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3 Dreaded Reasons for Order Cancelation on eCom Stores

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Expert Opinion

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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4 Common Reasons for Cart Abandonment on eCom Stores

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Expert Opinion

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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The Myths Around Brand Safety and How to Combat Them

Leave a Comment / Blog, Brand Safety & Protection / Expert Opinion

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

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Advertising / Expert Opinion

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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Out-of-Stock: The Most Dangerous Phrase in eCom

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Expert Opinion

Online shopping has experienced a significant boom with the increased number of web users in the last two years due to COVID-19. Finding the desired product and discovering new ones have also contributed to the increased conversions on eCom platforms. The new peaked velocity of transactions has made managing out-of-stocks challenging for brands. Stockouts mean the product is no longer available on the eCom platform and has multifold brand implications, not just limited to purchases/transactions. Out-of-stock leads to switching to another brand, checkouts on another platform, finding an alternative solution, diminished customer base, and more. Loyal customers may no longer stay associated with the brand if they can’t buy its products and might share their grief in reviews. Experiencing it during lightning deals can increase the chances of such negative feedback. Some eCom platforms may offer better product rankings to listings with higher sales/conversion. The ongoing and occasional sales, competitor offers, and availability of similar products on the eCom platform makes managing out-of-stock an essential factor for businesses. Reasons and Implications of Out-of-Stock The factors for product unavailability on the eCom platform can get segregated into mismanaged inventories, wrong product demand forecasts, supplier-side issues, etc. Whatever the reason, the customer becomes dissatisfied with the brand/seller and even more challenging to re-acquire, assuming all the problems get resolved, which is an impossible scenario. Our eCommerce Intelligence Solution reviewed the change in the brand for grocery products and found that the switch is almost immediate. Customers don’t wait to buy “atta” until it arrives at the specific store and is available through the particular seller. Instead, they find alternatives for purchasing the product. Our research states that customers who want to stay loyal to a brand or buy a specific product would go to lengths to switch apps or websites that are readily available and make transactions. Stockouts can also diminish the product demand, which directly decreases SKUs and even causes delayed purchases, as the brand continuously faces issues increasing the customer base. Furthermore, the brand would have to boost the advertising budget to achieve the previous customer base and cultivate marketing spending to increase the loyalty base. Fortunately, managing stockouts is possible for brands through eCom Competitive Analytics powered by mFilterIt. mScanIt Helps Brands to Manage Stockouts Our solution analyzes the stockout of your brand and your competitors. It offers a clear picture of the brand ranking. Reviewing these results offers numerous other benefits. For example, brands can identify and alert the responsible teams when the stock status changes. The solution also scans average availability demand across city, pin code, brand, sub-brand, variant, etc. Figuring availability and unavailability can offer many more advantages. For example, the brand can review the best platform for a particular product. Similarly, the brand can check the demand percentage of a single product across eCom stores. Moreover, a competitive analysis can give the scope of demand for such products on different eCom platforms and change SKUs. Additionally, the brand can discover the hero product that meets the availability criteria across eCom marketplaces. mScanIt offers daily, weekly, and monthly to manage availability across prominent eCom platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, BlinkIt, etc. Managing out-of-stock can help brands understand the regions or warehouses with the highest/lowest availability problems and work on solutions to resolve them. By managing and diminishing stockouts, brands can increase customer satisfaction, sales, seller engagements, and market visibility. Takeaway No customer likes to read “The product is currently unavailable,” and keeping the customer satisfied is a brand priority. Out-of-stock causes severe damages to a brand and leads to a higher cost of recovering from them. Therefore, using an availability tracker like mScanIt can benefit a brand. The solution also analyzes competitor performance and offers a complete picture of the brand’s product rankings across stores. Such a solution offers multifold advantages to a brand on a single dashboard, making it easier to review and make decisions. Moreover, brands can make retail execution easier with a comprehensive solution scanning the web marketplaces and delivering customized reports.

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Negative Reviews: How Should eCom Brands Respond?

