Editorial Articles

Mark Cann, Online Marketing Director at Climb Digital considers some of the issues facing retail start-ups in 2012

When people think of start-ups they often think of the tech-savvy social network websites and mobile apps which are creating innovation in the digital market. In online retail a lot of the innovation in shopping has come from rich media-led affiliate websites.

My thoughts are that marketers are often guilty of looking at the newest, sexiest innovations on the market instead of focusing on what the customer is looking for. With talk of attribution and which channels are most effective in the path to conversion, have many retailers thought about tailoring their online presence to reflect what the user is actually searching for and wants to buy?

Analysing what customers are looking for at the start of their journey and providing a website that sells that product has traditionally been the path adopted by a lot of affiliates. This is exactly what online retailer Worldstores does. (And before you ask, no, Climb Digital don't work with them!) The founders analysed the search data concerning what people were looking for in popular home and garden categories over a two year period and created niche stores for each product category. There are now over 80 stores.

What’s remarkable is that they’re not currently doing anything new in terms of online marketing. I wouldn’t be surprised if Worldstores took the same rigorous approach to data insight when it comes to rewarding on a multi-attribution-led conversion strategy. They’re currently sticking to what has been tried and tested: a good paid search strategy with flexibility between which products or niches are converting, as well as a recently launched in-house affiliate management programme.

Are Worldstores alone in doing this? Certainly not, a friend of mine recently started up a memory-foam mattress company. Without the type of budget Worldstores may have for paid search, he turned to group-buying website Groupon. An offer in one day generated over six figures for the business. My guess is, there's a big opportunity for launching businesses in sectors that are slow to adopt online, and using key data insight to drive conversion before you even create the website. The key for companies in related sectors which want to expand lies in tailoring the user experience to match what the user has searched for; it's a good route to market when competing against the bigger boys. Will I be starting a company selling beds anytime soon? Probably not, but I can see the potential for clients that are.

www.climbdigital.co.uk