Introduction
In the fast-paced world of retail, understanding what your competitors are doing can give you a significant edge. Monitoring your competition isn’t just about staying ahead—it’s about learning what’s working for them, what you can avoid, and how to refine your strategy. Here are 12 smart ways to spy on your competitors and optimize your retail business.
Tools like SimilarWeb and Alexa give you insights into your competitors’ web traffic, user engagement, and top referral sources.
Cost:
Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or SpyFu help you discover which keywords your competitors rank for and how their SEO strategy is structured.
Tools like Hootsuite or Sprout Social allow you to track your competitors’ social media performance.
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Sign up for your competitors’ newsletters and email campaigns. Analyze how often they send promotions, what their messaging looks like, and how they position their products.
With tools like Prisync, you can monitor competitors’ pricing and adjust your own strategy in real-time.
Analyze their blogs, guides, videos, and other content using BuzzSumo to find their top-performing content by shares and engagement.
Tools like AdBeat and Moat allow you to see where competitors are placing ads and how they perform.
Use Trustpilot, Yelp, and Google Reviews to gauge customer sentiment around your competitors’ products.
Regularly review your competitors’ product catalogs. This allows you to keep tabs on what’s new and trending in the market.
Follow partnerships and collaborations that your competitors engage in. This could include sponsored content, influencer collaborations, or strategic business alliances.
Tools like Hotjar and Crazy Egg allow you to track user behavior on competitors’ websites.
All-in-one tools like Crayon and Kompyte offer real-time competitive insights, including product launches, pricing shifts, and press releases.
Conclusion
Spying on your competitors is less about copying them and more about learning what’s working, what’s not, and where you can differentiate. By applying these 12 methods, you’ll gain a clear understanding of how to stay competitive in the ever-changing retail world.
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2 min read August 28, 2024
154 SHARES & 1.1K READS
Introduction
In an ever-evolving digital landscape, the retail sector is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to gain a competitive edge. As we approach the 2024 holiday shopping season, which is notably shorter than usual, AI has become a critical tool for retailers to adapt swiftly to consumer trends and optimize their operations. This guide explores the latest AI innovations introduced by Google for retailers and provides actionable insights on how businesses can leverage these tools to maximize their success during the crucial holiday period and beyond.
The Importance of AI in Retail
AI is transforming the retail industry by enabling businesses to analyze vast amounts of data, predict consumer behavior, and automate various processes. This transformation is particularly vital during the holiday season, where retailers face increased pressure to meet consumer demands within a compressed timeframe.
Key AI Features for Retailers in 2024
Google has recently unveiled several AI-powered features designed to help retailers navigate the shortened 2024 holiday shopping season. These features aim to enhance efficiency, improve decision-making, and ultimately drive sales. Below is a detailed look at these features and how they can benefit your business:
The Strategic Importance of AI for the Shortened 2024 Holiday Season
The 2024 holiday shopping season presents unique challenges, with only 26 days between Black Friday and Christmas, compared to 32 days in 2023. This condensed timeline necessitates a more agile approach to retail operations. AI-powered tools from Google can help retailers stay ahead of the curve by providing real-time data, automating key processes, and enabling more precise targeting of consumers.
Why These AI Tools Matter
How to Implement AI Tools in Your Retail Strategy
Looking Ahead: The Future of AI in Retail
As AI technology continues to evolve, its impact on the retail industry is likely to grow. Retailers who embrace AI today will be better positioned to navigate future challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities. Google’s AI tools are just the beginning—retailers should be prepared to explore and integrate other AI innovations as they emerge.
Conclusion
AI is no longer a futuristic concept but a present-day necessity for retailers aiming to thrive in a competitive market. By adopting the AI tools outlined in this guide, retailers can enhance their operational efficiency, improve customer acquisition, and ultimately drive greater profitability. As the 2024 holiday shopping season approaches, now is the time to implement these strategies and ensure your retail business is ready to meet the demands of the season.
As we reach the midpoint in 2024, the digital marketing landscape is rapidly evolving, with personalization at its core. It’s no longer just about engaging customers—it’s about creating tailored experiences that resonate on a personal level. Consumers want to feel like their favorite brands know them, understand them, and care about them as individuals. Studies consistently show that consumers are even willing to pay a premium for such personalized experiences.
A groundbreaking study by McKinsey reveals the immense potential of personalization: slashing customer acquisition costs by up to 50%, boosting revenues by 5 to 15%, and enhancing marketing ROI by 10 to 30%. These figures highlight why personalization is not just beneficial but essential in the modern marketing playbook.
Personalization’s impact is far-reaching, spanning email campaigns, social media, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and search engine optimization (SEO). In every aspect of digital marketing, personalization is key to connecting deeply with your audience.
Imagine this scenario: you’re browsing on your phone and a pair of shoes catches your eye. You decide to make an impulse purchase and log on to the retailer’s site. However, at checkout, the retailer fails to apply your rewards number or any of the deals advertised that day. Knowing there are savings to be had but short on time, you abandon the cart. Another sale lost due to a lack of personalization.
According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), nearly $400 billion is at stake in U.S. retail, projected to go to the 15% of companies that excel in marketing personalization. We collaborated with BCG on a study involving 300 retail marketers and 2,000 consumers to quantify the business impact of personalization and evaluate the investment opportunity. Additional research was conducted to better understand consumer expectations from personalized experience.
Over half of U.S. consumers express interest in personalized content when shopping. They are comfortable sharing their information if they perceive value in return. A study fielded with Ipsos highlighted that shoppers value experiences that:
Save Time: 80% of global shoppers prioritize efficiency, wanting seamless experiences that facilitate quick engagement and purchases.
Offer Value: 87% of global shoppers emphasize the importance of knowing they got a good deal when choosing a brand or retailer.
Provide Relevant Recommendations: 62% of global shoppers appreciate receiving product or service recommendations without having to search for them.
Retailers that effectively deliver personalized experiences are seeing substantial gains in revenue and brand perception. Customers are more than twice as likely to add items to their basket and 40% more likely to spend more than planned when experiences are highly personalized. Additionally, these retailers receive a 20% higher net promoter score (NPS), indicating a higher likelihood that customers will recommend their products or services.
Despite the clear benefits, many businesses lag in delivering the personalized experiences customers expect. According to BCG, “most SMBs are nowhere close to delivering the personalized experiences that their customers expect.” For example, a significant 85% of retailers acknowledge that their companies are not excelling in personalization. Currently, retailers invest an average of only 0.7% of their revenue in personalization, while best-in-class retailers invest 30% more. The average retailer plans to increase their personalization investment by 18% through 2024, whereas top-performing retailers aim for a 30% increase, likely widening the performance gap.
