Salmat Pre-Shop® News | March 2009

Welcome to the March 2009 issue of Salmat Digital Pre-Shop News.

This month's newsletter is all about predicting future trends for the year ahead, and social media seems to be one of the main themes for 2009. We are currently looking at new ways to connect with both our consumers and retailers. The Lasoo Facebook group already has over 2600 loyal members, who recently competed to redesign the Lasoo logo for Valentine’s Day. We have also established a presence on up-and-coming social networking site Twitter, to keep customers and retailers up-to-date with the latest Digital news. Please feel free to follow either the Lasoo Twitter feed or that of individual staff members (listed at the bottom) for the latest news and updates.

We've also set up something especially for our partners and retailers. The Salmat Digital Feedback Forum allows you to suggest enhancements and new features for Lasoo and Dynamic Catalogue, and vote on suggestions made by others. The ideas that prove to be the most popular will obviously be the ones we’ll look at implementing first. Help us to build better services for you and your customers.

Kind regards

Paul Marshall
Executive Director
Salmat Digital

2009 industry predictions

Around this time, it's become de rigueur for every man and his dog to make predictions for the industry for the year ahead. Based on the trends that have become apparent on Lasoo.com.au and Dynamic Campaigns as well as the wider web over the past little while, it's a fairly safe bet that certain predictions will come to pass.

1. Value is king: As the economy continues on shaky ground, with many companies and individuals tightening their belts and the dreaded "R" word constantly hanging over us, 2009 will see many consumers placing an emphasis on value-for-money when it comes to retail purchases. Consumers will be seeking out the best deal; the best value. And online will be the key channel more than half of them will use to search for value.

2. The importance of brand: With consumers seeking out the best value for the least money in the tight economy, the importance of strong and reputable branding will become paramount. Retailers and manufacturers that don't have a distinct and trusted cache will find it tough in 2009. It is a great time to take that brand into all the channels where your shoppers are looking.

3. Multi-channel retail: The era of the multi-channel shopper was already upon us in 2008 – those consumers who use a range of sources to make purchasing decisions. This trend will continue unabated in 2009 as value-driven consumers take advantage of every possible resource to discover the best deals and save money. These channels will include various websites, word-of-mouth and traditional advertising mediums. Australians’ propensity to buy online will start to be satisfied by some well-known brands opening up online commerce.

4. Retailers will continue to claim back lost online traffic... but not sales $$ As discussed in the last issue of Pre-Shop News, bricks-and-mortar retailers will continue to reclaim lost traffic share from e-tailers during 2009 as more retailers discover the importance of presenting their catalogue offers to consumers online. This trend will be particularly noticeable during the mid-year toy sales held by the major retailers, as well as the end-of-year Christmas shopping season. However sales will continue to be lost to online retailers until bricks-and-mortar retailers start selling online.

5. Social networking: Online social networking will increasingly influence opinions about brands and products in 2009, as consumers continue to flock to these sites and services to discuss products and make recommendations. At the moment, the social networking horizon is a crowded one, with the likes of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Bebo, LinkedIn and more all jostling for space. Not all of these will remain major players in the arena by the end of the year, as some die out and new variations emerge during 2009, most likely from Google integrating many of its products. Brand reputation will be the key to thriving in this ecosystem.

6. Location-based relevance will become crucial: Mobile app adoption will grow and location relevance will become increasingly important for targeting. No longer will pure volume of eyeballs be a reliable metric of marketing success, but quality of those eyeballs will be the KPI of note.

Why trying to maximise your site traffic should not be your key KPI

By now (hopefully), the bricks-and-mortar retailers who are performing the best online have moved past the idea of the company website as the sole indicator of a successful Internet presence. They understand that unlike bricks-and-mortar stores, where it was said that success was based on location, location, location; online success is about relevance, relevance, relevance. Be where the consumer is, which for most is not on your site, and be relevant to them. The most obvious example is being discoverable amongst the product terms they are researching and not just your retail brand.

Five years ago, it may have been enough to have a heavily trafficked brand website in order to be considered a successful online advertiser. However in the light of multi-channel shopping – which we can safely accept as the norm in Australian retail today – having one point of contact with your consumers is no longer enough.

Consumers are searching across multiple channels for product offers and information – including retailer sites, manufacturer sites, offer aggregation portals, consumer review and networking sites. Retailers who only make their offers available on their own site will miss out on potential customers who are searching and researching through multiple channels.

Making product and offer information available through third-party sources and websites has the added bonus of giving the appearance of review and verification, which can help attract those consumers who give more weight to information provided independently rather than via traditional advertising channels.

The bottom line is that reducing all the barriers to purchase for a consumer is the name of the game, and these barriers consist of time, money, effort. By leaving your home turf and playing “away” you can reduce the time and effort for consumers. The only real necessity to having an on-site visit is if you are performing trusted e-commerce transactions, otherwise, save your users the hassle and provide them with information about you wherever they are, whenever they want and drive them in-store. The only issue with this is that you need to stop using website visits as a KPI and focus on measuring unique eyeballs and sales.

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Sound bites…

Online ad spending will rise 8.9% in 2009.


- eMarketer