eCommerce Australia
Ryan Martin - Founder of eCommerce SEO Agency Remarkable Digital interviews Australian eCommerce experts to discuss trends, strategies, and best practice methods to run a successful online business.
Remarkable Digital - https://www.remarkabledigital.com.au/
We believe that in Australia we have some of the very best eCommerce leaders and it is our goal to highlight the best of the best, to help everyone who runs or is thinking about starting an eCommerce business.
With the ever-changing landscape, hear from the people on the front line living and breathing the business world of eCommerce.
eCommerce Australia
Increase Your AOV and Search Intelligence with Searchspring I Kate Massey
Tune in as we chat with Kate Massey, the 2023 eCommerce Industry Person of the Year and Head of APAC for Search Spring.
Kate recounts her inspiring journey, sharing the hurdles and strategies she used to establish Searchspring in Australia.
Her tales of resilience, building strong customer relationships, and personal achievements like completing the Kokoda Trail and the New York Marathon offer invaluable lessons for anyone in the industry.
Kate dives into the transformative role of user-friendly technology and personalized merchandising.
Discover how Searchspring enhances product discoverability and boosts conversion rates, making it an indispensable tool for eCommerce brands.
We also touch on the nuances of adapting to regional differences and leveraging personalized product recommendations across various touchpoints to drive sales and engagement.
As we wrap up, Kate delves into the future of eCommerce optimization with predictive AI and the game-changing acquisition of Increasingly.
Learn how AI-powered product bundling can elevate customer experience and average order value.
We also explore the critical strategies for holiday season performance, from SEO to data feed optimization.
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Welcome to the Ecommerce Australia podcast. For those of you seeking direct assistance, remarkable Digital is just a call away. Our mission is to be remarkable, doing great things for great people and great businesses. I understand how much choice you have and how many podcasts are out there, so I'm truly grateful you've tuned in. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments or topics you'd like covered. Let's get started. Welcome to eCommerce Australia podcast. We're joined by one of the most prominent eCommerce experts in Australia actually voted 2023 eCommerce Industry Person of the Year. Head of APAC for Search Spring, kate Massey. Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Ryan. It is very good to be here and great job on the podcast so far. I love tuning in.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Yeah, it's been a good fun and getting some really talented and intelligent people on the podcast. I'm certainly learning a lot each episode as well, so I appreciate the kind words there. How do you actually get voted e-commerce industry person of the year? Are you going to go for back to back titles or are you going to let someone else have a turn?
Speaker 2:Well in 2023,. So where we managed to really get the votes behind us is we work with so many incredible brands now and we have really good relationships with our customers, and so the level of brands that are voting for us and supporting our submissions. The year just gone, we actually had two of our team then nominated for Rising Star of the Year, and one of the team, Alex Ross, won Rising Star of the Year as well. So, yeah, great to see the team now being recognized for what we're doing as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, fantastic and, as a good leader, always sort of shining lights on those around you, which is great. Was that award given out at Retail Fest?
Speaker 2:It sure was, yeah, on pre-Night One. So we definitely went on a big high going into the conference. And just the year just gone we actually won Solution Provider of the Year as well, which is insane. It wasn't expecting to take out the big award, but, yeah, really testament to the work that we've been doing, the results that we're helping clients get and just how we're just going about it as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic. That was my very first retail fest that I attended and I walked in not really knowing what the awards night was, but I did see Search Spring everywhere and, yeah, seeing that Alex got an award and she's quite prominent on LinkedIn and does some good content as well, so worth a follow and one to watch.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:Retail fest is definitely one of the faves Great fun good people, good conversations, yeah, and great location, totally, especially when you're coming into a Melbourne winter. But before we get talking about e-commerce and Search Spring and as I mentioned before, we pressed record. You've had quite the life thus far. You've completed the Kokoda Trail, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, new York Marathon, larapinta Trail, just to name a few, as well as sort of your you know, obviously there's a passion around championing the Cure Cancer Australia Foundation. You've done a lot. You're pretty busy.