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Any brand’s reputation relies on the feedback of its consumers, and most eCom brands have at least a few measurable sarcastic and derogatory reviews across Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, or other ecom stores. As per Statista, 48% of fashion consumers in India purchased a product after seeing reviews and ratings. On the other hand, another survey revealed that 36% of ecommerce shoppers have stated that their low online product ratings were rejected, whereas 30% of the buyers couldn’t say if they were rejected/accepted. A major portion of negative ratings gets eliminated from the ecom store product listings, while a significant proportion of the buyers rely heavily on reviews and ratings, and impact of negative reviews’ seems grave. Although negative reviews paint a horrible picture in the consumer’s minds, they also offer a positive edge, i.e., bring trustworthiness or genuineness to the product listings. Too many ratings and reviews with positive responses often make the consumers believe that the feedbacks are fake/influenced. According to a survey, 65% of consumers don’t trust the product’s ratings. Simultaneously, 68% of online shoppers consider reviews as valuable as recommendations and lay their trust in them. Implications of Negative Reviews A buyer reads at least ten reviews before trusting an online business. Moreover, 62% of eCommerce brands feel that their reputation is threatened by negative online reviews regarding products or services. Other major areas of concern for these brands include loss of revenue, diminished product visibility, decreased add-to-cart actions, low engagement, lower SERP, decreased consumer base, etc. Also, some industries like fashion (mentioned above) depend upon reviews and ratings for conversions and can suffer heavy losses and overstocking issues. Here is a summary of the implication of negative reviews and ratings: Reputation Damage: High number of negative reviews creates distrust of the brand and/or product. Also, recovering from a damaged reputation becomes a costly affair. Decreased Revenue: According to a source, U.S businesses with 1 to 1.5- star Google ratings incurred 33% lower profit than others. Bad feedback leads to low trust and lower conversions. Gives an Edge to the Competition: Customers often avoid products with negative reviews and ratings. They become tempted to opt for alternative or similar options. Diminishes SERP: Google searches often show the best results with positive reviews and ratings. According to a source, product listings with negative feedback decrease their rankings on search engines. Is There a Need to Respond to Reviews? According to a source, consumers that read reviews also paid attention to the responses. While shopping for a product, buyers want to check if the brand values its customers and the actions the brand is willing to take in case of an issue related to the product or retailer. By knowing these facts, ecommerce shoppers can make appropriate buying decisions. Moreover, responding to negative, neutral, and positive reviews enhances the brand’s impression in the eyes of the consumers, as they can see the efforts they are making. Another perspective from a source is that 70% of consumers would become more willing to re-engage with a brand or retailer if there is a response to negative reviews. Besides this, the Harris survey shows that 33% of buyers post a positive review if they receive a response to their negative feedback, and 34% of the shoppers delete their negative reviews. So, brands uphold the responsibility of responding to reviews as a priority, and most focus more on the reasons for negative and neutral reviews. What Guidelines Should Brands Follow While Responding to Negative Reviews? Negative reviews impact brand reputation and decrease the potential customer base and sales/revenue. Also, we have cleared that responding to reviews is necessary for brands. But, brands should follow a few guidelines religiously while responding: Monitor Reviews & Ratings on eCom Stores and Social Media The best method for knowing about the rising customer issues across Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, or other online shopping stores is through eCom Competitive Analytics or mScanIt. The solution helps to learn more about the customer experiences by highlighting the positive, neutral, and negative words commonly used under the reviews and ratings. Simultaneously, an extended solution of mScanIt is a deep dive into sentiment intensity, which tracks instances of brand mentions on the open web using AI, even when the brands are not hash-tagged. By using these solutions, brands can ensure that they can instantly view a spike in negative review intensity and reduce the response time using the insights provided on the mScanIt dashboard. Customize Your Crafted Responses Giving a bad response to pressing issues mentioned in reviews states that the brand is not diving deep into the buyer’s concerns. Moreover, many customers would look for brands that give personalized responses, addressing their problems. The easiest method to achieve this goal is to continue using the scheduled responses but customizing the responses. It would give the brand a good impression and increase loyalty/re-engagements. So, you should acknowledge the problem, provide assistance for addressing the concerns, and give assurance of response time & resolution. According to Statista, 47% of customers from the U.S. and 59% of global shoppers have a favorable view of the brands if they respond to customers’ complaints or service questions on social media. Decrease the Response Time Upset customers tend to share their experiences on social media platforms, aside from e-commerce’s review and rating section. According to a source, consumers also wait for a response for their review for up to a week. However, health and safety issues can cause dramatic issues and require quicker responses even while investigating the problem. Assuring an upset buyer that the brand is looking into the problem and will get back to the customer could diminish lawsuits and bad publicity. Conclusion Negative reviews will remain never-ending, as would positive or neutral ratings and feedback. Therefore, tracking customer experiences through social media and the e-commerce review & rating section has become crucial. The best method for monitoring the brand or product reputation is through eCom Competitive Analytics, highlighting the commonly used words. Simultaneously, brands should address the customer’s pressing matter through personalized and quick responses. By doing so, brands have a greater chance of improving their

