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Most Successful Strategies to Drive Online Sales on eCom Platforms

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Why would a consumer buy your product over the competitors, especially with an ‘n’-number of options on ecom marketplaces? It all boils down to the “trust” a customer has in your brand and its products, created using multiple marketing and advertising strategies over the years. Trust on ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, etc., is built by creating a good first impression, offering reassurances, showing off products, etc. However, while your brand is implementing online strategies to achieve this goal, it is also crucial to enhance customer journeys, manage stock availability, understand pricing intelligence, etc. Creating successful ecommerce sales strategies also requires an in-depth understanding of your brand’s product versus the competition to learn about customer issues, most/least appreciated qualities, hero products across different ecom platforms, etc. Therefore, building successful sales strategies is possible through eCom Competitive Analytics, a.k.a., mScanIt. We bring the best methods to increase sales through mScanIt, powered by mFilterIt. 3 Important Strategies That Can Boost Sales Find Out Customer Requirements Viewers on ecommerce platforms often leave their queries under the Q&A or review & rating sections. Answering the commonly asked questions by potential buyers can enhance sales of the product listings. Similarly, knowing the common queries for the product listings across ecommerce platforms can enable brands to improve their customer communication inside and outside the ecommerce store. mScanIt’s question themes encompass the times customers have used a particular phrase as part of the Q&A for a product listing. For example, suppose the theme reveals packaging mentioned sixty-four times under the questions. In that case, the brand will know that they should address it by mentioning details on the product page or running online marketing campaigns. Answering customer queries improves the product information, and 10% of the online shoppers prefer ecommerce purchases versus physical retail stores for this very reason. Besides this, brands can utilize the word cloud representation of the themes in the Q&A section to learn about their consumers. Enhance Your Product Page Captivating a consumer’s attention, especially after clicking on the product listing, requires describing the product and using the apt keywords in the correct arrangement throughout the product page. Clear and crisp information that meets the potential target audiences’ needs will encourage add-to-cart actions and conversions/sales. New users would often build trust through the content and feedback, whereas returning users are already interested in the product but are likely searching whether it encompasses the latest features/qualities. Simultaneously, all potential consumers search for trust signals such as high-quality images, good content copy, detailed product descriptions, easy on the eye title, etc. Wouldn’t that be your perspective, too, if you will buy from a new seller/brand? Overcoming the challenge in developing and achieving perfect page benchmarking can increase consumer base and revenue and enhance the brand reputation without any paid activity, as content copies require only words. eCom Competitive Analytics scores for title, content, and reviews, besides overall score, while measuring it against the competition. The information helps brands to know the highest possible score under each aspect and explore areas of improvement under these avenues through deep diving. Improve Your Ads Given that 10% (more or less if compared with the current year) of the ecommerce advertising budget goes into banner ads, developing a great banner copy is important. Include high-quality images and details that highlight the USP(s) of the product, keep it short, simple, & catchy, etc., are continuously practised by marketers. But why does the ad copy still have such a low score compared to the competition? Knowing the aspects that increase engagement with the rival’s sponsored ads can enable brands to develop better ad copies, find a new target base, build brand trust, and ultimately increase sales. Analyzing the ad copies will help understand the targeted buyer personas and gather more intelligence. Also, if possible, introduce usability factors in your ad copies to reach the correct audience, even if you have a wide net. Enhancing the sponsored ads improves the buyer journey through navigation, which is the only other method besides search engines on ecommerce platforms. The factors that drive sales don’t get limited to or by these three factors only. Measuring and keeping track of share-of-shelf, keyword analytics, the share of sponsored listings, etc., also encourages or drives conversions. All these are part of eCom Competitive Analytics, which is currently used by industry leaders in electronics, FMCG, or other domains. Final Words Knowing the drivers of ecommerce sales also helps to acquire a competitive edge, acquire a higher share of the market revenue, fight back against vulnerabilities, and more. eCom Competitive Analytics derives accurate information about the brand and its competitor’s product listing. Doing so allows brands to explore new growth areas, take action in real-time, reduce MAP violations, and remain attuned with the KPIs. As a result, brands achieve higher revenues and drastically improve their discoverability, availability, visibility, and other essential aspects. For more information on the advantages of eCommerce Intelligence Solution, connect with us by leaving a comment, or drop us an email in the contact section.

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Financial-Fraud

Indian Consumers Are Losing Money Due to Financial Fraud. Is There a Solution?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Advertising /

