Expert Opinion

The world’s biggest digital sale event is inching closer by the day. The month of November marks the beginning of a massive sale season as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are now not limited to the USA, it has become a global phenomenon. Black Friday holiday spending in 2024 will grow 2.5-3.5% YoY in 2024, reaching around $985 billion globally and on expected lines will yield more value for purchase this season.  However, the challenges have also enhanced with growing demand, convenience, and technology. The fiercely competitive e-commerce space now needs brands to gear up with advanced AI-ML-powered tech for intelligence that can boost performance and help ahead in the competitive space.   Also optimizing the entire marketing effort is the key to making the most of this season.   Black Friday 2024 Expectation  Last year in November, $123.5 billion was spent online! Expectations are quite high this season as every brand across the categories of the bandwagon to score high on the Black Friday sale.   Monitor Pricing and Promotions Trends  Brands must be aware of key trends across marketplaces and what competitor brands are targeting. Low ticket purchases and demand for fashion products and beyond propelled in terms of order volume, but Amazon sold items of higher value during the same period with a massive rise in numbers.   Finding the right balance between pricing and volume is crucial. Offering attractive discounts and deals can drive higher sales volumes, but brands need to ensure that they don’t compromise their profitability. Strategic pricing strategies can help achieve this balance.  Track In-stock and out-of-stock items  Brands must keep real-time track of their stock status, in-stock product availability tracking, and monitoring when & where the products are going out of stock. The stock situation is key during the festive season. Brands must keep track of the trends to set promo offers and match stock to meet expected demand.  Match product demand with Order Fulfilment  One of the critical aspects of these event days is ensuring efficient order fulfillment. Brands need to ensure that they have enough stock available in their warehouses to meet the increased demand during the sales period. Having the right amount of inventory is crucial to avoid stock-outs and ensure customer satisfaction. Also maintaining a well-stocked warehouse is essential to cater to the surge in orders during these events. Brands need to anticipate the demand and stock their warehouses accordingly to prevent any inventory shortages.  Optimize Season specific Sponsored Banner  eCommerce ad banner performance is key to upswing sales during the festive season. Brands must keep track of banner keyword performance, display targeting, and category targeting. Using season-specific banners and advertisements helps brands grab the attention of shoppers who are actively looking for deals during these events. Ensure your banner theme and keywords are compelling and drive more traffic to their online stores.  Need for Digital Shelf Intelligence to Ace the Black Friday Shopping Rush  As brands gear up for the highly competitive Black Friday shopping rush, the need for Digital Shelf Analytics becomes increasingly critical. In a landscape where consumer expectations are high, and competition is fierce, leveraging advanced analytics tools such as mFilterIt can make a significant difference in performance and sales outcomes.   Here’s a closer look at the key components of Digital Shelf Intelligence and their impacts:  PDP Content Optimization  The digital shelf is crowded with options, and consumers are more discerning than ever. Ensuring that product listings are not only visually appealing but also informative can significantly influence purchasing decisions.  Image analysis: Monitor and analyze own brand health, checking for the presence of high-quality product images, pixel threshold, DPI threshold, white background, 85% space, brand inclusion, subbrand inclusion, and product variant inclusion.   Check Content Score: Title scores own and competition, SEO friendly, title length, title, product benefits, support images, video presence, description length, brand in description, A+ content, ingredients present  This leads to enhanced user experience and increased conversion rates. By analyzing successful own vis-a-vis competitor listings, mFilterIt can provide actionable insights into what content resonates most with shoppers. This enables brands to refine their product pages, making them more attractive and informative.  Keyword Share Monitoring  Visibility is everything. Identifying the most effective keywords can ensure that products rank higher in search results, attracting more traffic to listings. This is especially crucial during peak shopping times like Black Friday when shoppers search for deals.  