Top 3 technologies that will boost your e-commerce platform, Monogo E-commerce News #56
I assume you already have an e-commerce platform
I assume that you already have an e-commerce platform that you are using and know its capabilities. This means that you have been working on it long enough that e-commerce is seen as a necessity rather than a test in your business.
What's more, the results indicate that interest in this channel is growing, so your organisation is ready to make the investment to grow or, in other words, scale this business. There are no counter-indications or inhibiting forces to introduce new business and technical opportunities.
The reason I am writing about this is trivial but crucial. If your organisation is not yet ready for the next step in e-commerce, it will be difficult to focus on the true value of what you want to introduce.
Today I'm building on a few simple assumptions:
- bringing traffic to YOUR e-commerce site
- increasing conversions -> e-commerce growth
- faster response, faster action, better scalability
I'm keeping my fingers crossed and here we go!
Grow e-commerce through content
You probably got here from a search engine, or from a social network. I assume, in all probability. And it all started with making a strategic decision and betting on content.
We noticed that content was the most effective way to bring in traffic, so we decided to publish regularly. These publications do not work immediately like paid advertising. But they do have one very important advantage.
This advantage is that once indexed by search engines, the link and the content stay regardless of the budget we have for paid advertising. In fact, you don't need to have any paid advertising to see increases in traffic. Of course, we recommend that you have paid advertising so that you don't think we are preaching heresy!
Back on topic, the content you can publish depends on your preferences and what your visitors will be reading. It could be tutorials, a blog, creative ways to fix customer problems with your offering. We always recommend trying different forms and topics.
But what technology supports the creation and publication process? CMS (Content Management System) class systems come to the rescue. They have a set of tools for content development, approval workflow and publication. They provide editing capabilities for non-technical people.
Because of this, it is possible to assume collaboration on content between people from different departments. This opens up new possibilities for creating truly diverse content. At Monogo, we recommend the headless CMS builder.io. It is a relatively fresh platform, but one that is developing very rapidly.
This development gives us confidence in our implementations, so we are increasingly bold in proposing new and very creative uses for this headless CMS builder.io.
Grow e-commerce through targeting/personalisation
There is a lot of talk about personalisation, but for those companies that haven't started yet this topic can seem a little abstract. To help us discuss it further I will use a very simple example.
Let's assume that you own a shoe shop. You have both men's and women's shoes in your range. In this situation, if you don't already have personalisation I suggest you start with 1 segment. Divide your customers into men and women.
Segmentation
So what is a segment. In simplest terms, it is a group or category. It can be very 'atomic', i.e. not complex, like men and women. It can also be complex. Women between the ages of 27 and 42, living in urban areas with more than 100 000 inhabitants.
Looking at this composite segment, if it comes out of your analytics that it is worth targeting special content to this group, this segment then it should be done. But remember, segments are not invented, segments come out of analytics.
CDP/CRM
With a segment in place, the next step is a system where segments can be defined and customers can be automatically categorised based on their behaviour or where they come from. A system that allows you to build a customer profile and enrich it at subsequent stages is the CDP (Customer Data Platform).
In an online business, the search can not only be directed towards the CDP, but you can also look around for a CRM. At Monogo we use Zoho CRM, it is a mature platform that allows you to build a 360 profile and then share information with other systems.
These systems can consume this information and perform personalisation. Looking through our example. In an online shop, at the registration stage you can retrieve information about the customer's gender. This information can be synchronised with the CRM. Information about visits and pages viewed can also be synchronised with the CRM.
This information can then be used in a CMS, e-commerce platform or personalisation engine to deliver personalised content. The previously mentioned headless CMS builder.io provides such out of the box capabilities. But if there is no builder, nothing happens. Magento (Adobe Commerce), can also deliver personalised content.
So to the arsenal of an e-commerce engine, comes CSM and CRM. You now have an ocean of possibilities when it comes to working with customers. And you've got more and more customers, it's time to look at scaling in the service of buyers.
Grow e-commerce through AI
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a curiosity. It's a real arsenal of tools that can be used in different areas of e-commerce. We are talking about both those who are just visiting, those who are looking for answers to questions and those who have already bought.
Segmentation and SEO using AI
Let's start with those who are just visiting your shop. With high volumes of visitors to your e-commerce site, it's worth considering AI models for automated segmentation. These can be based on customer behaviour, what they are looking at, what pattern they have of going through the site.
Another example could be the use of AI in content creation at the topic preparation and structure stage. The Frase tool allows better planning using AI models and access to search engine data.
Media optimisation using AI
Once a customer has entered a website it is worthwhile for those pages to load quickly for them. And if I don't want to focus on page generation speed alone today, I want to draw your attention to the media. Images and videos, if unoptimised, can effectively slow down the shop display.
And a slow display of the shop page means a worse User Experience. That's why, at Monogo, we have developed an AI model to optimise this media to achieve images and videos with the least impact on quality. This makes the pages load faster.
Self service using AI
And once the customer has bought it is worth considering self service based on the AI model. Before the customer connects with your customer service, they can try a chatbot that addresses most of the common buyer concerns. This could be tracking shipments, accessing a claim form, etc. etc.
I note that I don't know what your use case is. But surely the BOK knows what are typical and simple problems with customers. Can't they be addressed by a machine?
At least 10% growth
These 3 platforms/technologies: CMS, CRM/CDP and AI will certainly contribute to the growth of your e-commerce business. Of this he is certain. I think it will be at least 10%. 10% faster growth compared to the competition is quite a lot.