The pandemic has brought a revolution in the adoption of digital payments among consumers. In the past two years, approximately 68% of Indian consumers have started using mobile payment apps, while 94 percent of Gen Z consumers have started owning mobile wallets. However, with the changing habits of the consumers, the fraudsters are also actively looking for different ways to defraud consumers. In the past year, 34% of consumers have reported financial fraud. This number rises to 41 percent for the people between the age group between 25-29 years. To protect the consumers, over the years different financial institutions have come forward with RBI to provide a consumer redressal mechanism against financial fraud. Know in detail about the types of online financial frauds happening in India costing consumers monetary losses and how you can act against it. Types of Online Financial Frauds Phishing Scam In this case, a fraudster creates a phishing website that mimics the legitimate website of a bank, e-commerce, search engine, etc. After this, the fraudsters share the link to these websites using various mediums like social media, email, SMS, and Instant Messenger. Many of the users click on these URLs and enter their security credentials like their CVV pin, One Time Password (OTP), password, etc. This information is later used by the fraudsters to commit financial fraud and steal money from the consumer’s account. Vishing Scam The fraudsters often claim to be bankers, insurance agents, government officials, and firm executives and approach consumers over the phone or social media for information. They approach the customers and win their trust by disclosing basic information like name, date of birth, etc. Once they win the trust, the imposters trick the customers to share confidential information like OTPs, PINs, passwords, and CVVs. They also impose urgency by sharing different emergency cases like the need of blocking an unauthorized transaction, winning discounts, or avoid penalties. Online Shopping Fraud This is quite a common way nowadays that cyber fraudsters use to dupe people online. There are different ways the imposters commit this type of fraud. In one of the cases, the cybercriminals make a duplicate website of some legitimate brand and offer cheap products. They convince the customer to pay online and after the payment is done, the customer doesn’t receive the ordered product. In another variant, the fraudsters create a new website and sell products at a cheap price. Similar to the above case, here also the customer pays but doesn’t receive the product. Some fraudsters also add a policy in which if the customer buys a product that costs more than a dedicated amount, the customer can get a chance to win an expensive gift at no extra cost. Once the customer purchases the gift, they get a call from a “customer service” of the fake website asking the customer to pay a refundable amount. In this way, the fraudster induces the buyer to deposit money. App Fraud The fraudsters circulate various app links via SMS, email, social media, and instant messenger, which appear similar to the existing apps of authorized companies. Once a customer clicks on these links to download an unknown and unverified app, the fraudster gets access to their device without their knowledge. This means that they also get access to confidential details stored in the device. In addition to this, some screen-sharing apps give fraudsters control to watch the customer’s device and gain access to financial credentials. Using this confidential information, the fraudsters can make unauthorized transfers of funds or make payments by using the customer’s payment apps. Search Engine Scam Consumers use a search engine to find contact details of banks, insurance companies, or any other company. Meanwhile, the fraudsters set a trap for the unaware consumers. The fraudsters modify the contact details on search engines and make them look like legitimate entities. When the customers contact these unknown and unverified numbers, the fraudsters ask them to share their confidential details like card credentials or details for verification. And the consumers assume that they are genuine representatives of the RE and share their details. Identity Fraud As the use of social media is growing, fraudsters have made it a breeding ground to dupe people and get their confidential details. To fool the customers, the fraudsters create fake accounts using the acquired data of the users. After this, they contact different consumers for money in exchange for fancy deals and discounts. In some cases, the fraudsters also use the private information of the users to blackmail and extort money. Consumer Redressal Mechanism for Financial Frauds To protect the consumers from the implication of financial fraud, the Ministry of Home affairs has operationalized the national Helpline 155260 and a reporting platform. The helpline and the reporting platform have been started under the umbrella of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs. This initiative was further given support by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), other major banks, Payment Banks, Wallets, and Online Merchants. The citizen financial cyber fraud reporting and management system has been set up in-house by the I4C to integrate Banks, Law Enforcement Agencies, and Financial Intermediaries. Currently, this helpline is utilized in seven states and Union Territories (Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh). These locations cover more than 35 percent of the country’s population. By leveraging the new-age technologies, this redressal mechanism empowers both the bank and the police. It helps to share online fraud-related information and take appropriate action in real-time. The loss of the defrauded money in online cheating cases can be avoided by stopping the money trail before it goes further and moves out of the digital ecosystem. How does this operate The Helpline and its associated platform work according to the following process: The financial fraud victims can contact Helpline no. 155260, which is managed and operated by the concerned State Police. The designated operators take down the fraud transaction details and the basic personal information of the

