,000. Instead, it’s launch a [livestream video] and then there can be residual sales [from video replays] for months to come.”

Benardete says some influencers had to “wrap their heads around” the different pay scale, but once they did, “it’s beginning to scale really fast,” he says.

“We’re adding new brands every day, and we ask our influencers which brands they love and we reach out to those brands,” Benardete says. “I’m building partnerships. We want to become a golden place for influencers to find products they love to sell.”

Testing what sells

In general, less expensive items tend to sell during the livestreaming events, with the average order value during a live shopping event at $200, Benardete says. Orchard Mile’s typical AOV is about $350-$400, he says.

Benardete says live shopping event shoppers tend to be younger than the overall customer base. As such, the marketplace gears merchandise to appeal to a younger crowd. Live shopping event shopping carts consist of lower-cost items, like $20 hair ties.

“We knew it would be easier to sell impulse products like this,” he says. “It’s easier to see someone wearing it, it’s not too expensive, and they can check out with their Apple Pay on their phone. It’s very easy.”

And consumers want a good deal, according to Coresight’s survey. 45% of shoppers surveyed in April watched livestreaming shopping events, compared with 38% in Q1 2023 and 48% in Q4 2022.

The conversion rate for livestreaming events is slightly higher than the website, he adds, without revealing more. But conversions range between 1%-3% depending on the type of item. Lower-priced items have a higher conversion rate, he says. Digital Commerce 360 estimates OrchardMile.com’s conversion rate at 1.5%, according to Top500Guide.com.

In addition, longer videos drive more sales, Benardete says. Besides Jacqueline Miranne, Orchard Mile plans to have four other influencers host longer-form videos. Eventually, Benardete says he wants to feature a daily influencer live selling video.

The process is still new, but brands Orchard Mile sells on its marketplace have contacted Benardete to be featured in future live shopping videos, he says.

“Brands say they have new products and ask if we can have one of our influencers consider featuring it,” he says.

Retailers can strategize how to sell during livestreaming events

Livestreams are typically three to five minutes long. During the video, the influencer shows one product they love, he says.

“It’s almost like a product review, but you can buy it right inside the video,” Benardete says. He said sales are starting to come in for those videos but did not specify how many.

The approach to live shopping depends on what’s for sale. Promoting products during a live shopping event is very different if you’re selling a luxury handbag versus cleaning products, says Joe Kwong, head of business development, Agora.

When streaming from their own website, retailers can control the experience by adjusting discounts or cross selling other products during the event, Kwong says. Retailers can see in real time which products are selling and can adjust what is featured during the event to ensure that if a product runs out, they can switch to alternate options.

“In luxury categories, you might not want to publish transactions happening in real time,” Kwong says. “Compare that to a blowout sale of a hair dryers — [retailers] want to show that you have 1,000 left. If the product is [perceived] as acceptable and people are actually buying it, it triggers more buys.”

The type of production is also evolving. User-generated content, versus very polished, highly produced videos, are appealing to consumers that want authenticity, Kwong says.

Orchard Mile is No. 100 in the Digital Commerce 360 ranking of Global Online Marketplaces.

Do you rank in our database?

Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post Orchard Mile takes control by livestreaming its own shopping events appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

That’s the case with Khadijah Oliver. In March 2023, she posted a video on TikTok trying on plus-sized clothing in a Target fitting room, and the video went viral. She now has 53,000 followers viewing her content regularly.

Now, brands including Old Navy (owned by Gap Inc.), American Eagle Outfitters Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Co., Kohl’s Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. pay Oliver to promote their merchandise to her more than 50,000 followers.

Social media influencers like Oliver are everyday people who have accounts on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube.

Unlike a professional athlete or artist, these influencers amass followers with just the content they post. Consumers follow a person they don’t know for various reasons, such as finding them entertaining or informative, liking the individual or trusting their judgement.

Micro-influencers gain traction with retailers and consumers

Some influencers have millions of followers. But increasingly, it’s micro-influencers, these non-celebrity influencers who have a few thousand followers, who are gaining traction with retailers and consumers.

Influencer agency Mavely, which connects brands with influencers to promote merchandise for a fee, reached out to Oliver. After joining, Oliver earned $1,200 in her first week by sharing plus-size clothing hauls with her followers. Since then, she earns about $6,500-$7,500 or more in commissions per month.

