New Government – Labour Small Business Agenda

We’ve are all waking up to a new Government today, with the Labour party about to take control of the country and what should be top of your mind as you get to the office are what the Labour small business plans mean for you.

The Labour Small Business Agenda includes plans to introduce new legislation and regulatory reforms which they claim are designed to significantly benefit small businesses. Here are the main Labour small business policies that they were elected on:

Small Business Exports & BREXIT

In the Labour Small Business Agenda, they say that they will work alongside the Federation of Small Business on a Small Business Export Taskforce, which will look at practical ways they can remove the barriers to exports for firms of all sizes and improve guidance to make exporting easier.

Part of this is that, while Labour are clear that our future lies outside of the customs union, they say that they will make Brexit work by improving on current deal when the Trade and Cooperation Agreement renewal period comes in 2025.

Digital Services Tax

While the LibDems still want to increase the Digital Services Tax on social media firms and other tech giants from 2% to 6%, thankfully Labour scrapped this policy. We all know only to well that when the likes of Amazon get taxed they simply pass the cost on to small businesses to pay.

Scrap small business rates for a fairer system

Labour have commited to scrap the current business rates system and replace it with a system of business property taxation they say is fit for the 21st century. Their new system will reduce the burden on high streets and support small businesses’ ambitions to grow and to move into empty premises, rather than standing in the way of entrepreneurship.

This could be a double edged sword for online only businesses that don’t operate on the high street, so we’ll wait to see if it means a tax hike for ecommerce.

High Street policies

Labour say that they will tackle anti-social behaviour by introducing new town centre police patrols and a mandatory antisocial behaviour police lead for every local neighbourhood – Great news for shop owners, but won’t impact pureplay ecommerce businesses.

However if you do want to open a shop, Labour say that they will revamp empty shops by giving councils new powers to take over empty shops and reopen them without consent from the property’s owners. Councils will be given the power to secure management rights, carry out works and put the property to use, with rent revenues being directed back to the owner. The premises would be offered to local small business for a discounted rent.

Legislate to tackle late payments

Labour will legislate to require the audit committees of big businesses to report on their company’s payment practices in the company annual report. This, they say, will increase transparency for small businesses engaging with potential future customers and will also build awareness within the businesses themselves of poor standards.

Start-up & Scale up

Labour say that their plans will unlock the supply of patient capital for technology-intensive, early stage businesses ensuring that institutional investors and VCs are best placed to invest alongside the British Business Bank. Labour also intend to reform the British Business Bank to give it a more ambitious remit, helping it better support SMEs and giving it a stronger mandate to support regional growth.

SME representation on public contracts

Labour’s National Procurement Plan aims to give small and medium businesses fairer opportunities to benefit from public contract bidding. They will require that at least one SME makes the shortlist when any smaller, suitable contract goes out to tender.

Energy

Labour’s mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower will cut bills for small businesses, create commercial opportunities for them and deliver security with a cheaper, zero-carbon electricity system by 2030. They say that their plans plans will ensure small manufacturers are no longer held back by sky-high energy bills and end the competitive disadvantage with European firms.

While Labour say that British small businesses will play a vital role in supply chains creating up to 300,000 jobs, this is unlikely to immediately impact ecommerce businesses.

Skills

Labour say that they will address skills shortages head on by creating Skills England to bring partners together in developing plans to meet the skills needs of the next decade.

Labour say that they will revamp the Apprenticeship Levy with a new Growth and Skills Levy to give businesses greater flexibility. They will continue to cover 95% of costs for non-levy payers protecting apprenticeship starts in small businesses.

Building

Labour say that they will reform the planning system to build 1.5 million homes over the Parliament, creating opportunities and orders for small builders and tradespeople across the country. They say that they will strengthen planning capacity by hiring more than 300 new planners across the public sector to expedite decisions.

While this might not help your small business directly, it might help you and your employees find somewhere affordable and semi-decent to live!

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Ecommerce SNAFU – Swearing & Cancelled Deliveries

The past week saw both DPD and Tesco hit by tech problems. DPD had a SNAFU when their chatbot started swearing at customers while Tesco had to cancel thousands of food deliveries when their systems went down.

We all rely on technology so much today that when something goes wrong it turns into a crisis for some, while others are more sanguine and simply accept that nothing’s perfect and these things will happen.

DPD SNAFU

DPD had to disable part of their online chatbot when it not only started swearing at customers but also become highly critical of DPD themselves. This was in part caused by customers encouraging the chatbot to be naughty, begging it to be be hyper critical of DPD and to swear. It became a game that was irresistible – what could be more fun than getting DPD’s own AI chatbot to tell you that they are the worst delivery company in the world and that they’d never recommend them to anyone?

The truth is of course, that DPD have regularly been voted one of the top delivery companies in the UK and routinely offer a superb service on most occasions, but AI is still new technology and can sometimes blindly follow inputs from users to give responses that would get a human operator sacked…. and that’s effectively what happened with DPD sacking their AI and disabling part of their Chatbot support!

Tesco Delivery SNAFU

Tesco had a more serious SNAFU which led to no one getting their grocery deliveries on Sunday morning. Even those who were charged for orders will be getting refunds and as you might expect social media was rife with complaints from those who had no Sunday lunch delivered or were running out of nappies for their babies.

Tesco were busy firing off emails with the first informing customers their order wasn’t going to arrive, often several hours after the expected delivery slot had come and gone:

We’re really sorry we’ve had to cancel your order today and for the inconvenience this will have caused. We work very hard to deliver to our customers, but unfortunately, this time something has gone wrong

– Tesco order cancellation email

The second email customers would have received was to help customers re-order, with two variations – one for those that hadn’t been charged and a second for those who’s payment had been taken letting them know the money was being refunded but might take 3-5 days to appear back on their card or in their bank account:

We’re really sorry but we can’t deliver your groceries today because of an issue with our system.

You can re-schedule your order by following the steps below:

Sign into your account at tesco.com/groceries:

1. Select ‘My orders’ 
2. Transfer everything that was in your basket to a new order by clicking ‘Add all to basket’ 
3. Book a slot  
4. Checkout as normal
You haven’t been charged for the order. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.

– Tesco delivery apology email

The Tesco SNAFU was obviously the more annoying for customers, especially those who couldn’t jump in the car for an emergency shop, simply didn’t have the available funds in their bank account to pay for a second shop before they get refunded, or who couldn’t find another convenient delivery slot. We do rely on technology one hell of a lot these days and these two SNAFUs are a reminder that when things go wrong they tend to go wrong in a hurry!

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Shopify Sidekick AI powered merchant assistant

Shopify Magic is a new LLM chatbot designed to make running your business more easy. Want to create a blog post, email marketing, or weekly newsletter? Shopify Magic can do all that for you, but what’s perhaps even more interesting is Shopify Sidekick, powered by Magic.

Sidekick is designed to know everything about Shopify and can perform tasks for you such as setting up a discount event. Imagine having Shopify experts on speed dial that you can call on to get things done but with the massive bonus that you don’t have to pay them!

Sidekick understands what you mean and refines your writing for greater clarity. Conversational by design, you can use everyday language to jump start the creative process and overcome writers block. Start with a basic request such as “I want to write a blog post” and with Magic you’ll get some suggestions to choose from and further refine with new commands.