In this era, leveraging data, artificial intelligence (AI), and continual testing isn’t an option—it’s a necessity. Personalization is the cornerstone of not only capturing but also retaining customer attention. This is true for retailers, SMBs, B2B Marketing, and B2C Marketing.
Effective personalization begins with understanding your audience. Segmenting customers based on demographics, behaviors, and preferences allows for targeted, impactful campaigns. This specificity leads to increased relevance and higher conversion rates, as each message is tailored to resonate with a distinct audience segment.
Dynamic content that adapts to user behavior creates a unique, personalized experience. This approach ensures that your content remains engaging, increasing user interaction and retention.
Emails personalized based on a user’s history and interactions foster a deeper sense of connection. Such personalized communication can significantly improve open and click-through rates, leading to enhanced customer loyalty.
Leverage AI to offer product or content recommendations that align with individual preferences. This strategy not only enhances the user experience but also increases sales and customer satisfaction by offering relevant suggestions.
Design user journeys that cater to different segments of your audience. A well-tailored journey through your digital landscape ensures a more enjoyable and seamless experience, positively impacting brand perception.
Set up automated marketing responses to specific customer behaviors, such as abandoned carts. Timely and relevant interactions can drastically improve conversion rates and recapture potential lost sales.
Use retargeting strategies to present ads that reflect users’ past interactions with your brand. Personalized retargeting leads to higher engagement rates and a more effective allocation of ad spending.
Personalize the user experience based on accumulated data, making each visit more engaging and rewarding. This approach can lead to increased site engagement and overall customer satisfaction.
Actively collect and utilize customer feedback to refine and enhance personalization efforts. This feedback loop ensures that personalization strategies continually evolve to meet and exceed customer expectations.
Consistently analyze the effectiveness of your personalization strategies. Regular refinement and adjustment ensure that these strategies remain effective, innovative, and in line with evolving customer needs and market trends.
This year marks a new era in digital marketing, with personalization at the forefront. By embracing these strategies, businesses can provide unparalleled customer experiences, driving growth and building enduring relationships.
At Sapient eCommerce, we are dedicated to helping you navigate this journey, ensuring that your marketing strategies are not just current but ahead of the curve. Contact us today to get your personalization on point!
In the ever-evolving world of SEO, staying ahead requires not just awareness but actionable strategies. Let’s dive deeper into each section of SEO trends for 2024, providing you with detailed insights and hands-on techniques to elevate your online presence.
Understanding the historical evolution of SEO is crucial for devising effective strategies that align with the ever-changing digital landscape. From its early days of simple keyword matching in the 1990s, SEO has undergone a remarkable transformation. The strategies have evolved beyond keyword reliance, now encompassing intricate algorithms that prioritize elements such as user intent, mobile optimization, and overall site usability.
This section delves into the journey of SEO, highlighting the shift towards a more sophisticated approach that adapts to the nuanced requirements of modern search engines.
Actionable Tip: Conduct a comprehensive audit of your website’s historical SEO strategies.
How-To: Identify outdated practices and update your approach to align with modern SEO requirements.
Recognizing the pivotal importance of staying informed, this section delves into the compelling reasons behind the need to keep abreast of SEO trends. From effectively navigating algorithm changes and outpacing competitors in the dynamic digital landscape to prioritizing enhanced user experience and adapting to evolving user behavior, staying updated is indispensable. This proactive approach ensures not only a competitive edge but also sets the foundation for driving sustained business growth in the ever-evolving realm of SEO.
Actionable Tip: Set up Google Alerts for industry-specific keywords.
How-To: Regularly review alerts to stay updated on the latest news and trends in your niche.
Recognizing that technical SEO serves as the backbone of your overall strategy, this section delves into key technical aspects for 2024. Explore imperative facets such as voice search compatibility, the significance of mobile-first indexing, enhancing user experience, and the crucial role of establishing expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) to foster authority and credibility. Unveiling the technical intricacies aligns your approach with contemporary SEO requirements, ensuring a foundation that optimally supports success in the evolving digital landscape.
Actionable Tip: Conduct a mobile-friendliness test using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool.
How-To: Make necessary adjustments to ensure your site is mobile-friendly, considering factors like responsive design and fast loading times.
Delving into the foundational elements of SEO, this section explores the evolving landscape with a specific focus on two crucial trends: the ascent of interactive content and the emergence of zero search volume (ZSV) keywords. The exploration sheds light on these transformative trends, challenging conventional approaches to keyword targeting and paving the way for innovative strategies in the ever-evolving realm of search engine optimization.
Actionable Tip: Incorporate interactive elements like quizzes or polls in your content.
How-To: Use tools like Typeform or PollDaddy to create engaging interactive content and track user responses.
Unveiling the transformative potential of AI and Machine Learning on SEO strategies, this section delves into the multifaceted impact of these technologies. Explore their role in providing in-depth keyword insights, reshaping content creation processes, optimizing on-page elements, and enhancing overall user experience. Understanding how to harness the power of AI and ML becomes imperative for navigating the dynamic search landscape, ensuring your SEO approach aligns seamlessly with the advancements in technology and user expectations.
Actionable Tip: Explore AI-driven content creation tools like OpenAI’s GPT-3.
How-To: Experiment with AI-generated content for blog intros or social media posts and measure audience engagement.
Recognizing the central role of user experience and engagement in achieving SEO success, this section delves into key trends that contribute to enhancing UX. Explore the significance of visual appeal in content, the importance of intuitive navigation, the strategic use of compelling calls to action, and the integration of user testing and feedback. These trends form a cohesive strategy, creating a positive feedback loop that not only improves the overall user experience but also positively influences SEO rankings in a dynamic and competitive digital landscape.
Actionable Tip: Conduct A/B testing on your website’s call-to-action buttons.
How-To: Analyze user interactions and tweak button design, placement, or wording based on the more successful variation.
Customizing your SEO strategies for both local and international success is crucial. In this section, gain insights into optimizing Google Business Profiles, maintaining a well-optimized website, and adapting to the evolving landscape with the rise of voice search, the dominance of video content, and the critical role of online reputation management. Tailoring your approach to the specific nuances of local and global audiences ensures a comprehensive strategy that aligns with the diverse requirements of different markets, optimizing your digital presence for maximum impact and visibility.
Actionable Tip: Optimize your Google My Business profile with accurate information.
How-To: Regularly update business hours, add fresh content, and encourage positive reviews to enhance local SEO.
