RETAIL MATTERS
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Retail matters
This month Online4baby’s Managing Director, Christy Foster is taking a look at the digital landscape.
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s the Summer season and appearing in spaces relevant comes to an end, to your audience. If your keep in mind that customers are on specific social Winter is right around platforms, your brand should be the corner. Make sure you are too. 44% of UK consumers say prepared for the retail holidays of the year: The digital Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and landscape is now more Boxing Day. Childcare important than ever to items make up a retailers and succeeding whopping 22% of the online is a necessity in most popular goods order to grow and purchased online[1] and build your brand. UK consumers are forecast to increase spend by 34.7% online in 2021[2], it is essential that your they are actively using digital channels more in 2021[3]. Recent website, apps and tech are statistics continue to persuade us optimised, your strategy is ready that this shift in consumer and plans are underway so your behaviour is not a temporary business is equipped for a very change. Social media is quickly busy end of the year. on its way to becoming the new The digital landscape is now department store. If you do not more important than ever to retailers and succeeding online is have an omni-channel approach already, it might be time to adjust a necessity in order to grow and your business model and assess build your brand. Of course, what changes need to be made success is measured through the to progress to the next level for increase of online sales, hitting your brand. KPIs and resulting in a clear ROI. Changing up your strategy and However, online success is also exploring what options are about building an engaged community through social media, available will become invaluable to you later down the line. positive brand communications
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nursery today
Knowing what works and what doesn’t when it comes to selling to your audience is a great strength that only comes with testing different channels and figuring out what is best for your business. If your brand is struggling with building consumer trust, influencer campaigns can be a good way to develop this. Consumers are twice as likely to trust the people they follow on social media to give an honest review of a product than they are to trust the website of the company selling the product[4]. If brand awareness is something you want to work on, a comprehensive PR strategy can help convey the values which resonate with your target audience. Taking a more consumercentric style to your marketing and communications isn’t spoken about enough in the ‘new normal’ we are now in. It’s been a tough year, especially for parents. From the stress of home-schooling to financial struggles, connecting with them on a human-to-human level is crucial. Examining your brand’s external and internal communications and confirming your language is focusing on the
correct people, be that customers or employees. Does your brand’s tone of voice best represents your brand and the people behind it? You might be surprised with what you uncover. It is very important to us at Online4baby to listen to what our customers want and make the necessary changes to accommodate them. We take an ‘always-on’ mentality, everything can always be improved or enhanced, and we look to our customers to help guide us on what to focus on next. We are in the process of launching our new website, which will revolutionise the consumer experience and our working practices. Alongside this, we are making even more strategic decisions around the future of our business and ensuring we have the right people in place to deliver growth over the coming years. It is a very exciting time and we can’t wait to see our hard work behind the scenes come to fruition very soon! Sources: Statistica, 2021 eMarketer, 2020 Facebook, 2021 MicroBiz, 2021
