Sharing perspectives on the latest trends and tips to help eCommerce brands stay ahead to engage and drive revenue.
1. All Things Barbecue –Father’s Day Guide
What makes it great: This experience has a very clear context — shopping for the perfect gift for Dad. The graphics add a sense of individuality, and the aesthetic is holiday-specific and fun, keeping the experience of-the-moment. But most importantly, the purpose of this content is to make the customer’s life easier. All Things BBQ is offering a clear, step-by-step guide to their products to help determine which ones your Dad will love the most. For the struggling son or daughter who has no idea what to buy, this experience will certainly resonate. How to translate: Bring holiday shopping to the experience... but to maintain the value of the original, keep the specificity. So instead of a simple “Christmas Gift Guide,” try “Best Christmas Presents for your Boyfriend” or the like. This makes the context clear and the experience that much more valuable to the customer. By providing a helpful service to the customer within a creative and rich digital experience (especially during the most stressful time of year), they are more likely to be guided to a purchase.2. Murad – Weekend Getaway Skincare Travel Examples
What makes it great : The visuals are beautiful, but what makes this experience so valuable are its accompanying blog posts that detail weekend getaways to destinations, such as Cape Cod and Palm Springs. These blogs are completely unrelated to skincare. Instead, they're focused on providing inspiring and fun lifestyle information – they’re not about the buy, they’re about the reader.
How to translate: Create an “anti-buy” piece of content – focus exclusively on providing the reader creative inspiration, rather than leading them to a purchase page. When you combine valuable content with an easy path to purchase, customers convert at exponentially higher rates. And during the holidays, everyone needs as much help as they can get, so take the opportunity to provide just that.
3. Aerosoles – Fall 2016
What makes it great: What’s the point of investing in beautiful videos if they just take the customer further away from a purchase? Aerosoles added video elements to their experience in a completely organic way, and most importantly, within the experience where a customer can easily add shoes to their bag. It adds interactivity to the content, and the commerce functionality allows the customer to make the purchase immediately.
How to translate: Incorporate video directly into your digital experiences. Customers are exposed to so many advertisements this time of year, and video is an impactful way of grabbing and maintaining their over-loaded attention. Setting the video to autoplay immerses the customer right away and pulls them into your desired brand vibe. Let the holiday theme inspire you and your customers, but be sure to maintain shoppability. The last thing you want is for a customer to be excited by your content, and ready for the buy, but to get lost when searching for the product in an endless grid.
4. Ethan Allen – HGTV Dream Home
What makes it great: This is an excellent example of a “shoppable room” done right. Ethan Allen presents its furniture and décor pieces in a completely coherent way, making it easy to imagine them in our own homes. And of course, every single piece in the images is shoppable, allowing customers to peruse the rooms and add to their cart at leisure, without leaving the experience and ending up scrolling through the product grid. It’s hard enough shopping for every relative, uncle, and coworker, so shoppable experiences like these speed the process up and make them easier, and more enjoyable.
How to translate: Holiday décor is huge, from menorahs to ornaments, so present them within a beautiful, fully decorated room. Brands have to demonstrate the potential of their products. Rich images will allow customers to easily imagine how a certain piece will fit in their home, and commerce functionality lets them purchase seamlessly.
5. Tibi – Tibi on the Street
What makes it great: When shopping for high fashion, staying “on-trend” is crucial. The last thing a well-intentioned boyfriend wants is to purchase an item that is no longer of the moment. So, timely user-generated content is incredibly helpful for customers because it offers guidance on what fashionable people are stocking up on - right now. Using Instagram images, Tibi takes the easily recognized “street style” concept and transforms it into an easy buying guide. This experience not only presents products on relatable and aspirational people, it offers styling tips as well by showcasing accompanying accessories and shoes.
How to translate: Offer UGC content as a form of inspiration. Let real-life people guide customers on what's popular and how to style themselves. Ultimately, customers trust other customers the most, so incorporating your brand champions' social media posts offers validation and powerful inspiration.
This holiday season, get creative and inspire your customers in new ways. Take advantage of the seasonal theme to produce fresh and exciting content that will drive conversions and offer real value to your customers!