mFilterIt offers keyword analysis tools that track keyword performance and market trends. By understanding which keywords drive traffic and conversions, brands can optimize their product listings and advertising strategies to enhance visibility and drive sales.  Pricing Analysis versus Competition  Price sensitivity is a major factor during sales events. Brands must keep a close eye on competitive pricing to remain relevant in the marketplace. This not only helps in setting attractive prices but also aids in determining promotional strategies that can lead to increased sales volume without sacrificing profitability.   With pricing intelligence features, mFilterIt enables brands to monitor competitors’ pricing strategies in real time. This insight allows brands to adjust their pricing dynamically, ensuring they remain competitive and appealing to cost-conscious consumers during the Black Friday rush.  Product Availability Insights  Stock availability is a crucial element in capitalizing on shopping surges. Running out of stock during high-demand periods can lead to lost sales and frustrated customers. Understanding stock levels allows brands to anticipate demand accurately and manage inventory efficiently.  mFilterIt provides real-time inventory tracking and forecasting, allowing brands to make informed decisions about stock replenishment. This proactive approach helps prevent stockouts and ensures that popular items remain available to customers throughout the sales period.  Rating & Reviews Analysis  Consumer trust is heavily influenced by ratings and reviews. Positive feedback can enhance a brand’s reputation, while negative reviews can deter potential buyers. Monitoring customer feedback is essential for improving product offerings and addressing any issues quickly.  mFilterIt analytics capabilities allow brands to track and analyze customer feedback effectively. By identifying common themes in reviews, brands can make necessary adjustments to products

The Indian e-commerce sector is in a state of rapid transformation, with experts projecting it to hit an astonishing $400 billion+ by 2030, powered by a 19% annual growth rate, according to Inc 42 report. With this kind of momentum and each one vying for prominence on the digital shelf in a market as sprawling and diverse as India brands must dig deeper, focusing not only on top-tier cities but extending their reach into every dark store and at the pin code level to get the true picture.   The major challenge faced by brands is scaling, covering multiple platforms and categories. This requires a solution such as mFilterIt that covers more than 150 platforms globally with all pin-codes.   Brands aiming for success need to look beyond traditional ways, integrated multi-platform intelligence is needed. Competition is fierce, digital intelligence is the key to unlock brand success across platforms.   Trends Shaping Indian E-commerce Expansion Across Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities: The growth of e-commerce extends beyond large cities, with consumers in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities embracing digital shopping. Brands aiming to grow in these areas must tailor their strategies to local preferences region-specific marketing, opening new channels for growth through personalization.  Also, with over 526 dark stores across India, Blinkit plans to double the number to 1,000 in the next one year. On the other hand, Zepto, at present, already has a network of over 340 dark stores across seven cities in India.  Market Intelligence for Real-Time Data Insights: Brands are leveraging advanced tools such as mScanIt, Digital Commerce Intelligence for real-time actionable insights. This enables dynamic pricing, hyper-targeted marketing, and timely inventory management, all of which require brands to pivot from broad strategies to tailored experiences for each consumer journey.  The Quick Commerce Boom: Quick commerce has redefined consumer expectations around delivery speed, particularly for essentials. For brands in Q-commerce, optimizing inventory and logistics down to the dark store level is crucial, ensuring products are available precisely when and where consumers need them.  Blinkit, over the years, has expanded into multiple categories including electronics, home décor and cosmetics, increasing the cart value. It delivers more than 4 lakh orders daily. Zepto, which does 5.5 lakh orders is set to raise $650 million at $3.5-billion valuation.  