DEFINING SHOPPABLE CONTENT - Styla · ne of the very first examples of shoppable articles comes...

DEFINING SHOPPABLE CONTENTHOW SHOPPABLE ARTICLES AND INTERACTIVE VIDEOS TURN CONTENT CONSUMERS INTO ACTUAL BUYERS

his paper provides an insight behind the shift in

e-commerce and the role that content has played

in it. With the changes in consumer behaviour, and the

immediacy of which consumers want products, the whole

concept of online shopping is moving towards becoming

more experiential. This means that the only way for brands

to deliver an experience is to use engaging content —

content that entertains, educates, encourages interaction

and, as a result, drives sales without even trying to sell.

Such an element of “effortlessness” can be introduced by

a seamlessly integrated shoppable feature, which, for once,

allows brands to focus on telling an inspiring story rather

than just pushing sales.

AFTER ALL, THE ULTIMATE SECRET TO

SUCCESSFUL SELLING IS TO BUILD A BRAND

THAT INSPIRES.

Together, we have written this paper to explain what

shoppable content is, where it currently sits in the

innovative e-commerce landscape, and how it can help

your brand to stay ahead of the curve. We will look at

data to determine the effect that shoppable content can

have on consumers, compare two experiences that they

can have with it — namely, when it comes to shoppable

articles and interactive videos — and show which KPIs

brands can achieve if they make their content shoppable.

2DEFINING SHOPPABLE CONTENT - STYLA & SMARTZER

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYAT STYLA AND SMARTZER, WE BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF CONTENT. OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, WE’VE WATCHED

E-COMMERCE BRANDS RISE FROM TRADITIONAL “ONLINE CATALOGUES” TO INNOVATIVE SHOPPING PLATFORMS THAT PROVIDE

MUCH MORE THAN JUST SHOPPING. INSTEAD, MODERN E-SHOPS ARE ALL ABOUT EXPERIENCE, STORYTELLING

AND INNOVATION.

T

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO E-COMMERCE

s it stands today, there are up to 24 million stores

that sell goods and services online, which makes

e-commerce the biggest market in existence. Ever. Having

recently reached $1.6 trillion in size [1], e-commerce is

projected to grow at double digits in the future. In fact, the

slice of the whole e-commerce pie is becoming larger as

we speak: offline sales are tanking, more and more people

are shopping online, and the global commerce in general is

experiencing a dramatic shift from physical to digital retail.

But in order to successfully surf the wave of growth,

brands will need to seriously rethink their marketing

strategies and adjust to the new e-commerce landscape. If

they don’t, they run the very real risk of getting lost in the

crowd.

Think about it. With ever increasing product volumes,

today’s consumers (i.e. millennials and post-millennials)

are presented with an endless amount of choice. As a

result, their purchasing behaviour is changing due to other

trends, such as increase in mobile and the expectation to

access anything anywhere, anytime. On top of that, today’s

consumers also have a shorter attention span [2], less time

to make decisions and, most importantly, a huge need

for unique, authentic value that e-commerce hasn’t really

offered before.

3

A

DEFINING SHOPPABLE CONTENT - STYLA & SMARTZER

evertheless, a few brands have already started to

obscurely move from a plain catalogue-like model

to providing something more experiential. Something that

instead of just traditional “hard selling” wraps products

in an engaging storytelling package — full of beautiful

editorial content, rich imagery and interactive videos —

whilst being seamlessly integrated into the old school

shopping process.

This leads to the emergence of the latest trend in

e-commerce: shoppable content.

With the rise of shoppable technologies, online retail

brands can merge content and commerce and create

unique, authentic experiences that not only help

consumers make better, faster shopping decisions, but

also entertain and inspire. The result? Happy consumer,

happy brand.

But first, let’s dig a bit deeper into the definition of

shoppable content.

N


n simple terms, shoppable content is any type of content (i.e. videos,

articles, images, etc) that provides a direct purchasing opportunity and

allows consumers to either add products to cart directly from what they are

viewing or be taken to a product page and continue to shop from there.

The need for this innovation lies in the fact that today’s consumers are

expecting more than what the brands have been offering before. In this

technologically advanced age, people don’t want to just buy a product —

they also have to have an interesting story and a memorable experience

associated with it. Slowly, more and more brands are embracing this idea,

presenting a narrative for their consumers which sparks interest, evokes

feeling and inspires them through storytelling. In the long run, this is the key

to successfully selling a product.