But where Sidekick really comes into it’s own is when you want to do something like create a back to Uni student discount code. With Sidekick being free for all Shopify users, you no longer have to know the back end or how discounts work – Sidekick can not only create the code for you, it can then create an email and send it to your student mailing list!

And then there are more in-depth business us reports that can be accessed, such as a report of your top selling products or a report for products with no sales in the last month. Sidekick removes the need to generate the reports as it can do it for you.

Once you know what your stock is doing, Sidekick can even help you sell it by creating a banner for your shop homepage, segment your customers so you can better market the right products to the right people, and even add product collections to your Shopify shop home page.

Shopify Sidekick gives the power of a team from marketing to design at your fingertips and, especially for those without inhouse expertise, should make managing your business simpler and enable you to perform tasks that previously would have involved at worst spending cash on consultants or at best waiting for colleagues to do the job for you.

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Commerce enabled AI Brain from Rezolve announced

Exciting news for the British tech industry today, a company has released a UK grown AI ecom and data analytics solution which promises to revolutionise the way retailers connect with their consumers.

Rezolve AI Limited, a UK AI innovator announced the introduction of its transformative AI platform, ‘Brain’. This development promises to catalyse a new era of ecommerce interaction and data analysis, further boosting the UK’s reputation in the global AI arena.

Brain

‘Brain’ allows users to interact with ecommerce sites conversationally via text or voice in 95 different languages, asking detailed questions and getting responses that shows in-depth product knowledge. This innovation redefines product discovery and customer interaction with a previously unseen level of personalised service.

Dan Wagner, a veteran tech-entrepreneur and CEO and Chairman of Rezolve gave me a demo and frankly it’s impressive. Got a chinese consumer shopping on your website? Not a problem, they can submit questions to Brain in chinese and receive answers in chinese, even if you’ve never had your website translated. And this is not just a search engine, feed Brain your data in whatever format you have whether it be tell it to scrape your website or send it an SQL spreadsheet and then it’s ready for conversational interrogation by customers.

The big problem Dan tells me, is us humans have been trained to work in a dysfunctional manner, starting our search with a few hopeful keywords and then perhaps narrowing down our search with tick boxes and category menus. You can forget all that with Brain, and give customers the ability to ask complex search questions such as “I’m going to my best friends wedding in July and need a gift, they like gardening, cycling holidays and gourmet dining, what would you recommend?”

But that’s just product, what if you’re a services type business where queries can be even more complex. For instance, take travel, you can ask Brain “I’m in Rhodes and want to get home, what’s the first plane back to the UK with seats for four adults and can you recommend a connection back home to Reading from wherever the plane lands?”

This conversational style of asking detailed queries and receiving responses that exhibit deep product understanding and relevance really is a game changer and better even than those gift sites that ask who the present is for (male/female, friend/relation, mother/sister/aunt etc). These interactions can be carried out in any one of 95 different languages allowing instant interaction regardless of nationality and retail store. This approach to product discovery and customer interaction revolutionises the ecommerce landscape, offering a level of personalised service previously unseen.

myBrain

Meanwhile, ‘myBrain’, built on the same robust AI platform, enables businesses and consumers to analyse their own content effectively.

So myBrain differs from Brain in that I can feed it the content I want it to respond to. As a journalist, I’m already imagining the next time the government drops a fifteen hundred word report… I can upload it to myBrain and ask for a summary. And then when it’s too complex and I don’t understand the summary (which happens all too often!) I can ask it to simplify and explain it in language a five year old would understand.

And of course, there’s nothing to stop me uploading multiple bits of content and asking myBrain for an overall summary of the related (or unrelated) bits of content.

All of this is of course early days and doubtless Rezolve will continue to develop their large language models and AI capability. But three cheers for the British tech industry… it’s great to see cutting edge developments coming out of the UK.

Brain is more than a product; it is a catalyst for a new era of business efficiency, empowering organisations to harness data and deliver superior customer experiences. Britain has always been at the forefront of developments in search and retrieval and from the early 90s I have been working with the very best minds from Cambridge University in shaping computer-aided text and image retrieval. Brain is the culmination of decades of sophisticated British technical engineering and Brain today leads the world in Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models engineered for commerce.

– Dan Wagner, CEO and Chairman ,Rezolve

Rezolve’s Brain is yet another example of great British AI innovation. AI has the potential to transform our public services, create better jobs and grow our economy. Alongside our global leadership on AI safety, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology is driving innovation throughout the UK, creating the environment for companies to start-up and grow.

– Michelle Donelan, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology

Rezolve’s conversational AI offering – Brain – is perfectly aligned with the changing trends in the retail industry and has the potential to be a game-changer. Not only is it enhancing the consumer experience and driving business growth, but it also delivers real-time insights using Data & AI/ML (machine learning), at scale. Brain is at the vanguard of AI developments based on distributed computing, federated data architecture, effective AI/ML models and an open API interface providing a plug & play experience for B2C & B2B customers and their ecosystems.

– Saurabh Chandra, Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group’s Platinion

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Understand website signals to search engines ranking & your competition

Ensuring your website accurately represents your business online is essential to any business growth whichever sector you’re in. Not having a website perform is potentially detrimental to your brand and new business acquisition.

During this webinar with the Department for Business and Trade, you will learn about tools that can help you analyse your websites performance, the signals it sends to search engines, how to understand keywords and how your competitors are performing against you in global markets.

DIT will discuss best practice for localisation in international markets, how websites should be functional and not statics as well as the services the Department for Business and Trade provide using these tools to support your international growth.

You’ll need to register in advance for this webinar, which takes place on Thursday, the 6th of July 2023, running from 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM.

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Generative AI video tailored human video for ecommerce

Brands have been able to personalize text, images and audio in their marketing campaigns for years and with the onset of AI resources, this has helped them scale their work. Now, Generative AI video platform Gan.ai has announced a $5.25M seed funding round as they breach the final frontier of personalising video for mass marketing campaigns.

With Gan.ai’s studio-quality video personalisation software, brands simply need to record a video once, add dynamic keywords to a script, and Gan.ai will generate millions of hyper-customized videos in one click. Businesses can also create personalised landing pages with Gan.ai and deliver videos via preferred communications platforms, enabling specific interactions with users and tailored call-to-actions. 

This shockingly intrusive for consumers but at the same time shockingly effective for advertisers. For instance if you know the name of your customer, you can insert this into the video. The genie is out of the bottle and generative AI video is here to stay so the best advice is to explore your options and get onboard ahead of your competition.

We record videos with influencers and celebrities, and now with Gan.ai, when they call out your name and tell you to take a personalised call-to-action the results are astounding. We saw a 5x increase in our Video Completion Rate, 3x increase in open rates, and 2.5x increase in our Click-Through-Rate .

– – Tejnoor Grover, gaming platform Mobile Premier League

The platform integrates with Shopify, Calendly, Stripe, Salesforce and Hubspot for businesses to create unique shopping and payment experiences also. Moreover, Gan.ai’s end-to-end solution also provides businesses with granular customer insights and video performance analytics. 

Gan.ai was founded in March 2021 by Suvrat Bhooshan and is headquartered in California, US. Suvrat previously worked at Facebook AI Research (FAIR) having completed his masters degree in computer science from Stanford University. His deep-learning papers have been published and cited over 300 times. Today, they are a team of 35 with a leadership team that includes Anupreet Singh as Chief Revenue Officer and Kushaagra Goyal as Chief Technology Officer. 