Embarking on ethical link-building practices requires a comprehensive understanding of key trends that take center stage. This section emphasizes the critical components of ethical link-building, placing a significant focus on prioritizing quality over quantity. Explore the transformative impact of AI in streamlining processes, the adherence to user experience standards, the strategic approach to brand building, the integration of personalization, and the significance of maintaining diverse backlink profiles. Implementing these ethical link-building strategies ensures not only compliance with industry best practices but also sets the foundation for building sustainable and authoritative online presence.
Actionable Tip: Identify reputable websites in your industry for potential collaboration.
How-To: Reach out to these sites with a personalized pitch, emphasizing the mutual benefits of linking to each other’s content.
Pro Tip: Monitor your backlink profile regularly using tools like Majestic or Ahrefs to ensure ethical practices and avoid association with spammy or low-quality sites.
Empowering your SEO strategy requires staying ahead with cutting-edge tools. In this section, discover the potential of keyword research platforms, leverage the capabilities of on-page SEO plugins, harness the insights from backlink analysis tools, and utilize analytics platforms. These tools are invaluable, providing actionable insights and optimizing your website’s performance to seamlessly align with the latest SEO practices. Understanding how to effectively utilize these tools positions your strategy at the forefront of the evolving digital landscape, ensuring a competitive edge and sustained success in the dynamic realm of search engine optimization.
Actionable Tip: Explore the features of on-page SEO plugins like Yoast SEO.
How-To: Implement suggestions made by the plugin to optimize individual pages for search engines.
Pro Tip: Regularly update your SEO tools and stay informed about new features and functionalities they introduce to stay ahead of the curve.
Anticipating and preparing for the future of SEO is paramount. In this section, gaze into upcoming trends that will shape the digital landscape, including the ascent of voice search, the expanding role of AI, heightened emphasis on mobile optimization, the central stage for localized SEO, the essential nature of video optimization, personalization reaching new heights, the ongoing impact of social media, and the emergence of visual search. Understanding and adapting to these future trends positions your SEO strategy to not just survive but thrive in the ever-evolving digital environment, ensuring your online presence remains at the forefront of innovation and relevance.
Actionable Tip: Start experimenting with optimizing content for voice search.
How-To: Identify key phrases that align with conversational queries and incorporate them naturally into your content.
Pro Tip: Explore schema markup to provide search engines with additional context about your content, enhancing its visibility in voice search results.
In summary, achieving mastery in SEO trends for 2024 extends beyond mere understanding—it hinges on actionable implementation. Utilize the actionable tips and in-depth How-Tos provided in this comprehensive guide to effectively navigate the intricate world of SEO. Consider this guide as your indispensable roadmap, offering the knowledge and strategies necessary not only to stay ahead but also to thrive in the dynamic and competitive digital landscape. By incorporating these insights into your approach, you pave the way for driving meaningful results and securing a robust online presence.
Discovering the True Timelines of SEO Success
Ever wondered about the real timeline for SEO to show results? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ongoing process where you enhance your website’s visibility on search engines. The time it takes to witness the impact of SEO efforts varies, typically ranging from three to six months. However, the duration can be influenced by several factors specific to your website.
When delving into SEO, many focus on rankings, particularly aiming for that coveted number 1 spot. Yet, achieving top rankings involves various factors that aren’t always easy to control. Despite the challenges, investing time and resources in SEO should lead to an increase in your website traffic, especially in the organic search category.
Let’s delve into the data to gain a clearer understanding of the actual timelines for SEO results.
Organic Search Data: We closely monitor over 100 million domains from an SEO perspective. Among these, slightly over 1 million have granted us direct access to their analytics. Of these, 42,391 are actively committed to SEO, consistently producing new content, optimizing code, growing backlinks, and refining other strategies to boost organic search traffic.
Here’s a breakdown of what happened to their traffic over time:
This visual graph provides a summarized view:
It’s important to note that this data is an average, and individual results can vary significantly. To understand outliers, the top 1% of sites growing the fastest were examined, revealing some common traits.
Top 1% SEO Strategy Traits:
1. Focus on Content Updates: Successful sites emphasize not only creating new content but also keeping existing content up to date. Fresh, relevant content is preferred by users and search engines alike.
2. Building a Brand: While not everyone can become a giant brand like Nike, establishing a brand presence matters. Omni-channel marketing, including social media, email marketing, and sometimes paid ads, helps in brand-building.
Here’s a quote from Google’s ex-CEO, Eric Schmidt.
Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.
3. Leveraging Trends: Exceptional sites often experience spikes in organic traffic due to timely content related to current trends. Riding the waves of trends within your industry can significantly boost search traffic.
If you are struggling to find trends in your industry, check out:
Those 3 sites will help you find relevant trends.
4. Fast Load Times: Faster load times contribute to increased search traffic. The top 1% in SEO performance had notably faster loading times compared to others.
5. Total Addressable Market (TAM): Sites with a larger TAM, meaning a broader potential audience, tend to attract more traffic. Going after big markets that appeal to a wider audience can be advantageous.
Conclusion: Investing time and effort in SEO can yield substantial traffic gains, as evidenced by the data. However, success in SEO requires consistency and patience. The most common reason for a site’s underperformance is a lack of consistency and patience. SEO demands continuous effort over the years, but the return on investment is significant, making it a winning strategy for the long run.
Meta Description Tag (!)
A meta description is one of the most important ranking signals for search engines. It helps search engines understand the content of your page and what keywords it should rank for so that they can more accurately match Searcher Intent. It is often shown as the description text blurb on the search results page. What’s written there determines whether a searcher clicks over to your website.
“Hampton Exteriors, LLC has been established in the Twin Cities roofing sector for several years as the perennial leader of roofing materials and workmanship. Hampton Exteriors is a 3rd generation construction company that has been serving the Twin Cities and surrounding areas for over 30 years. We are a family owned business and we strive to make you feel as if you are part of our family.”
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Generally a page should be targeted to rank for particular set of keywords or phrases. These keywords should be used with some consistency in page content (naturally and without keyword stuffing – DO NOT USE YOUR KEYWORDS MORE THAN 3 TIMES ON A PAGE) to maximize ranking potential for those keywords. This means these keywords should be present across the most important HTML tags (H!, H2, H3) of the page, and used with some frequency in the general page text content. The keyword consistency check illustrates the keywords we have identified appearing most frequently in these areas.
If the keywords and phrases identified don’t match your intended ranking keywords, and do not show a level of consistency, you should consider amending your core page content to better include these.
We found 12 images on your page and 2 of them are missing the attribute.
We recommend adding useful and keyword rich Alt Text for pages’ main images, in particular those that could have ranking potential.
We have not detected any usage of Schema.org on your website.
Schema.org Structured Data Markup is a collection of data tags that search engines have gotten together and created. This “secret language” can be added to your site to allow Search Engines to more easily interpret the content and use it to enhance Search Results.
