Nicola Martin, Insight & Brand Building Specialist, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board
Despite our hopes to have a Covid free Winter, we are faced with the realisation that lockdowns and level changes are almost as likely as Christmas Pudding this year!
With that in mind, there is a strong possibility that this Christmas will see consumers shop online like never before. Already, 2020 has seen many Irish food, drink and horticulture businesses rapidly pivot towards e-commerce and many more are in the process of doing so.
According to Kantar, the popularity of online grocery shopping in Ireland continues, and online sales grew by 121.7% last month. This represents another month of record-breaking growth for the online channel.
Since March, through Bord Bia’s Think Digital programme we have seen many clients move towards e-commerce and we’ve seen many common challenges and opportunities emerge.
The below list captures five considerations that might be useful if you are in the process of setting up an online store, if you are trying to increase your online sales or if your 2021 New Year’s Resolution is to sell your products online.
1. Switching on the store can often be the easy part
With many user-friendly e-commerce platforms like WooCommerce & Shopify, technically setting up an online store can often be the easy part. However, before you flick the switch and start selling online, it is very important that you determine the logistics and distribution model that best suits your business. It is important you consider how the online store will integrate with your existing stock management software, so you can ensure seamless fulfillment for your consumers.
Will you manage delivery internally or do you need a delivery partner and are they equipped to safely handle your produce? Are your shipping and delivery terms competitive? Will you charge shipping costs or will you absorb these to offer a value-add to your consumers? For example, if your consumer spends over a certain threshold you might absorb the costs of shipping. If you decide to do so, remember to communicate this message prominently on your store before consumers get to the shopping cart in order to reduce cart abandonment.
Take the time to work out these logistics in advance to avoid problems further down the line.
2. How are you getting people to your online store?
It requires a lot of time and effort to develop an online store and e-commerce offering. However, it can be very disappointing when the store goes live and sales are slow to take off. Unfortunately, the hard work doesn’t end when the shop goes live but when done right, it can be very rewarding.
It is necessary to consider acquisition as part of your e-commerce strategy. How are you going to notify new and existing consumers about your online store? Remember, you can market your new e-commerce store both online & offline. If you’re fortunate enough to have a physical store, you can use this to direct consumers online. You might also consider updating your packaging to notify consumers that they can now shop online. Simple techniques like editing your URL on your company Instagram page and updating your press releases with the URL can also have a positive impact.
Like the rest of your site, your e-commerce store needs to be optimised for SEO. Action words such as ‘Buy Meat online / Order Fresh Flowers Today / Shop food hampers’ should all be applied to your SEO title tags where relevant. You may have the ability to do this in the backend of your website, or you might need to work with your developer. This practice is necessary to ensure your store ranks well on Google and people can easily find your shop.
You will likely need to budget a portion of your advertising spend to direct people to your online store. You can use various online advertising methods to drive the right people to your shop. Social Media advertising campaigns and/or Google Search Ad campaigns can be effective ways of driving traffic to your site, but ensure you have a clear understanding of your target audience and their online shopping behaviours in order to achieve maximum results.
3. Does your shop integrate with your overall website?
Once you have established an online shop, do a thorough review of your website overall before you go live. It is not enough to simply add a ‘Shop’ tab to the navigation bar in your website. Consider your homepage, is there an opportunity to hero your new shop here? Use buttons and strong call to actions to drive people to the new area of your website. If you have product pages on your website, can you update these with ‘Buy Now’ buttons to drive more people to the shop?
Most importantly, ensure that your website and shop is mobile optimised. Before you go live, test your shopping experience on mobile. According to Oberlo.com, two out of every three dollars spent on online purchases today is done so through a mobile device. This mobile commerce growth is forecast to continue and reach 72.9 percent by 2021 – making up nearly three quarters of overall ecommerce sales. Make sure you are ready for this by ensuring a seamless journey for your mobile consumers.
4. How is your shop performing?
One of the benefits of having your own e-commerce store is that you have sight of real-time data on your store’s performance. When you set up your shop, make sure you link it with your Google Analytics. This is not necessarily going to happen automatically so you may need to ask your web developer to ensure this is set up correctly for you. The second thing to set up are goals within your Google Analytics. Goals such as ‘Added to Cart’, ‘Purchased’ etc. are very important. This will allow you to see how your shop is performing and what channels are driving the most conversions. You might find that your Facebook ads are driving a lot of traffic to your store but your Instagram ads might be delivering a higher conversion rate. When you have this information you can revisit your social advertising strategy accordingly and up-weight budget to the channels that are most effective. If you are running Google Search ads, similarly you will be able to see what campaigns are driving the best ROI for your business. You should be checking this regularly and adapting your advertising spend and marketing efforts accordingly.
5. How do you get consumers to return to your shop?
Once a consumer buys from you, how do you ensure they return in the future? Email capture is an important part of this process. Ensure you are giving your consumers an opportunity to ‘Opt-In’ to email marketing during the checkout process. This will guarantee a direct communication channel with your consumers post purchase. By using email marketing you can send your consumers regular updates, special offers, bundles etc. You might consider offering an incentive like 10% off or Free Shipping on their next order if they subscribe to your newsletter.
Another way to retarget consumers is through the use of a Facebook pixel. By installing this on your website you can advertise on Facebook & Instagram to consumers that have been on your website before and have taken a specific action. For example, you might run a Facebook advertising campaign to consumers that were on your website previously and added products to the cart but didn’t complete a purchase. You might consider content that will incentivise them to return to your site and buy. This could be a discount code, a Flash-Sale message, or Free-Shipping offer. Similarly, you might want to advertise to consumers that have purchased from your site previously. You might consider serving these consumers with ads after a certain time period specifically designed to encourage them to return to your store. E.g. content promoting new products, special offers, new Christmas bundles, etc. If you have a subscription model, this might also be useful retargeting content to share with this audience.
By using the Pixel you can be confident that you are speaking to consumers that have shown an interest in your brand/product as they’ve been on the site before and therefore are at a different stage of the buyer journey, which will hopefully result in a successful conversion for your business.
There are many factors to consider when moving to e-commerce, but ultimately it provides you with a direct to consumer channel for your brand. As we continue to see the e-commerce space grow and develop there’s much opportunity for innovation and differentiation online. Hopefully the above will help you get started on the journey!
For more information on how to drive success online, you might like to view the Think Digital resources on the Bord Bia website. We’ve a range of webinars and guides designed to help you set-up for success.
