Succeeding in Retail Media in 2020 & Beyond: Follow Your Customer

The eCommerce landscape is evolving. Your customers are looking to simplify their shopping experience away from the burden of many different log-ins and the dreaded “reset my password” blues to finding a one-stop-shop for all their shopping needs.

Enter retail media.

This trend began slowly with customers experimenting with websites like eBay to the awe-inspiring growth of former book eTailer and now eCommerce giant, Amazon. Now, most major brick and mortar retailers are looking to enter the fray and carve out a slice of the eComm pie for themselves.

Now, the question is...what can brands do about it? The answer: follow your customer.

Price and Convenience Matter

Amazon knows this. Heck, it was the key to their growth (even if it was unprofitable to start). By taking Walmart’s value prop of “Everyday Low Prices,” and pairing that with the convenience of 2-day shipping, Amazon created the blueprint for what eCommerce retail could be.

And, this strategy paid off. As of the most recent data, Amazon now has more than 100 million Prime customers in the U.S., or roughly 80% of American households.

With that in mind, Amazon now has its customer base and can shift focus to become profitable; which means it doesn’t have to always strive to be the lowest price so long as the shopper continues to find Amazon the most convenient platform.

Conversely, as customers start to look for the lowest-priced goods, this also means that other retailers—like Walmart and Target—can take advantage of their massive revenue and established brand to win market share from Amazon.

What does this mean for a Brands eComm Strategy?

Ok, now that we’ve set the table, let’s dig into some morsels that can help you make the right decisions in 2020 and beyond!

Identify Where Your Customers Are

This isn’t a one size fits all strategy; there are definitely priorities that need to be identified before moving forward. To get started, it’s important to take a step back and see where your customers are currently shopping and determine if trends are indicating an en masse migration to purchasing online. If so, what platforms are your customers using? Amazon is probably the obvious one, but there are a lot of other retail media networks that are starting to see quick growth. A few examples to keep in mind are Walmart, Target, and Wayfair.

Recognize Opportunities for Specialized eTail

From there, as all technology and customers tend to move from the popular platform to a more specialized platform, there are quite a few burgeoning platforms that may fit your needs more particularly.

Depending on what your brand sells, here are a few thought-starters:

• Pet supply companies may shift focus to the niche Chewy’s retail media network
• Tool or home renovation companies may find opportunities to take advantage of Home Depot’s new retail media network
• Grocery focused brands could look at the wide swath of eTailers in Kroger and/or Instacart (even alcohol providers have platforms like Drizzly)

First-Mover Benefits

As the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm. There’s a huge boom to onboarding your SKUs onto a nascent eComm platform. By being a first-mover on any eComm platform, you will find yourself in a prime position to generate early sales, and (thanks to your early efforts to generate relevance with that platform’s algorithm and ranking) you will find sales grow as the platform itself grows.

Another benefit of getting in early is the opportunity to own your PDP pages and content to ensure that listed products are on-brand and have a great user experience. A cursory benefit to this is a first-mover may find themselves with enough clout that they can remove counterfeit or legacy products from the RMN with minimal friction.

Said simply, by becoming a first-mover, you will find yourself in a position to generate a new revenue stream that could potentially have a big impact on your brand’s future growth.

Putting It All Together

Your customers are changing how they shop. Your job as a marketer is to find where they’re going to ensure your products are there at the right price.

To learn more about how Rise can help you onboard and optimize your product listings and find growth opportunities, please reach out to us.