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What Consumers Expect from eCom Brands During the April Fools Month?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Expert Opinion

Customer engagement is at the top of the list for all brands. April is the perfect month to share some laughter with your customers and get to know them even better. Brands also use social media, outdoor advertisements, and other means to capture the eyes of new consumers as marketplaces become highly competitive. eCom brands have often witnessed massive sales during April. According to a source, the sale of non-food items in eCom stores grew by 21.1% in April 2016, whereas the Jan-March incurred an overall growth of 8.2%. In addition, another source stated that the eCom store’s traffic surpassed Black Friday sale traffic every day in April 2019. As per Adobe’s digital economy index, eCom sales were boosted by 49% in the U.S., compared with Jan-Mar 2020, before the restrictions of shelter-in-place. This report also stated that grocery sales on Instacart reached nearly $700 million in sales by the end of the first two weeks of April. Holy Moly! The surge in traffic and boost in sales was certainly a game-changer for brands. However, their attribution could go to the change in consumer behavior during the month. For example, consumers often search for gift or prank options on eCom stores during April fools month. Therefore, brands often try to provide the most suitable choices to their consumers during festivities or occasions. So, consumers often expect the following from eCom brands during April: 3 Things Consumers Would Expect from Brands in April More Mischievous Recommendations Consumers would undoubtedly expect product recommendations from brands just like any other day. However, they would want pranking, jokes, or humoring products, especially during April. Brands that offer the best mischievous recommendations would undoubtedly attract a goofy customer base, and the majority of them would engage with brands wholeheartedly. Even if consumers buy FMCG products, a laughable message card or coupons like “Haha” offering a discount would undoubtedly increase their loyalty to the brand. Bulk Availability of Foolish Products Gifts can be for an individual or a group of friends. On April fools day, people are more likely to spread laughter or pranks with more than one person. Therefore, consumers in eCom stores are likely to seek products with higher availability in their pin codes. Unavailable will cause a severe blowback to the brands, as consumers would find alternate options or eCom stores for making online purchases. Sponsored listings that meet the criteria of such consumers will also become favorable towards higher SKUs. Honest Response to Sarcastic Reviews and Ratings Brands should not become weary in the presence of higher sarcastic reviews or ratings that don’t match the review, as consumers are likely to plat it as a prank. At the same time, consumers would expect a swift response from retailers or brands on the reviews if it is not a prank and an honest review with a mistaken rating. Consumers checking product reviews and ratings are likely to read such reviews and make the final buying call. Therefore, brands are expected to provide a much more engaging response than “we are sorry to hear, or your concerns are duly noted,” Scaling the Business with mScanIt As mentioned before, April is a month for scaling business every day. Therefore, it requires a solution that can present a real story of the consumer sentiments, deep-dive into real-time insights, and provide accurate results across different eCom stores. mScanIt covers all such areas and more by offering analytics daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Moreover, it is the best eCommerce Competitive Analytics solution because it provides deep-dive into pricing insights, share-of-shelf, SKU availability, etc., which would come in handy even after the April fools month. Businesses across continents use the solution for mapping their and competitor products across eCom stores, pin codes, and cities. Conclusion April fools month is not just a business opportunity but also a chance for brands to increase engagement with their consumers. Moreover, customers expect eCom brands and retailers to bring exciting products, recommendations, sponsored listings, etc., on marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Big Basket, etc. On the other hand, meeting the increasing consumer demand is one of the objectives of an eCom organization. Therefore, scaling the business would require a solution that can deliver meaningful insights and trends with peaking accuracy. mScanIt is the aptest eCom Competitive Analytics solution that can meet these requirements. So make your brand appointment with us to learn more about mScanIt.