Speaker 2:Yes, never a dull moment in my world, that's for sure. I think with all of those challenges what's been really valuable is just building that resilience right, because starting up as first boots on the ground for Search Spring, setting up a region and taking Search Spring from being relatively very unknown with no profile, no kind of lead generation, only a very small base of customers Like it's taken a lot of work, and so I know everyone sees all the fun and exciting things on LinkedIn and all the wins that we're having, but behind the scenes, like it's been a lot of grunt work, and so that resilience from those challenges has certainly paid off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic. What was the first 12 months like then for you, if we want to touch on that kind of like the early days, like how hard was the first 12 months like then for you, if we want to touch on that kind of like the early days like, how hard was that first 12 months to kind of get things off the ground in Australia?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, we were coming off like the first wave of COVID, so it was basically you've got a phone, go get yourself a laptop and off you go.
Speaker 2:So I would say it's so rewarding. Every year has been very different and every year has been very rewarding, and what we focused on in year one was really like winning great brands, using that to win more great brands, really taking care of our customers and having those really solid relationships and learning what was important for them and what was going to move the needle. And then coming off like having a very like lean budgeting region so who was who in the e-commerce industry and going to every event possible and meeting lots of people and connecting and, I'd say, also being really genuine right Like. So we built really great relationships with the partner community, like the tech partners. Like in those days Rad was first boots on the ground for Yopo and Rob for Klaviyo and yeah, the relationships that we had and just starting to do events together and we built a really cool e-com community. So it was hard work, we worked around the clock, but super special.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, Was there a lot of cold calls and like we're just trying to get a hold of founders and social DMs? Or like how did you kind of generate those first few appointments? Or did Search Spring have a good enough name that could enable you to sort of get some conversations started fairly easily?
Speaker 2:Search Spring was virtually unknown back then in region, right. So we've gone from being virtually unknown to being part of that preferred e-commerce tech stack and so, absolutely, it was lots of like built some lists. What brands do we all know and love that we wanted to go after and what brands did we have that we could turn into those case studies? And when we won those brands, how do we share those win stories? And then that just allowed us to win the next biggest brand or the next well known brand, and we just kept stepping up from there.
Speaker 2:So lots of LinkedIn messages, lots of emails, lots of calls, lots of hey, partner, over here, I see you're working with this brand. We'd love an introduction and, yeah, we definitely did the hard yards, but we're still doing that today, right, so a brand will know if they are on our hit list. We closed the brand at the end of last month that we have been chasing down for a few years and they said, wow, you guys are everywhere. Your marketing budget must be so big. I'm like, no, we're just showing up everywhere you are. We want to work with you. We know we can add some value. So, yeah, we're still doing that today. It would be unusual for a brand that's on our hit list to not know that they're on our hit list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly. No, that's good. And what was that brand? Can I ask that question, or is that still confidential?
Speaker 2:No, that was a guess.
Speaker 1:Okay, oh, fantastic Nice.
Speaker 2:We've won several brands recently that, yeah, we've wanted for a long time and in fact yesterday we closed a high-profile fashion brand can't name who because they still need to inform their vendors but one we've really wanted for a long time and haven't been able to open that door. And then someone has gone there that has worked with us now across three other brands, right from Zimmerman to Van Roy to Camilla and Mark, and so, yeah, super exciting to now have customers that are taking us from brand to brand, and in May 60% of our new business was from customers that have worked with us that are moving to new brands and didn't want to step away from, like, all the benefits and automation and optimizations they can get with search brewing and going back to do it the way that, like the manual or time-consuming way, which everyone's only really lean at the moment. So how can we step into the tech to do a lot more automation and heavy lifting?
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic. And was that how Calibre come on board too? I noticed that you guys recently sort of rolled out or they rolled out some new tech initiatives, and Searchspring was included in that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Congrats Dom, who just went live yesterday. So super excited for Calibre, like really great brand, one we've wanted for a long time Again hardest kind of open that door. Dom was at TargetMist. Img had really lent into the tech and saw like how to grow conversions and AOV using Search Spring and how to really get the tech working across having multiple brands to manage. So we were very excited to see when she went to Calibre and so we could welcome them on board as well. So really successful launch and looking forward to seeing the results of that.
Speaker 1:Nice. Well, before we get into more e-commerce brands, I want to get to know you in a little bit, so just do some quick fire questions before we get too much into the e-com conversation. I feel like you're very good at deflecting to your team and everything else. Let's try and nail down some of these questions Favourite food into your team and everything else.
