iMedia Connection Blog

Misadventures in Marketing No. 5: Great Inventory in Stores
When managing both an online and in store presence, retail companies are understandably faced with inventory and merchandising challenges. Many online stores offer more variety than a physical store. Blame it on overhead costs, but how can the merchandiser fulfill the “ultimate” omni-channel vision while still making a buck? In order to be successful, merchandisers must determine the products consumers are most likely to “try on” or better yet tie the consumer to the online experience—while they are physically in the store. Bridging the gap is critical.  In this cartoon we see where even the shopper struggles with the “omni-challenge.”

Originally posted on the Baynote blog.

Misadventures in Marketing No. 4: Contextual Personalization
Using profile data on your shoppers alone, can lead to embarrassing and awkward moments when personalization really misses its target as it has for our skater.  Even when famous figure skaters practice in your town, that does not mean that all skaters are alike. Observing in session micro-behaviors and combining them with relevant profile data ensures that your retail website will provide the most relevant recommendations based on your shoppers context.  By using contextual information effectively, you won’t just skate by with your recommendations.  Make sure you hit your merchandising mark and avoid these embarrassing mishaps completely with Baynote.

Originally posted on the Baynote blog.

Misadventures in Marketing No. 3: A Day in the Life of a Merchandiser
In a fast-paced environment, retail merchandisers must wrangle with IT, as well as deal with marketing promotions, buyers and inventory managers.  One merchandiser we interviewed described their role as “herding cats.” With several teams pushing for space on the web and above-the-fold visibility, the merchandiser is required to be the “cat’s meow,” by making all of the contributors happy and still keeping the biggest goal in sight: offering the best shopping experiences possible to their customers.

Originally posted on the Baynote blog.

Misadventures in Marketing No. 2: What Moved the Sales Needle
Retailers are constantly trying to increase acquisition and order conversion, yet with the amount of testing and re-testing to optimize results, sometimes they can lose sight of the business goals. In addition to that, with multiple groups pushing for promotions and sales, it’s easy to misunderstand which tactic drove the sale, or in this case, which tactic lost money on each product.
When personalizing shopping experiences, it’s important to observe your shoppers micro behaviors and offer the most relevant recommendations in the moment. This helps to drive bounce rates down and important metrics like average cart size and order value up. These metrics alone will produce a much more enjoyable conversation with your boss.

Originally posted on the Baynote blog.

Misadventures in Marketing No. 1: The Devil Wears Data
With increasing catalog sizes and turnover, merchandisers need big data tools to fully manage and optimize for all products from rising trends to long tail items. In this cartoon, actual shopper data is compared to the merchandiser’s predictive capabilities in a retail company.  When personalizing hundreds or thousands of shopping experiences, the merchandiser learns which combinations of products the shopper finds to be the best fit. And for the merchandiser in this cartoon, “data is the new black.”

Originally posted on the Baynote blog.