Retailers sometimes send merchandise for influencers to try. Jen White has been an influencer for nearly seven years. She’s on YouTube and TikTok, and she has about 98,000 followers on TikTok.

White has worked with brands directly as well as through influencer agencies like Awin, which connected her with sporting goods and apparel brand Under Armour Inc. White also works with online bedding brand Brooklinen and Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc.

Brooklinen pays White a flat fee. She earns commissions from brands like Under Armour from referral links posted to her TikToks.

“The more engagement you get, the more commission dollars I can make off of it versus other deals I’ve done. With Dick’s Sporting Goods, it’s a fixed payment with no commission attached,” she says.

The importance of authenticity for influencers

White spends her own money on merchandise she likes, but she also accepts credits from retailers to spend on their websites or in store. She also receives free items to try before posting an honest review.

“I like the blend of it,” she says. “Some brands send me products. But I don’t want to work with brands that don’t really fit, or I don’t like the product. I’d feel guilty posting about it.”

Under Armour sent athletic shoes to White, which she says was a good fit.

“I try to do what relates to me — and I think my audience appreciates [the honesty],” she says.

Oliver provides her followers with affiliate links to items she tries on in her videos.

Compensation differs depending on the brand, Oliver says. She earns a percentage of sales she generates from posts linked to Old Navy and American Eagle — and it’s not always about the highest bidder. She doesn’t pick one brand over another because of how much commission she might make, she says.

“American Eagle didn’t offer the highest percentage commission, but I still link my picks because I like their jeans,” Oliver says.

If Oliver likes a brand, she posts about it, regardless of compensation, she says.

“I’m spending my own money on what I buy,” Oliver says.

And like White, she sometimes also receives store credit to spend.

“Old Navy has offered me [credits] to buy from them,” Oliver says. “But they don’t tell me what specific items to buy.”

“The videos that have done really well are because I enjoyed buying those items,” Oliver adds.

How influencers and retailers connect

Agencies like Mavely and Awin offer a link between influencer and retailer.

“It depends on what the brand is looking for, and we customize our research based on what the brands ask for — and recently there’s been a big shift to micro-creators [micro-influencers],” says Piper Donnelly, account director, Awin Global.

It’s a growing area for analytics and marketing agency Kroger Precision Marketing/84.51, which is owned by grocer The Kroger Co.

“Kroger shoppers make up half the U.S. household population,” says Brian Spencer, marketing director at Kroger Precision Marketing. “We want brands to be able to engage our shoppers … and we’re focusing on smaller influencers.

“We want to really curate our influencers,” he says.

Kroger Precision Marketing has different tiers of content creators it vets “to ensure it’s a safe environment,” he says. They typically have a minimum of 10,000 followers and go as high as 30,000 to 50,000 followers, which the agency considers a “macro-influencer,” he says.

It’s one way online baby registry Babylist is reaching out to new consumers. Babylist devotes 20% to 30% of its digital marketing budget to social media, says Ashley Malone, vice president performance marketing. It works with Mavely to connect with influencers.

From April 2023 to June, Babylist launched campaigns with various influencers, without specifying how many, to drive registration sign ups, Malone says. After working with Mavely, the online registry experienced a 15% increase in registry sign ups.

Going forward, Babylist will continue to use “a steady stream of influencers or creatives not only on our affiliate platform, but also in our social apps,” Malone says.

Do you rank in our database?

Submit your data with this quick survey and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post Who can be an influencer?  appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

The post Influencers can lead a horse to water — and make them drink it, online retailers say appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Digital marketing budgets are wide-ranging with surveyed retailers breaking out their percentage of overall marketing dedicated to digital as follows:

• 1-10% of marketing: 21%
• 11-50%: 25%
• >50%: 46%
• None: 8%

Digital continues to see greater traction, as 59% of retailers have increased their digital marketing budgets for 2023. Meanwhile, 27% of retailers said their digital marketing budget is unchanged and just 14% have decreased it. Digging into the numbers among those who projected increases, 14% of retailers said the digital marketing budget will grow 21% or more. At the same time, 33% said a 10-20% increase. The remaining 12% expect a limited budget increase of just 1-5%.

