Upsellit: Affiliate publishers in conversation...

At just over halfway through the year, 2020 has been... different. CJ Affiliate caught-up with Rich Greenwell, Upsellit's Commercial Director to learn how the company - who provide e-commerce conversion optimisation solutions - has remained competitive, while continuing to adapt and evolve throughout the year so far.

In one word, how has 2020 been so far?

Promising. While we’ve seen performance drops in specific industries, we’ve also seen a great deal of growth in ecommerce as a whole. Despite needing to shift and pivot on a moment’s notice, we’re pleased with how well our teams and partners have adapted to the challenges set before them.

In addition, we’ve seen many traditional retailers reinvest in digital channels as a way to remain profitable while brick and mortar locations have been shut down. While the situation remains dynamic, we’re optimistic that even retailers facing difficulties can overcome challenges and use this time to pivot strategies for growth.

What are the biggest challenges merchants currently face?

Simply put, the biggest challenge merchants face is uncertainty. Continuing operations amidst a pandemic is new territory for online retailers, which has left some scrambling to secure sales and revenue.

With multiple industries facing supply chain disruptions, especially those that rely heavily on imports, it’s become more critical for retailers to have alternative strategies than ever before. Retailers whose products are prone to low or out of stock inventory must be equipped to pivot interested shoppers to product alternatives or effectively capture shopper information to remarket and recover the sale.

Additionally, many retailers are facing challenges that stem from a lack of overall consumer confidence. In fact, merchants are reporting their conversion rates are dropping despite huge traffic spikes. This is attributable to consumers feeling uncertain about their financial security, translating into price sensitivity, hesitance to purchase, and friction to conversion.

While we all hope for things to be normal again, it’s impossible for us to know the extent the impact of recent events will have. As a result, we’re seeing leaner teams and marketing departments trying to do more with less. Many are also working to invest in strategies that will secure their business now and set them up for future success.

What’s the biggest positive outcome you’ve seen over the past few months?

Across most segments, digital retailers have seen a significant increase in traffic. Because of social distancing, consumers have a great deal of time to browse the internet and shop online. This presents retailers with ample opportunity to grow their lists by capturing new leads.

In addition, many consumers have grown more comfortable ordering items online that they would have otherwise gone to a physical store to purchase. One of the most notable examples of this is online grocery shopping, which has seen steady growth in just the past few months.

We suspect this new comfort with online shopping will carry over once things start to stabilise, meaning more opportunity for traditionally brick and mortar purchases to thrive online.

What strategies can help merchants overcome these challenges?

Securing as much online revenue as possible must become a top priority for retailers; however, the key is to tailor a solution that addresses the root cause of challenges while enhancing the shopping experience. That means taking a hard look at data, trends, and patterns to determine where a site needs to improve performance.

In the case of supply shortages, strategies like UpSellit’s Low Stock Alerts help businesses combine scarcity and urgency to reduce friction and convince shoppers to ‘get it before it’s gone.’ UpSellit’s Back in Stock Alerts also turn abandonment into opportunity by presenting shoppers the chance to be notified when an item they are viewing is replenished.

For sites experiencing lower average order values, strategic upsells, bundles, and personalised product recommendations can increase order size without offering a unique incentive. If retailers fall in the category of high traffic but low conversions, we’ve implemented strategic lead capture and remarketing strategies to keep merchants top-of-mind until users are ready to return and complete a purchase.

Why is a performance partner helpful during a time like this?

At a time when budgets and teams are lean or overextended, it’s important to recognise you can’t handle everything on your own. Working with a performance partner that can serve as an extension of your marketing department helps ensure you meet business KPIs without sacrificing other goals and objectives.

UpSellit offers flexible pricing to meet the needs of any business which allows retailers to stay profitable from the start. In addition, we continuously monitor and analyse all solutions to ensure strategies are at peak performance and provide the highest possible ROI. Additionally, we don’t employ contracts, fees, or retainers, meaning we let our technology and its impact prove our value as a performance partner.

How is UpSellit helping clients overcome these challenges and maintain online performance?

At this moment, many marketing teams are stretched thin. UpSellit helps by serving as an extension of each client’s marketing team, filling in performance gaps and creating customised solutions that address challenges head on. Our team of designers, copywriters, and engineers works entirely in-house to provide a level of precision and quality that would otherwise be impossible with lean teams and resources.

Another way we help our partners is upholding our commitment to speed and turnaround. Many businesses can’t afford to wait months to implement an effective solution. With that, UpSellit is equipped to provide retailers mockups in just five days; once mockups are approved, we can get a campaign live in as little as ten business days. These design and development speeds are beyond what other performance partners can provide.

Finally, real-time monitoring and reporting ensures that we can make adjustments to solutions and continually optimise performance. We’re also able to integrate our reporting into virtually any third party analytics software, meaning results are trustworthy, reliable, and verifiable in whatever platform is preferred by our partners. With over 15 years of experience, we have the technology, experience, and dedicated teams to ensure that sites can secure the revenue they need now, and set themselves up for success in the days ahead.