Summary:
Here we are again! If you missed last weeks round up, we discussed the latest on keywords and SEO content, how to get into Google’s question box and how to craft the perfect ‘abandoned cart’ email… After catching up, you can take a look at this weeks offering, where we cover:
As the sharing economy is booming – with services such as Uber, AirBnB, Etsy and Gumtree cutting out the middleman and create a more diverse marketplace – it has raised issues around payment. The current payment options for the sharing economy all have challenges and difficulties, so we take a look at the options that are available.
Gumtree do not provide a payment system, which means that payments for items purchased through the platform are the responsibility of the buyer and seller. By avoiding implementing a payment system, Gumtree has made a simple system for the business, however, this can have a negative effect due to the uncertainty that is created, as Gumtree is not able to guarantee safe or secure payments which may put off some potential customers.
Another option for the sharing economy is to partner with a Payment Gateway and Acquirer, however in this system the payments are gathered centrally and then distributed to each individual merchant, which could become slow, difficult and costly as the marketplace grows.
Another option is to use PayPal, however this requires the buyer to leave the platform to make the payment which is a factor in negative customer experience and a loss of sales.
AirBnB has recently developed its own electronic money (eMoney) infrastructure in order to enable funds to go directly to the individual merchant whilst also remaining trackable (which is useful for AirBnB in calculating their fees). This is a good solution to the problem, however it does require a specialist team as well as a large investment in terms of time, money and resources to create a system such as this.
Paybase is the final option, offering an end-to-end eMoney solution in one unified API. Paybase provides a solution that is easy to set-up and maintain, meaning that time, money and resources are spent on improving the important areas of a site rather than on the payment system. Choose a payment system that suits your business and your customers needs – not forgetting to consider and make adjustments for any potential downsides of your choice…
A/B test results are only useful if they are correctly interpreted. Interpreting the results incorrectly will lead you to make changes to your site that have a negative impact, which should be avoided at all costs! We put together five common patterns in A/B test results to help you to correctly interpret them…
This result shows a clearly positive effect from the first page of a site to the last. For an eCommerce site, ‘The Big Winner’ would see a steadily increased rate from the landing page to the order confirmation – proving that this version of the site successfully encourages more visitors to reach the next step…
This result is the opposite of The Big Winner – showing negative results throughout the site. Results such as these may lead you to understand one of the key conversion barriers for your audience – so read into the negative results to see what insights can be found here.
A huge increase in clickthroughs must be backed up with an impressive increase in sales too. If you increase the clickthrough rate but do not see positive effects elsewhere on the site then this would be termed ‘clickbait’, meaning that the page is pushing visitors through the funnel who have no real intention of purchasing. Follow a result like this with further A/B testing for the following page to see if it is possible to convert a higher percentage of the new clickthroughs.
This pattern sees a drop in conversion to the next step, however it shows an overall increase in conversion to the order confirmation. This result shows that the page is weeding out those that would have abandoned at a later step, meaning that the visitors that do continue are engaged, interested and more likely to purchase.
If your results show both increases and decreases along the path to conversion this could mean that there are insufficient levels of data. If there is a lot of data then this result suggests that you should go back and redesign elements of the page and continue with A/B testing until a more conclusive result is obtained.
READ MORE: Conversion Optimisation – A/B Testing
Google is set to implement its own ad blocker as a way of dealing with the increasing use of ad blockers on mobile technology. Google will mark adverts as user-friendly, or not, using standards created by the industry group, The Coalition for Better Ads. Ads that do not pass the Better Ads Standards will be automatically blocked when viewed in Google Chrome, and publishers will be provided with a report that shows the ads that are, “likely to annoy your users.”
Google’s Sridhar Ramaswamy commented that Google has, “Spent a lot of time looking at various experiences … [and] Our hope is [that] once this is in place, there’s no need for ad blocking on mobile.”
Snapchat has introduced its ‘Context Cards’ which provide detailed information about the places from which people are snapping. The new tool offers users the chance to swipe up to see more information about the location or business, and Snapchat has partnered with a range of companies in order to provide high quality and reliable information. Uber, Lyft, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, Michelin, Goop, OpenTable Resy and Bookatable have all partnered with Snapchat in order to enable their users to see menus, reviews, phone numbers, details on how to make a reservation and the option to book a ride there.
Snapchat aims to show the most relevant information, meaning that the type of information and the order that it is in will be dynamic, changing according to each unique business/location/place.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is shaking up how data storage and protection is done throughout the EU, and it is set to have a great impact on marketing. As people take control of their data it will create a more transparent and secure system that will restore trust and promote innovation in marketing.
Businesses will have to gain explicit consent from people to use their data, allowing them to make clear decisions about the messages they receive and what happens to their data. Giving the control to the customer, businesses should see an increase in the effectiveness of personalised marketing – reducing the ‘creepiness factor’ of personalised communications. In fact, businesses who send simplistic, high volume, non-personalised content to their entire marketing database are likely to see their customer base shrink as customers can modify their consent and preferences.
With the power – and data – in the hands of the people, marketers will have to be more innovative. The GDPR may create a smaller customer base for marketing communications, which will result in a smaller database, however this smaller group will consist of people who are relevant, and who have a genuine interest in your brand and message. Lower volume campaigns that target a more engaged customer base will see marketing efforts have a higher ROI. This is a clear benefit of the GDPR, and there are likely to be many other improvements and opportunities still to come…
READ MORE: GDPR and Digital Marketing
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