Speaker 2:So let's try and nail down some of these questions. Favorite food? Well, I don't really have favorites, so I like to fill my life with lots of different things, but I took a look at my Uber Eats app and it would tell you that it was Kings of Kebab, lane Cove.
Speaker 1:Kings of Kebab.
Speaker 2:Yes, not the picture of good health over here.
Speaker 1:What sort of kebab do you go? The garlic sauce or the?
Speaker 2:lamb or what Chili and tomato mixed, notably.
Speaker 1:I'm getting hungry, all right. Well, if you don't have favorites, I'll just ask instead of favorite holiday destination, have you got your next holiday destination planned?
Speaker 2:I don't have one set in stone, but my partner is trying to convince me for Tulum again. So in December of last year I had my 40th in Tulum and met a wonderful man and fell in love. So that's probably a special destination that we'll keep going back to.
Speaker 1:Oh good on you. That's awesome. Whereabouts is that?
Speaker 2:At Tulum Mexico. So just a couple of hours down from Cancun. Oh, fantastic, beautiful part Cancun.
Speaker 1:Oh fantastic.
Speaker 2:Beautiful part of the world.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, that's a good story.
Speaker 2:Got lots of stories.
Speaker 1:Have you got a life motto or like a phrase that you kind of live by or that helps you on those tough days?
Speaker 2:I think what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. So, definitely going into that resilience piece, I think that's been our real superpower and played a really important part of what we've been building in region.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome. What's on your Spotify at the moment? What are you listening to? Well?
Speaker 2:yesterday it was definitely the e-commerce Australia podcast, as I was doing my homework, but really I go with like vibes. So is it Sunday afternoon chill or poolside hits? So yeah, pick what mood I'm in for and then let Spotify decide for me very good.
Speaker 1:Have you got a favorite concert? Is it a best concert you've been to?
Speaker 2:oh, best concert, can I say the Justin Bieber concert you can.
Speaker 1:there'll be plenty of people judging you. Judge away Probably, yeah, probably. You know you connect with the young kids when you say that but, that's why music's so good. Right, there's a taste for everyone.
Speaker 2:I haven't been to a Swift concert, but it definitely seems to be all the rage at the moment.
Speaker 1:Exactly Last book read.
Speaker 2:Shoe Dog.
Speaker 1:Okay, how'd you find it? Yeah, very, very good read. Yeah, really good, isn't it? It's an easy one to read and it's pretty fascinating, Easy holiday read yeah. Yeah, and favorite movie.
Speaker 2:Oldie, but a goodie Dirty Dancing. I actually fall asleep at movies all of the time, so I don't really watch movies.
Speaker 1:It's hard, isn't it? I can see that by the amount that you're doing, both professionally and personally, with everything that you're doing away from that. So, all right, enough of that, let's get back to some e-commerce chat, now that we know a little bit more about you. So we mentioned you're partnering with a lot of different retailers and e-commerce brands, but how specifically does Search Spring help e-commerce brands?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. We'll talk Search Spring as a platform, and I think first and foremost is we've built tech for e-commerce and digital teams right to be able to run and better manage their day. So how can they gain control over product discoverability and personalization at scale? And I think one of the key call-outs we receive at the moment on our demos is like it looks really user friendly, because it's all well and good having really cool tag that can do really cool things, but if you can't use it, or the person that uses it moves from one brand to another brand and someone new comes in and can't use that tech, then it's really hard. And that's where we see a lot of tech swap outs is not having tech that is really user-friendly, and particularly at the moment, teams are running so lean, right? So how can we really lean into Search Spring to automate and optimize, but without losing those brand controls as well? So really, what we're looking to do is what's going to move the needle on growing conversions and growing average order values? And so we know that shoppers use search converted a much higher rate, right? So in fashion apparel usually it's 6% to 11% use search, but converted like 16% to 34% of revenue. That number goes up as a percentage of revenue for furniture and homewares and even more for health and beauty, right. So it's really important to make sure that the experience is performing really well from a search relevancy, and brands typically know if their search is not optimised and is returning irrelevant results.
