Gaurav Pant, Chief Insights Officer of Incisiv, recently shared his outlook for the retail industry with the Cloudinary team, specifically as it relates to digital retail transformation.
You only have to be a consumer to know that digital has dramatically transformed the consumer buyer journey. It stopped being linear and location-based a long time ago. So what can retailers do to deliver the kinds of digital experiences that today’s consumers have come to expect?
Through insights from shoppers, senior business and technology decision makers and innovative retail enterprise benchmarks, Pant presented the Cloudinary team with an annual reference guide analyzing retailers’ digital presence and how it links to metrics like traffic, conversion and overall impact.
Here are a few key takeaways from Pant’s informative webinar and highlight what Pant says retailers should do to improve experience and drive site conversion.
Reimagine the Core
Retailers and brands are innovating new services and experiences. They’ve created entirely new business models based on offering shoppers infinite choice. Pant explains that because of this, retailers, no matter how established or new, have to evolve and develop new revenue models that attract today’s shopper.
To achieve this, retailers are reimagining different parts of the business, such as experimenting with AR and VR on existing eCommerce sites. Personalization is also a critical organizational muscle that retailers must build or retrain by bringing the content and context together to drive conversion — a big deal especially in the apparel industry.
All in all, retailers must innovate in this digital age. Pant says, “The core execution engine of the enterprise will be ‘digital’ — supporting both business transactions and intelligent insights.”
Deliver Optimized Media
In its “Digital Commerce Benchmark 2019” report, Incisiv identified specific opportunities for retailers to unlock the true value of eCommerce. The firm looked at the top 200 U.S. retailer sites across eight retail segments to find what features were present on each site and how well they correlate with site traffic, conversion rate, time spent on site and average order value.
What Incisiv found is that while retailers have the table stakes covered, they are far from being exceptional. For example, they only scored in the medium maturity range on average for product listing page and product display page. While the current maturity rate might be low, retailers can go above and beyond by focusing on areas with the highest impact on conversion.
One element that brands can focus on is delivering optimized media to engage and convert, including images, texts, videos and social channels. Additionally, retailers can engage shoppers right on the home page by focusing beyond just products and promotions. Incisiv found that a site with an engaging home page generates 60% more page views and has a higher correlation to conversion.
Media management is a successful conversion driver, and by displaying great content, retailers can unlock greater value and prioritize its digital focus.
For more insights, visit their website. And if you’re interested in learning how Cloudinary can help you better connect with your audiences, contact us today to request a demo.