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Share-of-Shelf

Why are eCommerce Brands Competitive About Share-of-Shelf?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Retail eCom sales have been booming since 2014. According to Statista, In 2023, global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars. Projections indicate a 39 percent growth in this figure over the coming years, with expectations to surpass eight trillion dollars by 2027 Nowadays, eCom brands retain their existing and new customers through promotions, offers, subscriptions, and deals, which also gives them a competitive edge. Share-of-Shelf (SOS) has become the next big model for boosting these deliverables. SOS measures the visibility of a product based on a specific keyword under a particular category of an eCom marketplace. A high SOS means that the brand has eased consumer discoverability and product visibility on eCom searches. However, harnessing such results on the eCom store is tiresome as brands constantly need to review the keywords of their brand’s products and competitor listings. Besides visibility, a higher share of digital shelf correlates to more money for the brand. How? Brands with higher visibility, especially on the first-page results, have witnessed higher number of consumers undertaking add-to-cart actions and conversions, hence higher sales. Forecasting such consumer behavior significantly impacts the product marketing strategies, sponsored listings, cross-selling across opportunities across eCom stores, etc. Moreover, the knowledge about the eCom platform offering the highest SOS helps identify which marketplace has consumers more receptive to the brand? – another valuable insight for the sales and marketing team. Similarly, the brand also recognizes the keywords that offer the maximum search visibility to their products and the hero product under the categories. Traditionally, brands measured the share-of-shelf in offline stores by calculating and analyzing the facings and linear listings. Brands reviewed the total products facing a category and compared it with competitors and variants. The linear listing accounted for the total products of a brand listed in a linear length and reviewed against the competitors. However, the story of the share of the digital shelf is entirely different, as they are measured across eCom stores using keywords. Measuring the presence of a brand’s products helps identify trends across eCom stores, cities, and pin codes. 3 Reasons eCom SOS Has Become Highly Competitive Reviewing the share of digital shelf help brands to gain insight into the presence of the product on eCom platforms. Brands can also learn about consumers’ journeys through SOS. Moreover, the need to track the share of sponsored and organic listings has become unavoidable. Tracking the brand’s discoverability under a category using keywords helps detect the most commonly used consumer searches. Moreover, a brand can even decipher its product’s visibility based on competitor, organic/inorganic, and brand keywords. Unfortunately, brands sometimes get zero views on sponsored listings, which is worrisome. Simultaneously, competitors might also be making money by enhancing their visibility using your brand’s keywords. But these are secondary advantages of reviewing the share of digital shelf and can get dealt with by contacting the eCom marketplace. However, the primary advantages offered by keeping track of the SOS are as follows: Optimize Searches Brands often enhance searches using the preferred keywords on pages, results, or lists. Moreover, they are further segmented into long and short-tail keywords. Brands understand that basket conversions and shopper awareness are substantially higher for the top five products (of the first page) on an eCommerce platform than others. So, the need to safeguard ‘brand-specific’ keywords from competitive bidding becomes important for enhancing product visibility. Unfortunately, brand bidding is still a prevalent fraud even in the eCommerce industry and gravely hampers the search results. Share of brand search can summarize keyword search result share across each eCom marketplace. Analyzing the share of voice can prove helpful for benchmarking the top brands/products under definitive categories. Data-driven results help brands curate looped feedback about consumer behavior, optimizing revenue spending. mScanIt even determines insights post SOS analysis based on city, pin code, or other classifications. Such segmentations help brands to optimize their marketing campaigns. Measures Essential KPIs Dashboard of mScanIt tailors the eCom results of Share-of-Shelf (SOS) through Key Performance Indicators (KPI). The KPIs help to enhance search results, display tailored results, improve the user experience, etc., using a single platform. The brands can discover the ongoing product, category, page, trends, besides performance and competitive data. The SOS covers KPIs like SKU range share, overall SOS, top product by search, average page positioning, etc. According to Amazon, the top three search results account for 68% of clicks, and 75% of eCommerce shoppers make decisions based on the first page results. Utilizing SOS KPIs can help brands devise strategies to increase add-to-cart conversions and brand awareness.  Influences Consumer and Brand Behavior Another significant advantage of reviewing SOS using an eCommerce competitive analytics solution is determining the consumer behavior or journey. Understanding the habits of the online shoppers on eCommerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart can help devise multiple strategies. For example, for any given keyword, e.g., brands like Aashirwad, Fortune, Pillsbury, and other brands’ products constantly appear on the first page. Moreover, consumers searching for FMCG or CPG products are almost instantly looking to fill their shelves. Therefore, products of brands with the highest visibility under the search term “atta” will likely incur higher conversion due to urgency. So, SOS retains the capacity to influence consumer behavior. Industry researchers have also suggested that first-page product results in higher add-to-cart actions and conversions under a specific keyword and category. Simultaneously, such brands would significantly diminish their cart abandon rates. Conclusion Measuring the share of the digital shelf has become essential for brands because of the multiple advantages and competitor insights, other than product visibility under different keywords and categories. But, it is only a single discoverability aspect. But, brands require a more in-depth analysis of availability, performance, visibility, search, exec compliance, and brand safety before making the final marketing strategy calls. An eCom Competitive Analytics solution like mScanIt can prove beneficial for achieving these goals while monitoring KPI achievements against the market leaders. In addition, a solution like mScanIt offers an easy mechanism for understanding consumer behavior journeys. SOS is not taken lightly by any

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eCom-Competitive-Intelligence

Why is eCom Competitive Intelligence a Need for D2C Brands?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

With the growing trends of mobile advertising, fraudsters are finding new ways to sneak into the digital ad ecosystem and loot the advertiser’s money. One of the known frauds in the mobile advertising segment is Click Injection. According to Statista, followed by SDK spoofing, the click injection cases have increased up to 27% worldwide in 2018. And with the increasing cases, fraudsters are making money while the advertisers are losing their ad spending on ineffective campaigns. Apart from the revenue loss, the click injection fraud also leaves a big impact on the brand in terms of credibility. But before we move forward, the foremost thing is to understand the meaning of click injection. What is Click Injection? This is a sophisticated form of click-spamming that is majorly related to Android devices. According to Statista, in 2021 the install fraud rate was found up to 12% in Android devices whereas in Apple IOS it was 7%. Click injection is like a hidden spy camera installed by fraudsters. When a user downloads an app that is affected by the “install broadcasts”, fraudsters can detect when any other app is downloaded. Further, it triggers a click before the installation process completes. As a result, the fraudster receives the credit for the completed app installs. Along with this, the act also results in poaching of organic installs that were driven by genuine advertising. This fraud impacts both the revenue and efficiency of the campaign run by the advertiser. Here are a few instances of how click injection impacts a brand. Impact of Click Injection on Brands Draining Advertising Budget Though the ad engagement is fake, the advertiser remains under the impression that the received “ad click” is genuine and eventually leads to the payout at CPI to the affiliate network or the publisher. This leads to a loss in the advertising budget which can be instead used to reach genuine users. Stealing Real Conversions Beyond the loss of the advertising budget, the click injection also costs the advertiser the conversions expected from the campaign. When a user clicks on an injected ad, the fake action on the ad will be attributed. This further leads to poaching of organic conversion and unknowingly the advertisers continue to invest in an ineffective campaign. Manipulated Analytics If we look at the bigger picture, apart from the revenue loss, the brand has compromised data due to click injection fraud. For instance, when an advertiser sees that their paid campaign is attracting traffic, they will most likely spend more to optimize the ROI. However, due to the manipulated results, the damage becomes two-fold. First, the advertiser is investing more in ads, and secondly, they are ignoring the possible channels which will bring real traffic. How To Protect Your Brand from Click Injection Fraud Data Analysis The Average Click Install Time (CTIT) is an important factor to understand and detect click injection fraud in ad campaigns. If the installs are fraud-proof, then the data will be most likely be in the range of an average CTIT. On the other hand, if the installs are fraudulent then there will be a visible peak in the number of installations during the time range of CTIT. However, there is a loophole in this process. Some of the apps are also capable to manipulate the data pattern by setting a time range after which the app opens. Choose A Reliable Marketing Partner When choosing a marketing partner ensure to do a deep analysis of their previous work and expertise. If anyone claims to provide an ‘n’ number of app installs at a surprisingly low price, then it is highly likely to be fraudulent installs. Even though the rates may differ for different industries, the delivery of genuine installs by ethical methods comes at a high price. Fraud Detection Solution Instead of beating around the bush, it is better to focus and eliminate the bug first. In this case, despite taking all the precautions it is hard to say that your campaign will be protected from click injection ad fraud. Thus, it is better to switch to a holistic ad-fraud elimination solution like mFilterIt. Our ad-fraud elimination suite helps advertisers run digital campaigns and avoid becoming a victim of app fraud. With the advanced solutions provided throughout the customer journey, the advertisers can rest be assured to get engagement from real humans and eliminate bots from their ad campaigns. With the help of high-tech and future-driven AI and ML techniques, we ensure to provide the best solutions for the fraud-free growth of your business. Conclusion Even though the click injection fraud generates manipulated install numbers, the CPI and other associated events are real. This makes it very hard for the advertiser to differentiate between a real and fraudulent lead. The earlier the advertiser decides to take the right action to prevent and eliminate ad fraud from their campaigns, the sooner they will be able to divert their revenue spend on effective campaigns. And to take quick action, the mFilterIt ad traffic validation solution will be your helping hand to eliminate click injection fraud from your mobile advertising campaigns.