For example there are tags for providing information about your Local Business such as address and phone number, or adding product information on e-commerce pages so that these products can be displayed in shopping aggregators like Google Shopping.
It is a good idea to start incorporating some relevant Schema.org tags into your site to improve interpretation and display by Search Engines.
This shows you the Estimated Traffic Volume your page receives from it’s Keyword Rankings
This is an estimate of the Monthly Visitors your site receives as a result of it’s Search Engine Rankings. The average desirable monthly traffic range is 1000 to 5000 visits.
Internal Links: 13
External Links: 3
Backlinks are links to your site from another site. Search Engines can see these interconnections and use them as a strong signal of the importance and authority of your Webpage or content. Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors, and in general, more links from authoritative websites will improve the ranking ability of your site. Building Backlinks can be a difficult and time consuming activity, though the rewards are large when done successfully.
NOTE: All of your competitors’ websites rank higher on Google and other search engines than www.hamptonexteriorsllc.com because they have more Backlinks!
We recommend having a strategy in place for Building Backlinks to your site. Some common methods including adding your site to relevant online directories, asking other sites to link to you, performing outreach and guest blogging on other websites or creating ‘lead magnet’ content that encourages linking.
On-Page Link Structuring is a complex SEO topic with a variety of opinions covering how frequently you should link to external vs internal pages, and in which cases to use nofollow links. We provide an informational breakdown on on the page’s links for your review.
Some general principles in regards to link structuring include having a strong proportion of your links being to internal pages, as well as explicitly using ‘Nofollow’ links for any external links that may be to lower quality sites where you don’t intend to pass value.
A website can be viewed in a wide variety of resolutions and formats, some dictated by the size of a desktop display, and others by the specific dimensions of a phone or tablet model. Device rendering provides a preview of how the site looks on some popular device resolutions to help identify obvious issues. Note, our method will load a website and resize it’s portlet to several dimensions, as opposed to loading the site multiple times directly in different devices.
In general a website should be designed and tested to be responsive across a large variety of desktop and mobile device resolutions, as well as being able to transition smoothly (for example when resizing a browser or flipping a tablet from vertical to horizontal).
Google is indicating that your page is scoring poorly on their Desktop PageSpeed Insights evaluation.
Page Load Speed refers to the amount of time it takes to entirely load a webpage in a user’s browser. Page Load Speed impacts a user’s experience on a website and can directly impact bounce rate and conversions. Additionally, Search Engines are making Page Load Speed a ranking factor.
Download Page Size is one of the biggest contributors to Page Load Speed, which can directly affect rankings, user experience and conversions. It is important to ensure your Download File Size is as small as possible by removing unnecessary files and minifying and optimizing others. 5MB is a good metric to strive for, though modern websites are gradually increasing in size.
Creating Social Profiles as well as linking to these from your website can help to build trust in your business and provide other mediums to nurture your customer relationships.
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SEO, SEO Marketing, and Ecommerce Optimization are all crucial aspects of improving your online presence and driving sales for your ecommerce or bricks-and-clicks business. By optimizing various elements of your website, such as your product listings, navigation, and product photos, you can deliver a better user experience for your customers and increase leads and sales for your business. In this article, we will provide a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your ecommerce store to maximize sales for your business.
Step 1: Create a clear and easy-to-use navigation. Your website’s navigation is the backbone of your site and plays a critical role in how users move around and find your products. If your navigation is disorganized and difficult to use, it will discourage your audience and lead them to leave your site. To create effective navigation, organize your products into categories and use broad headings to make it easy for shoppers to find what they need. Additionally, continually test and optimize your navigation to ensure it delivers the best experience for your audience.
Step 2: Beef up your product listings. Product listings are a crucial component of ecommerce optimization, as they determine whether or not customers will purchase your products. To create an optimized product listing, use a descriptive product title,
provide important product details, and add product options if available.
By providing an in-depth and informative listing, you’ll help prospects feel more informed about your products, increasing the likelihood of a sale.
Step 3: Add high-quality product photos. Product photos play a critical role in helping your business sell products online, as they provide customers with a visual representation of your products. To optimize your product listings, add high-quality photos that provide your audience with details about what you offer. Take pictures of your product from every angle, including images of your product in use or on a model.
Step 4: SEO and SEO Marketing are essential for driving traffic to your website and increasing sales. Use keywords in your product titles, descriptions, and meta tags to make it easier for customers to find your products in search engines. Additionally, use backlinks and meta descriptions to increase your website’s visibility and attract more customers to your site.
Step 5: Optimize your website’s speed and mobile responsiveness. With the rise of mobile devices, it’s essential to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile devices. A slow-loading website or one that’s not mobile-friendly can discourage customers and lead to lost sales. Use tools like Google’s Page Speed Insights to test your website’s speed and mobile responsiveness, and make any necessary adjustments to improve the user experience.
Step 6: Use customer reviews and ratings. Customer reviews and ratings are a great way to build trust and credibility with potential customers. Encourage your customers to leave reviews and ratings for your products, and make sure to respond to any negative reviews in a timely manner. Additionally, use customer reviews and ratings as part of your product listings to help prospects make an informed decision about purchasing your products.
Step 7: Retargeting and Remarketing are powerful tools that allow you to target customers who have previously visited your website but haven’t made a purchase.
Use retargeting and remarketing to remind customers of the products they’ve viewed, and provide them with incentives to return to your site and make a purchase.
In conclusion, ecommerce optimization is an essential process for improving your website and driving sales for your business. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can optimize your ecommerce store to deliver a better user experience for your customers, increase leads and sales, and improve your online presence through SEO and SEO Marketing
How does SEO work for eCommerce?
SEO for eCommerce works in a similar way to SEO for any other type of website, but there are some specific considerations that need to be taken into account. Here are a few key strategies for optimizing an eCommerce site for search engines:
Product Optimization: Ensure that your product pages are optimized for search engines by including relevant keywords in the title tags, meta descriptions, and body content. Use high-quality images, videos, and other multimedia content to enhance the user experience.
Category Optimization: Optimize your category pages by including relevant keywords in the title tags, meta descriptions, and body content. Use breadcrumb navigation to make it easy for users and search engines to understand the structure of your site.
Blogging: Create a blog on your eCommerce site and publish high-quality, informative content that is relevant to your products and target audience. This will not only help to attract backlinks, but it can also help to drive traffic to your site.
Navigation: Make sure your site is easy to navigate, both for users and search engines. Use a clear and simple navigation structure, and include a sitemap to make it easy for search engines to crawl your site.
Site Speed: Make sure your site loads quickly, especially on mobile devices. Site speed is an important ranking factor for search engines, and it can also help to improve the user experience.