Anupreet Singh was US and Europe lead at Mettl (acquired by Mercer) and scaled up business from zero. Most recently, he was the GTM leader at Slintel (acquired by 6sense), where he achieved 0-$5M ARR in just two years. Kushaagra Goyal, leads the development of their disruptive generative AI technology. He has five years of experience working at Databricks, Rubrik and Samsung. He has published over ten patents in this field. 

We’re empowering marketing teams around the world to generate a higher return on investment for video campaigns. Imagine a food delivery company being able to send a personalized video from a brand ambassador, addressing its customer by name and how they enjoyed items in their last order, or a clinic reminding a patient to book a follow-up appointment. This hyper-personalization leads to much higher conversion rates vs other static forms of communications. 

With Gan.ai, businesses will be able to scale their video personalization process while seamlessly integrating it with existing workflows. We’re excited to grow our operations with the new funds, and expand our sales and engineering teams across US and India. 

– Suvrat Bhooshan, Founder and CEO, Gan.ai

Gan.ai boasts a global customer base that includes brands such as Samsung, Zomato, vivo and gaming platform Mobile Premier League. In the US, Gan.ai has been used by some of the biggest brands including the largest chain of optometry and ophthalmology clinics, EyeCare Partners. 

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Preparing for AI transformation of ecommerce

AI will drive the next industrial revolution of ecommerce. Mark Stanley, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Shopware takes a look at the “how” and the “why,” as well as what you can do to better prepare.

AI will drive the next industrial revolution of ecommerce. Here’s a look at the “how” and the “why,” as well as what you can do to better prepare.

As pervasive as it is, AI is still in its infancy. It’s early days and while there’s resounding excitement as to what it can do and make possible, the reality is this is just the beginning. Sometime soon, AI will be part of everything—woven into the fabric of our day-to-day lives in ways we’re only beginning to fathom.

That also means that every business—no matter the sector—has a shot at getting “good” at it and embracing AI in a way which will propel it forward, specifically by helping to serve customers more effectively and efficiently. In that way, AI will be the driver of the next industrial revolution as it applies to the world of ecommerce, not unlike the last one we experienced courtesy of the dawn of the internet and the world wide web.

That may sound like a big statement, but hear me out: AI will march up the value stack to provide deeper personal experiences for shoppers. What would take many hours of development could be curated via a series of simple natural language commands. Plugged into our wider technology ecosystem, AI could understand relevance at a much deeper level and thus provide real-time benefits to merchants. While most attention will be on visible use cases, the real impact will be on invisible systems which automate, facilitate and accelerate back-office tasks. Content creation and curation will lead to more bespoke experiences for software users.

AI’s transformation of the ecommerce industry is well underway, optimising business operations and automating and enhancing. By providing a personalised and seamless shopping experience, AI adds significant value for customers, offering tailored product recommendations, improved search functionality, and faster response times for customer support inquiries. Additionally, AI can optimise shipping and delivery processes, ensuring quicker and more accurate deliveries.

It also enhances CX, personalising product recommendations based on browsing and purchase history, improving search functionality with natural language processing, providing instant customer support by way of chatbots and virtual assistants and gauging customer satisfaction through sentiment analysis to improve services.

Furthermore, AI algorithms analyse user data such as browsing history, past purchases, and preferences to generate personalised product recommendations. These tailored suggestions help customers discover relevant products more efficiently, leading to increased engagement and sales.

Core capabilities like voice shopping, made possible through AI-powered voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, are game changers, enabling customers to search for products, place orders and track deliveries using voice commands. This technology not only simplifies the shopping process but also makes it more accessible for users with visual impairments or other disabilities.

Then there’s visual search, AI-based visual search technology allows customers to upload images and find similar products on ecommerce platforms. This feature enhances the shopping experience by making it more intuitive and convenient for customers.

Dynamic pricing, through which AI algorithms can analyse real-time market data to determine optimal pricing strategies for products, helps retailers and marketplaces stay competitive, maximise profits, and better manage inventory.

AI systems can also identify and prevent fraudulent activities by analysing transaction data, user behavior patterns and other variables, ultimately streamlining fraud detection and prevention. This technology helps ecommerce businesses protect their customers and maintain a secure shopping environment.

In terms of supply chain optimisation, AI can be used to optimise supply chain operations by predicting demand, automating inventory management, and identifying potential bottlenecks. This leads to reduced operational costs and more efficient delivery of products.

All to say that these AI-based functionalities, taken together, are a means toward “superpowering” people, brands and businesses to help them do what they do, just better.

Now that we’ve established what’s happening and how, there’s much to be said as to how you can help prepare your business to adapt to both this epic paradigm shift and AI-driven changes.

1. Invest in workforce development. As AI reshapes the ecommerce landscape, businesses must invest in upskilling their workforce to better understand, develop, and manage AI technologies.
2. Second, collaborate with stakeholders. Ecommerce companies should collaborate with customers, suppliers, and regulatory authorities to address AI-related concerns such as data privacy and security, algorithmic bias, and ethical considerations.
3. Encourage a customer-centric approach. Ecommerce businesses should prioritise customer satisfaction and adapt their AI-driven strategies to better cater to the needs and preferences of their customer base.
4. Monitor AI performance. Companies should regularly evaluate and adjust their AI systems to ensure optimal performance and maintain a positive customer experience.
5. Embrace agility and innovation. To stay competitive, ecommerce companies must be agile and open to innovation. This includes adopting new AI technologies, iterating on existing solutions, and exploring new business models.
6. Be forward-looking. As AI continues to evolve, the ecommerce industry will likely experience even greater advancements in personalisation, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Businesses that embrace AI and adapt to the changes it brings will be better positioned to thrive in this dynamic environment, while those that resist may find it increasingly difficult to compete. The overall impact of AI on ecommerce is poised to be transformative, with both companies and consumers benefiting from a more seamless and personalised shopping experience.

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Inflation adds £18.2 billion to UK non-food sales

At The Delivery Conference this morning, new research was revealed from Metapack, ShipStation and Retail Economics, showing shoppers may have to pay more for less in 2023 as inflation adds £18.2 billion to UK non-food sales despite volumes decreasing by 4.9%.

UK non-food retail sales values are expected to hit £249 billion in 2023, but the 2.6% increase, or additional £18.2 billion of spending on the previous year, will be driven by rising consumer prices.

The Ecommerce Delivery Benchmark Report 2023, commissioned by Metapack’s operating company, Auctane, in partnership with economics consultancy, Retail Economics, included a survey of over 730 retail businesses across eight international markets. It found that 80% were planning to increase the price of products, with 40% suggesting rising costs will be the biggest challenge in 2023.

Cost pressures and shifting shopping habits

Retail brands are facing rising input and operating costs and with margins under so much pressure, it’s likely that some of these costs are being passed on to consumers, especially as merchants look for ways to find savings and preserve margins.

These challenges are matched by consumer concerns about the outlook for the economy and their personal finances over the year ahead, with 66% of consumers in the UK citing inflation as their biggest concern.

As a result, 74% of UK consumers plan to change their buying behaviours, with 34% stating they would only make purchases when necessary and 29% intending to delay or reduce spending. 