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Click-Injection-Fraud

Click Injection Fraud Costs More Than Just Money for A Brand

Leave a Comment / Blog, Ad Traffic Validation /

With the growing trends of mobile advertising, fraudsters are finding new ways to sneak into the digital ad ecosystem and loot the advertiser’s money. One of the known frauds in the mobile advertising segment is Click Injection. According to Statista, followed by SDK spoofing, the click injection cases have increased up to 27% worldwide in 2018. And with the increasing cases, fraudsters are making money while the advertisers are losing their ad spending on ineffective campaigns. Apart from the revenue loss, the click injection fraud also leaves a big impact on the brand in terms of credibility. But before we move forward, the foremost thing is to understand the meaning of click injection. What is Click Injection? This is a sophisticated form of click-spamming that is majorly related to Android devices. According to Statista, in 2021 the install fraud rate was found up to 12% in Android devices whereas in Apple IOS it was 7%. Click injection is like a hidden spy camera installed by fraudsters. When a user downloads an app that is affected by the “install broadcasts”, fraudsters can detect when any other app is downloaded. Further, it triggers a click before the installation process completes. As a result, the fraudster receives the credit for the completed app installs. Along with this, the act also results in poaching of organic installs that were driven by genuine advertising. This fraud impacts both the revenue and efficiency of the campaign run by the advertiser. Here are a few instances of how click injection impacts a brand. Impact of Click Injection on Brands Draining Advertising Budget Though the ad engagement is fake, the advertiser remains under the impression that the received “ad click” is genuine and eventually leads to the payout at CPI to the affiliate network or the publisher. This leads to a loss in the advertising budget which can be instead used to reach genuine users. Stealing Real Conversions Beyond the loss of the advertising budget, the click injection also costs the advertiser the conversions expected from the campaign. When a user clicks on an injected ad, the fake action on the ad will be attributed. This further leads to poaching of organic conversion and unknowingly the advertisers continue to invest in an ineffective campaign. Manipulated Analytics If we look at the bigger picture, apart from the revenue loss, the brand has compromised data due to click-injection fraud. For instance, when an advertiser sees that their paid campaign is attracting traffic, they will most likely spend more to optimize the ROI. However, due to the manipulated results, the damage becomes two-fold. First, the advertiser is investing more in ads, and secondly, they are ignoring the possible channels which will bring real traffic. How To Protect Your Brand from Click Injection Fraud Data Analysis The Average Click Install Time (CTIT) is an important factor to understand and detect click injection fraud in ad campaigns. If the installs are fraud-proof, then the data will be most likely be in the range of an average CTIT. On the other hand, if the installs are fraudulent then there will be a visible peak in the number of installations during the time range of CTIT. However, there is a loophole in this process. Some of the apps are also capable to manipulate the data pattern by setting a time range after which the app opens. Choose A Reliable Marketing Partner When choosing a marketing partner ensure to do a deep analysis of their previous work and expertise. If anyone claims to provide an ‘n’ number of app installs at a surprisingly low price, then it is highly likely to be fraudulent installs. Even though the rates may differ for different industries, the delivery of genuine installs by ethical methods comes at a high price. Fraud Detection Solution Instead of beating around the bush, it is better to focus and eliminate the bug first. In this case, despite taking all the precautions it is hard to say that your campaign will be protected from click injection ad fraud. Thus, it is better to switch to a holistic ad-fraud solution like mFilterIt. Our ad-fraud elimination suite helps advertisers run digital campaigns and avoid becoming a victim of app fraud. With the advanced solutions provided throughout the customer journey, the advertisers can rest be assured to get engagement from real humans and eliminate bots from their ad campaigns. With the help of high-tech and future-driven AI and ML techniques, we ensure to provide the best solutions for the fraud-free growth of your business. Conclusion Even though the click injection fraud generates manipulated install numbers, the CPI and other associated events are real. This makes it very hard for the advertiser to differentiate between a real and fraudulent lead. The earlier the advertiser decides to take the right action to prevent and eliminate ad fraud from their campaigns, the sooner they will be able to divert their revenue spend on effective campaigns. And to take quick action, the mFilterIt ad traffic validation solution will be your helping hand to eliminate click injection fraud from your mobile advertising campaigns.