Schema Markup: Use schema markup to help search engines understand the structure and content of your site. This will make it more likely that your pages will appear in rich snippets and other enhanced search results.
Mobile Optimization: Make sure your site is mobile-friendly and responsive to different screen sizes. With more and more people using mobile devices to browse the internet, mobile optimization is essential for SEO.
Reviews and Ratings: Encourage customers to leave reviews and ratings on your products. Positive reviews can help to increase the visibility and credibility of your products in search engine results.
It’s important to note that SEO for eCommerce is a long-term process, and it requires consistent effort and optimization to achieve the best results. Additionally, it’s important to keep in mind that SEO is a dynamic field, the best practices and the algorithm are constantly changing. Therefore, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in order to achieve the best results.
Is SEO worth it for eCommerce?
SEO is worth it for eCommerce. SEO is all about making sure your website is visible to potential customers when they are searching for products or services that you offer. For eCommerce businesses, this means making sure that your website appears at the top of search engine results when people are searching for the products you sell. This can help you drive more targeted traffic to your site, which can lead to more sales and revenue.
SEO is also an effective way to increase the visibility of your brand, which can help to build trust and credibility with potential customers. This is especially important for eCommerce businesses, which may not have a physical storefront that customers can visit.
Additionally, SEO can also help you to gain a competitive advantage over other eCommerce businesses. The more visible your website is in search engine results, the more likely it is that customers will choose to buy from you instead of your competitors.
SEO is not an one-time process, it requires consistent effort and optimization to achieve the best results. It’s also important to note that SEO is a dynamic field, the best practices and the algorithm are constantly changing. Therefore, it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in order to achieve the best results.
Overall, investing in SEO can be a valuable investment for eCommerce businesses, as it can help to drive more targeted traffic and sales to your website.
What are the 4 types of SEO?
The four types of SEO are technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and local SEO.
Technical SEO refers to the optimization of the technical aspects of a website, such as the structure, coding, and performance, to improve its visibility and accessibility to search engines.
On-page SEO focuses on optimizing the content and elements on a website, such as meta tags, keywords, and header tags, to improve its relevance and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Off-page SEO involves optimizing elements outside of the website, such as building backlinks, social media engagement and online reputation management, to improve the authority and trustworthiness of a website.
Local SEO is a specialized form of SEO that targets local audiences by optimizing a website for specific geographic locations. This often involves creating and optimizing local listings and citations, as well as building local backlinks.
What is the golden rule of SEO?
The golden rule of SEO is to create high-quality, relevant, and valuable content that satisfies the needs and intent of users while also adhering to best practices for technical SEO. This includes optimizing your website’s structure, code, and performance to make it easily crawlable and indexable by search engines, as well as using relevant keywords and meta tags to improve the relevance and visibility of your content in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Additionally, it’s important to create a great user experience on your website, with easy-to-use navigation, fast loading times, and mobile-friendliness.
It’s also important to pay attention to the off-page SEO factors such as building authority and trust through backlinks from reputable websites and leveraging social media to increase visibility and drive traffic.
In summary, the golden rule of SEO is to create high-quality content that is technically sound, relevant, and user-friendly, that is promoted and shared on the web in an ethical way.
How do beginners do SEO?
Here are some steps beginners can take to do SEO:
Understand the basics of how search engines work: Before you can optimize your website for search engines, you need to understand how they work. Learn about how search engines crawl and index websites, as well as how they determine the relevance and authority of a website.
Research keywords: Use keyword research tools to identify the keywords and phrases that your target audience is searching for. Use these keywords in your content, meta tags, and URLs to improve the relevance of your website.
Optimize your website’s structure and code: Make sure your website’s structure and code are clean, organized, and easily crawlable by search engines. Use header tags, alt tags, and meta tags to provide context and structure to your content.
Create high-quality, relevant content: Create valuable and informative content that is relevant to your target audience. Use the keywords you’ve researched in your content, but don’t stuff them in unnaturally.
Build backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. They indicate to search engines that other websites find your content valuable and trustworthy. Reach out to other website owners and ask them to link to your website, or create content that is so good, people will want to link to it naturally.
Monitor and track your progress: Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your website’s traffic, ranking, and backlinks. This will help you understand how your SEO efforts are impacting your website’s visibility and performance.
Stay up to date with the latest SEO best practices and guidelines: SEO is constantly evolving, so it’s important to stay up to date with the latest best practices and guidelines from search engines.
Be patient: SEO takes time, it’s not a quick fix. It can take several months to see significant results, so be patient and continue to improve your website’s SEO over time.
How much should a beginner SEO cost?
The cost of SEO for beginners can vary widely depending on the scope of the project and the services provided. Some factors that can impact the cost of SEO include the size and complexity of the website, the level of competition in the industry, and the level of expertise required to improve the website’s visibility and performance.
Here are a few different options for beginners to consider:
DIY SEO: For those who are on a tight budget or who want to learn more about SEO, there are many resources available online that can help beginners understand the basics of SEO and implement basic optimization techniques on their own. This can be done for free or with minimal cost.
Hiring a freelance SEO specialist: Freelance SEO specialists can provide basic optimization services at a relatively low cost. They might charge anywhere from $25 to $100 per hour depending on their level of experience, and can help with tasks such as keyword research, meta tag optimization, and link building.
Hiring an SEO agency: Hiring an SEO agency can be more expensive, but can also provide more comprehensive services. An agency can help a beginner with both technical and content optimization and can also manage and track progress for a client. Prices for agencies vary widely, but an hourly rate of $75-$200 is common, and a monthly retainer can range from $500 to $5000 or more depending on the services provided, the size of the website, and the level of competition in the industry.
It’s important to note that SEO is a ongoing process and the costs should be seen as an investment. The costs will depend on the goals and the size of the project, but it’s important to find a provider that is transparent and clear about their pricing and what you can expect to get for your money.
What should you not do in SEO?
Here are a few things to avoid when doing SEO:
Keyword stuffing: Overusing keywords in your content, meta tags, and URLs can make your website seem spammy and unreadable to both users and search engines. Instead, use keywords naturally in your content and focus on creating high-quality, relevant, and valuable content.
Buying backlinks: Buying backlinks from low-quality websites can harm your website’s visibility and performance in search engine results pages (SERPs). Instead, focus on building backlinks naturally by creating valuable and informative content that other website owners will want to link to.
Cloaking: This is a technique where the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the user’s browser. This is considered a black hat SEO practice and search engines will penalize or de-index your website if they find it.
Hidden text or links: Hiding text or links on your website with the intent of manipulating search engine rankings is considered a black hat SEO practice and is also against search engine guidelines.