As a result of consumers’ reported plans to cut back and adopt recessionary behaviours, UK retail sales volumes (units of products sold) are set to fall 4.9% in 2023 compared to last year. This underlines the fact that shoppers are simply having to spend more to get less for their money with retail inflation expected to hit 7.5% over the year ahead.

The research highlights that inflation is expected to add almost £260 billion ($319 billion) to retail sales in 2023 across the eight international markets included in the research.

Retailer expectations

However, many retailers remain optimistic about trading prospects in 2023, with more businesses holding a positive rather than negative view regarding the economy, and only 20% anticipating weaker consumer demand over the year ahead.

Consumer sentiment and economic projections are generally at odds with retailers’ expectations for the year ahead. Of those small enterprise retailers surveyed, 80% expect order volumes to be the same or higher (59%) in 2023, with a third anticipating order volumes to be 10% higher or more.  

Keeping costs down will be the top priority for both retailers and consumers in 2023. As our research highlights, everybody will be looking to get the most bang for their buck from operating costs to delivery costs and product costs. From offering a greater choice of delivery options, having a resilient carrier infrastructure, to providing delightful deliveries experiences, we believe retailers who are able to provide the most value will be the ones who come out on top.

– Andrew Norman, General Manager, Metapack

Delivery priorities: cost over convenience 

The research reveals that in 2023, the cost of delivery is expected to be the most important conversion factor impacting retailers. Almost 35% of consumers highlight cost as their biggest priority when it comes to delivery, as speed and convenience become less important. That said, operating cost pressures facing businesses may make this a difficult challenge. Over a quarter of retail businesses plan to increase the cost of delivery for their customers, while only 18% say they won’t  increase the price of products, delivery, or returns this year.

As shoppers’ priorities shift towards value, our research shows that consumers would rather wait longer for delivery, or compromise on delivery location, rather than cost.  Almost 30% of UK consumers reported they would happily switch to parcel lockers or click and collect (‘BOPIS’ – Buy Online Pick Up In Store) services for their online orders. 

2023 is set to be a complex year for the ecommerce industry. As our research reflects, the economic backdrop is expected to have an impact on merchant operations and consumer buying behaviours. That said, through difficult times, innovation often emerges the winner, and we expect the same to happen this year. We believe omnichannel retail and delivery will become increasingly important as consumers switch between online and offline as they look for the best deals. Merchants who continue to invest and adapt in technology to suit the changing needs of their customers are the most likely to drive loyalty and do well.

– Mike Hayers, General Manager, ShipStation Europe

Sustainability and second-hand

Sustainability continues to be top of mind for many shoppers, with 79% stating they would consider green delivery options when ordering online. When going green, 38% of consumers are more willing to accept longer delivery times and almost 35% of consumers are likely to switch to out of home collection, rather than paying extra to offset emissions, with only 7% of shippers willing to consider the latter. 

Interestingly, consumer perceptions around ‘second hand’ are also changing and retailers are responding to growing demand from consumers for economical and sustainable alternatives to buying brand new. Over a quarter of consumers plan to buy second hand or use online resale marketplaces more often in the year ahead. This rises to as high as 40% among consumers who will likely change their behaviour in response to economic pressures. This suggests that cost of living concerns may inadvertently accelerate the shift to a circular economy. 

Category and channel shifts 

Shopping behaviour will diverge across income groups and categories. With this in mind, luxury brands and discounters are likely to outperform at opposite ends of the market, leaving mid-tier retailers squeezed. But even for the most affluent, our research highlights that 61% still plan to tighten or cut discretionary spending over the year ahead. 

Digging into this further, the research reveals furniture and homewares will be most impacted with 43% of UK consumers set to delay or reduce spending on these products. 35% plan to look to switch to cheaper brands when it comes to buying clothes, with 32% stating they would look for cheaper alternatives when it comes to electrical items. 

One in three UK consumers plan to carry on spending as normal on health and beauty products – more than any other sector – with an additional 14% preferring to trade down rather than purchase less often. 

Across all non-food sectors, our research shows a net proportion of consumers plan to shop more online than they did last year. As shoppers look for value, they may become more channel agnostic, regularly switching between physical and online to find the best deals. This could serve to accelerate the shift to a hybrid retail future that merges the best of physical and digital.

Retailers will continue to face a toxic mix of pressures this year as rising input and operating costs collide against a backdrop of weaker consumer demand, rising interest rates and shifting consumer behaviours.

These conditions favour those retailers who have strong balance sheets who can invest heavily in price, leverage data to target their most valued customers and win new ones, while efficiently utilising stores to provide a truly omnichannel proposition.

Those that carry high levels of debt, have weak pricing power and sit in the middle of the market could find life very difficult.

– Richard Lim, CEO, Retail Economics

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BigCommerce partners with Microsoft Advertising

BigCommerce  have announced a collaboration with Microsoft Advertising with the release of Microsoft Ads and Listings in the BigCommerce Marketplace. BigCommerce merchants of all sizes in the US, UK and ANZ can now directly integrate their stores to reach Microsoft Advertising’s audience of more than a billion people who have greater purchasing power, engage more with ads and are more likely to make a purchase online. 

Eligible BigCommerce merchants in the US who are verified Bing Places for Business account holders that spend at least $250 on ads will receive $500 in free advertising credits by Microsoft.

BigCommerce strives to give our merchants the power to advertise and sell their products, wherever their customers are searching and shopping. As a result, seamless partner app integrations like Microsoft Ads and Listings uplevel the value and opportunities that we can deliver to our merchants all over the world. Furthermore, strategic relationships with global businesses like Microsoft Advertising also underscores the value that we can deliver to our agency and technology partners as part of the Omnichannel Certified Partner (OCP) Program.

– Sharon Gee, vice president of revenue growth and general manager of omnichannel, BigCommerce

With Microsoft Ads and Listings, merchants can synchronize product catalogs directly to the new Microsoft Merchant Center. They can then create shopping campaigns to promote product catalogs and track campaign performance, all without leaving the BigCommerce Control Panel. Furthermore, the Microsoft Ads and Listings app combined with the broader capabilities of Microsoft Advertising delivers solutions to better help navigate search, native, display and video ad campaigns to help merchants better achieve their marketing goals by:

Broadening audience reach through new channels. The Microsoft Advertising Network sees billions of searches each month, giving merchants the opportunity to showcase products to millions of potential customers on Microsoft Bing, MSN, Microsoft Edge and via syndicated partners such as Yahoo! and AOL, to name a few. 

Driving more traffic with enhanced shopping experiences. Through the new Microsoft Shopping Tab, merchants can filter product feeds with specific attributes that deliver richer ad content, and narrow search results that can increase click-through and conversion rates by simply making it easier for shoppers to find what they are looking for.

Monitoring and optimizing ad performance in real time. Without leaving the BigCommerce Control Panel, merchants can see campaign performance with a snapshot view or run detailed reporting on a wide or granular scope, with specific key elements or side-by-side comparisons across various ad campaigns. Changes can be made in real time to status, budgets and bids while having access to a personalized tips dashboard and customer support to get better results.

The Microsoft Advertising Network connects BigCommerce merchants with people who have greater purchasing power, engage more with ads and are more likely to make a purchase online. With Microsoft Ads and Listings, BigCommerce merchants can connect with customers in new ways, achieving a strong return on spend to drive long-term growth.” 