The Game-Changer: Digital Shelf Intelligence. Why Digital Commerce Intelligence Matters? Real-Time Pricing and Insights: Pricing directly influences purchase decisions. By accessing real-time data, brands can adjust prices in response to competitor moves and market trends, ensuring they stay attractive to customers without compromising profit margins. Availability Checks: Ensuring product availability down to the pin code level is critical. Digital shelf intelligence enables brands to verify stock at a granular level, preventing missed sales opportunities due to out-of-stock items. Competitor Analysis at Every Touchpoint: Brands must have a 360-degree view of their rivals. By monitoring competitor promotions, product launches, and consumer feedback, brands can spot gaps and respond proactively to market shifts. Product Detail Page (PDP) Optimization and Feedback Analysis: Optimizing PDPs means more than adding keywords; it’s about creating engaging, relevant content that resonates with the audience. Insightful feedback analysis allows brands to refine their messaging and offerings based on real consumer behavior. Share of Shelf Monitoring vis-a-vis competition across platforms: Monitor keyword share and brand presence on multiple marketplaces and Quick commerce platforms. Identify gaps along with opportunity to boost brand performance. Pricing & Promotions Trend monitoring with pricing intelligence: Track pricing and promotion across platforms, along with keeping tab on MAP violations and price intelligence with real-time insights.   Case Study – How a Beverage Giant Optimized Product Availability Across Q-Com Platforms  A global leader in the beverage industry, in optimizing their performance across platforms and geographies with the digital shelf tracker to monitor their products.    Product availability on platforms two major e-commerce platforms 57%, and 86%, respectively. However, after comprehensive real-time of monitoring stock availability, they were able to identify the gaps and by the end of November, it improved significantly across platforms, soaring to 100%, and 94%, respectively within a couple of months with mScanIt digital shelf tracking, which enhanced their presence across platforms and bolstered their brand reputation.  It mainly focused on enhancing its market presence by monitoring availability which includes.  Brand Availability Trends  Availability share versus competition  City-Wise Availability Trends – monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly  Platform-wise & geography-wise analysis  Heat map to identify new geography to target  Tracking Sellers performance  Maintaining Out-of-Stock product lists & real-time alerts  The Success Formula for Indian E-commerce Brands To thrive in India’s evolving e-commerce landscape, brands should prioritize:  Investment in Intelligence and Real-Time Monitoring: Market intelligence tools are essential for keeping a pulse on what’s working and addressing issues before they become major setbacks. Product Listing Optimization: High-quality images, accurate descriptions, and competitive pricing are vital. Think of each product listing as a virtual salesperson that needs to capture attention, build trust, and drive conversions. Brand Safety and Protection: Beyond counterfeit prevention, brand safety involves protecting intellectual property, monitoring potential infringements, and maintaining a positive brand reputation across digital channels.  The Final Thought The future of Indian e-commerce is fast, competitive, and brimming with potential. Brands that adapt to these trends and invest in robust e-commerce intelligence will be well-positioned for success. However, succeeding in this market demands attention to detail at every level, from digital shelves to pin codes. Brands ready to go the extra mile in visibility, pricing, and availability will lead in this dynamic, high-stakes landscape.  The future is here. Are you ready?  Get in touch to know more about digital self monitoring.

It’s almost September, and the sale season is on!   The users are eagerly waiting to buy from their favorite brands. And the brand increases their spends to ensure they are visible to their relevant set of audience.   And amidst this excitement, there are fraudsters too who are excited to see the ad spends increasing and ready to make the most out of it.   However, there are some roadblocks brands face while trying to navigate the digital landscape seamlessly. Because running an ecommerce business is not just about running sales during festivals and tracking your buy box position, it’s also about protecting your brand from any kind of potential digital threats like ad fraud, brand infringements, unsafe ad placements, and more.   All these factors, when taken care of, together contribute to a brand’s financial growth.  That is why, to build trust and transparency across the funnel, every brand needs third-party ad fraud detection and analytics tools offering festive season market intelligence to enable real-time monitoring and flag off suspicious activities harming ad campaigns during the festive season.  Let’s explore what challenges this festive season holds for brands and what they can do to safeguard their brand and optimize performance during the season and beyond.    