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Brands-Analyze

Why Do Brands Analyze Reviews and Ratings?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Nearly everything is available for buying online through eCom platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, etc. However, reviews and ratings highly influence consumers’ buying decisions or even add-to-cart actions. Our research states that eCom buying heavily relied on R&Rs in 2021. A positive R&R score can become a factor that drives impulse buying decisions most of the time and offers scope for increasing the product price. Many consumers don’t mind paying more for a good product. Meanwhile, a negative score leads to a diminished customer base, switching to competitive sellers/eCom platforms, and finding alternative solutions. Therefore, R&R can help a brand build a vast consumer base and enhance targeting/reach. The impact of R&Rs is not limited to consumers’ buying or a brand’s pricing decisions. It extends implications in SEO rankings, product return forecasts, detecting underperforming products, and more. For example, reviews often include brand names and product-related keywords, affecting search engine rankings and easing product discoverability. On the other hand, ratings have also become a part of a digital advertisement to showcase consumer trustworthiness in a brand. Therefore, R&Rs are a big part of user-generated content. Analyzing R&Rs can prove helpful in identifying the bestsellers, most favored brands, the average rating of the brand across platforms, etc. Brands also analyze ratings to understand the likelihood of consumer repurchases. Monitoring the R&R score can greatly influence the marketing and advertising decisions. For example, if you check that Biscuits’ is receiving negative reviews such as broken, crushed, etc., it should go back to the packaging team. 3 Reasons Brands Monitor Reviews and Ratings Understand the Consumer Needs Reviews and ratings give a first-hand impression of a brand’s product listings on eCom stores. The positive, negative, and neutral reviews often specify the best and worst features, besides competitor advantages. Moreover, reviews on eCom stores often consist of supported pictures and videos, which helps brands to understand the problem stated by the consumer even more. Understanding the consumer’s needs helps make product improvements, launch new listings, and enhance the user experience across eCom stores. Simultaneously, reviews give brands a chance to build strong long-term relationships with customers and uplift the brand’s market reputation. Simultaneously, reviews help find warning signs on eCom platforms such as fake/duplicate products, bad quality, products not matching the description, etc. The personal experience shared by people through reviews cultivates trust among other buyers and in the brand. Find the Buying Decision-Making Factors User-generated content, including reviews, influences the buying decision of 25% of online shoppers. Therefore, monitoring online reviews and ratings on eCom platforms helps brands find the key factors influencing buyers’ decisions. According to a source, online reviews uplift sales by 18%. For example, if most people state that the “quality of the speaker is awesome, but the price is slightly high,” eCom buyers that value quality over price would not mind paying a bit extra. Simultaneously, the brand received a pricing intelligence that the product has a higher cost than similar listings. As such, reviews are the online form of open-line communication between brands and consumers. So, brands can find their areas of improvement and enhance the products’ most likable features/qualities. Measure Trustworthiness on the Product Listings Given that most online shoppers go through at least three reviews before making the final purchasing decision, it is inevitable to state that trust in a product or brand is built through R&Rs. Moreover, consumers share the best qualities or worst experiences through ratings and reviews, which offer a clear picture of the product that a potential consumer would bring home. As a result, ratings and reviews give a true picture of the brand and its products, even with influencers continuously trying to alter the scores. According to a source, consumers are less likely to buy products without ratings and reviews, as they would most likely become the first to share the experience. Also, many consumers try to avoid the risk of buying from a new seller with no R&Rs, as it does not establish trust. Lastly, too many positive reviews tend to make the consumers suspicious of the product. As per a source, 55% of consumers often become skeptical that reviews of a product are fake if they encompass similar wording. Therefore, brands need to continuously take measures to grab verified user-generated reviews and ratings to acquire the trust of potential new buyers. Analyzing reviews and ratings help brands to measure the consumer trustworthiness of different product listings versus the competition. Takeaway Monitoring reviews and ratings give insight into the favored platform and product performance and suggest growth opportunities. Moreover, brands constantly analyze the reviews for deciphering the hero product under different categories and allocate marketing budgets. Additionally, checking review and rating scores helps a brand decide on product inclusions in ads, PR, and influencer campaigns. Therefore, R&R has become a crucial part of mFilterIt’s eCommerce Intelligence Tool.  The solution offers deep insights based on many filters such as product, platform, sub-category, etc., and enables brands to make sound decisions. Using the dashboard, brands can also review competitors’ product performance based on reviews and ratings.