– Jason McKay, senior director, global partner sales, Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft Ads and Listings on BigCommerce is currently available in the US, UK and ANZ, and will expand into new markets through 2023. Get started with Microsoft Ads and Listings here to start showcasing product ad campaigns today.

The post BigCommerce partners with Microsoft Advertising appeared first on ChannelX.

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Sellerdeck now part of ClearCourse Retail

Just before Christmas, ClearCourse, a software and payments business, acquired SellerDeck, a UK based business that enables small and medium sized businesses to sell online. The company will form part of ClearCourse’s Retail Division and expands the latter’s established and growing footprint in the ecommerce space.

Sellerdeck’s solutions align with its clients’ commercial goals, catering to a wide range of businesses seeking to expand their online commerce operations by allowing them to focus on growth. Through its own proprietary SellerdeckDesktop platform and specialist partnerships with Magento and WooCommerce, the company helps businesses to speed up their sales and handle more orders, with thousands of businesses and organisations transacting over £11 billion in revenue. 

The company is based in Exeter, with team members throughout the UK and an international team based in Chennai, India. Sellerdeck shares a range of integration opportunities with ClearCourse’s existing software and payments offerings, creating significant extra value for customers.

Both Sellerdeck and ClearCourse’s EKM will benefit from the sharing of ideas, expertise and best practice with both brands serving different market segments. Sellerdeck will also be able to integrate ClearCourse’s own proprietary payments solution ClearAccept to complement its own Sellerdeck Payments, as well as industry-leading address lookup and data validation system Fetchify.

Following the deal, Sellerdeck CEO Josh Barling will continue to lead the company, overseeing Sellerdeck’s operations and benefitting from strategic guidance from ClearCourse.

I’m delighted to be able to announce the acquisition of Sellerdeck. It’s a fantastic company that was one of the first to recognise the importance of e-commerce and I can’t wait to get started working with its superb team. It’s an exciting time for ClearCourse’s Retail Division and our e-commerce offering, which is going from strength to strength. Sellerdeck will bring a great deal of deep expertise to ClearCourse, complementing EKM and developing integrations across the firm. A very warm welcome to Josh and the team.

– Gerry Gualtieri, CEO, ClearCourse

I’m very pleased to share the news that Sellerdeck is joining ClearCourse. At a critical time for our growth, we stand to benefit immensely from working with the group’s warm and highly capable team, with its impressive experience of integrating e-commerce systems. Integration with a diverse set of businesses brings us some promising new opportunities to add value to our customers and give them the best software solutions they need to run successful businesses.

– Josh Barling, CEO, Sellerdeck

The post Sellerdeck now part of ClearCourse Retail appeared first on ChannelX.

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BigCommerce partners with Microsoft Advertising

BigCommerce have announced a collaboration with Microsoft Advertising with the release of Microsoft Ads and Listings in the BigCommerce Marketplace. BigCommerce merchants of all sizes in the US, UK and ANZ can now directly integrate their stores to reach Microsoft Advertising’s audience of more than a billion people who have greater purchasing power, engage more with ads and are more likely to make a purchase online.

Eligible BigCommerce merchants in the US who are verified Bing Places for Business account holders that spend at least $250 on ads will receive $500 in free advertising credits by Microsoft.

BigCommerce strives to give our merchants the power to advertise and sell their products, wherever their customers are searching and shopping. As a result, seamless partner app integrations like Microsoft Ads and Listings uplevel the value and opportunities that we can deliver to our merchants all over the world. Furthermore, strategic relationships with global businesses like Microsoft Advertising also underscores the value that we can deliver to our agency and technology partners as part of the Omnichannel Certified Partner (OCP) Program.

– Sharon Gee, vice president of revenue growth and general manager of omnichannel, BigCommerce

With Microsoft Ads and Listings, merchants can synchronize product catalogs directly to the new Microsoft Merchant Center. They can then create shopping campaigns to promote product catalogs and track campaign performance, all without leaving the BigCommerce Control Panel. Furthermore, the Microsoft Ads and Listings app combined with the broader capabilities of Microsoft Advertising delivers solutions to better help navigate search, native, display and video ad campaigns to help merchants better achieve their marketing goals by:

Broadening audience reach through new channels. The Microsoft Advertising Network sees billions of searches each month, giving merchants the opportunity to showcase products to millions of potential customers on Microsoft Bing, MSN, Microsoft Edge and via syndicated partners such as Yahoo! and AOL, to name a few. 

Driving more traffic with enhanced shopping experiences. Through the new Microsoft Shopping Tab, merchants can filter product feeds with specific attributes that deliver richer ad content, and narrow search results that can increase click-through and conversion rates by simply making it easier for shoppers to find what they are looking for.

Monitoring and optimizing ad performance in real time. Without leaving the BigCommerce Control Panel, merchants can see campaign performance with a snapshot view or run detailed reporting on a wide or granular scope, with specific key elements or side-by-side comparisons across various ad campaigns. Changes can be made in real time to status, budgets and bids while having access to a personalized tips dashboard and customer support to get better results.

The Microsoft Advertising Network connects BigCommerce merchants with people who have greater purchasing power, engage more with ads and are more likely to make a purchase online. With Microsoft Ads and Listings, BigCommerce merchants can connect with customers in new ways, achieving a strong return on spend to drive long-term growth.”

– Jason McKay, senior director, global partner sales, Microsoft Advertising

Microsoft Ads and Listings on BigCommerce is currently available in the US, UK and ANZ, and will expand into new markets through 2023. Get started with Microsoft Ads and Listings here to start showcasing product ad campaigns today.

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Sellerdeck now part of ClearCourse Retail

Just before Christmas, ClearCourse, a software and payments business, acquired SellerDeck, a UK based business that enables small and medium sized businesses to sell online. The company will form part of ClearCourse’s Retail Division and expands the latter’s established and growing footprint in the ecommerce space.

Sellerdeck’s solutions align with its clients’ commercial goals, catering to a wide range of businesses seeking to expand their online commerce operations by allowing them to focus on growth. Through its own proprietary SellerdeckDesktop platform and specialist partnerships with Magento and WooCommerce, the company helps businesses to speed up their sales and handle more orders, with thousands of businesses and organisations transacting over £11 billion in revenue.

The company is based in Exeter, with team members throughout the UK and an international team based in Chennai, India. Sellerdeck shares a range of integration opportunities with ClearCourse’s existing software and payments offerings, creating significant extra value for customers.

Both Sellerdeck and ClearCourse’s EKM will benefit from the sharing of ideas, expertise and best practice with both brands serving different market segments. Sellerdeck will also be able to integrate ClearCourse’s own proprietary payments solution ClearAccept to complement its own Sellerdeck Payments, as well as industry-leading address lookup and data validation system Fetchify.

Following the deal, Sellerdeck CEO Josh Barling will continue to lead the company, overseeing Sellerdeck’s operations and benefitting from strategic guidance from ClearCourse.

I’m delighted to be able to announce the acquisition of Sellerdeck. It’s a fantastic company that was one of the first to recognise the importance of e-commerce and I can’t wait to get started working with its superb team. It’s an exciting time for ClearCourse’s Retail Division and our e-commerce offering, which is going from strength to strength. Sellerdeck will bring a great deal of deep expertise to ClearCourse, complementing EKM and developing integrations across the firm. A very warm welcome to Josh and the team.