Speaker 2:And I always encourage brands to go and test their top search terms right. Are the right products coming up? Are those high margin best sellers, top rated products with good stock availability and good size curve availability, taking up that core real estate at the top of the page? And it's often not the case, right? And then we get into merchandising. So when we start to look at merchandising so talking about right product, right shopper, right time so are we personalizing that merchandising experience based on what a shopper's brand preferences are, product type preferences are when they come to site? Are we calling out what is those top sellers, those new products, last chance, almost gone? How are we using that badging to encourage that purchase behavior?
Speaker 2:And then, how do we get more granular, right? So if we're selling into international markets, markets, how are we adapting that for product trends and seasonality? And then, even at a state-based level, in australia, a victoria shopper is very different to a queensland shopper, right? So, again, how can we really personalize that based on those different trends and product types that are going to resonate, with a real lens again on what is going to convert and how can we really lean into the data? So how can we A B test all of these different merchandising strategies to really trust what we're doing is what's going to perform the best and how can we gravitate towards that?
Speaker 2:And then the last kind of piece of the puzzle there is that personalisation piece, right. So we're talking about personalised search and personalised merchandising, but then really starting to think about those product recommendations and how are we going to make sure that they're hyper relevant? Based on what am I looking at? What have other shoppers done? What is that product data to find those similarities in products, to really look at what's going to actually convert from a cross-sell, up-sell perspective, making sure we've got smart recommendations across the site, including at that mini cart level, and then being able to take it one step further and pushing those personalized product recommendations into those email flows as well. So, yeah, really getting kind of granular and really leaning into what is going to work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic. There's a lot there to unpack, but just for clarity for those that might not be aware. So when you're talking about search, you're not talking about organic search from Google, you're talking about internal search from their website.
Speaker 2:Exactly 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then what percentage of people actually use that search functionality when they come to a website? Do you know that?
Speaker 2:6% to 11% for fashion brands, and that goes up. So for furniture and homewares brands it's even higher. It goes into that 30% to 45%. And then health and beauty goes up again. And we've got all these benchmark studies to say, like how much traffic is using search, how much revenue, and then what's the different percentages in terms of like conversions with search and conversions without, and knowing that those shoppers, those motivated shoppers that are using search and they know what they're looking for, yeah, fantastic, even if they can't find the right products for them that they're looking for, and that's where merchandising and relevancy of results comes into play.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nice. And so when people do use that search functionality then so to go another layer deeper when they're using that search functionality functionality, how much more likely are they to convert as opposed to not using it?
Speaker 2:yeah, so four, five, six, nine percent, twelve percent. It really depends on the brand, but we're definitely seeing like much higher conversions for those brands that are having that really strong search experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, yeah. And so when people are using Search Spring and that sort of functionality there, what sort of decisions can they make from, you know, understanding the internal search terms that the data pulls through from Search Spring?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so I think. Understanding how your shoppers are actually searching on site it's really important, right? So making sure that those shoppers are searching in a way of finding the right product, so things like error tolerance, right? So we have spell correction based on your product catalog and your product data, not just on a dictionary. So if shoppers are misspelling words, they're automatically being redirected If they're using different words so if they're using slim versus skinny, setting up all of those synonyms and not relying on the shopper to know your exact naming convention to being able to do that. So when you understand how your shoppers are searching, that's when you can really start to optimize those experiences for those shoppers as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting, Like they can get a that would be like a live dashboard or they'll see like on a you know, daily or weekly or monthly level, how many searches are spelling their name incorrectly or searching for different sort of terms, and then they can start to tweak the messaging in that.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent and the relevancy of results returning.
Speaker 1:Okay, awesome. And so you know we mentioned around improving search capability leading to higher AOV. Have you got any case studies or examples that might help the listeners who haven't sort of used Search Spring or considering it or not yet aware of you guys, which I'm sure that there's not too many of them? But yeah, have you got any case studies to kind of like help explain how that works?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. We've got lots of really great case studies website but really, like, when it comes to growing AOV, it's really looking at like making sure we're promoting those top performing, higher price point products at the top of the results. Ripkill does this in a really great way, right? If you go on the Ripkill website and search for wetsuits, then all of their full price bestselling high price point wetsuits come up at the top of the results. If you can change that to most popular, so those bestsellers, their on sale, lower value and wetsuit accessories like wetsuit tops will come up at the top of the results. So if we had no merchandising logic coming into play, those lower value items would be coming to the top and then, from a like age athletica, for example, added their accessories range into their mini cart, saw their AOV grow by 15%. So we've got lots of brands where we've got demonstrable case studies that they can do.