Retailers employ a myriad digital marketing techniques

As part of their digital marketing strategies, six in 10 retailers employ email, content and search marketing, along with paid search and Facebook. Other tactics that at least half of respondents used were social-media minded. They including Facebook (62%), Instagram (52%), YouTube (52%) and TikTok (30%).

Just under half (47%) also employed other influencer marketing and social media. Affiliate marketing rounded out the list of tactics (51%). Other advertising that deserves an honorable mention, include mobile ads at 44% and Amazon ads at 41%, while marketplace ads came in at 36%. It was insightful to see SMS/text messaging on the list for 38%. Connected TV also made the cut for just 20%.

Varying budgets for marketing tactics

Retailers dedicate the most budget to email, paid search, content and search engine marketing.

Now that we know what tactics are in play, we looked to understand what percentage of retailers’ marketing budgets each of the tactics represented. From a budget standpoint, email and paid search were nearly tied for the No. 1 position when it came to spending 11% of their budget or more. Next in line were content marketing at 35% and search engine at 33%.

The most effective marketing tactics: email, paid search engine and content marketing

What matters most in the end is not the budget but the effectiveness and the results. In looking at the findings, the top four for effectiveness are in line with budgets, with email (61%), paid search (55%), search engine marketing (53%) and content marketing (49%). There is a significant drop then to affiliate marketing (32%), Facebook (32%), Instagram (27%) and YouTube at 24%.

Almost six in 10 retailers spend over 30% of their marketing budget on customer acquisition

One question is how they are spending these dollars. It is interesting to see that 42% are spending more than half of their budget on customizer acquisition. With 28% spending in the 21-50% range, investments are certainly forthcoming. Only one in three are spending 20% or less, so most of these retailers believe new customers are worth the investment.

The top tactics for acquiring new customers are paid search, email, search and content marketing. The survey results suggest that their most successful marketing tactics mirror the effectiveness mentioned above. Fifty-six percent of retailers said paid search was within their top three effective marketing channels while email came in at 49% and search engine the third most important acquisition tactic at 38%. The others were as follows:

• Content marketing: 37%
• Amazon ads: 23%
• Affiliate marketing: 20%
• Facebook: 15%
• Marketplace ads other than Amazon: 13%

Socially conscious

We turn our attention to social media as there is an abundance of discussion in this area. Over half of retailers use social media advertising to drive sales and increase brand awareness. When it comes to social media advertising goals, driving sales and increasing brand awareness top the list. Retailers also highly rank driving traffic and audience growth as goals.

From an ROI perspective, most social networks are only somewhat successful or not successful at all.

Facebook and Instagram successfully deliver ROI for four in 10 online retailers. YouTube and LinkedIn appear to be close behind with the others only successful for less than one in five retailers surveyed.

Retailers take different paths to optimize social media. Most seem to have one internal person (49%), while 24% have multiple people involved. Just 28% rely on agencies, which may not be mutually exclusive of individuals working internally. 23% of retailers report it is difficult to quantify the results of their social media program. 22% find the changing nature means always being in catch-up mode. Surprisingly, only 12% rely on technology to drive programs.

The biggest influence

The influencer’s role is multi-faceted, but its impact and use are under scrutiny from online retailers. And that’s because the impact is certainly a work in progress. The following fit-related findings suggest it can be challenging for retailers to get this right.

• 32% of retailers said they are spending time to understand if my businesses should use influencers and how.
• 26% said it’s hard to find influencers who would be a good fit.
• 22% said influencers are not a good fit for our company.

From an awareness perspective, 27% said influencers are for building brand awareness. Meanwhile, 14% use them to drive traffic to the website.

General reflections from a financial perspective suggest that when it comes to influencers, 22% find it interesting but do not see the desired ROI. 19% are concerned influencers might be too expensive, and just 12% believe they help generate sales.

Finding the right platform for you

Retailers use multiple platforms to support marketing efforts. That starts with 73% leveraging analytics and data visualization. Other platforms that almost half of retailers use include email marketing software, content management tools, marketing automation software and customer relationship management.

58% of retailers plan to or will have AI in place this year or beyond to enhance their marketing. Ironically, only 15% believe they are employing it effectively, and 5% say it is not meeting expectations. It will be interesting to see its impact on marketing and many other aspects of ecommerce.