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eCom-Stores

3 Dreaded Reasons for Order Cancelation on eCom Stores

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Canceled order means canceled conversion and loss of potential revenue post-transaction. Brands dread canceled orders because, unlike exchanges, it means that the customer no longer wants the product. So, even though brands increase their likely customer base, they lose out on building an authentic connection by offering a product-based experience. Also, customers that cancel orders might share their remorse of delayed delivery or delight in finding a similar item at lower costs with faster delivery in alternative stores as feedback on eCom platforms. As a result, brands lose their grip on scalability while losing money on acquiring customers through marketing and advertising channels. Also, if the customer buys a similar product on an alternate eCom platform, a competitive brand has managed to boost its customer base, get a higher market stake, and generate more significant revenue. According to a Statista, 17% of online shoppers cancel orders frequently, whereas 24% have done the same “at least once.” Customers commonly terminate their ongoing shipping due to long delivery durations, reviews & ratings, promotions/discounts/offers, etc. In many cases, the remorse of order cancelation is not limited to brands but also to customers, as they incur shipping charges if the order has been shipped/dispatched. Moreover, if the customer shares a bad review, it would contribute to the negative sentiment intensity of the listing and tarnish the brand/product reputation. 3 Common Reasons for Order Cancelation on eCom Stores Late/Delayed Delivery Late or delayed shipments build a bad reputation for the brand and seller in the consumer’s mind. The most common reasons for late deliveries can include delayed shipment by the retailer, location search problems by the courier, incorrect delivery address, etc. According to a source, 34% of deliveries get delayed due to the retailer. While the cause is an issue for the brand, the frustration is felt by the customer, who is facing the consequences of ordering online. Another report states that 35% of consumers cancel orders due to delayed deliveries. One of the most common reasons for the delay in delivery from the retailer is “out-of-stock,” which means the unavailability of the product in the store. During the peak COVID-19 outbreak in the US, 40% of the consumers faced a delay in grocery items. So, the state of delayed delivery has not significantly diminished even after the pandemic (as it is still at 35%). Revisit to Reviews and Ratings Besides price after coupons, offers, promotions, or discounts, and free delivery, reviews play a vital role in product purchases. 35% of online shoppers make the final buying decisions after reading product reviews. The share of online shoppers that read between 1 and 3 reviews before buying a product is 36.4%, whereas consumers that read more than 10 reviews for the same is 14.6%. So, reviews play a vital role in product buying. Imagine if these customers read the online reviews after placing the order. 45% of consumers often cancel orders if they change their minds, and reviews have that capacity. Better Promotions, Discounts, and Offers Online shoppers often search for promotions, discounts, rewards, cashbacks, and offers, even after placing an order. 92% of eCom product buyers ‘always, sometimes, and usually look for offers or deals before making the final purchasing decision. Another report states that 52% of consumers research percentage off, whereas 22% get convinced with flat discounts as the best options while shopping online. Such a scenario could even happen after placing the order. Consumers don’t want to pay for too high shipping or service charges and would likely change their minds if a similar product comes with better options. According to a source, 40% and 22% of customers cancel orders due to these two reasons. For example, if a brand is offering a washing machine without additional cost for setting up, e.g., Rs 1,000 and Rs 200 for service cancelation. On the other hand, if another eCom store has the same washing machine with free service and setting up cost, whom do you think consumers would prefer if the price is nearly the same? Reducing Order Cancelation with eCom Competitive Analytics Brands dread the three common reasons for order cancelation; however, they can take action based on real-time insights and alerts. eCom Competitive Analytics tracks stock availability, reviews & ratings, sentiment analysis, pricing, discounts, etc. By checking their SKUs across eCom stores, brands get to learn consumer behavior and demystify the commonly faced problems. The positive and negative word cloud of the sentiment analysis highlights keywords recurring in reviews. So, brands can deal with listing issues upfront and provide a better user experience. Similarly, the availability section displays the percentage-wise segregation of stocks, which means stock availability versus stockouts. Upon deep diving and reviewing insights, brands can check reasons and actionable measures for decreasing ‘out-of-stock’ problems. Takeaway Order cancelation is frustrating, painful, and saddening for brands and sellers as it comes with multiple disadvantages. However, brands can decrease or resolve cancelations by figuring out common issues causing them through eCom Competitive Analytics, a.k.a., mScanIt. mScanIt offers a chance to brand for tracking sentiment intensity as KPI or threshold and gives a chance of receiving real-time alerts with actionable insights. Using eCom Competitive Analytics, brands get a fighting chance of potentially increasing their revenue, building a bigger pool of customer base, and delivering a better customer experience/shoppers user journey. Connect with us to learn more about the advantages of insights and real-time alerts offered by mScanIt for your brand.

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Cart-Abandonment

4 Common Reasons for Cart Abandonment on eCom Stores

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Cart abandonment means a customer added your product to their cart but never completed the transaction. It is frustrating for brands because they are so close to a sale, yet all efforts fall flat when the carts are deserted. Brands calculate cart abandon rate by dividing overall transactions by total initiated conversions. The global cart abandonment rate has fluctuated between 68.07% and 69.8% between 2014-and 2020. So, nearly 70 out of 100 customers leave the eCom store without conversion. Regionally, the online cart abandonment rate is the highest in Middle East & Asia at 90.88%. Brands work relentlessly to figure out the reasons for cart abandonment and have discovered that high shipping costs, price comparison, out-of-stock, etc., are some of them. But, the severity of cart abandonment is more significant for businesses, as they spend tremendous hours and money on optimizing marketing and advertising efforts. A high abandoned cart rate makes all these efforts wasteful. Why Consumers Abandon Carts on eCom Stores? Unexpected Shipping Costs Online shopping is a matter of convenience. One can shop at their time in the comfort of their own space. The catalyst that makes it an even more enticing option is the brand’s pricing and discounts online to lure its customer base. However, while this leads to impulsive add-to-cart actions, it doesn’t assure a guaranteed sell. It has been observed across ecommerce platforms that many listings do not display shipping charges upfront, which is instrumental in making or breaking a sale. This happens to be the last leg of completing a transaction. According to sources, most consumers that don’t make bulk purchases often face heavy shipping charges if they don’t meet the minimum basket cost. So, while the consumer is delighted with the product price, the shipping cost becomes a deciding factor for looking at other sources, even nearby brick & motor retail stores. On the other hand, some consumers might not worry about the shipping cost until it is a substantial percentage of the order value. A survey reveals that 41% of customers abandoned their carts for this very reason. Imagine paying nearly half the price of the book as delivery charges. Would you pay? Many customers would look away. Nowadays, shipping costs are mentioned on the product pages; however, even stores like Amazon India do not display them in their product listing. Low Price on Alternate Stores Digital shoppers have the flexibility of reviewing multiple seller prices on different eCom platforms. Low price on the alternate store has also become a reason for cart abandonment before checkout. According to a survey, 18% of consumers don’t make a transaction because of price comparison. eCom store app notifications and emails to consumers might not prove effective once the consumer has abandoned the cart after finding a lower price on alternative eCom stores. This scenario is more likely to happen for quick commerce. Simultaneously, loyal customers might try to find the same quantity of their lovable brand at alternate stores while abandoning the cart. Therefore, the silver lining here is that the brand doesn’t lose its customer base and gets a deeper understanding of pricing, one of the essential pillars of digital commerce. Out-of-Stock During Checkout “Lightning deals” or “only two more available” indeed sound enticing, especially while shopping online, as they display hefty discounts or products at unbelievable prices. However, many consumers, including me, have faced another message, “this product is no longer available,” during checkout. According to a 2019 report, 28% of consumers have reported “out-of-stock” as the reason for abandoning their cart. Unavailability due to mismanagement of stock-keeping units (SKUs), tracking systems, seller issues, etc., are no longer news to brands. Besides this, out-of-stock during checkout often highlights the seller and makes both brand & seller unfavorable in the eyes of potential consumers. As a result, OOS during checkouts doesn’t only lead to drawbacks associated with it but also creates long-term disadvantages associated with cart abandonment. Better Discounts on Alternate Stores While low price is an incentive for online shoppers, promotions and discounts play vital roles. Consumers often use multiple resources to find additional discounts, offers, or promotions on products already available at a low price. In 2018, one of the common reasons for 46% of U.S. consumers abandoning carts was a “non-working discount code.” However, even if the discount code works, the consumers are likely to compare prices on alternate eCom stores and include pricing intelligence in the buying decision. Therefore, tracking competitor prices, discounts, promotions, and offers becomes vital for brands that want to reduce their cart abandonment rate and increase revenue. Other reasons for knowing all four factors are understanding your brand’s competitive edge in the market, consumer behavior, and highest/lowest values. Diminishing Cart Abandonment with eCom Competitive Analytics Cart abandonment has been a significant reason for losing eCom revenue or building a smooth consumer journey. Shopify states that eCom stores face a potential loss of $18 billion in annual revenue to cart abandonment, which states that brands often fail to build actionable marketing strategies. eCom Competitive Analytics, a.k.a., mScanIt, enables businesses to navigate this dynamic space with detailed insights and actionable items. Simultaneously, brands can track competitor performance across eCom stores and build strategies around real-time inputs. Takeaway Cart abandonment would never decrease on eCom platforms. However, businesses can certainly diminish the cart abandonment rate with valuable insights and simultaneously increase the online conversion rate using mScanIt insights. While insights offer multifold advantages, knowing the competitor’s intelligence in the market also provides many advantages. These include understanding consumer behavior, finding scalability alternatives, comparing analytics with company sales to know marketing conversions, etc. Leave us a comment, or connect with us to learn more about the benefits of eCom Competitive Analytics for your brand.