Speaker 2:Also, I might touch on one of our recent acquisitions. So late last year we acquired the UK retail tax top 10 startups and so that was a company called Increasingly, which is very much predictive AI product bundling. So what is shoppers like frequently purchasing together and we typically say if shoppers are buying more than 1.3 items per transaction, then they're finding products to purchase together. So how do we take the friction out of that experience, so showcasing those predictive AI product bundles on the PDP with the quick ability to add, with that color, size and quantity variance, straight from the PDP to bag, taking that friction out, real play on growing the AOV and seeing brands like MacPak increasing that AOV by 15%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So increasingly then, we'll use AI and personalization and start to learn what products go well together and then create a bundle. Or does the retailer or the, you know, the e-commerce manager, have to set up those bundles themselves?
Speaker 2:Best of both worlds, so you can fully lean into the tech and just let it elevate those top forming products together. You can get more granular and start say, if I'm looking at this seed product, so Matt Pack's example, if I'm looking at this down jacket, how do we then like, start to always recommend a fleece and a long sleeve top. Or you can get super granular and say if I'm looking at this high price point product, always show this product and always show this product. So you can set rules based logic.
Speaker 1:Or you can just fully lean into the tech and just showcase products that other shoppers are purchasing together okay, awesome and so so we're talking about that at the PDP level, but does that also apply to cart and post-purchase checkout as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so at the cart level. So we would typically see a mini cart cross-sell profile that we'll be powering, based on what other shoppers are doing from a cross-sell perspective and then on the emails we've got nine different recommendation profiles, so just selecting, like is it personalized to the shopper? What have they purchased? What have other shoppers gone on to purchase? Is it cross-sell, is it showcasing similar products? And it really depends on the brand and the retailer what are they selling and what makes most sense and the frequency of repurchasing different products.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, fantastic, it sounds incredibly powerful.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. There's a lot to it, but we try and make it as simple as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, spot on. So I had a question here around sort of standard Shopify search functionality versus Search Spring. Obviously, you know, probably 80% of our listeners are on Shopify at the moment as that's just a sort of random guess, but I'm going to go with it they may be using just the standard Shopify search functionality I guess you've sort of answered this question but why would they move to Search Spring?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think, first and foremost, kudos to Shopify for enhancing their core functionality for their big base of clients. Right, like super important. I think when choosing search showing it's really about brands looking to gain full control over their product discoverability and really lean in from a like what's actually tested, being able to a b test what is actually going to move the needle. I think with shopify it's like if you have a like a product where it's like a one size fits, all right, so all shoppers look the same. And therefore, if you have a product where it's like a one size fits, all right, so all shoppers look the same. And therefore, if you're elevating all the same products, that's going to lead to conversions.
Speaker 2:But with Search Spring, how are we going to be able to personalize the discovery piece based on that right product, right shopper, right time. So if your shoppers are different, making sure what is the shopper looking at and then showcasing the most relevant product for them based on that other shopper behavior that are similar profiles to them as well, so having full personalization capabilities, being able to schedule kind of merchandising ahead of these peak times. We're rapidly racing towards Black Friday, cyber Monday right now, so how can we schedule and optimize all of that merchandising, set up all of those badging logics, being able to have full control over tweaking those, the merchandising strategies and the lead up, and then really having hyper-relevant personalized product recommendations that make sense across the site. So, yes, it's great Shopify. Fantastic for those emerging brands that are very focused on growing their customer base, to buy more product to grow their customer base and when they get to that tipping point that they're ready for a solution like Search Spring, to really then dive in to grow conversions and the AOV.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic, and just on that point around the tipping point. So is there, you know typically what is the Search Spring customer. Is there a trigger that kind of goes? Is there something that's happening in that e-commerce team that triggers them to get in touch with you guys? What sort of brand size is best suited for Search Spring?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. I think the tipping point would be they're running lean, they're looking for more automation and optimization, they're managing potentially multiple domains or multiple brands and they're not converting what an average site converts at only 2.5% right. That is a huge opportunity for improvement. We work with brands like we're talking with brands every week that are even less than 2.5%, right? So it's a lot of wastage that goes on in e-commerce, right? So brands that know that their search relevancy is poor or their product recommendations are not generating the returns that they should be like those are really those tipping points.