Duplicate content: Copying and pasting content from other websites onto your own can harm your website’s visibility and performance in SERPs. Instead, create unique and original content that is relevant and valuable to your target audience.
Not following search engine guidelines: Search engines like Google have guidelines for webmasters, and it’s important to follow them to avoid penalties or de-indexing of your website.
Not monitoring and tracking your progress: Using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help you understand how your SEO efforts are impacting your website’s visibility and performance. Not monitoring your progress can make it difficult to identify and address any issues that may arise.
Not staying up to date with the latest SEO best practices and guidelines: SEO is constantly evolving, so it’s important to stay up to date with the latest best practices and guidelines from search engines.
What is the most effective SEO tactic?
The most effective SEO tactic is creating high-quality, relevant, and valuable content that satisfies the needs and intent of users while also adhering to best practices for technical SEO. High-quality content that is informative, useful, and relevant to the user, will help increase engagement, reduce bounce rates and increase the chances of it being shared, which all lead to better rankings.
Here are a few specific tactics that can help make your content more effective:
Optimize your content for keywords: Use keyword research to identify the keywords and phrases that your target audience is searching for and optimize your content for those keywords. Use them in your headlines, titles, meta tags, and throughout your content, but in a natural way.
Use header tags and subheadings: Use header tags (H1, H2, H3) and subheadings to structure your content and make it easy for users and search engines to understand the main points and topics of your page.
Use images and videos: Images and videos can help make your content more engaging and can also be optimized for search engines.
Optimize your website’s structure and code: Make sure your website’s structure and code are clean, organized, and easily crawlable by search engines. Use header tags, alt tags, and meta tags to provide context and structure to your content.
Build backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites to your website.
How does Google want you to create meta descriptions? When you are searching for a product or service on Google, have you noticed that for each result there is a title and a description?
That description (e.g., “As a model and custom home builder in West Palm Beach…) is called the meta description. The bolded words are Synergy Homes’ targeted Keywords. Usually, a website creates one meta description for every website page. Search engines will either use the meta descriptions you provide, or they will write their own version for each webpage. For the best result, it’s advisable to write your own including your targeted keywords.
What are the elements of an ideal meta description? It’s always best to go to the source when trying to determine what they want.
Notice that this meta description simply lists keywords. Google doesn’t like this and will not reward this webpage with a favorable ranking.
2. Do not just copy the same meta description on every webpage. Think about it. If every page of your website has the same meta description, Google and other search engines are left to think that every page has the same content. That means that all of your products and service must be the same.
3. It is advisable not to just summarize the page in the meta description. Google’s algorithms will summarize the page’s content. Your task is to use targeted keywords to write compelling and grammatically correct descriptions.
4. Don’t make your meta description too short.
If your meta descriptions are too short, visitors will not understand what value your site offers and will be reluctant to click on your listing. Every time this happens, you’re losing the opportunity to win new customers/clients.
Those are the fundamental Best Practices. Follow these instructions and you won’t fall out of favor. But just these measures alone will not differentiate you from your competitors. The list below details practices and percent gains when implemented. You’ll notice that separately, each task has a small percentage gain. But if you implement several of them the small gains add up and become significant.
Power words are effective marketing tools because they are persuasive and push people to act. The action could be to purchase a product, join an email list or click on the title and meta descriptions on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Emotion – Meta titles and descriptions that evoke emotion generate 2% to 3% higher rate of click overs than those that don’t. Moreover, content linked to emotional keywords receive more shares from individuals on social media channels and websites.
Specificity – Create titles and meta descriptions with your specific target audience in mind. You want them to feel as though the content was written specifically for them. Naturally, the word “you” is one of the most persuasive words in a marketer’s arsenal.
Implement these elements in your meta descriptions and you will see an immediate increase in CTR.
Remember, if you neglect to write titles and meta descriptions, search engines will just pull content from your site and make up their own titles and descriptions – and they are never as effective as writing your own.
Also worth noting is that no matter how awfully a site’s meta descriptions are written, websites that have titles and meta descriptions, generate approximately a 5.8% higher click through rate than those that do not.
The Take-Home Message
Identify your target audience, identify each page’s value, research relevant keywords, and use them to write compelling titles and meta descriptions. The aggregation of small percentage gains will increase your search engine ranking.
Need help with title tags, meta descriptions, content creation, SEO, link building, or website redesign?
We’re here to help you.
When you own a small business, it can be a challenge to generate public interest for your products and services. Advertising for your small business using conventional methods can cost a lot and does not guarantee revenue. A good way to make your business visible to your target demographic is to have a modern website design in 2022. Of course, you will obviously want to generate more traffic to your website. More website visitors means that there will be more potential customers for your business. It is important that your website looks appealing, whether you are selling a product or a service. You want the customers to be curious about you and what you can provide for them. Needless to say, a common element of websites today is that they have a sleek, modern look. You want your business to stand out and attract the eyes of today’s modern consumers. Your website needs to be simple for ease of access yet flexible enough to adapt to modern trends.
What is a Modern Website Design?
When we say modern, it doesn’t have to be futuristic or too outrageous. A modern design appeals to the taste of a majority of people in the modern era. Like every woman’s little black dress, a modern website is long-lasting, versatile, and widely accessible. The simplistic nature of a modern website makes it easier for visitors to navigate, especially when you’re selling products online. Your website has to have a user-friendly interface that can accommodate people with disabilities or impairments.
Another thing to consider about modern websites is that the pages load faster than those of older websites. This has more to do with the technicalities that come with the creation of the website. Consumers that visit your website will be more satisfied if a webpage loads up fast because it saves time.
Let’s say you already have a website for your small business. Is it keeping up with modern online trends? Modern technology changes our lifestyle at a rapid pace and small businesses need to keep up with these changes too.
Advantages to Having a Modern Website Design
First impressions matter, whether it’s a physical store or an ecommerce site. When you walk inside a place of business, you’ll notice that the ambiance will leave a lasting impression on you. A website’s homepage is the online storefront of your business, and it will make an impression on potential customers. Enlisting the help of companies that offer professional web design services is the first step toward your goals. Professional web designers will help you create a modern website that fits your business’ aesthetic. Not to mention, having professionals help with website management can save you time for more important business matters. Modern websites are also accessible by phone or tablet, so they can work well on any device. Your visitors can have a great first impression of your business that will boost your appeal.
Having your own modern website allows you to control what people see. You direct your audience’s attention to certain services or products that will be beneficial to them. The ability to control the general appearance of your website is yours alone. You have the final say on the content you want or make any type of change you see fit. If you want to appeal to a certain demographic, design your website according to their preferences.
