A regular dose of D2C-centric resources & tools for Growing Brands, Startups & Entrepreneurs.

It is a brand's fault if they cross the budget, and still do not see corresponding results 🤷🏽‍♂️

So, let’s try to avoid Wrong Budgets!

A go-to-market plan of a business depends on a budget, predominantly.  

It necessitates the development of a comprehensive and holistic strategy to seamlessly incorporate available technology into the overall vision.

A good ‘Budget’ asks 3 basic things -

1. Which tech/tactics would deliver significant ROI? 

2. What tech/tactics from before are underperforming? 

3. Where is investment going to be impactful for 2024?

Identifying Priorities (get brand specific)

Priorities are always supposed to be extremely brand specific, it’s not about other brands you like - It’s always about where your brand stands at the moment!

KEY AREAS WHERE BRANDS FEEL THEY ARE UNDERPERFORMING

1. Customer Acquisition and Marketing Costs

2. Customer Retention

3. Costs of Maintaining My Ecommerce Infrastructure 

4. Analytics & BI

5. Mobile Conversion Rate

6. Lacking Clarity on my Technology Roadmap

7. Desktop Conversion Rate

8. Loyalty

9. Underperforming Cart & Checkout

10. Product Information and Inventory Management

11. Customer Service and Post-Purchase Shipping and Return Support

12. Supply Chain

13. UGC (User Generated Content)

14. Ratings and Reviews

15. Payments

(the above are represented in the order of most important to least)

Indian D2C brands are investing in the bread and butter of commerce: cost-effectively acquiring customers and retaining those customers with high-quality products and services.

But how?

Allocate your ‘Budget’ to…

REDUCE CUSTOMER ACQUISITION AND COSTS

1. Marketing via messaging platforms

2. Simplifying Cart & Checkout

3. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

4. Analytics, Data & BI

INCREASE CUSTOMER RETENTION AND LOYALTY 

1. Marketing via messaging platforms

2. Ratings & Reviews

3. Shipping & Return Experience

4. 1st-party Data & Analytics

REDUCE PLATFORM MAINTENANCE COSTS IN THE LONG-TERM 

1. Adopt Next-Gen Automation Architectures

2. Harness the AI Revolution by couple real-time data to services

(all sub-points are in hierarchy of importance)

Customer Acquisition and Customer Retention strategies frequently underperform despite significant investment…

How does an Indian D2C brand overcome that?

1. How to Create ROI in Customer Acquisition?  

1. MARKETING THROUGH MESSAGING

High ROI through targeted and specific outreach - with a highly filtered recipient list, businesses and brands can send personalised data and specific information to select users.

2. SIMPLIFYING CART & CHECKOUT 

The high ROI way to build conversion rate and lower CAC. 

Potential solutions to streamline an excessively intricate or sluggish cart functionality involve implementing a single-page checkout system that stores a majority of user data. This approach aims to decrease the time spent on the checkout screen and ultimately boost conversion rates.

3. CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION (CRO) 

Incorporate a Progressive Web App (PWA), enhancing mobile performance to drive increased conversions, implementing a single sign-on checkout, integrating flyover notifications that facilitate a seamless customer journey to checkout, and conducting A/B testing on pages to optimise overall performance.

4. 1ST PARTY DATA & ANALYTICS 

Gather information from individual customers.

The most successful digital retailers leverage this data to formulate precise marketing campaigns. 

Brands and businesses are encouraged to integrate their data into a Customer Data Platform (CDP), which consolidates and organises all collected site data. Subsequently, this CDP aids in developing tailored, high-return-on-investment (ROI) marketing campaigns.

Couldn’t hurt if you had the data from, say, 450+ D2C brands in India 😉

2. How to Maximise Customer Retention and Loyalty

Driving Incremental Revenue 

Managing customer retention involves a more intricate approach than acquisition, necessitating nuanced strategies for first-time, two-time, repeat, and loyal shoppers. 

And inevitably, the room for error in retention efforts is notably limited.

1. THE ROI OF ORDER TRACKING AND RETURNS 

Your customer's attention is at its peak focused on your brand during the post-purchase experience, whether they are monitoring an order yet to be delivered or awaiting the acceptance of a return.

Why? Because their money is on the line

So, focus on Real-time Data to enhance post-purchase experience and Return Management for post-delivery experience.

2.  AUTOMATION UNLOCKS CUSTOMER RETENTION

As per a recent report by Salesforce, 88% of customers emphasise that the experience a brand offers is equally crucial as its products and services. Additionally, almost 75% of customers anticipate brands to comprehend their distinct needs and expectations.

Utilising automations enables brands to provide personalised, seamless experiences, fostering customer loyalty. Here are three methods to harness these potent tools for enhanced retention:

• Ratings & Reviews With Smart Filters 

Allow customers to customise their review experience by enabling them to filter reviews based on topics that align with their interests. Leveraging individual customer preference data, these topics are automatically chosen based on their significance in reviews and dynamically presented on the website for a personalised display.

Example: Smart Filters empower shoppers to make more informed purchase decisions — resulting in a 200% lift in time spent onsite

“The difference between a community and an audience is that audiences are spoken to, while communities speak to one another. A brand can only unlock the power of community when the community doesn’t just listen but participates and materially shapes what’s being made.”
 - Alexis Lloyd

Meaning, let the first hand observers of your community, your brand, your product; talk to each other through UGC, Reviews etc.

• WhatsApp And Other Messaging

With smart product recommendations, predictive segmentation, and smart scheduling features, brands can seamlessly provide meaningful messaging experiences, save precious time, and drive higher retention.

Example: Predictive segmentation to engage customers that are likely to purchase with SMS campaigns around sales and key marketing dates

A campaign sent to a right segment can see 26x ROI

• Loyalty & Referral 

Automations play a pivotal role in helping brands optimise their loyalty and referral programs by delivering hyper-personalised messages to customers at precisely the right moments, ensuring maximum engagement.

Example: Brands witness an impressive +300x return on investment (ROI) when employing abandoned cart flows tailored specifically for loyal customers.

That’s the end of our talk on “Wrong Budgets.”...

☕ See you on the next coffee date!

How did you like our Newsletter? What topic would you like us to cover next?

Reply and let us know! 😊