Retailers are also challenged when it comes to analyzing their marketing performance data and attribution. Our survey data finds retailers are mixed in their ability to analyze marketing data and attribution. 65% give themselves an above average rank (6-10) at how effective they are at marketing attribution and the remaining 35% rank themselves as average or below (1-5). This is certainly an area that warrants marketers’ attention.

But at what cost?

Costs and profitability are the biggest challenges retailers cite from a marketing perspective. While the challenges are many, it is optimistic to see that just one in three retailers face the remaining issues.

That includes figuring out which digital tactics best serve cross-channel needs and pinpointing how marketing directly impacts conversion. 26% rank changing algorithms as a challenge, and the same portion of retailers rank effectively analyze data/marketing campaigns as a challenge.

Because of third-party data restrictions, one in three online retailers are looking for ways to encourage email sign-ups. With the challenges in this area, 28% have made first-party data a higher priority. 21% acknowledge they are still assessing the best way to address these issues.  We surveyed retailers on other challenges, but the remaining fell to 16% or less penetration.

Other ways to advertise

Retail media networks are not a significant factor for surveyed retailers. Only 10% report having a retail media network where they accept advertising, while 15% advertise on other retail networks. Three in four of those surveyed do neither of these.

Retailers employ a range of strategies regarding values-based marketing, but many don’t embrace it. 34% indicate they have no strategy. For those who are using such strategies, 27% do so in social media efforts, 26% integrate into their ecommerce experience and 26% communicate as events warrant. Others who expect sustainability to be on the horizon see 16% testing to see how it resonates and 7% are building out a caused-based strategy for 2023 deployment.

Year-over-year changes

Lastly, we would like to look at how retailers expect their digital ad spending to change year over year. 70% of retailers forecast their digital ad spending will increase next year while 20% predict it will be unchanged and 10% forecast a decrease.

Retailers grow their digital marketing budgets using more tactics than ever. Email, paid search, content and search engine marketing do the heavy lifting. Social media and influencers are making inroads, but  their ability to deliver results is mixed. The influencer and AI impact has yet to be written. There is still work to do in marketing and optimizing the business in 2023 and beyond to ensure profitable marketing initiatives are in place.

Do you rank in our database?

Submit your data with this quick survey and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post The Retailer Speaks: Online retailers refine digital marketing strategies in 2023 appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Ericka Podesta McCoy

Is there really such a thing as a B2B buyer anymore? The knee-jerk response to this question, particularly in B2B circles, might be, “Well, of course.” But in light of the tremendous societal upheaval of the past three years, we would be remiss to dismiss this question outright.

The blurring of the line between the B2B and B2C marketing worlds has been greatly accelerated in recent years. B2B organizations that haven’t transformed their marketing approaches accordingly—particularly as it relates to their data practices—are rapidly falling behind. Moreover, they’re missing out on opportunities to unlock deeper, more valuable relationships with their customers and prospects.

So what does it take to bridge the B2B-B2C divide in today’s complex marketing landscape? Let’s take a look at three key concepts that need to be baked into the core of modern B2B marketing organizations.

Reframe the B2B Buyer Through a Consumer Lens

For many B2B marketing organizations, the first step toward addressing the blurring of the B2B-B2C marketing worlds has to do with mindset. It’s easy to get caught up in the mindset of selling to businesses rather than individual people. However, it’s important to remember that businesses are made up of humans, and these humans are ultimately the ones making the buying decisions. That’s the mindset and understanding that B2B marketing teams need to put at the forefront of everything they do.

When we reframe B2B buyers through a consumer lens, we unlock a much deeper appreciation for how they operate. In some cases, we need look no further than our own experiences to appreciate how effective a new approach can be. As our work and personal lives have become increasingly fluid, the devices, platforms and content we interact with are now being employed for both purposes — sometimes simultaneously.

For example, our phones might have our personal chats on them, but they also have our office Slack, and we might be switching back and forth from conversations in each in the same session. For people making purchases on behalf of their companies, this blended way of engaging in work and personal matters has significant implications for when and how they process information that shapes their B2B buying decisions.

Technology (Including AI) and Data Are Your Friends

The modern world of marketing is awash with data and technology, and it’s crucial for businesses to leverage these tools to their advantage. This is especially true when it comes to bridging the B2B-B2C marketing chasm.