Solely relying on a third-party website like social media can have drawbacks, especially for a small business. You don’t own the social media platform, therefore you don’t control your business’ visibility. Other third-party websites only offer limited accessibility and can’t cover the entirety of your business. The goal of having your own website is to let your audience have access to your business and your services.
When your small business has its own website, it lends credence to your online business branding. You grow your brand online, gain the consumer’s trust, and in turn, increase your credibility. Many small businesses have grown exponentially just by having a simple, modern look on their website. You get to show your customers that you, as a brand, can stay up-to-date with the latest technology.
Website designs that are simple and easy to use make your customers feel at ease while browsing around. By having a modern website, you are showing that you have the ability to adapt to modern changes. New technological trends can change the look and feel of your website. Adding different functions that encourage customer engagement can help boost your credibility as a business.
Gone are the days when people needed to leave their homes to visit commercial establishments. These days, people tend to check a business’ online store if something is available before deciding to make a purchase. Some people prefer to shop online, and others book services online rather than make a call. When your website lists the service that a customer needs, you open the door for online marketing for your business.
A lot of people prefer the convenience that a business website provides. If a person can’t leave their home because of a medical condition, an easily accessible modern website is a blessing. Not only will you gain more customers, but you’re also helping existing customers have easy access to your services.
When you’re starting out as a small business, it may be challenging to get the word out about your business. Having a modern website will help expand your reach as it provides a “branch” for your business on the web. You can take advantage of social media sites with millions of users to steer traffic towards your website. It’s a great modern marketing strategy to post interesting articles on social media that will grab your target demographic’s attention. A lot of modern websites also come with links to various social media platforms to interact with their consumers. You even have the option to add blog posts to your website. Blogs help educate your target demographic about various topics relating to your business. You can attract consumers from all over the country once you have a modern website for your small business.
Billions of people use the internet to shop for products or services. Today’s digital world is ever-changing, trends come and go, and new technologies evolve. A modern website guarantees flexibility to these changes, and your small business will grow exponentially. The beauty of modernity when it comes to managing a website is that you can make changes whenever you want.
Once you’ve made the decision to set up a modern website, there are some factors you may need to consider. Business trends tend to change over the years, sometimes even over the course of a few months. Running a website is no easy task, and having professional help will ensure that your website runs seamlessly.
Why Set up a Design for Your Website?
Most modern businesses rely heavily on their website to attract new clients. The website must fit what you’re offering to your customers. An interactive website will appeal more to your target demographic than a bland website with few features. You can also rest assured that the visitors you get on your website will most likely be potential customers. Most online users prefer to make transactions online rather than go to a physical establishment. Think of it like you’re decorating your business offices — you’d want to design it to fit your brand. There will be less confusion as to what exactly your business entails, or what your brand is all about. You want your target demographic to feel at ease when viewing your website.
What Elements Do the Best Modern Websites Have?
You’re ready to have a modern website for your small business, but you don’t know where to begin? Many key elements go with website building, and there are so many features to choose from. It takes less than a second for online users to make a judgment on your website. That being said, your website must have these features:
Unlike older websites, modern websites are regularly updated with plugins and software that ensure the security of your domain. You won’t have to worry about your website being hacked, and it lessens the risk of compromised data. Additionally, having a secure website will make your consumers trust that their information is safe with your business. Gaining the consumer’s trust means they’re likely to recommend your growing business to other potential customers.
However, maintaining the security of a business, whether it’s a physical store or an ecommerce site, goes both ways. You’ll also need to ensure that you employ staff that you can trust with your company or business information.
SEO or search engine optimization is valuable for all websites. It makes your small business’ website easier to search on the internet using any search engine available. Knowing what keywords your target demographic searches for online will contribute to your website’s visibility. Modern websites have tools and plugins in place that ensure your website is easier to find. When a person searches for a keyword related to your business, your website may be first on the list. It would take hours to delve deeper into every nuance of the keywords used in SEO. Suffice it to say that making your website optimized for SEO can bring more people to your website. When you take advantage of this, you can maximize your business’ potential for the top position in search engine rankings.
Modern websites have built-in features that allow the consumers to interact with the business. Most people access websites through handheld devices such as phones or tablets, and your website needs to be flexible. Your target demographic may have questions that they want to ask about your business, so what do you do? You have several options, such as displaying your phone numbers and email or having them leave a message using a form. Another convenient way is to have a chat box on your website. Modern websites can have plugins that enable their customers to chat directly with a representative from your business. Responsiveness is an integral part of your website as it saves both you and the consumers time and energy.
As previously mentioned, it’s important to build trust with your consumers to inspire loyalty. When running a business website, you want consumers to have a way to voice their opinions about your service. Letting them leave reviews and testimonials can help improve your business strategies. When they leave a good review, display it on your website so others can see that you’re a trustworthy business.
Having an option to recommend your services to other potential consumers is also necessary. Extremely satisfied consumers may want to recommend your products or services to people that they know. Modern websites can make this easier by putting up a convenient form for them to fill out.
There will be times when a website visitor may want to visit your place of business. Simply listing your address on the website is not enough. You want to lead your target demographic directly to your place by having a convenient map displayed on the website. Whether you have a small business or a well-established one, you should have clear directions to your business. This will help save time and energy, and prevent your potential client from getting lost along the way.
You don’t want your modern website to have generic content that you can see on any other website. Remember that you are building your brand for your small business online. Your website should embody what your online business is offering, be it a specific product or a service.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your content should not sound robotic. Remember that it’s more challenging to convey your message through written words since they don’t convey your tone of voice. Try to make the content as though you are speaking in person with your target demographic. Keep it friendly, empathic, and respectful, without compromising the quality of your personalized content.
In this modern age, it’s commonplace to see a diverse culture of people running a business online. Are you an owner of a small business that employs people from multiple cultures? Your modern website should also show that you are open to diversity by displaying multicultural photos. This will show potential consumers that your business is inclusive of people from various races and cultures. A business with an inclusive mindset is an essential trait to have in these modern times and our ever-changing society.
Being open to diversity doesn’t just involve race, this can apply to gender norms as well. You are showing your target demographic that you do not discriminate when it comes to race, gender, or culture. Other consumers with a multicultural background will also feel comfortable when employing your services.
While it may seem like a trivial thing to some, it is very beneficial to your business. People can focus more on your website’s content rather than get distracted by countless advertisements. It adds to the clean look of your website, making it look more professional. This also instills confidence in your target demographic because it shows that you value professionalism.