– Gerry Gualtieri, CEO, ClearCourse

I’m very pleased to share the news that Sellerdeck is joining ClearCourse. At a critical time for our growth, we stand to benefit immensely from working with the group’s warm and highly capable team, with its impressive experience of integrating e-commerce systems. Integration with a diverse set of businesses brings us some promising new opportunities to add value to our customers and give them the best software solutions they need to run successful businesses.

– Josh Barling, CEO, Sellerdeck

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Retail lessons for 2023

As the New Year starts, Mark Elward, Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Huboo, and Peter Edgar, Chief Financial Officer at Huboo share their thoughts on ecommerce and retail lessons for 2023.

Retail lessons for 2023 – what can we learn from a turbulent year in ecommerce?

The retail industry’s cautiously optimistic outlook going into 2022 has been eroded by strong economic headwinds, geopolitical instability, soaring inflation and plummeting consumer confidence. But for online retailers, there are still opportunities to ride out the downturn and grow their businesses. So let’s reflect on the retail lessons of a turbulent 2022 and consider how ecommerce can win in the year ahead…

Lesson 1: Meet the needs of the price-sensitive consumer

Consumers have already begun cutting down on larger expenses and trading down to cheaper products. In 2022, we’ve seen bundle deals – complementary products bundled together at a discounted rate – become a popular and effective way for retailers to incentivise consumers to increase basket size, while at the same time making them feel they’ve gotten great value for money. This is a tactic Amazon uses to great effect, but we’re now seeing it applied across a range of marketplaces and D2C brand stores.

There has also been significant growth in retailers offering subscription models – where customers commit to regular purchases of products such as alcohol, pet food or contact lenses for a discounted price. This is an astute way for eCommerce brands to secure repeat custom and smooth out sales highs and lows, while having the added benefit of drawing customers away from the big online marketplaces and onto their own websites, where profit margins are higher.

As the market continues to contract into 2023, eCommerce brands need to be extra sensitive to costs and focus on conveying value for money to their customers. Designing effective promotions is more than just slapping discounts on products or holding flash sales. Online retailers need to use sales bundles and subscriptions creatively, actively increasing product sales without devaluing their products or brand. 

Lesson 2: Market in tune with the consumer mood

During the height of Covid, many eCommerce brands were able to adapt their communications to reflect the sombre climate. The most effective pandemic adverts were more restrained and less exuberant, often demonstrating support for broader societal causes. It’s a tactic worth repeating whenever times are tough for the population at large. The 2022 John Lewis Christmas ad is a great example of how retailers can modify their tone to reflect the mood of the nation. 

But it doesn’t just apply to grandstand advertising moments. In 2023, everyday brands of all shapes and sizes must pay close attention to the tone of all ongoing marketing efforts – from digital ads to newsletters – to make sure communication is sensitive to their customers’ situation. 

Lesson 3: Help customers spread the cost of purchases

The popularity of buy now pay later (BNPL) schemes exploded during the pandemic. To drum up sales at a moment of widespread uncertainty, retailers large and small partnered up with BNPL companies like Klarna to offer flexible payment options and help customers to spread the cost of purchases.

Of course, traditional BNPL – i.e. credit – was a mainstay of retail prior to COVID. The difference is that now retailers recognise these schemes have the ability to influence sales decisions, and so are moving to highlight flexible payment options earlier in the customer journey, rather than at checkout. 

As the impact of the cost of living continues to be felt, offering flexible payment terms can be a competitive advantage – particularly on higher-cost items. We expect BNPL to become commonplace across the eCommerce arena, and retailers that see success will be those that think creatively about how to use these schemes to both attract customers and encourage them to spend more. 

Lesson 4: Reduce costs by offering economical delivery services as standard

At the start of 2022, over half of online shoppers said they thought same-day delivery was important – up from a third of shoppers pre-pandemic. However, signs suggest that in these more frugal times, customers’ expectations are softening. In response, we’re seeing eCommerce brands swapping out expensive same-day or next-day delivery for more economical services. It’s a handy and quick way to reduce the price point of products without impacting profit margins. Brands can still retain the option of super-fast delivery for customers willing to pay a premium, but there is no need to offer this as standard.

Alongside this, many brands would be wise to decrease the price threshold for free delivery, in recognition that customers are unable to spend more. This is a particularly helpful tactic for retailers whose priority is to hold onto existing customers or to try and reduce cart abandonment at checkout.

Finally, eCommerce brands need to pay careful attention to their returns policy in the year ahead – which has the potential to make or break a sale. By keeping the returns process simple while reducing the cost for the customer, they should be confident of getting more sales over the line.

Lesson 5: Find frictionless ways of moving into new markets

The challenging economic climate means that online retailers are having to look overseas as a means of opening up new opportunities. Fortunately, there are a host of new eCommerce tools – such as Mirakl – that simplify and speed up this process to ease the pathway into new markets.

Similarly, cross-border payments services like Airwallex help businesses to operate seamlessly across borders. Whereas previously, retailers might have needed to set up local bank accounts, or require customers to pay in a particular currency, cross-border payments tech means that eCommerce brands can receive payment in their usual currency, regardless of where the customer is based.

Setting up overseas is not only a sensible approach for online retailers looking to plug the sales gap, but an increasingly viable one thanks to the growing variety of eCommerce tech on offer. We expect to see an increase in the number of retailers of all sizes moving into new markets in 2023. 

A tough year ahead, but there are opportunities on the horizon

Retailers will be put to the test again in 2023, in yet another year of significant economic challenges. 

As with the pandemic, we are likely to see a divergence of the fortunes of bricks-and-mortar and online retailers. Physical retailers will find themselves more exposed due to fixed costs – such as retail space, energy bills and shop floor staff. With fewer overheads and a greater ability to adapt their business models and sales tactics in line with market movements, eCommerce brands find themselves in a stronger position to ride out the downturn and achieve success in 2023. 

Adaptability will continue to be the eCommerce secret weapon. It won’t be easy, but if online retailers take learnings from the last 12 months, they will put their businesses on a positive trajectory and will emerge from the downturn stronger, leaner, and more attuned to their customers’ needs.

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Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2023

With today marking the very last collection for next day shipping, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and our Best Wishes for 2023.

2022 was always going to be a challenging year, but no one could have predicted a war in Europe, spiralling cost of living and a Peak period beset with strikes. Carriers took the unprecedented step of bringing forward final delivery dates for next day shipping to a full 8 days before Christmas, with only Evri collecting up until the 21st with an expected delivery before the big day.

This has been a fraught run up to the holidays, more so than any previous year in the history of ecommerce, and we hope you get a well deserved break over the bank holidays. It’s a time when many take a pause and spend time with our family and closest friends and never has that been needed more than in 2022.

The team at ChannelX represent a mixed bag of religions and, recognise that this is also reflected in our readership… so whether you are celebrating a Christian Christmas, Jewish Hanukkah, Pagan Yule, Japanese Omisoka or simply enjoying a secular festival, we’d like to sincerely with you a very Merry Christmas and our sincere best wishes for 2023 and the New Year.

We do recognise that some work through the Christmas break, so we’ll check in from time to time so please do feel free to comment. We’ll be reachable on email from time to time over the break so if you have news please do get in touch. With the disruption before Christmas, we’re already predicting that the New Year sales will be a bumper clearance event so we know a busy period is about to start for retailers – both online and on the High Street.