I

5

SHOPPABLE CONTENT


nd indeed, storytelling does sell. In fact, it has been proven to be an essential ingredient when it comes to a

successful sales process. According to American neuroeconomist Paul Zak [3], when people hear good stories their

brain releases oxytocin (best known as a “moral molecule” and “empathy drug”), which as a result, makes people spend

56% more money, donate to 57% more causes, and express 17% more interest in advertising [4].

In other words, in order to be selling goods and services online, brands need to be selling stories — and digital marketers

should be fundamentally relying on engaging content.

However....

A

6

THE SCIENCE OF STORYTELLING


s popular as content marketing is, it has its problems

too — specifically when it comes to conversions and

measurements.

If you think about it, there’s always been a certain difficulty

in traditional content marketing to establish a direct

connection between a story and a product. While content

does grow awareness of a product by creating a story

around it, there’s still a considerable gap between the act

of selling and the act of buying. Whenever content would

inspire people to purchase a product, it could fail to deliver

a direct sale because consumers would have to go through

several stages of the purchasing process before being able

to actually buy it. In many cases they will be unable to find

the product and the sale will be lost. This can leave the

consumer feeling frustrated and can have a negative impact

on the company image. The truth is…

7

“JUST” CONTENT ISN’T ENOUGH ANYMORE

A


n stark contrast, modern shoppable technologies erase the gap between content and product by reducing the

number of steps needed to make a purchase. In other words, instead of this model:

As the result, the less steps there are between seeing a product and being able to shop it directly, the higher are the

conversion rates.

Shoppable technology can shorten the conversion process to something like this:

Or in some cases, even this:

I


PRODUCTPAGECONTENT

CONTENT

CONTENT

IDENTIFYING& FINDING

PRODUCTADD TO

CART PAYMENT

PRODUCTPAGE

ADD TO CART PAYMENT

ADD TO CART PAYMENT

nother struggle point in traditional content marketing is that there’s been a great difficulty to understand ROIs

and accurately measure the effectiveness of content as such. So far, there have been no clear way to estimate

conversions and click-through rates, making it incredibly difficult to predict how effective content actually is when it

comes to sales (something that 83% of B2C content marketers [5] put as the highest priority, by the way).

On the contrary, shoppable content makes it easy to monitor all the click-throughs and see which parts of the story

people interact most with. But more on that in the next chapter, where we discuss what shoppable articles and videos

actually look like.

A


n today’s e-commerce market, millennials and post-millennials are the most powerful driving force

behind most purchasing decisions out there. The thing to remember about them (especially about

females) is that they favour fun and energizing shopping environments more than anything else. And

what’s more, they also really value trusted advisers and counselors that help to make better purchasing

decisions [6]. In marketing terms, content is the perfect tool to target the modern generation tanks to its

brilliant mixture of entertainment and education.

But there’s another thing about millennials to consider. And no, it’s not the fact that millennial consumers’

attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish. It’s the fact that millennials are impatient and want all

processes to be fast, efficient, and seamless. They know what they want, and they want what they want

when they want it. That is, millennials need instant gratification and instant access to get what they want

right away. And what’s more, the also demand an effortless transition between the experiences — the shift

from content to purchase must be smooth and quick.

That’s why making articles shoppable is an obvious step to take in content marketing.

10

SHOPPABLE ARTICLES:TURNING READERS INTO BUYERS

“Today’s content should provide instant gratification to those who consume it. It is not enough to produce beautifully-written stories with a call to action at the end. If a brand is trying to grab people’s attention but isn’t able to satisfy it, it does nothing but deceive the customer.”

- Philipp Rogge, CEO at Styla

I

he first thing to understand about shoppable articles is that they are, first and

foremost, like any other articles: following the basic narration principle, they

are aiming at bringing true value by educating, entertaining, inspiring and engaging the

readers. The storytelling aspect is still a priority. But what makes shoppable articles

stand out from the crowd of content is — drum roll, please! — the seamlessly integrated

shopping opportunity.

Here’s how it works:

The shoppable technology builds a bridge between an e-commerce store and a content

platform (e.g. online blog or digital magazine), integrating existing products from an

online shop into an article. Then, every product image (be it a photo or a gif) is assigned

a “Buy It Now” or “Go To Shop” option that allows to either add the product directly to

cart or proceed to a product page for a full description. This way, a single piece of content

becomes a powerful shopping channel that smoothly converts readers into consumers

without any effort.

T

11

BUY IT NOW


ne of the very first examples of shoppable articles comes from Net-A-Porter, which built a shoppable magazine

called The Edit. The reader can hover over any product, click on it and instantly get referred to the product page

“to get the look” there.