Historically, B2B marketers have built customer personas based on what they know about their customers from a professional standpoint. However, such personas have increasingly limited utility in the blended B2B-B2C world. From a data standpoint, there are platforms available to help B2B marketers put a consumer lens on their personas.

B2B marketers should also consider tapping into channels that they’ve traditionally considered to be consumer channels. Today’s consumer is more receptive than ever to business messaging while consuming personal content. B2B marketers who harness best practices for B2C messaging in these channels, but with a business twist, will see the best results.

Make Testing an Always-On Effort

Particularly as B2B marketers begin to shift the way in which they operate, it’s essential to embrace an agile approach and always be testing. Agile methodologies aren’t just for software developers. Marketers need to live and breathe this philosophy. The worst thing you can do in a dynamic market is to not test, try new things and incorporate learnings. That’s how companies get left behind — and that is exactly what B2B marketing organizations are trying to avoid.

Above all, reframing the B2B buyer through a consumer lens also means taking a step back and considering the emotional and personal motivations behind the purchasing decisions of individuals within a business. By focusing on the human side of B2B marketing (i.e., what drives a person’s decisions not just as an employee but also as a person), companies can create more authentic and engaging messaging that resonates with buyers on a deeper level. This can lead to stronger relationships and ultimately greater revenue.

Ericka Podesta McCoy is the chief marketing officer of Resonate, a consumer intelligence company. As a global marketing executive, she has experience in the high-tech, telecom, manufacturing, energy and hospitality sectors across North America, Europe and Asia.

The post 3 principles for bridging the B2B-B2C marketing chasm appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, jumped 79% to about $25 billion in 2022, the report said. It cited two investors briefed on the numbers. Tencent reported EBITDA of 164 billion yuan ($23.9 billion) for 2022 in its preliminary earnings statement. Meanwhile, Alibaba’s figure for the same period is about $22.7 billion, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

Bloomberg reported last week that ByteDance’s revenue surged more than 30% to surpass $80 billion in 2022. That matched the tally at archrival Tencent, after twin video platforms TikTok and Douyin drew eyeballs and advertisers from social media incumbents.

Alibaba owns Taobao, No. 1 in the Digital Commerce 360 database of Global Online Marketplaces. It also owns Tmall (No. 2). JD.com is No. 4.

ByteDance and the TikTok ban

That double-digit growth topped most of the global internet leaders including Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., underscoring the resilience of ByteDance’s business at a time Washington is threatening to join India in banning TikTok, which a growing number of government agencies across the world are wiping from official phones.

The U.S. is mulling a ban of the short-form video app because of alleged national security risks. Concerned regulators worry TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, shares private user data with the Chinese government. A TikTok ban has been proposed before. In 2020, the Trump administration publicly mulled banning the Chinese app and banned it on many government devices.

ByteDance’s profit last year came despite mounting losses at fast-growing TikTok, according to the Financial Times. TikTok has amassed more than 150 million monthly users in America, spurring concerns about China’s access to the data it gathers. Its chief executive sat through a hostile congressional hearing, during which he did little to sway some of the loudest critics.

Douyin, though, remains ByteDance’s biggest cash cow. The still-robust growth at the world’s most valuable private tech firm could boost confidence among investors shaken by recent global events. The Chinese social media behemoth was valued at around $220 billion in a recent private-market investment by Abu Dhabi AI firm G42, down from the $300 billion that TikTok’s owner set during a September share buyback program.

The post ByteDance profit surges 79%, exceeding Alibaba and Tencent appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

The U.S. is mulling a ban of the short-form video app because of alleged national security risks. Concerned regulators worry TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, shares private user data with the Chinese government. A TikTok ban has been proposed before. In 2020, the Trump administration publicly mulled banning the Chinese app and banned it on many government devices. 

TikTok transformed into an ecommerce powerhouse

Since 2020, TikTok has become more popular among U.S. users. The app reached 150 million monthly active users in March 2023, up from 100 million in 2020. In that period, TikTok became a shopping platform for many users, prompting retailers to spend big on advertisements. TikTok was charging up to $2 million per day for ads taking over its homepage in 2021, Bloomberg reported. In 2022, TikTok rolled out a shopping feature in the U.S. and debuted plans for U.S. fulfillment centers, signaling plans to further cement its role in ecommerce.