We’ll be taking a break from our normal editorial coverage and be back in the New Year when we’ll be sharing news of upcoming events such as ChannelX Live in March and ChannelX World in the Autumn.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

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2022 – A year in review

We take a look back at the articles you engaged with the most throughout 2022. We always value your comments and here’s what mattered the most to you from the past 12 months:

January – 2022 Predictions

We started the year with an interview with Murray Lambell, VP eBay UK, and Murray looked back at the challenges of the pandemic and how it had impacted ecommerce. Murray reviewed the support eBay had powered through the pandemic but pointed out that 2022 would be a year where many of the previous year’s challenges were set to continue, with economic uncertainty, supply chain issues and inflation at the top of many shoppers’ and sellers’ minds.

Little could Murray have known how prophetic his predictions would be, with the war in Ukraine, spiralling cost of living and strikes exacerbating these challenges.

February – Royal Mail excuses

In February we asked if the end of Covid restrictions would end Royal Mail excuses. They didn’t, instead their Union took them out on strike in the second half of the year and the service has plummeted to it’s most unreliable ever.

By December, Ofcom published their findings saying that “We do not expect Covid-19 to have a continuing, significant impact on the company’s service levels. We believe Royal Mail has had plenty of time to learn lessons from the pandemic, and we are unlikely to consider it as exceptional and beyond the company’s control in future”.

Ofcom aren’t likely to take strikes into account as a reasonable excuse as that’s a business matter and not unforeseen circumstances, so their next report should make interesting reading.

March – Hermes becomes Evri

Evri have turned out to be one of the stars of the Royal Mail strikes with countless businesses turning to them and discovering that their service is pretty darn good and their next day prices are cheaper than Royal Mail once you get to certain weight parcels.

However, readers weren’t quite as complimentary in comments when they rebrandedd in March– it would be interesting to here thoughts from the same retailers today.

April – Brexit is still an issue

If anyone thought that Brexit was a done deal, your made your views known in comments when we published 5 Post-Brexit Trade Myths from GFS. Brexit is still a significant challenge for many businesses.

When the pandemic hit so soon after the final split from the EU, it masked many of the cross border issues as retailers were either deluged with orders or had none at all. As a country dealing with Brexit was put on the back burner and many of the challenges are yet to be resolved.

May – eBay Promoted Listing Fees

Pretty much no one was pleased when eBay announced that they would be changing the eBay Promoted Listing Fees to include any taxes, shipping, and other applicable fees rather than just the final bid amount.

June – eBay 2FA

When eBay 2FA rolled out it appeared to be a little too stringent and readers quickly voiced their opinions. eBay didn’t have much choice as it was a requirement under the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), a regulation affecting users in the United Kingdom and the EU. That didn’t mean you liked it though.

Noise on this issue quickly died down however and it appears the dial is in the right place as we’ve heard nothing since to suggest this still impacts your business.

July – Does a penny matter?

You were intrigued when we discovered that from clicking buy it now to an item landing in your shopping cart the price could change by a penny. It turned out to almost certainly be a rounding error due to VAT deductions and additions and just one of those weirdnesses that accountants love to hate.

August – Postal Strikes start

August was the month when the first postal strikes were confirmed, originally 8 days of strikes were announced but with further strikes still scheduled for the 23rd and Christmas Eve not end to the dispute is in sight.

The ramifications have been huge with every carrier in the country impacted as retailers move their volumes to alternative carriers.

September – The Queen dies

Almost everyone alive today only remembers the Queen as monarch, that is until the 8th of September when Charles III ascended to the throne. 2022 saw the sombre state funeral but in 2023 we can look forward to an additional Bank Holiday to celebrate the coronation festivities.

October – ChannelX World

We opened the doors to the first ChannelX World conference in London and dozens of speakers freely shared their time, expertise and knowledge with delegates, drawn from elite retailers, brands and industry experts who took to the multiple stages throughout the day.

We’ll be back next Autumn with ChannelX World, but look out for an announcement early in the New Year for an online event – ChannelX Live – which will take place in March.

November – Strikes, Strikes, Strikes

Strikes have been the theme of the Autumn, with Royal Mail top of retailers minds. But the postal works have been joined by just about everyone from Nurses and Ambulance drivers to the rail network, buses, National Highways, and airports, with Teachers and Firefighters likely to be next to walk out.

December – Small business losses

Never before in the Internet age has online shopping closed a full week before Christmas, but that’s the case for the majority of retailers this year and it’s hurting small businesses.

No one argues against the right of workers to strike and protests to take place, but the devastating impact of industrial action on innocent businesses is crucifying and will have a losting impact on the economy.

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Google’s Harmony Murphy on retail trends

With 2022 drawing to a close, we sat down with Harmony Murphy, Head of Retail UK/I at Google, to talk advertising and retail trends and what to expect from the year ahead.

As Head of Retail at Google, Harmony looks after retail customers and assist them with their growth strategies. She also shares some exclusive insights from Google as well as setting out a focus for retailers to embrace as we enter 2023.

In this interviews, Harmony discusses:

00:41 What’s the most important thing for retailers to be focussing on after multiple crises?

05:20 How can a retailer use their online presence to support their high street store?

07:10 Consumer spend – What tactics should retailers use?

11:34 How should advertising programmes change in 2023?

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Validated quality trumps Brand Equity

New research from Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community reveals the impact of inflation on consumer shopping habits ahead of Christmas. As purse strings tighten amid rising inflation, the research reveals that British consumers are most willing to splash the cash on quality skincare and cosmetics.

The squeeze caused by the cost-of-living crisis means that in the run-up to Christmas over two-thirds of UK consumers say their shopping habits have been affected by inflation (68%), with almost all Brits actively price-matching to get the best deals (98%). Despite many retailers celebrating their biggest Black Friday sales ever, a third of consumers felt under pressure to make the most of the sales events in order to get the best deals (34%).

Paying for quality

In a further effort to cut costs, half of Brits have also been choosing to purchase more private labelled products (48%) in recent months, with greater emphasis on the quality of a product versus the brand name. 

Almost 4 in 5 consumers agree that the quality of a product is most likely to convince them to pay more for a purchase (79%), far ahead of the product’s brand name (31%) or even whether it’s cruelty-free or eco-friendly (23%). This is particularly important for the self-care categories, with skincare (77%), cosmetics (71%) and haircare (66%) the top three categories British consumers are willing to pay more for, followed by homeware (46%) and apparel (33%).

The gift of loyalty

Whilst brand name alone is not enough to convince the majority of consumers to pay more for a product, almost a third of consumers would consider themselves to be brand loyal (29%), with over half willing to pay more for a product that has become their “go-to” choice following a good previous experience (58%). 

We’re in the final stretch before Christmas now and many consumers will be in panic mode. They will be comparing the quality of items and looking for easy ways to justify the amount of money being spent on gifts. Moreover, selecting an item of quality that is appreciated by the recipient has the potential to create a future loyal customer.

User-generated content is a fantastic way for consumers to validate their decisions prior to purchase; over three quarters of consumers find UGC the most influential reference point when shopping. What’s more, the availability of great first-hand reviews and previous customer photos will not only convince them to buy, but would influence almost half of consumers to pay more for that product.

