Headless commerce means performing updates and tests is easier and quicker.
All enterprise e-commerce platforms were created in the era of desktop screens running web browsers. The assumption that desktop browsers would be the main audience for commerce was baked into the architecture of the platform.
At the time, no one dreamed of all of the places customers would one day make purchases or that we would be shopping on screens of every size using mobile and wearable tech — or with no screen at all, as with Google Home or Amazon Echo smart speakers. Now, we buy directly from social media feeds like Instagram and Twitter or from inside applications such as Snapchat.
With more digitally enabled and networked devices added to our environment every week, the only safe assumption we can make is that there's no way to know the complete picture of commerce channels.
You’ve probably noticed big changes in the…
6 Great Content Curation Tools
They say that content is King. If that’s the case then curation has to be, at the very least, a Baron or something. Actually, scratch that. Content curation, when it’s done right, can be king too.
One need only think of products and features like Reddit, Facebook Trending or Twitter Moments to see how important content curation is to the general public. Cutting through the noise of clickbait and subpar content marketing is extremely difficult, and that’s why effective content curation can be so valuable.
Short On Time? Curate!
If you have the time, creating your own content is a powerful way to drive traffic to your site. One need only look at the stats for proof of that:
Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates 3x as many leads
Year on year growth of site traffic is almost 8x higher for content marketing…
Local tactics are the keys to consumer loyalty in a mobile-first world
For bricks-and-mortar businesses, loyalty programs have been a staple for decades, whether in the form of punch cards promising a free item, special sale offerings, or the now ubiquitous loyalty cards that we scan at grocery stores, pet stores, and everywhere in between. Simply put, customers think that loyalty programs are effective at getting them to return. It’s no surprise, then, that as ecommerce rose to prominence, many online businesses also instituted some variation of the loyalty program.
A problem arises today, however, when businesses think that the only way to drive customer loyalty is through such programs. But what are the alternatives? Customers are increasingly burdened by a jumble of key rings, codes, and email subscriptions telling them about special offerings and it can be a little overwhelming. There has to be another way.
One alternative to the traditional…
How marketers can capitalise on new AI technology to deliver more effective chatbots
Chatbots are no longer the robotic, clunky machines from the days of old. If you remember bots like AOL Instant Messenger’s SmarterChild, for example, you might be interested to learn that advanced designs are allowing for the creation of more interactive conversational pathways — meaning these days, chatbot conversations look a lot like their fluid human counterparts.
What’s more, companies developing these technologies are increasingly able to iterate upon each chatbot, optimizing specific types of interaction within the messenger conversation. As a result, a new element of artificial intelligence technology is emerging, and it’s called natural language generation.
Generating ‘Natural Language’
NLG is simply the creation of human-like language by a machine representation system. These systems begin with the idea of figuring out what the communication goal is or what the user wants to know. What follows is an analysis of…
The Focus is now on Personalization across Various Channels to Drive Retail Business Growth
Ever tried going back to early nineties and visualizing how shopping used to be in those days. You would go to a store or a mall, preferably the one for which you don’t have to take a detour. Most of your shopping would be completed on weekends with family tagging along. You would rely on your friends’ advice, magazine reviews and TV ads for deciding what to buy. Your friends would also call to inform you about the latest deal or clearance sale.
Fast track to the present day and you have Amazon Go. No Cashier, no checkouts; just visit the store, pick up what you want and simply walk out of the store. The shopping experience for customers has completely transformed over the years. The…
Building Chatbots: Everything you need to know
Chatbots continue to receive a lot of hype in 2017, with companies including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and many others investing heavily in the technology. Smart Insights have covered how Pizza Express have built a chatbot. This brief guide explores some of key things to consider when building and launching your first chatbot.
Understand your audience
Before you start building anything it is essential to fully understand who will be using your chatbot, and what you already know about them. Facebook Insights and other analytical tools may provide some useful information.
Personas are frequently used when building websites to address specific audience groups, and may also be helpful when creating chatbots.
Set the right tone
The conversational nature of chatbots makes getting your tone of voice right critical. Tone of voice will vary according to the nature of…
Thinking about changing your WordPress site design? Here is what you need to know
There’s a reason why certain brands revamp their image, and some have done so successfully. There are different factors that usher in the change, but much of it is done for improved positioning to better appeal to their target audience. They want to reestablish their position in the market and re-engage those who have slipped through their fingers. By refreshing their public image while staying true to their core principles, brands can get a second lease at life in a very competitive market.
The same can be said for WordPress site owners looking to improve their website design to appeal to their audiences.
Due to the volatile nature of online marketing, there is more cause for site owners to need to re-design their site. Regular search algorithm changes require everyone make tweaks to their sites so they don't…
What are the hottest new design trends emerging this year?
When you take a look backwards at design trends from recent years and compare them with those that are just now emerging, you can get a great feel for the way that user needs grow and change. It is the job of design to meet users where they need it.
Over the past few years, the digital landscape has been filled with Flat Design and responsive, drag-and-drop web templates. The rise of Flat Design was hardly a surprise given that its minimalist appeal is super-easy to replicate and personalize. Flat Design was a simple and adaptable design innovation that really embraced the medium of the screen. In doing so, it created new expectations for the harmony of usability and aesthetics.
But now that we're a few years past the heyday of Flat Design, we're starting to…
The 7 elements you need for superior retention automation
It costs a lot to acquire a new customer, but most clients will make a single purchase and leave. A repeating purchase, on the other hand, costs far less than acquiring a new customer, estimated at between 4 and 7 times less actually.
Retention automation has a simple, well-known theory that deals with this issue. Retention automation aims to get better ROI by turning one-time buyers into repeat customers and keeping them, rather than focusing on acquiring additional new customers.
Retention automation can be done with the basic understanding that customers are different, then analyzing them as groups, connecting them to automated campaigns designed to move them in the right direction.
There are plenty of examples that demonstrate programs and multichannel campaigns addressing customer retention according to the customer’s current lifecycle situation and their importance to the business. Surprisingly, although the theory is so…
Charts of the Day - New Research shows how mobile dominates digital minutes, but multiplatform use is huge as well
You will know that in most consumer marketing sectors, in most countries, we're well past the mobile tipping point where mobile web usage is more important than desktop measured by number of site visits.
Another way of looking at the importance of mobile is looking at the mobile share of digital minutes. This is measured by the large, international panel providers like comScore and in their latest report on Mobile’s Hierarchy of Needs they have a report that shows the importance of mobile in all countries.
So it's no longer a case of asking whether mobile marketing important, we know it is! It's now a question of using the statistics to understand how consumers behave when using different types of mobile devices,…