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Click Integrity: A Solution to Combat Click Fraud in Acquisition Campaigns

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Advertising / Deepanshu jaral

A ‘Click’ is all that matters to begin a user’s journey on an app or a website. Click integrity is a component that essentially defines whether the click is legit or not. Click is a vital ‘attribution’ responsible for measuring the click-through rate (CTR) and an essential factor for ‘click-based’ campaigns. Click integrity is a pre-attribution check that helps block invalid clicks before they reach the MMPs, leading to bad installs. It also helps to reduce unnecessary click load on the Attribution Platform, thereby reducing the costs of Attribution Platform spending by Advertisers. So, it is a contributing factor towards saving on the marketing budget. However, fraudsters cannibalize a brand’s traffic, and the process is revocable through a few actionable measures. Furthermore, the invalid clicks pose the following implications: Implications of the Invalid Clicks Reliance on MMP Data The advertisers mostly rely on sources attributed through the MMPs. However, in the absence of a pre-MMP fraud detection mechanism, advertisers primarily depend upon MMP’s elementary fraud checks to ascertain the validity of a click. Having a single source for defining click integrity makes the advertiser more worried about campaign performance. Moreover, the assurance of the MMP doesn’t prove helpful because the sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT) penetration is never caught. Untrustworthy Ecosystem Advertisers often mistake high-volume clicks to signify ‘amazing’ campaign performance/high CTR. However, upon reviewing the sources of ‘clicks,’ i.e., measuring click integrity, they often encounter ad fraud and inconsistencies. What happens next? The advertiser no longer trusts ad networks or affiliates and seeks alternative marketing strategies or advertising methods for acquiring users. The large-scale distrust of multiple advertisers directly impacts the overall ecosystem. ‘Double’ Payouts from Advertising Budget for Invalid Traffic Clicks are sourced to the MMP through multiple sources and activities. The advertisers make payouts to these sources. By the end of the day, the advertiser pays the ‘attribution’ cost on MMP and the ‘acquisition’ cost (CPC/CPI) to the source. Illegitimate sources steal the organic traffic and get paid for organically arrived users by firing fraudulent clicks. Does this make’ click integrity’ essential for you as an advertiser? So, what is happening behind damaged click integrity? To answer this, let’s go back to a more important question “What is the objective of the ad?” You’d get lower ad performance as an advertiser if you could not weed out the invalid clicks. Critical Indicators of Invalid Click Traffic Repeated/Multiple Clicks “Due to last-click attribution, fraudsters can easily capture the organic traffic by firing millions of repeated clicks in the background on a single device-id.” This means that a fraudulent source converts your organic traffic to inorganic traffic. The incrementality of these users in these cases will be ‘0’ as these would be coming from the source who has captured the last click