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Brand-Safety

The Myths Around Brand Safety and How to Combat Them

Leave a Comment / Blog, Brand Safety & Protection /

In explaining brand safety, people often use the example of how a display campaign can go wrong. An example is an ad for a family-oriented brand appearing on a site with adult content. As another example, an airline advertisement will run alongside a news article about a plane crash. An ad inserted in such a way could start a public relations firestorm and ultimately damage the brand’s reputation. The purpose of a brand safety solution is to prevent such things from happening. Although these examples are vivid and easy to understand, they may make brand safety sound simpler than it is. An online survey found that 51% of millennials and Gen Xers are four times less likely to purchase and three times less likely to recommend a brand when they see ads in unsafe environments, even if the placement was not the brand’s fault. Unsafe ad placement can have lasting negative effects on your customer. It is more difficult than ever to protect brand safety. Brand safety systems need to evolve along with new media formats and address the concerns unique to each. In fact, it might be time to put an end to some myths and misconceptions about brand safety, including what exactly brand safety entails, who is responsible for it, and how to protect it. How to Combat Brand Safety Myths? Myth 1: Global, English Based Brand Safety Analysis Provide Regional Context There are 22 official languages in India, but only 5 are supported by Google. 95% of the videos consumed are in regional languages, according to a recent study. If this issue is not resolved, the regular blacklisting tools will become redundant. Brand safety issues may be universal, but each country and region has its own culture and expectations, making it unique and subjective. One region’s inappropriate and unsafe behavior may be acceptable in another’s culture. Due to these concerns, brands usually implement contextual targeting measures like keyword blocking and URL blocklists to protect their brands. These strategies, however, lack the flexibility and control necessary to safely use programmatic advertising today. Therefore, they’re ineffective. So why? Keywords and URL blocking rely on definitions of words to categorize content and the associated inventory as “safe” or “unsafe.” Additionally, these approaches often lead to over-blocking of safe content or incorrectly categorizing harmful content as safe, leading to both loss of money and increased risks. In addition, publishers struggle to monetize inventories while covering topical and newsworthy events. Regionalization is the new buzzword for solving brand safety concerns, and that’s what we need to understand. When it comes to analyzing brand safety, regionalization influences contextuality. Brand ads are also placed differently based on the target audience in a particular region, which is an important part of contextuality. Myth 2: Blacklisting Keywords is Blocklisting Keeping brands safe means more than blacklists The pandemic era has made brand safety a major concern for brands and marketers alike. Ads should not be displayed next to content that deals with morbidity, violence, hate speech, or other derogatory content. Blacklisting certain keywords to ensure that the ads are not displayed next to objectionable content is one of the most common ways to deal with such issues. It is not possible to successfully advertise and protect brands through keyword blacklisting. Keyword blacklisting assumes that the platform already knows the context of the content. It may be true for typical English-focused content, but regional content is a whole different story. The platforms do not support regional languages (especially in a diverse country like India) and because of that, keyword-based blacklisting does not work. For example, what if the terrorists use ‘bread’ instead of ‘bomb’ in their meta tags and descriptions and your ads show up next to videos of violent terrorist activities? In this way, blacklisted keywords are bypassed. Content creators avoid using unsafe tags when they submit their content to YouTube to get better marketing campaigns. Again, this defeats the purpose of keyword-based blacklisting. We need context-based blacklisting, which should be constantly updated based on the most recent news story and relevant to AI-powered algorithms. By doing so, the campaign’s effectiveness will be maximized while ensuring brand safety. Myth 3: Brand Safety Is Not My Issue This is wrong! Regardless of the industry, vertical, or scale of the enterprise, brand safety is imperative. In short, no matter what scale the enterprise functions at, no matter the industry it serves, one instance of unsafe advertising can destroy the company’s reputation forever. The modern consumer is more educated and aware than most marketers. Due to the powerful voice consumers have through social media, one negative comment or tweet can tarnish a brand’s reputation forever, thus compromising the brand’s safety. Even though the scale of the operation is small, digital advertising helps increase brand awareness. Within the same ecosystem are consumers who consume a wide variety of content every day. Imagine you are a brand that offers baby products, and one of your ads appears within an inventory that contains material that is surrounded by adult content. What’s next for you? For quite some time, there has been the misconception that brand safety is only for B2C companies. Isn’t it possible, though, that a b2b company can be negatively affected by the complex challenges the advertising ecosystem presents? According to a recent study conducted in Singapore, 7 out of 10 consumers believe that advertising with misleading content is the brand’s responsibility. Taking this into consideration, the detrimental impact of not addressing the issue rests with the brand. Myth 4: Brand Safety Has Nothing to Do with ROI and is an Unnecessary Cost Please reconsider! The majority of the time, unsafe content will also perform poorly for your campaign. Someone who is going to adult content is unlikely to click on your ad and go to your landing page! In general, ads on unsafe inventory will underperform and degrade the ROI of your campaign. Thus, by addressing brand safety (and protecting your brand), you also get the benefit of improved campaign performance and