A TikTok presence is particularly important for retailers looking for young consumers. In 2022, 83% of U.S. teens used TikTok at least monthly. 16- to 25-year-olds spend three times as much time on TikTok as on the next most popular social media website, according to September 2022 data from Measure Protocol.

TikTok is ThredUp’s smallest social platform

Secondhand apparel marketplace ThredUp has an active TikTok account of nearly 31,000 followers. It regularly posts memes, videos describing the harms of fast fashion, and collaborations with influencers like Nava Rose, who has nearly 6 million followers. Over Valentine’s Day, ThredUp used Rose’s videos to direct viewers to the “Dump fast fashion” shop of items Rose curated. ThredUp uses AI to surface similar items to the ones Rose selected.

For Noelle Sandler, chief marketing officer at ThredUp, TikTok is just one avenue to reach customers.

“We have a nice collection of platforms and content that we’re sharing across,” including Instagram Reels and YouTube, she told Digital Commerce 360. Though ThredUp’s TikTok audience is engaged, she said, it’s the smallest of the retailer’s social networks. A TikTok ban would be a blow, but not a huge one.

“I’m hopeful that TikTok gets to stay,” she said.

But if it doesn’t, she said, she believes influencer content will continue to perform well on other platforms.

Shein benefitted from organic TikTok videos

Fast fashion retailer Shein is one of the brands most closely associated with TikTok, but global head of strategy and corporate affairs Peter Pernot-Day brushed off concerns about a possible ban.

Shein ranks No. 12 in Digital Commerce 360’s database of the top online retailers in Asia.

With the help of TikTok and the thousands of user-generated “Shein haul”  videos, the brand became the most-visited apparel retailer website in the world, according to SimilarWeb. Though TikTok deserves at least partial credit for making Shein a household name in the U.S., the company doesn’t view TikTok as more essential than any other advertising method.

“It wasn’t so much influencer strategy as it was organic,” he said, as users who weren’t paid influencers posted their Shein purchases online in hopes of gaining followings.

“We‘re a consumer of advertising platforms. We’re active on Snap, Meta, Google ads,” TikTok is just one more place to buy ads, Pernot-Day said. He compared it to Shein’s new billboards in the Paris subway, as another way to reach customers where they are. If TikTok is banned, though, Shein might lose some of that organic awareness cultivated online.

A TikTok ban would be disappointing for Pacsun

Clothing brand PacSun is active on TikTok, with 2 million followers. The retailer prides itself on being on the cutting edge of ecommerce technology, from working with virtual influencer Miquela to creating a shoppable Metaverse store in Roblox. PacSun was also one of a handful of retailers to test out in-app checkout in TikTok in the U.S., co-CEO Michael Relich said.

PacSun ranks No. 252 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest North American e-retailers.

Like Shein, PacSun initially saw TikTok as a venue for organic content made by users who just wanted to show off their purchases. By 2020, PacSun was promoting user-generated content with hashtag challenges.

“Wherever the customer is, we want to be there,” Relich said, stressing the importance of remaining relevant with Gen Z and Gen Alpha customers. For PacSun, that includes TikTok, and he would be “disappointed” in a ban. 

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News.

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.

The post Executives from Shein, ThredUp, and PacSun weigh in on a potential TikTok ban appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Mike Mayer, CEO, Main Event Digital

LinkedIn is a business professionals’ platform highly focused on the individual. For c-suite executives, company leaders, and team managers, this means conducting prospecting from your own profiles, and not the business you represent.

Many executives prospect from their LinkedIn profiles because they know the value of generating leads for their company’s sales pipeline. These executives must commit a lot of their time if they want to be successful and  develop a marketing strategy that maximizes leads. Butthat approach doesn’t work for most executives.

Executives who are a bit more resourceful find a way to automate their prospecting. But that approach doesn’t typically work either, as we all know the feeling when you receive a message in your LinkedIn inbox asking you to connect with a random stranger with a message that reads something like, “Hey, I have a nice shiny object to sell you. Let’s connect!”