Attribution, which essentially means that you are paying for your traffic. Click spamming skews the campaign performance and the advertising budgets as the fraudulent source gets paid for your organic traffic. The simplest way to identify click spamming would be to look at the CTIT and the Click to Install conversion ratio. Click-to-Install Time (CTIT): If you analyze the click-to-install pattern over a period, the CTIT curve would be a declining trend with 70-80% of the installs coming within the first few hours followed by a declining tail towards the end of the day. The time gap between click and install will not be very high for a standard traffic source. A typical user will click a source and then install an app. However, in an abnormal traffic source, you would see a large CTIT. It can’t be that a user clicked on an Ad, and installs are seen coming after a considerable gap or maybe after a day or even more. Click-to-Install Conversion Ratio (CVR): If the click-to-install conversion ratio is extremely low, i.e., less than <0.01% coming from a specific source/sub-source and sometimes more than that region’s population, this is a clear case of click spamming. Analyzing the Campaigns with anomalies like looking at long CTIT and an exceptionally high number of clicks with a scanty conversion rate of <0.01% CR is also not good enough!!! These clicks spamming should be blocked in real time to prevent organic traffic from converting to inorganic traffic. Invalid Devices Spurts of concentrated click traffic coming from invalid Make-Model, which don’t exist in the real world. The heavily correlated, linked clicks indicate that this behavior is identified and can be blocked in real time. This helps save the attribution cost as you weed out the bot devices. Invalid GEOs Proxies or VPNs are used to fake geographies. A high % of click penetration coming from a specific GEO location can be identified and blocked. IP Repetitions/Blacklisted IPs IP addresses are randomly allocated to users and are hobbled between users in a pool by Internet Service Providers. Extreme repetition or disproportionate IP addresses are generally not expected from clean traffic. However, Bots use servers, so spikes or clustering patterns are seen. The same IP addresses are repeatedly used across days for different SETS of device IDs. The IP addresses follow a pattern and sequence indicating fake clicks. These might come from VPNs, Proxies, Data Centres, or other sources. mFilterIt helps identify clicks coming from the blacklisted IPs and blocks the clicks coming from these blacklisted IPs in real time. Key Takeaways Based upon the integrity of the click, the click is sent either to the MMP for processing or gets rejected. It basically acts as a firewall for the install and post-install events and thus helps in weeding out the invalid clicks in real-time and thereby cleans the ecosystems. To conclude, click integrity filters invalid/malicious clicks from genuine clicks. mFilterIt (click fraud solution) helps the advertisers validate the click’s integrity and identify abnormal patterns such as repetitive behavior of Clicks, IPs and Device-IDs, Blacklisted IPs, Invalid Make-Models, and Invalid GEOs, which indicate BOTs and spamming behavior. Get in touch to learn more about the Click Integrity.

