In the second part of this series, we continued our discussion about profitability and how brands and marketers could improve it. This part talks about how Inbox Commerce and Green Journeys can address Attention Recession and Red Journeys respectively.
1/100: Attention Recession to Inbox Commerce
Unless eCommerce businesses establish a strong brand recall or become indispensable for their customers, push messages are their only option to attract customers to their brand properties. Several push channels are available to marketers, such as email, SMS/RCS, app notification, and WhatsApp. Each channel has its pros and cons. However, what’s common is the low clickthrough rate, typically just 1%. This is the first funnel friction fraction.
Here is an excerpt from my previous writing:
“Finding a balance between push and pull (brand marketing vs push marketing) has been a conundrum for marketers. Brand marketing is about making an emotional connection with the customer and becoming a utility in their life, making the customer return to the brand property. Push marketing is about creating the right content and creatives to ensure messages are opened and acted on. Both have the same objective: ensure a visit since conversions occur on the brand’s property.”
“However, a majority of push messages are ignored by customers. Email open rates are low, SMS read rates (in India) are even lower, and push notifications are blocked. Marketers have also overdone push messaging to get click-throughs. If customers don’t react to push messages, the only path left for marketers is to retarget them on Adtech platforms. This is an expensive proposition, considering brands already paid an acquisition cost to acquire the customer. This problem of Attention Recession and limited activity on brand properties also limits marketers’ data about customers.”
“WhatsApp has opened up for businesses in several markets. The platform’s importance in personal messaging allows brands to, for a fee, insert themselves into the message flow. In the US markets, pricing changes on SMS have increased its popularity, especially because it enables two-way interaction.
The most significant change is coming via email, thanks to the power of interactivity (AMP with Email 2.0) and gamification (Atomic Rewards with Loyalty 2.0). Interactivity is also coming to notifications, and one-way push channels are transforming into two-way conversion funnels. This transformation into ‘hotlines’ is the shift marketers must prepare for.”
How Inbox Commerce can address Attention Recession
Inbox Commerce is the solution for eCommerce companies, bringing the conversion funnel closer to the customer. It seeks to consolidate the customer journey from awareness to purchase within the inbox, acting as a micro-ecosystem. In an era of digital noise, Inbox Commerce provides a streamlined, focused, and personalized user experience.
Thanks to its widespread use, email has emerged as the most promising channel for this strategy. I talked about Email Shops in a recent essay thus:
“The transformative solution in eCommerce is to think of websites and apps inside emails, enabling customers to search and purchase items inside the inbox. This is possible thanks to AMP. These ‘email shops’ are the next storefronts; ones marketers can control because they can ‘push’ messages to customers instead of relying on them to visit their properties. Combined with Atomic Rewards, Email Shops can increase conversions exponentially, reduce the need for expensive and continuous new acquisitions to drive revenue growth, and become profitability drivers for brands.”
Brands can address Attention Recession through the strategic implementation of Inbox Commerce. Here, Email Shops play a crucial role. By bringing the shopping experience directly to customers, brands can increase engagement and boost their conversion rates and profitability.
1/33: Red Journeys to Green Journeys
I highlighted this conversion funnel in a previous post to demonstrate what percentage of sessions end with a successful transaction.
According to the second friction fraction, just 1 of 33 sessions on a website or app results in a transaction. These sessions can be described as ‘Red Journeys’ where customers are frustrated at the lack of personalization and relevance. This is because the products shown do not align with their interests. Succinctly put, the ‘value exchange’ fails to materialize.
Customers find the value derived from a potential purchase insufficient and choose not to spend their money. As a result, the ‘Double Thank You’ moment signifying a successful, mutually beneficial transaction, remains elusive.
The problem is fairly obvious: How can eCommerce brands anticipate a customer’s next best action (product purchase) and subtly guide them toward it? To do this, brands must construct a ‘Green Journey’ that facilitates a swift completion of customer transactions. This is where iDarpan comes into the picture.
iDarpan and LCMs
Think of iDarpan as a mirror world or metaverse that a customer’s digital twin populates. This digital twin interacts with a Generative AI-powered Large Customer Model (LCM). The digital counterpart absorbs insights from every action (or inaction) by the customer, always remaining two steps ahead of them. By comparing the customer’s data genome with that of other customers, it can predict potential next best actions and offer recommendations accordingly.
Here is an excerpt from an earlier discussion the Large Customer Model (LCM):
“Large Customer Models (LCMs) can be a game changer in the highly competitive eCommerce space. When integrated with systems such as iDarpan, they enable true one-on-one personalization. Accurately predicting the next steps in the customer’s journey helps brands create customized experiences that resonate with customers, foster loyalty, and drive repeat purchases.
The road ahead
In the long run, LCMs can help brands create a profit monopoly (Profipoly). As brands grow, they can maximize profitability by nurturing their customer base. With iDarpan, LCMs can power an eCommerce revolution, driving customer engagement, and shaping marketing strategies through predictive customer behavior. Such an approach can transform eCommerce, mirroring customers to reflect their needs, preferences, and behavior and crafting a unique shopping experience.
iDarpan constructs a ‘Virtual You’ for every customer, situating it in the context of a software-powered replica of their digital and even physical storefront. It helps brands beautify profit-killing customer experiences, delighting the customer and eCommerce manager.”
The solution to the second friction (Red Journeys) is a Green Journey powered by iDarpan. This solution involves digital twins and LCMs interacting in a mirror world, anticipating next best actions to eliminate obstacles and reduce drop-offs. Brands can leverage iDarpan to implement real-time personalization and adjust the customer’s journey based on actions and preferences identified by the digital twin and the LCM.
Personalized shopping experiences will incentivize customers to remain loyal to the brand and increase their lifetime value. This translates into significantly lower marketing costs in the long run. Brands can also use iDarpan’s predictive capabilities to experiment with different strategies, allowing them to test different approaches and gauge what works for different customer segments. Such an approach helps fine-tune the customer journey and maximize conversions.
Continued In Part 4