Challenges for E-commerce Brands During Festive Season While the festive season brings unmatched opportunities for sales, it also amplifies the challenges for e-commerce brands. Brands are supposed to navigate multiple hurdles to truly make high profits during the festive season. Here are some major challenges brands face:  1. Protecting Your Brand from Ad Fraud Advertising campaigns peak during festive times, and ad fraud is one of the critical threats to brands. While on one side, performance marketers are all ready to utilize their budgets to the optimum, on the other end, fraudsters are also all set to siphon off budgets using manipulative web and mobile ad fraud techniques.   They use sophisticated ad fraud techniques like click injection, ad stacking, impression fraud, domain spoofing, ad stacking, etc. that go unnoticed to the human eye.   According to a report by ANA, 56.1% of ad spends do not reach the intended consumers and could be wasted due to ad fraud and other pipeline issues in terms of media purchases.  Some major consequences of ad fraud include:  Wastage of budget due to invalid traffic – Bots, click farms, and fake install activities consume ad spends, inflating metrics without adding any real value to the campaign performance.  Low quality leads in case of web campaigns – Fraudsters deploy bots to fill lead forms in bulk using fake details only to manipulate the overall campaign metrics, leading marketers to make further decisions based on irrelevant data.  Low retention rate in case of mobile campaigns – When most of the downloads are fake or incentivized, it directly impacts lifetime customer value, as users are not interested in the app, and only came in for incentives.  High competition for placements – Rise in CPCs and CPMs during the festive season makes it even harder for brands to maintain visibility without overspending, resulting in significant wastage of budget.   Lack of data-driven optimization – Campaigns that aren’t continuously monitored and optimized often miss quick-win opportunities. In a high-stakes festive environment, a few hours of inefficiency can mean thousands lost.  2. Monitoring the Digital Shelf Across Ecommerce Landscape Winning the digital shelf is as important as keeping a check on fraudulent activities. This requires actionable data points,ecommerce competitive analytics, and ecommerce intelligence across platforms.   However, with a range of products distributed across geographies, and the continuous growth of ecommerce businesses and new competitors emerging at a scale, brands face some major challenges like:  Discoverability on digital shelf – With hundreds of brands bidding on the same keywords, being discoverable and visible on the digital shelf is tougher. If your products don’t rank in the first few scrolls, you risk being invisible to festive shoppers.  Out of stock issues – If your product goes out of stock today and you realize it after two days, you not only lose immediate sales, but also divert customers directly to competitors offering similar alternatives.  Mismatched content across platforms – Poorly optimized product titles, descriptions, or images reduce discoverability in searches. Even if customers find your products, inconsistent content can hurt trust and conversions.  Price Undercutting and Discount Violations – Unauthorized sellers slash prices or violate MAP policies, hurting brand value and disrupting pricing strategies. If left unchecked, this not only confuses customers but also impacts ongoing campaigns. Moreover, you also risk falling behind, losing share of shelf without monitoring competitor pricing strategies.  3. Ensuring Brand Safety with Contextual Relevancy Festive campaigns are often run on a massive scale to gain as much visibility and reach as possible. However, when campaigns run across various platforms, publishers, and networks, brands often risk being vulnerable to unsafe or irrelevant ad placements that harm credibility and form negative perceptions among the audience. Some challenges include:  Ads get placed beside harmful content – Festive ads appearing alongside controversial, sensitive, or inappropriate content result in damaged brand reputation and distrust among customers.  Lack of visibility – Ads that don’t match the surrounding content appear irrelevant, leading to wasted impressions and poor user engagement. Brands are most of the time unaware of these situations, leading to poor decision-making.  Association with fraudulent publishers – Partnerships with shady or fraudulent publishers during peak season can harm both performance and brand trust.  Regional Sensitivity Issues – A message that works in one region might backfire in another if not aligned with cultural or religious sensitivities.   4. Ensuring Brand Protection Across Open Platforms Festive seasons aren’t just attractive to shoppers; they’re also the best time for fraudsters to set up fake websites or fake social media channels, using trademark assets of known brands to sell counterfeit products. This not only impacts sales of a brand but also creates confusion among consumers, harming brand integrity and reputation. Major challenges are:  Fake Websites and apps – Fraudsters create lookalike domains or