Speaker 2:How our pricing model works is we go on annual web sessions, parent products use a number of domains. So the beautiful thing there is we can work with those emerging brands and then scale right all the way up to those leading brands to help brands get started earlier. If they're really small like typically less than that kind of two mil turnover, that's when they're really still investing in growing their customer and building their customer acquisition. Post that kind of two mil, that's when they start to get more serious about like okay, how can we really make sure that this traffic we're driving to site we give that best chance of converting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, Awesome. That makes a lot of sense. And even just thinking about sort of the year and talking with Geordie Heiss on Shopify, who was on my last episode, just around sort of unification and personalization and how do we protect ourselves from, you know, the teemers and the shines of the world? This is a great way to do that is to actually understand what people are searching for, personalize their experience, make it really nice and seamless and actually genuinely care about their experience and their it really nice and seamless and actually genuinely care about their experience and their user journey. And yeah, obviously you've got statistics to back up the increase in AOV and conversion rate.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You also mentioned Black Friday, Cyber Monday, we've got Singles Day, Christmas all that's coming up far too quickly. How quickly does it take to get Search Spring up and running on their platform, and does it need a couple of months of data to start to kind of really work its magic? Or I'm just trying to put myself in a position if we're listening to this episode and they want to get started, how quickly can they get up and running?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I'd say the time is now and rapidly running out from a Black Friday Cyber Monday. But once we pass Black Friday Cyber Monday, we start thinking about like that holiday trade and what's next and what's next and what's next, as you mentioned. So typically an implementation is between eight and 12 weeks, depending on the platform and the complexity and the size of the organization. And in terms of like getting started, I think the number one thing is always like go into a stock. Take how are your search results performing for those top searches? How's your merchandising? Is it scalable right now? And if you go on your top products or your top categories, do your product recommendations actually make sense? And those are really the ones where you go actually make sense and those are really the ones where you go okay, can I afford to leave it any longer and keep putting this off, or is now the time to invest now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, and I guess if you are running lean and you're so busy, it's sort of sometimes hard to look at that subjectively when there's so much to do. But it's probably a good time just to block off a couple of hours and go through that UX or get a few people, a few friends or family, to kind of go through it and just try and get as like as.
Speaker 2:Outside of you.
Speaker 1:That's it, yeah.
Speaker 2:I think we actually do that, like every week. We're doing website reviews for brands, right, and so we're happy to do that heavy lifting and do those audits and say where is the low-hanging fruit? What is going to move the needle for you as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep, so you'll do. As part of that process, you can even do a quick audit for them and kind of highlight some areas where you guys could help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic. And what are your thoughts on Black Friday, Cyber Monday? You obviously speak to a lot of retailers. You definitely got your finger on the pulse around that Retailers sort of gearing up for another big holiday season. Yeah, what are your general thoughts around e-commerce in the second half of 24?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I think we are going to see great sales coming through on Black Friday, cyber Monday.
Speaker 2:I think the strategies people should be looking at right now is really how to grow the average order value on that Black Friday, making sure they're building those databases and make sure they have those ongoing kind of email nudge pieces to keep driving that traffic back to site with those personalized recommendations that make sense.
Speaker 2:I think we've got conditioned for discounting. We saw that with end of financial year sales. We saw that with prime day. We've got after payday sale, which is giving another bump at the moment for retailers. So definitely we're being conditioned, but I think it's a great opportunity to use things like inline banners to drive traffic back to the new arrivals collection or those best-selling collections which aren't discounted or aren't discounted as much, and making sure we're showcasing things like the accessories range to keep growing those AOV on those like full price but lower price point products as well, and I think those are the things that people should be looking at right now. We know that it's going to be competitive even more competitive to get that share of wallet this year, but I do think, yeah, the retailers that are leaning in and getting prepared right now will be the ones that have potentially another record right, or at least on par with last year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's some great thoughts and ideas around that and I would add to that just I find throughout this year the retailers that are doing those 1%ers right are, you know, really doing well, but the ones that have traditionally sort of relied on what worked in the past are finding it hard to sort of get that mentality and move away from that, are probably struggling.