– Ed Hill, SVP EMEA, Bazaarvoice

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Five tips to avoiding excess stock this Christmas

With a very challenging Christmas trading period this year, Vladi Shlesman, Managing Director EMEA of ChannelAdvisor, share five tips to avoiding excess stock this Christmas:

Correctly stocking products is not an exact science. Last year, following on from the pandemic, many retailers struggled with supply chain issues, a rise in fuel prices and lack of delivery drivers. This resulted in the dreaded out-of-stock stickers and empty shelves leaving many customers disappointed. This year however, the pendulum has swung in the other direction, with some figures estimating UK businesses had £2.8bn worth of excess products to sell in 2022.   

A pile up of stock may occur for a variety of reasons, but in the current climate, with a potential global recession and a cost of living crisis, this is more of a concern than usual as consumers are more frugal with their spending. 

Additionally, as retailers prepare for Christmas, another problem many will deal with in the aftermath and going into the New Year, is the excess of unsold and returned stock. While Boxing Day sales will move a lot of this inventory, retailers should prepare to be a bit more creative with ways to reduce surplus stock. 

So what are some ways retailers can manage their excess inventory? Whilst there isn’t one strategy that will work for all, there are some which have proven to be useful.

Pay attention to your paid search

Stating the blindingly obvious, the best way to deal with excess stock is to sell it. Paid search is an important part of the marketing mix and in order to get the most out of your paid search campaigns, you should experiment with new keywords to find the right selection which fits both your budget and profit margins. There are some key pieces of advice that you should follow to maximise your investment: 

Don’t blow your budget on key selling days. Customers shop around for deals in the days and weeks surrounding sales, so advertise your promotions around excess products then. If you avoid the peak selling days, your ads will have less competition and prices will be lower so reaching them will be more cost-effective. 

It is also crucial to properly segment your products in order to advertise them effectively. You can do this by using Google Merchant Promotions and separate them into appropriate product categories. 

In addition, make sure you customise your feed to specific product sets. You can use Google and Bing feeds to flag high inventory product sets and plan your campaigns accordingly.

Expand your marketplace reach

Consider tapping into international markets, but only if you can still be profitable. It has become more of a challenge for UK retailers since Brexit as the additional burden of customs declarations and import taxes has made it a less attractive option. Using global options within the platforms you already use may be a good way to test the water. For example, Amazon and eBay have global selling and shipping programmes which you can use to trade globally to consumers who are using these platforms.

Another way to expand your reach is by starting on a new marketplace. ChannelAdvisor’s Commerce Network allows sellers and channels to discover and connect with one another, so you can find a channel that is looking for products like yours.

Focus on fulfilment

Improving your fulfilment is a long term strategy. But, in addition to discounts, new channels and advertising, you should make sure your fulfilment approach is attractive to customers. You may consider lowering your threshold for free delivery, or using data to guide delivery pricing and working with a third-party logistics provider (3PL). These changes can increase efficiency, cut costs and potentially enable you to pass savings onto customers. CommerceHub Delivery Suite not only improves Last-Mile delivery efficiency and cost reduction, it can also enhance Customer Experience as part of your longer term strategy.

Bundle items

Sell complementary items as a bundle or try a kitting technique like “buy one, get one free” to move more product. This not only helps you shift inventory, but provides  customers with better value for money. 

Get social

Boost visibility by promoting deals and new bundles on all your social media channels, especially Instagram and TikTok. According to ChannelAdvisor’s 2022 Online Consumer Behavior survey, 55% of 18-25-year-old US shoppers have discovered products they’ve purchased on social media in the past 12 months.  

A smooth shopping experience is key to driving sales when using social channels to promote product.  You may want to consider eliminating friction by using a shoppable media solution to get customers to a shoppable channel as quickly and easily as possible.

It may prove to be a matter of trial and error and finding out which advertising strategies work for your business, but there are a variety of options for reducing excess stock. You could even consider gifting excess products as part of your marketing if sales strategies don’t prove successful.

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Retail Trends 2023: What consumers want

Consumer research platform Attest have published their Retail Trends for 2023, and perhaps the most interesting is the prediction that Amazon may falter in the New Year. That’s not totally a surprise with 10,000 worldwide layoffs predicted for the marketplace, but it is a sign that the start of 2023 will be an extremely tough trading period for retailers.

Divided sentiment amongst consumers for 2023

The data reveals that a slim majority of British consumers (46%) are feeling positive ahead of 2023; by contrast, 30% feel negative as they head into the New Year.

Key findings for the retail industry include:

1. Shoppers pull back on spending plans for 2023; energy bills cause biggest worry:

●      When quizzed on how they’re spending money going into the new year, most (at 61%) are pulling back, while 18% say they are spending “freely” instead. This new data highlights the changes from last year: there has been a 10.2 point increase in “fairly cautious” spending and a 9.1 point increase in “very cautious” spending.

●      Meanwhile, unaffordable energy bills were by far the biggest issue (at 59%) worrying Britons for next year. This was followed far behind by the war in Ukraine (7%) and increases in petrol prices (6%).

2. Eight in ten Britons say their diets have been impacted by price rises for food:

●      83% of shoppers say that the rising cost of food is having an impact on their diet. Of this 83%, a fifth (21%) say such rapid price rises are having a “big” effect.

●      The top issue cited is being able to afford to eat out (at 38%). This is followed by difficulty in affording fresh meat, fruit and vegetables (36%) and 35% being unable to stretch their budgets to buy preferred brands.

3. Older shoppers are returning to stores, while Amazon may struggle next year:

●      Despite having less money to spend, consumers aren’t going to the shops any less frequently. The research finds a 6.2 point increase in people shopping “daily” and “weekly”, to 65%.

●      And while the pandemic increased adoption of online shopping among older consumers, Boomers are returning to the high street. Over 40% of Boomers say they now “mostly or always” shop in-store. Younger shoppers, on the other hand, still favour online: 47.2% of Gen Z and 49.7% of Millennials “mostly or always” shop online.

●      Even ecommerce juggernaut Amazon doesn’t appear to be immune from Britons’ tighter budgets; Attest’s data finds a net -5.9% of Brits plan to shop less on the marketplace in 2023.

4. Rampant consumerism is going out of fashion, with discount shopping on the rise:

●      Frugality is cool for 2023; 40% of consumers say they are buying fewer things and consuming less – that’s an 8.5 point increase from last year.

●      Meanwhile, 44% of consumers will sell their unwanted goods, meaning the pre-loved market could be booming next year.

●      Shopping at charity and discount stores will also be a big trend in 2023, with 35% of consumers saying they’ll be hunting for a bargain in these shops to combat the rising cost of living.

●      The environmental effects of fast fashion have been in the spotlight lately and it seems to have had an impact also. A net -23.5% of consumers say they will buy fewer fast fashion items in 2023.

As we enter the new year, Attest’s research finds the British consumer in an important and high-value state of flux. 61% of Britons are pulling back on their overall spending, affecting everything from where and how they shop to what they eat.

Changes to fundamental behaviours are afoot also. Frugality is on the spectrum between necessary and contemporary. This research paints a picture of consumers trying to react to worsening economic conditions – with tectonic shifts in expectations, perceptions, channels and value – meaning brands now more than ever need to be on top of the changing needs and wants of consumers to succeed.

– Jeremy King, CEO and Founder, Attest

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