The longer anyone works in sales; the more they appreciate that every domain, brand, and business really do face unique challenges. When starting out, it probably felt like a hollow cliché, but after working with a variety of companies over the years, you really get to understand that small differences, such as implementing Deep Learning powered retargeting, can actually have a huge impact on operations. And, of course, you reach the conclusion that because each brand is unique, your approach to cooperating with each client needs to be flexible, and even your technology needs to be adaptable to changes, like the retirement of third-party cookies. One size simply doesn’t fit all.
Electronics Brands Should Be Optimizing For Own-Site Sales Channels
We’ve recently been doing a lot of work with global electronic brands like Samsung and LG, as well as local players like Monclick and Casper, and we would like to share a little about the importance of maintaining healthy sales on own-site channels for electronics brands, while still utilizing marketplaces for sales.
Before we talk about the challenges facing electronics brands, it’s worth looking at the pluses and minuses of marketplace vs. own-site sales in general. You can see more about it in this article from our colleague Gordon Plomp, but here’s the lowdown:
Marketplaces were already booming, but became even more of a lifeline for people during the pandemic. Around 90% of people visit Amazon to compare prices before they make a purchase, irrespective of where they eventually do buy.
Marketplaces are also a great way to move overstocks and old products and give customers a choice of where and what to buy
However, your own-brand site is the only place where you are in total control of your brand and its messaging, and where you can guarantee the level of customer service, guarantee, and after-sales care that will be associated with your products
A marketplace may be a great way to shift volume, but third-party sales also eat into profit margins, so own-site sales will be preferable in most cases.
However, electronics brands face a couple of major industry-specific challenges, which can make it harder to attract customers to their own-brand online store.
The popularity of comparison sites
Firstly, we have the challenge of comparison sites. 83% of US shoppers use comparison sites to shop around before making a purchase, and electronics are certainly a category for savvy shoppers. It’s no coincidence that the category is listed first in this recent Forbes article about comparison shopping.
Comparison sites have huge power when it comes to where a buyer converts. If we imagine that a customer has done their research and decided upon a certain model of Hotpoint washing machine, one might assume that their obvious destination is the brand’s website. However, the majority who use marketplaces or price comparison sites will be shown offers from the brand and third-party vendors, and will make their decision based upon price, delivery, guarantees, and a range of other factors. Due to the aggressive pricing of third-party vendors, it can be hard for own-brand sites to stand out.
Telecoms providers’ payment plans discourage purchasing directly from manufacturers
The second challenge that faces electronics manufacturers is that many of their services actively require an intermediary. For example, when buying a mobile phone, the typical path for many people is not to buy the phone from the manufacturer. It is to buy the phone plan from the operator and then choose a phone that fits the plan. Even if a buyer has their heart set on the latest Samsung Galaxy and the phone is the deciding factor in the purchase, they will still most often buy the phone from an operator, choosing a plan that includes the device. This is quite a specific issue for electronics manufacturers. It makes it more difficult to convince the buyer to transact with the brand directly, instead of through the intermediary because the buyer then has to still go to the operator to buy a phone plan.
How to promote own-site sales
Understanding the reasons why some buyers may prefer to go through third-party vendors, marketplaces, comparison sites, and operators is the most valuable knowledge you can have. The aim is not to convince everyone to buy through the brand’s own site. It’s rather to identify the people who will benefit most from direct purchases–such as buyers who will value the latest products, better guarantees, and long-term customer care–and make sure that they are aware of the option to buy direct.
Once you have identified this group, your focus shifts to offering them the most compelling products, increasing average order volume, and upselling services to build stronger relationships.
Deep Learning and retargeting makes this possible?
In general you don’t need to “identify” anyone, indeed direct user identification will become detrimental as third-party cookies are retired. Instead, you should focus on leveraging better technology in all of your campaigns, whether that’s branding campaigns to promote awareness or retargeting campaigns to drive sales. All our campaigns are powered by Deep Learning algorithms, which are the latest generation of artificial intelligence. Capable of making thousands of times more calculations than even advanced Machine Learning, they can use contextual behavior to see which customers are the best leads for own-site sales and target them with relevant ads.
We’re worked with global electronics giants like Samsung on campaigns that span continents–targeting locations like France, Poland, Turkey, South Korea, Mexico, and Romania–and running branding campaigns that have so far totaled over 10M impressions and retargeting that has proven to outperform existing solutions by up to three times and beaten ROAS goals but nearly 60%.
We’re also working with local players like Casper, which was looking to solidify the position of its Excalibur sub-brand as a leading computer for gamers. Leveraging Deep Learning and ContextAI features, we ran a video ads branding campaign that had an incredible 95.7% visibility rate and increased video completion rate by 65% compared to previous competitor campaigns.
If you want to talk about how we can bring similarly impressive results to your electronics brand, reach out to us today, and let’s talk about your specific challenges and our adaptable solutions.