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Digital-Ad-Campaign

Real Humans or Bot Humans – Is Your Digital Ad Campaign Seen by the Right Audience?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Advertising /

The ad impressions are spiking high. The advertisers are feeling ecstatic. The publishers are making money. And then there is a shocking revelation. Are these impressions coming from a real human? No matter how effective your digital ad campaign is, it cannot add real value if it is not viewed by any real human. To resolve this, viewability as a metric was introduced to quantifiably measure how many ads are getting real exposure from users. Before moving forward, let’s first understand the meaning of ad viewability. What is Ad Viewability? A viewable impression is a standard metric of ad viewability defined by the International Advertising Bureau (IAB). According to them, an ad will be considered viewable when it appears at least 50% on screen for more than one second. This metric helps the advertisers to get a quantifiable percentage of ads that are viewed by real people. Why viewable impressions are important in digital advertising? In digital advertising, there has been very slow growth in adapting technology which ensures that the impression received is real. This means that a real human has seen the creative. Finally, this change is beginning to be a reality. Without a viewability metric, the advertisers cannot understand if their inventory is seen by people or not. Viewable impressions give a clear picture of how many ads are seen which further allows advertisers to precisely measure ad performance. Viewability Standards By MRC Many years ago, trade associations like the ANA left the advertisers in a dilemma of whether their ad was viewable or not. It was a genuine concern because if the ads are not viewable, then the scope of it impacting the digital marketing campaign is very less. This concern led to the setting up a standard of viewability by the Media Rating Council (MRC). According to the defined standards set by the MRC, an ad will be considered viewable if: 50% of a desktop display ad is in view for at least 1 second 50% of pixels of a desktop video ad are in view for at least 2 seconds. 30% of pixels of a large desktop ad unit (with 242,500 pixels) and larger is in view for at least 1 second. Expectations Vs Reality (Viewable and viewed) As per Statista, the viewability percentage of display ads in 2021 worldwide is almost 70 percent among which India has 55 percent. On the other hand, the video ad’s viewability is almost 74 percent according to Statista. There is a thin line between the ad being viewable (had an opportunity to be seen) and being viewed (had been seen in reality). Data released by Amplified Intelligence throws light on the gap between “viewable” and “viewed”. Expectation The advertisers are happy to see that the running campaigns are MRC compliant and receive an average of 70% impressions. They are expecting that this 70% is all human eyes. But here comes the horror. Reality According to the observation made by the Amplified Intelligence, out of the impressions served: 44% are MRC compliant but receive irrelevant active attention (avg. half second) 9% are MRC compliant but get zero attention. 17% are both MRC compliant and getting attraction for at least 2 seconds. This means that even the advertisers are thinking that they are paying for that 70% audience, but they are just paying for the 17%. And as a result, they don’t get the value as expected from the campaign. What Impacts the Viewability of an Ad? There are many factors affecting the viewability of an ad. Some of these are related to the website design and the ad placement. Whereas some are outside factors that are implanted by the fraudsters to churn money out of advertisers. Some of the common causes of poor viewability are: 1. Ad Blocker There is a set of browser plugins and filters that prevents an ad from loading. By the time ad is loading, the ad blockers identify these ad slots and block the creatives. As a result, the ad space remains blank, and the user doesn’t know about the ad. However, these ads are considered as served impressions for the ad networks and the advertisers eventually pay for it. 2. Bot Impressions A bot is an automated software program that performs pre-defined and repetitive tasks. These programs are technologically enabled by the fraudsters to download or refresh pages, scroll, click, and engage with the site content just like a real human. It is not easy to detect bots and most of the ad networks consider the bot traffic as real users. This further means that, the impressions served for the non-human visitors are counted as successful. It also reduces the viewability of the ads. 3. Ad Stacking Ad stacking is a common trick practiced by fraudsters where they place the ads in layers. This means that there are layers of ads placed on top of one another. As a result, though only the top ad is visible, the hidden ads are also considered as served and hence being charged to the advertiser’s ad spend. 4. Pixel Stuffing In this type of ad fraud, the fraudsters place 1×1 pixels around the website as placements for ad creatives. These pixels remain invisible to the visitor when the page loads, but it is considered “impressions served” for the ad networks. 5. Inactive Tabs One of the most common reasons for low ad viewability is when the impression is counted in a situation where the user has left before the loading of the ad. Approximately, 40% of visitors leave a page that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Another situation is when the user has opened multiple tabs or continues to browse other programs during the ad is served. In this case, even though the user has not viewed the ad, the impressions are still counted. 6. Wrong Positioning Sometimes the position of an ad is not accurate to the window dimension. This eventually creates in loading of the ad on certain types of devices. Another case is when the ads are placed

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