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Share-of-Shelf: What Should Matter?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Expert Opinion

Easing consumers’ shopping experience begins by making efforts to get discovered even when there is no awareness about the product/brand. Discoverability is building a successful search and exploration journey for the consumer to achieve this result. Brands use keywords to enhance findability and visibility on eCom platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, etc. The brand’s success in achieving these goals is measured by comparing the search results with competitors, and it is commonly called Share of Shelf (SOS). A study suggests that search engines build 62% of eCom journeys. Consumers come across new or potential products on eCom stores because brands customize discoverability based on their search behavior deciphered through analytics and keyword analysis. For example, brands have insight that consumers could be unaware of the latest bestsellers of the year and use keywords like “best books to read best sellers, best books to read, best books 2022,’ etc., based on eCom results on Google, and eCom marketplace search results. SOS measures the percentage of product visibility compared to competitors based on specific keywords. Measuring SOS offers numerous advantages to brands, such as generating awareness if competitors target the same keywords, identifying keywords with low competition, brand/product rankings, etc. Share-of-digital-shelf on eCom stores is measured for the competitor, sponsored, and organic keywords to get a complete picture of the brand presence. Moreover, platforms with higher positioning enhance visibility and tend to garner higher add-to-cart actions and greater chances of transaction. Therefore, brands acquire more revenue and an extensive customer base with a higher SOS percentage. Understanding the competition’s SOS helps the brand plan the future course of business. In addition, SOS helps brands determine their market positioning. Evaluating a brand’s overall, ranking-based, and category-specific SOS can deliver a full picture of the product presence across eCom stores. 3 Things to Consider While Evaluating eCom Share of Shelf Total SOS Measuring the overall presence of a brand’s product across eCom stores gives a simplified view of the market positioning based on select keywords. Brands with high SOS percentages have successfully eased the consumer’s discoverability journey. Such listings would acquire higher reachability, and enhanced visibility, witness more add-to-cart actions, and ultimately acquire more revenue. Comparing the percentages every month would provide insights into the change in SOS performance of your and competitor brands while displaying the change in performance. Such insights play a crucial role in creating brand strategies and marketing spending decisions across eCom platforms and require continuous monitoring. Reviewing product SOS across stores would also help understand the highest performing eCom platforms, distinguish between the share of sponsored, competitor, and organic keywords, etc. mFilterIt’s eCom Competitive Analytics conducts a deep scan of e-commerce platforms to analyze drivers of sales. Moreover, mScanIt helps brands compare their platform coverage with the competitors and find the top performers for product/brand searches, SKU ranges, and variants. The overall share of the digital shelf is calculated and displayed on a single dashboard portraying a score based on these categories. SOS by Category Brands use categories for product listings on eCom stores which significantly impacts discoverability. For example, Amazon enlists “press” under “dry iron, steam iron, iron, and other categories. Brands add keywords on their product and company page of the eCom platform that match the categorical search results. Evaluating category-wise share of digital shelf can offer promising deliverables. For example, brands can learn the category with the highest SOS and decide to change the categories of their products. The eCom competitive analysis of categorical SOS displays the share acquired by the brand and its competitors. Therefore, brands can decide to enlist products under categories with higher chances of discoverability, visibility, and consumer reachability to boost add-to-cart actions and conversions. Moreover, the brand understands its categorical presence across eCom platforms. Another advantage of using keywords based on categorical segregation is ranking on the bestseller page. Brands often evaluate their and competitor’s SOS percentages on bestseller pages under different departments/categories. However, the full scale of SOS results by category can be derived by evaluating visibility based on brand, sub-brand, pin codes, variants, and SKU range. mFilterIt’s eCommerce Analytics uses these categories to provide an in-depth view of the SOS. Moreover, mScanIt informs brands of any KPI deviations. Therefore, you stay updated about product health and data. As a result, you always keep an eye out for KPIs and don’t lose hold of market trends unless you change your marketing or advertising strategies. Top Results of Products by Searching Specific Keywords Measuring the share of a product under a category on an eCom platform is valuable, but so is knowing the page rank of the products using various keywords. As per our research, consumers are more likely to see products, add them to a cart, and even successfully place an order if the product is listed in the top ten results or on the first page. For example, if a consumer searches for the keyword “Shampoo”, the brand with the highest ranking and visibility on the first three pages will most likely achieve consumer interactions. mScanIt beholds the capability of finding the keyword-level share of brands based on rankings. Another research stated that many consumers might even decide the product’s traits, such as features, options, etc., based on the listings visible to them ahead of the line. Therefore, brands that will enlist their products on the eCom store or already have listings present on the e-commerce platforms would use this to their advantage by adding keywords of such listings on their product/company pages of the eCom platform. The consumer sentiment of product ranking based on the most researched keywords changes the playing field of eCom store brands. Acquiring a higher ranking on search pages has become a competitive game and requires careful analysis using a solution that recognizes consumer behavior based on search results. Most brands also spend on promoted/ sponsored listings which keep their product listings at a desirable position on the search page. However, winning the search rank organically is what brands strive for since that gives them relatively permanent

