Recap: How to prepare for a digitally-driven holiday

I attended this 1 hour webinar, hosted by CommerceNext, as I try to wrap my head around how to have a successful e-commerce holiday season. Veronika Sonsev, Co-Founder at CommerceNext was the moderator. The webinar started with quick metrics provided by the CEO of Quantum Metrics and was followed by a panel Q&A. Here are my key takeaways.

Strap on your seatbelts! Digital will play an even bigger role during this holiday season. One of CommerceNext’s surveys showed that 78% of respondents feel that holiday e-commerce penetration rates (as a % of total sales) will be higher this year. 

Quantum Metric Data (Mario Ciabarra)

• Over the last three months the conversion rate average has increased by one percentage point, 3% -> 4%. Conversion rates have started to drop as stores started reopening

• AOV online has decreased, maybe due to convenience shopping

• Key questions he has gotten from executives: 

  • Is code freeze beneficial? (According to a CommerceNext poll, 67% of companies will still deploy important projects.)

  • How do supply chain and inventory constraints affect discounting? (According to a CN poll, 78% of companies still feel discounting is very important over the holidays)

Panelist: Jacob Rokeach (Anine Bing), Jeff Gerstel (B&H), Yvahn Martin (John Varvatos), Mario Ciabarra (Quantum Metrics)

9 Panel Questions:

1. What have you done differently to onboard new e-commerce customers? 

   • Nothing too different, focusing on the overall experience

2. Is there a bigger priority on returns now and does easy returns improve customer loyalty?

   • Trying to bring in technology to minimize returns or to answer customer questions prior to purchase (chat, product descriptions, fit guides, etc.)

   • Returns is a common customer service top, so it is a priority to improve process prior to holiday

3. What new digital engagement behaviors are you seeing now that could be amplified during the holiday?

   • Softer traffic on weekends

   • Lower AOV 

   • Still learning from new customers and their behaviors post first purchase and pre-second purchase

4. Do you need personalization technology with the increase in traffic and orders?

   • Personalization efforts have been put on hold. There is more focus on communication with the customer and getting the basics right

5. What are your main priorities before the holiday?

   • Prepare infrastructure in case of a relapse (logistics, fulfillment center, customer service, returns, sales teams, etc) 

   • Improve customer feedback capabilities (software and resources to take action)

   • Implementing mobile payment solutions

   • Omni-channel inventory visibility

   • Cross border shipment and easy checkout 

   • Streamline returns

   • Enable split payments

6. What do you think is the impact of promotions during the holiday for newly acquired customers who first purchased with a promotion? 

   • Customers who purchase with a promotion are likely to make a second purchase also with a promotion, but we have seen a lot of customers make second full price purchases

   • We use category price point information to understand the customers AOV and potential re-purchase

7. Are you advertising on TikTok?

   • Due to demographics and taking into consideration music rights = No

   • One company is testing using influencers, but impact on brand awareness is too early to tell

8. What are you doing differently in order to adapt to store closures?

   • Activate store inventory

   • Using Hero app to allow customers to communicate with store associates

   • Buy online pick up in store

   • Clienteling services 

9. What benchmarks are you making from the last three months in order to plan for the holiday?

   • Looking at regional performance and trends (Asia to EU to US)

   • Trying to understand the rapid shifts in product categories

   • Looking to plan and train teams internally as there are shifts needed from offline to online and vice versa

View the full 1hr webinar here