After so many insightful interviews with industry experts and thought leaders this holiday season, we end our series with one of our very own experts to prepare brands for the new year. Sarah Lenahan, MikMak’s Customer Success Manager, joins us to take you through MikMak’s Shopping Index, and the shopping trends that we have seen.
After so many insightful interviews with industry experts and thought leaders this holiday season, we end our series with one of our very own experts to prepare brands for the new year. Sarah Lenahan, MikMak’s Customer Success Manager, joins us to take you through MikMak’s Shopping Index, and the shopping trends that we have seen.
MM: Thanks so much for wrapping up our 2021 Holiday Countdown, Sarah! As a Customer Success Manager, you are part of MikMak’s team that provides the latest eCommerce insights to our partner brands and helps them optimize marketing initiatives. What are some key themes that you’ve seen this year?
SL: Thanks for having me! As you know, at MikMak we have a Shopping Index, which is a collection of key eCommerce KPIs collected across hundreds of brands and over 250 channels and over 2000 retailer integrations to understand consumer online shopping behavior. This year, 51 percent of all shopper traffic on the MikMak Platform originated from social channels, and these are just one of many stops on a multichannel journey. Social commerce played an important role for brands across industries. And it’s not just Facebook and Instagram anymore. Platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, and TikTok are key drivers of eCommerce traffic, especially for verticals like grocery and personal care.
MM: And what are some examples of strategies that brands employed that were beneficial for their holiday performance?
SL: There’s a lot of testing and learning here. For example, one of our partner brands, COVERGIRL, was able to increase sales by making a viral influencer post shoppable on TikTok, putting the shopper in the driver seat to choose where they want to check out. What was also valuable was the first-party audience data they gathered that set them up for this holiday season. This is data they can bring with them to start in a stronger position for other event driven shopping occasions in 2022 than they would without this audience.
We’re starting to see regionality and nuance become more and more important when it comes to content strategy and targeting. Getting the content right requires brands to know their consumers, and what they want to see and hear at each point of the shopping journey. That’s consumer driven commerce.
MM: And what about when it comes to content?
SL: More and more, videos are an effective way to be engaging and thumb-stopping. We tell our partner brands often that you have mere seconds to get your audience’s attention, and only seconds more to follow up on that engagement by establishing your brand’s relevance to them. Make sure you present your product in a way that is relevant and valuable to your audience, and make it front and center. Try to reflect their identity and interest in what they see.
Also, remember to be mobile-first. Consumers are increasingly more comfortable discovering, shopping, and buying online. More than half of the purchases that took place in November this year were done on a mobile device. Thus, every stage of your shopping journey must be mobile compatible and seamless.
MM: Can you share some other interesting strategies that brands have been leveraging?
Yes! We’ve seen quite a few brands successfully leverage Connect TV services like Roku and Hulu. Also, QR codes have really made a comeback! We saw a brand partner use QR codes on ads that targeted their audience as they watched their favorite shows. Imagine being able to combine the engagement of television with the power of direct response targeting.
MM: Fascinating! And I have to ask, given that inflation and rising costs will add pressure on brands managing their budgets in 2022, what strategies are you recommending for brands trying to get the most from their investments?
SL: It’s about getting it right, and that means through both precision and agility. Precision is built on meaningful and actionable data. If brands are looking to protect market share, that means tying marketing initiative to sales to see what’s working. But there’s also more to eCommerce marketing than driving sales. Know how well your initiatives are performing against your category.
And how do you design agility into your eCommerce strategy? By designing omnichannel shopping capabilities and inventory management capabilities into your eCommerce journey. That means letting your consumer choose quickly between shopping online and shopping in stores. It also means incorporating inventory management capabilities and ensuring that your shoppers are always driven to where products are in stock.
MM: Lastly, what will you be paying attention to in 2022?
SL: It’s hard for me to think about 2022 without talking about the cookieless internet. Consumer driven commerce is here! At the end of the day, you really need first-party data, and the knowledge of how to make sense of it against the backdrop of other data sources to map the consumer shopping journey. That’s really the best investment you can make for your brand.
MM: Thanks, Sarah! And thank you everyone for following us in 2021 for the MikMak Holiday Countdown series. See you next year!
SL: Yes, thank you and I'm looking forward to next year!