Speaker 1:So I feel like SEO I'm obviously going to mention SEO because that's what I do but also organic social is actually getting good cut through now and it's really important to care about your customers and just those little touch points. They just make that congruency. So if they come on your website they're using Search Spring, they have a really good experience. They can see that there's product bundles there, that the consumer journey sort of being taken into consideration, and they check out your socials and they see that you're actively engaging on your social media, you're an active participant there, and all those touch points kind of work to help build a successful e-commerce brand. But if you're not doing some of those things that can be hard to track, then it may be a tough end to the year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. That's why I'm so excited by our latest acquisition of Intelligent Reach, actually. So I'm diving into the world of Intelligent Reach and it's got me really excited by the potential. So a lot of people know Intelligent Reach being the data feed specialists, right? So how can we optimize data to push those data feeds into those different channels, so whether that be marketplaces or those digital sales channels, so like Google Shopping and Meta and retargeting? So, yes, fundamentally that's what Intelligent Reach does. But the true potential of Intelligent reach is how to really lean in to optimize these data for those individual feeds across product types, across titles. And then how can we start running A-B tests and experiments to really see what is going to perform better, right? So, from testing product titles and product types and product images, what's actually going to provide more impressions, better clicks, lower the cost per click, which, as we know, the cost of advertising is going up right now.
Speaker 2:So how can we really lean into the data and see what's going to move the needle for all of these things and what's going to give us that better kind of visibility and performance of these products? Like, when we talk about Google Shopping, how do we get that top real estate when we're doing those brand searches or doing those product searches to make sure that, like, our products are the ones that are being showcased at the top of these results? And so when we spoke recently about that, well, if traffic on site is only converting at an average of 2.5, then if we're spending all this money to drive this poor quality traffic, how can we address driving better quality traffic at a lower cost and then really fix that on-site experience and that's really going to see that improvement again in what's going to move that needle on that conversion rate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how does Intelligent Reach do that Like? Is that sort of again I would assume that's sort of AI and server-side tracking to sort of help attribution and kind of like understand how the data is pulling through and, you know, being able to track that a bit more intelligently. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. We also have like data specialists right that are familiar with these platforms. So we know that Google has a requirement for how it actually, like, wants that data being passed through right. And so how can we then test it? We use the example previously of we've got skinny in our product titles, let's test slim and let's actually see which is going to perform the best out of those different search terms. And so, yeah, how do we really start to optimize what data we're passing through to really raise that visibility? And one thing that's really interesting is, when you've got a bestseller, it can sometimes be easy to keep getting that bestseller selling more right. But what about those low performing products or those products with really low visibility? How do we have different campaigns running for those so we can really start to elevate the performance of those other products and improve that as well?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so like products that just aren't getting the clicks. Obviously you've got a finite budget and Google are optimizing based on what's getting the most clicks and sending your budget that way. But you're saying, with intelligent reach there can also help to learn how to get those products that aren't performing, to get them or to use a certain set of data that maybe get them to perform a little bit better and get more clicks.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And data, data, data, leaning into the data and running those tests to really see what's going to perform the best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic. Oh, that's super interesting. Yeah, look, I appreciate your insights into Search Spring. I'm certainly a lot more educated on how things work and, yeah, the recent acquisition is really important as well and really interesting to note. So thanks for sharing some of your wisdom and knowledge with the eCommerce Australia podcast audience. If they're wanting to get started with Search Spring or want to get in touch with yourself, is it the best way to connect on LinkedIn?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. You always get a reply if you connect with me on LinkedIn. It's also really easy to kind of jump on a website, book a demo. That will come through as well. But, yeah, reach out. We'd love to continue the conversation we're super passionate about like, how can we help brands be successful right, and so I think one of the things that's really special about Search Spring is how much our team cares, and that's what kind of fuels what we're doing. So thank you so much for having me, ryan. I really enjoyed the chat as well.
Speaker 1:No, fantastic. Yeah, it's good to actually talk to you. I consume a lot of your content and I've been at a couple of events, but I've missed you, unfortunately, unfortunately. But we'll definitely catch up on the next one. And, yeah, looking forward to watching Search Spring, and not only yourself, but all the stars that you're kind of raising there and leading through to the next generation. I'm looking forward to watching the story unfold further.
Speaker 2:For sure we're not slowing down, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Thank you, have a great one, cheers.