O


lternatively, articles can also be directly shoppable, in which case the reading experience isn’t interrupted. A good

example to illustrate comes from Baukjen, a London-based womenswear brand. On their website, Baukjen runs a

digital magazine where readers can immediately add any product from content to cart, be it directly from articles or the

whole blog feed.

A



nother good example coming from a fashion brand could also be Graziashop, an online retail project of Grazia

Magazine. On their e-commerce platform, the brand has integrated a blog called Your Fashion Stories, which is

essentially a source of inspiration that drives readers to Grazia’s online shop.

A


+60%

x3

22%

112%

+57%

+65%

TIME SPENT ON PAGEThe amount of time spent on page is increased

by 60% (3.2 minutes on average)

RETENTION RATE

3x higher rate of returning visitors

CLICK-THROUGH-RATEThe click-through-rate to product pages

reaches up to 22%

SOCIAL SHARES112% more social shares coming from content

NON-PAID TRAFFIC 57% more non-paid traffic to the content site

(25x more from social and 2x more direct)

PRODUCTIVITY65% saved time for content creation

The following numbers illustrate shoppable content KPIs based on Styla clients’ performance (until March 2016).

16

n average, the conversion rate in e-commerce is 5% from website to basket and

1.4% from website to sales [7]. Shoppable content let brands to attract potential

customers before the buying decision is made, when they are looking for the inspiration.

Taking them into the buying funnel earlier decreases the Acquisition Costs and increases

the Retention rate.

The boost of purchasing interest can be explained by the ease of access of the shoppable

features, which allow modern consumers to satisfy their purchasing desires immediately,

upon a spark of inspiration or a simple whim. This is something that brands — even those

doing content marketing — were simply unable to offer before.

But it’s not only articles that are getting “shoppified” now: videos, which offer a slightly

different user experience, are becoming shoppable, too. However, how exactly the KPIs

form shoppable videos look is something we’ll take a closer look at in the next chapter.

O


y 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic [8], while 64%

of marketers expect video to dominate their strategies in the near future [9].

These figures show that video has become a popular and fast growing digital marketing

tool across verticals. However, as previously mentioned, there has been very little

understanding of how this actually impacts sales as the connection between video and

purchases can be very difficult to track.

Just as shoppable articles engage the millennials amongst us, the emergence of

interactive and shoppable video technology aims to do the same by allowing consumers

to click on products in a video to see more details with the option to shop. This creates

a seamless journey from inspiration to purchase, making it as easy as possible for the

consumer to explore and shop items from videos.

B

17

SHOPPABLE VIDEOS:TURNING VIEWERS INTO SHOPPERS

“Video in itself is a powerful storytelling tool. Alongside the fast growing trends of shoppable content, a seamless connection between video and commerce should be a given. It is also very important to have access to detailed video analytics for brands to start to really understand how consumers interact with video and what type of content works best for

their customers.”

- Karoline Gross, CEO at Smartzer

18

hoppable videos are relevant for various types of content, whether it be product-focused or geared more towards

storytelling.

Marks & Spencer [10] released a perfect example of a shoppable video that was largely focused on storytelling but also

intended to educate the consumer on the products that were featured. The shoppable functionality was used in this

instance to allow consumers to explore the content much further, and linked the story to the products that could be

purchased from the immediate pop up once the consumer had clicked on the product in the video.

S


lternatively, there can be a different interactive video experience, in which each click upon a product is registered

simultaneously. In order to view the coveted products, the consumer must click there to extend a large panel on

the side and from here, they can then discover more about the product if they wish. A good example of this would be the

Rebecca Minkoff runway show:

A


hoppable videos can also offer other functionalities for the consumer, such as entering competitions via a simple

form, signing up to email alerts regarding unavailable items, sending themselves email wish-lists of products they

like, and booking in-store appointments [12] — all from within the video player.

S



61%

75%

24%

56%

15%

9%

COMPLETED VIEWSConsumers who watched the video in full

INTERACTION RATE

Interaction rates exceeded at over 70%

CLICKTHROUGHClick-through rates to product pages at up to

24% and exceeds $10 per CTR on average

EMAIL SIGNUPS Engagement rates on competition forms

around 56%

VIEW TO ‘BUY NOW’% of views resulting in a ‘Buy Now’ click-through

CONVERSION TO SHOPConversion to purchase from product page

The results that Smartzer have seen from their own video technology have exceeded e-commerce standards. Here are the numbers that illustrate the results from the players up until February 2016.

hese positive results could serve as a benchmark in the industry, especially if

Marketing teams adopt this digital strategy for their companies and a large increase

in shoppable video does become a reality.