Find People to Help Maintain Your Website
Once you’ve taken advantage of these features for your website, you’ll need people to run the maintenance of your website. With digital marketing becoming more commonplace, there are also more people offering website maintenance for businesses. A website made especially for your business is like a second home for your business on the world wide web. You will need dependable people who are equipped with the skills to meet your needs when building a website. There’s also the question of how cost-effective the services are and how fast they can work to meet your demands.
What We Offer:
Sapient eCommerce specializes in developing modern websites to meet the unique needs of businesses, big or small. Our web design experts will coordinate with you to choose which modern website layout fits your business aesthetics the best. Whether your small business is an online shop or you’re offering specialized services, we are here for you!
We will be your partners in growing your small business and help you maintain a modern website with these services:
Our team of expert web designers specializes in WordPress-powered websites that are flexible enough to fit any business industry. You can trust our web development and SEO marketing strategies to help you achieve your business goals. We also have teams dedicated to keeping your modern website well-maintained so it can adapt to shifts in trends. Contact us so you can speak with our specialist about your preferences for your business website. You have the freedom to choose what elements to include with our tailor-made web development services!
While e-commerce can initially seem threatening for commercial and industrial machinery and construction equipment rental companies, dealers, OEMs, and aftermarket supplier partners, it’s a major opportunity to meet their customers where they’re at.
Here’s a dose of reality for anyone who still thinks e-commerce in the construction equipment industry is unnecessary: Contractors today do not shop the way they used to.
And it’s not that it’s changing; it has already changed.
Since 2016, millennials have made up most of the workforce.
Why does that matter? Two main reasons:
1) As digital natives, millennials start their B2B procurement process differently. They begin with an online search, no matter the product or industry.
2) Millennials, the oldest of whom are turning 40 this year, are increasingly the decision-makers in their organizations. According to a Merit study, up to 73% of all B2B buyers are now millennials.
While that can initially seem threatening for construction equipment rental companies, dealers, OEMs, and aftermarket supplier partners, it’s a major opportunity to meet their customers where they’re at, says Jimmy Mansker, global director of e-commerce for CNH Industrial.
“It is really important for us to think about the end customer and how we can help them become more efficient when dealing with equipment repairs and speed up the time to get them back to the job site,” Mansker says.
Construction e-commerce opens up the potential for rental companies and dealers to add value, at a time when supply chain disruptions have compounded costly downtime and fleet manager views about their dealers’ abilities to help them have diminished in the past two years.
Offering online services won’t diminish a distributor’s relationship with their contractor customers, Mansker says. It will enhance it.
“The way we look at e-commerce is changing,” he says. “It’s a service that the customer has come to expect.”
Speeding Up Procurement
The widespread digital shift in B2B buying habits is not only affecting millennials.
According to Google, almost three-quarters of all B2B buyers begin their buying process with a generic search for a type of product. In fact, by the time they reach out to their rental company or dealer, they already have a pretty good idea of what they need.
Research shows that in today’s world of online research, an estimated 70% of the buying decision is made before a customer ever contacts a vendor, regardless of whether it results in an online or offline purchase.
But this does not mean that contractors do not want their rental companies or dealers involved, Mansker says.
“They’re better educated to talk to the dealer,” he says. “The customer still wants the dealer to lead the process — they want the dealer engaged.”
Mansker says contractor customers also want to know pricing, availability and the time it will take to get their parts or equipment, including whether their order can be shipped or picked up at their nearest location on the same day. The more information the rental company or dealer can provide online, the faster the contractor can get to the point of purchase.
“I think everyone’s getting used to faster transactions in your everyday life, whether I’m buying on Amazon, and it takes me three seconds to buy something, or I go to McDonald’s, and they have three different drive-thru lanes,” Mansker says. “Everything that’s being done in retail from a technology perspective is driving that faster transaction expectation.”
The equipment distributor is also in a prime position to provide that information based on their experience and knowledge, because contractors would rather turn to them over one of the industry-agnostic e-commerce giants, such as Amazon and eBay.
“Our advantage over Amazon is related to returns,” Mansker says. “That’s because when a buyer looks up a part, you need the assembly and build information to be able to decide. Amazon doesn’t have that — they have whatever some supplier has told them.”
This is a key area where distributors can differentiate themselves online, he says.
“We are making sure that when we create online experiences for customers, we’re getting them to the equipment or part that they’re looking for and making sure that we’re giving good information,” Mansker says. “But we’re tying it to the dealer, so they always know that their dealer is the ultimate expert and the ultimate solution driver.”
Creating Flexibility
The other major benefit is that e-commerce offers contractors more options.
“It provides OEMs and dealers the opportunity to continue to connect with their end users in the way they want to shop,” Mansker says. “Some contractors prefer the self-service method, and e-commerce gives them that flexibility while allowing them to still engage with their dealer to ensure they get the correct parts and equipment.”
Having an e-commerce presence on multiple online channels, including both brand sites and marketplaces is also important because it provides a more comprehensive service for customers.
Earlier this year, CNH Industrial partnered with Gearflow, the largest parts marketplace built for the construction equipment industry. This partnership will allow CNH and its dealers to better address the needs of their mixed fleet customers, making it easier for them to shop for parts on one platform, while still maintaining the relationships they’ve developed.
“Marketplaces give the end users the ability to simplify purchasing for a job site,” Mansker says. “We are very interested in ways that simplify customers doing business with our dealers and supporting our dealers in doing this.”
Daniele Maggiolini, global head of business development for CNH Industrial, says marketplace participation can help contractors fulfill orders that their dealers may not be able to, due to the age of the machine or availability of inventory. This demonstrates that they care about their customers’ productivity and success, he says.
“We’re focusing on what really matters for our customers, which is their uptime, convenience, and experience,” Maggiolini says. “So, we’re trying to shift our focus from purely being product-based to offering solutions.”
E-commerce can also provide deeper insights into customer buying behavior and fleet maintenance needs, allowing rental companies and dealers to assist contractors more proactively, he says.
“When we look at the value that we bring to our customers and how we want to build a customer-centric approach, first we need to develop a better understanding of our customers,” Maggiolini says.
This includes offering communication and purchasing tools based on customer preference, such as the capability for contractors to text orders or ask questions via instant message.
“These are big pieces on the horizon that can allow dealers to support the end users directly from a website,” Mansker says. “The ability to understand new technology and how it can increase efficiencies on the job site is another huge opportunity.”
Ultimately, e-commerce strengthens the symbiotic relationship between the equipment distributor and the contractor — the rental company or dealer reinforces its position as an integral partner that the contractor will continue to rely on for years to come.
“Part of the vision for e-commerce is that this is one way we can help dealers keep their service bays full,” Mansker says. “Over time, we can then use e-commerce to create tools to connect end users to the full suite of offerings that dealers have in their locations.”
Source: Karen Scally at Gearflow
