Last month retail leaders flocked to New York to attend CommerceNext, a three-day event that covers strategies for growth at the interaction of physical and digital retail.
Dare I say, it was a performance marketer’s networking paradise where you had the opportunity to rub elbows with retail royalty, including Shein, Tapestry (Coach & Kate Spade), Vuori Clothing, Fanatics, Tractor Supply Co, and more.
Creative is the Differentiator
Throughout the conference there was undertone in nearly all sessions— that creative reigns supreme. It’s the differentiator. The Peanut Butter to performance media’s Chocolate (jelly is too standard), where you can have one without the other, but the magic happens when you put them together. This winning combination is the DNA of MuteSix and I was thrilled to see it validated at the event.
The Future of AI is Foundational
The entire ecommerce industry is still trying to figure out what to do with AI and how to use it. We all know the basics for AI use, such as copywriting, analyzing data, and coding. But the future of AI is predicted to be foundational, supplementing our everyday working (and personal) lives, bringing efficiency and doing mundane tasks. We’re already beginning to see this in action, with Meta AI that promises consumers to put “the most advanced AI at your fingertips.”
The Core of Performance Marketing is Testing
Having a formal testing process in place was the throughline of all CommerceNext sessions— evolving away from the “bro science” way of testing, and putting a solid workflow in place. C’mon go back to your high school science days, remember how it’s done correctly:
- Formulate a Hypothesis
- Identify Testing Elements
- Define the Testing Group and Control Group
- Define Measurement & Length of Test
- Run Test
- Analyze Results
- Reiterate, start over…
This process should be rolled out into every aspect of your business, from Advertising and Creative to CRO and Customer Experience. This is when having a performance marketing agency comes in handy, they can do that work for you.
Being Customer Focused = $$$
Don’t ever lose sight of your audience, being sure to put the needs and wants of customers first in everything that you do.
One example that stood out to me came from a session with digital vault giant, 1Password. They claimed that “passwords lead directly to lost revenue” because people absolutely detest resetting their passwords in order to log into their profile to make a purchase (been there? I have!). They went on to say that “Mastercard estimates that roughly 30% of purchases are abandoned at checkout because consumers can’t remember their passwords.”
In short, don’t be annoying. And certainly don’t be boring, because it will cost your brand. The solution is simple: look at your business through the lens of your consumer, find the friction points in their experiences, and test solutions to make those points smoother.
What Now?
You need to make sure you’re exceptional at listening and adapting to consumer behavior to give them what they want to see, where they want to see it. You need to know that audiences aren’t online to see sleek brand campaigns or swanky advertisements; that they’re there for the experience.
MuteSix is here to help you. For example, we partnered with beauty brand Naturium to increase purchases by 976% using TikTok. If you’re interested in partnering with experts that love creative strategy and performance marketing, send my team a note and we’ll set up time to chat.