Shoppable video is already seeing an increasing adoption rate amongst some high

profile brands in a bid to enhance their digital marketing campaigns, backed by highly

successful metrics. The results only help to prove the effectiveness of shoppable videos,

as the technology turns them into a highly engaging marketing tool, allowing consumers’

interest in products to convert into sales.

The availability of this data is a key element in shaping future video strategies and creating

videos with the best possible engagement from consumers.

22

T


ut from what we’ve seen, more often than not, traditional digital content is lacking the essential elements of storytelling, as well as a fast and

convenient route to purchase products. This is the reason why content is currently going through a phase of digital innovation in order to become

more seamless, more interesting, and more experiential for today’s consumer. And what are the perks, you might ask?

Well, as content goes shoppable, it turns into a multifunctional shopping & entertainment device that engages people and makes them come back time

after time for a new purchase. Based on the KPIs, the boost in engagement directly increases click-through rates to products, which in turn, makes

shoppable content a smooth-running sales channel. Sounds like every marketer’s dream, doesn’t it? But that’s not all.

By using shoppable content, brands can better recognize the exact tipping points that trigger consumers to click on a product and make a purchase.

With the use of data that they would have otherwise struggled to obtain, brands can proceed with informed and coherent facts about what really drives

their audience. They will eventually be able to let the technology personalise content to specific readers which means that content would be perfectly

tailored to the likes and preferences of every single individual. This would mean personalised, directly shoppable content for everyone — and that

sounds like the future of digital marketing is happening now.

B

23

IN CONCLUSIONSO HERE WE ARE, LIVING IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL CONTENT. THAT CONTENT — BE IT IN THE FORM OF ARTICLES, VIDEOS OR

SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY — WILL GROW AND CONTINUE TO PLAY A LARGE PART IN KEEPING CONSUMERS INSPIRED AND

ENGAGED.


Styla is the first content commerce solution for shoppable

online magazines. Thanks to its seamless shopping

integration, Styla can easily transform content into an

exciting shopping experience, which lets brands and

online retailers inspire their customers with captivating

stories and encourage them to make a purchase. Top

e-commerce stores and brands, such as Speedo, Boohoo,

DeBeers, RTL and OBI, are already providing their clients

with a memorable shopping experience by engaging them

through online magazines powered by Styla.

GET IN [email protected]

Smartzer is a London based video technology company.

Their shoppable video players allow online brands to

generate sales and capture detailed analytical data directly

from the videos. Consumers can click on items within a

video to see further information and follow the link to

purchase. Smartzer’s video tagging technology allows for

the video players to be created at a fast turnaround. And

already brands like Whistles, Puma and Marks & Spencer

have adopted the Smartzer technology to enhance their

consumer’s online shopping experience.

GET IN [email protected]

24SMARTZER CASE STUDY VON STYLA

ABOUT AUTHORS

[1] http://blog.lemonstand.com/just-how-big-is-the-ecommerce-market-youll-never-guess/

[2] http://digitalistmag.com/lob/sales-marketing/2014/05/30/thanks-social-media-average-attention-span-now-shorter-goldfish-01251966

[3] http://yesware.com/blog/storytelling-drives-sales/

[4] http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0056934

[5] http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2016_B2C_Research_Final.pdf

[6] https://barkleyus.com/AmericanMillennials.pdf

[7] https://moz.com/blog/ecommerce-kpi-benchmark-study

[8] http://cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-481360_ns827_Networking_Solutions_White_Paper.html

[9] http://brafton.com/news/survey-says-marketers-increase-social-video-content-budgets

[10] http://marksandspencer.com/s/women/the-denim-style-guide?intid=hp_car_1_1_120216_cidenim

[11] http://fashionandmash.com/2016/02/16/why-shoppable-videos-make-sense-for-a-seebuywear-fashion-week-strategy/

[12] http://4.player.smartzer-editor.appspot.com/video?video=569381b5892325ff2314f4f8&companyId=5693817e892325ff2314f4f6

[13] https://marketingmag.com.au/news-c/content-marketing-will-300-billion-industry-2019/

25

USED RESOURCES


DEFINING SHOPPABLE CONTENT - Styla · ne of the very first examples of shoppable articles comes...

Documents

Transcript of DEFINING SHOPPABLE CONTENT - Styla · ne of the very first examples of shoppable articles comes...