Revitalizing Ecommerce in the New Normal: Strategies from Ashleigh Shapiro
In the competitive world of retail, the surge in ecommerce during the pandemic was a boon for many brands. However, as the world returns to normalcy, these same brands are finding growth hard to sustain. Ashleigh Shapiro, Senior Director of Growth at Code3, stresses the need for a sophisticated approach to reignite growth. Speaking at a recent event in Austin, Texas, she highlighted the importance of balancing demand generation with demand capture and leveraging platforms like Amazon’s Demand Side Platform (DSP) to dismantle internal silos for lasting success.
Shapiro notes the significant spike in ecommerce activity between 2018 and 2020, driven by a broader consumer embrace of platforms like Amazon during the pandemic. However, by 2022, as consumer behavior and spending patterns shifted, growth began to decline. The challenge was to sustain growth amid these changing dynamics. Shapiro’s team focused on optimizing media mix, adapting to consumer demand, and refining creative messaging.
A key tool in their strategy was the Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), which Shapiro described as a significant breakthrough for brand scaling. The AMC and audience overlap reports revealed that the decline in growth wasn't due to a lack of market interest but an excessive focus on demand capture over demand generation. Shapiro's analysis showed that the brand had become overly reliant on capturing existing demand, particularly during peak periods like Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday.
To address this, her team shifted focus back to demand generation by utilizing forecasting, brand search reporting, and audience overlap analysis to identify gaps in reaching potential customers who were actively searching for their product category. Implementing Amazon’s DSP, which offers comprehensive measurement capabilities, facilitated a more integrated media mix, including launching streaming TV and online video campaigns.
Another significant challenge was the fragmentation among different teams within the company. Shapiro emphasized the importance of consumers perceiving the brand as a single entity, regardless of whether they interact with the brand on Amazon or through direct-to-consumer efforts. To overcome this, Code3 harmonized efforts across channels to ensure consistency in branding and demand-generation initiatives, leveraging Amazon not just for demand capture but also as a powerful brand-building platform.
The results of these strategic changes were evident as the brand saw double-digit growth in 2022, which continued into 2023. Key performance indicators like incremental reach and branded search rate were crucial in measuring success. Despite an increase in top-of-funnel activities typically diluting branded search rate, the brand’s search rate soared by 108%. This was a testament to the success of reaching the right audience with awareness campaigns. Moreover, consumers exposed to a combination of sponsored ads, DSP ads, and streaming TV campaigns had significantly higher conversion rates, demonstrating the effectiveness of a multi-channel, multi-touchpoint strategy.
For brands experiencing stagnation, Shapiro offers key takeaways: The ecommerce landscape is continuously evolving, influenced by macroeconomic shifts, changing consumer behaviors, and rapid technological advancements. Brands that adapt to these changes, utilize tools to understand their customers, and maintain a balanced approach to both capturing and generating demand are poised for success. Shapiro concludes that there is no universal solution, but by focusing on controllable elements, integrating internal teams, and adopting a full-funnel mindset, brands can not only overcome stagnation but also achieve scalable, sustainable growth.
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