That’s not a good way to start a conversation, online or off. Imagine yourself sitting at a bar and someone walks up to you and immediately starts to sell you something. I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to give them the time of day. Similarly, when someone takes this approach online, you’re not typically going to respond and probably won’t even establish a connection with them. The bridge is burned.

But digital marketing experts are starting to flip the script on that narrative, as some skilled professionals automate highly engaging LinkedIn prospecting campaigns.

Innovative ways for lead generation

Over the past five years, automated emails and phone calls have experienced lower levels of engagement than ever before, as recipients have grown tired of poor messaging. Many recipients now partially or completely ignore these very noisy channels. This trend has forced marketers to think through new, innovative ways to connect with prospects and drive leads. One of the solutions they came up with is lead generation through automated LinkedIn prospecting.

LinkedIn is the de facto standard to identify potential leads. The tool provides literally dozens of filters that marketers can use to build laser-targeted prospect lists, such as the industry a prospect is in, the type of company they work for, their job title, who they are connected to, and a lot more.

Once marketers know who to pursue, they can automate personalized drip campaigns to their prospect list. They can personalize by dynamically using the data that the prospects have provided on their LinkeIn profile and their connections. For example, marketers can automate an invite with a message that reads “Hey Tom, I see we both know Jennifer over at XYZ Distribution. How do you know her?”

But just being “personal” isn’t the holy grail. Savvy marketers set up a series of drips to touch their prospects on LinkedIn repeatedly in order to get a response. With every touch, the LinkedIn user receives a notification, encouraging them to pay attention to the “ask.”

Typical — and more aggressive — LinkedIn drip sequences

A typical drip sequence will include a profile view, profile follow, invite, dynamic message and continue with the marketer liking the prospect’s content. The most aggressive marketers will share and even comment on the prospect’s content.

Once a prospect accepts the connection with the executive’s account, the marketer can send additional dynamic messages until the prospect responds. Upon the connection, the prospect’s contact info can be automatically pulled into a CRM or email marketing automation platform. From there, the best practice is to automate an email drip sequence to inform the lead and gather more information from them with a clear call-to-action.

This process is also effective in “outreach” campaigns that aim to keep in touch with existing connections. For many B2B companies, maintaining clients is as important as finding anew. And because “outreach” campaigns target people that you probably already know to some degree, the message needs to be personalized.

Identifying targeted audiences by dozens of traits

Since LinkedIn is so highly focused on professional individuals, the process for prospecting starts with optimizing, refining, and building out one’s own LinkedIn profile. From there, C-suite executives, leaders, and managers can use LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator.

Sales Navigator is a tool designed to enable users to identify their target audience or prospects by considering dozens of traits, such as title, industry, company size, geography, etc. Sales Navigator users can use this information  to build lists of targeted prospects.

Perhaps best of all is that LinkedIn users can automate processes such as “liking” a post, or “following” a new lead. Sales Navigator users can take up to 250 actions per day. Imagine all the outreach you could do with 250 messages, follows, invites, endorsements, or likes every day!

Maximizing marketing outreach via automation

But in order to maximize this outreach, business leaders may find it more time-saving and cost-effective to use automation software to manage the workflow.

Drip campaigns created by marketing automation software still take time and commitment from c-suite executives and leaders. Because LinkedIn lead generation is all about crafting messages that create a conversation toward conversion, someone will have to respond to personal messages that you receive. Marketers have found that their clients don’t mind this too much, as they’re quick to remind them that these personalized messages are leads.

Organizers can use marketing automation software for a variety of campaigns. But with LinkedIn, marketers have a huge advantage in the amount of data available. While you can automate email campaigns, for example, you cannot tell much about your client when all you have is their name and email address.

With personalization, messages remove the cringe-worthy language and give potential customers something that speaks to them. Within that message is what your company can do to meet their needs. That kind of personalized message sounds like something worth reading.

About the author:

Mike Mayer is founder and CEO of Main Event Digital, a digital marketing agency for manufacturers and distributors. Prior to Main Event Digital, he worked as a B2B ecommerce executive at companies including U.S. Electrical Services, Crescent Electric Supply and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Sign up

Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week. It covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact editor Paul Demery at paul@digitalcommerce360.com and follow him on Twitter @pdemery.

Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 B2B News publishes content.

The post LinkedIn lead generation: How to build your sales network and pipeline appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.