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Busting the OEM Myths

Leave a Comment / Ad Traffic Validation, Blog / Jagmeet Singh

During the first quarter of 2021, OEM app stores acquired nearly 42% of the global market share. OEM refers to original equipment manufacturers, and in mobile terminology, it caters to brands like LG, Redmi, Realme, etc. Such companies offer personalized app stores, and brands can obtain premium leads through OEM advertisements. Moreover, unlike Google Play Store, OEM apps are perceived as relatively safer and fraud-free. The cost of advertising on OEM stores varies on the type of placement. OEM advertising has two broad categories: pre-installed apps and app store promotion. Pre-installed apps are a gateway to new users as they are visible on the screen upon first-time phone usage. App store promotion is an icon & browser-based promotion, hot downloads, and recommended apps on an OEM app. In mobile terminology, OEM stores are even referred to as alternate Play stores, as they are pre-installed in addition to Google Play Store. OEM advertisements have opened doors to an untapped market, wherein brands can directly connect with the targeted traffic. Moreover, advertisers believe that they can generate higher ROAS and not worry about fraud, as the mobile manufacturer ensures exclusivity. OEM stores are mainly used for app installation. According to sources, OEM stores can boost app installs by 5x higher than the standard advertising methods. Does the App You are Promoting Require OEM Type Traffic? OEM app stores offer high-quality users and increase the visibility of the app. Moreover, it is an optimum platform for boosting installations. Apps removed from the Google Play Store can use the alternate app store to increase their market growth. The third-party app stores receive security certification and clearance from the manufacturer. Unfortunately, they may not take measures like Google Play Store apps when they encounter potentially harmful apps (PHA). Therefore, it is necessary to decide whether putting the app on an alternate store with lower protection levels against ad fraud can cause more harm than benefit. Look at the Data Points When receiving installs, carefully look at the app versions used. Many times, fraudsters may display fake installs using an archived app version. Moreover, sudden spikes in conversion levels should also match the click levels. If you find discrepancies, it is most likely due to ad fraud. Closely monitor and question the type of traffic. For example, is the correct targeting happening, or a plain install campaign? For, what is the percentage of the handsets traffic in installs vs. reality? Are the installs happening on older handsets? Besides this, do a simple click-to-conversion analysis and see what the graph looks like, and does that make any sense? Then, check your backend/KPI’s are they getting met or not. Issues with OEM Advertising Merely Runs on Faith Advertisers believe that OEM app stores offer brand-safe environments because they trust the OEM mobile manufacturing brand. The two-way communication between the advertiser and the brand ensures transparency in this relationship. Building a two-way trust helps in increasing the app installs, but how does it prove that they are legit? Do you have to leave that on trust too? Moreover, does it eliminate the possibility of duplicate/fake apps? So, are alternate app stores offering a brand-safe environment, or is it an illusion? Moreover, the recent malware release through the Netflix duplicate app on an alternate store is sufficient proof that “yes” is a questionable answer to any of these questions. If it were true, ad fraud elimination companies wouldn’t be working hard and fast to detect data anomalies. Nobody Goes Behind and Checks What is the Actual Source? Is the Actual Source and Claimed Source to be Same or Different? The transparency between the OEM and advertisers often leads to the belief that the actual and claimed source would remain the same. However, if advertisers go in-depth and review, they would find many discrepancies. For example, fraudsters display fake installs by cloning the SDK of an app and using different means of installation. Sources state that 13-18% of third-party app installations happen majorly through fake devices and other ad frauds. At times, users are unaware of the app install. Fraudsters also use cloned installs to display the “x” installation of the advertiser and achieve monetary gain. Moreover, cybercriminals even add malicious codes to these apps and conduct more ad fraud in the background. By default, these Sources are Whitelisted on MMPs. Commonly, an MMP receives click and impression attribution after a user clicks on an ad. The “install” attribution happens whenever a user opens an app for the first time. Such in-app OEM installs, impressions, and clicks are commonly whitelisted by MMPs. However, fraudsters register fake impressions and clicks with the MMP. Moreover, they even use spoofed SDKs for faking “install” attribution on the real device and report the same to the MMP. Another common method of stealing attributions for organic and inorganic installations on MMP is through click spamming, wherein fraudsters fire clicks until they claim the last click attribution. When analyzed, the install-to-attribution ratio goes beyond the 1:8 ratio. Therefore, the default misattributions by MMPs are causing analytic and reporting discrepancies. How did they Get Themselves Whitelisted and Start Mixing Traffic and Fooling Everyone? At present, the decision to recognize sources to include in the whitelist lies with the MMPs and includes numerous fraudulent attributions. Moreover, the whitelists are created by default, and the advertiser has no say in the whitelisting decision, even though the advertiser is making the payments. As such, the advertiser believes that the MMP is doing its due diligence and providing accurate attribution results. Moreover, the results provided by the MMP motivate the advertiser to increase the advertising budget and the payout to the fraudster. Similarly, outdated app or SDK version installation is typical fake installs used by fraudsters. Moreover, the fraudulent ad network may make the fake attributions appear organic to boost the installation’s legitimacy. Furthermore, cybercriminals may even use the older version of the SDK for displaying purchase rates. In reality, there is no purchase from the fraud ad network, and neither does

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