So how can brands know which influencer is right for which campaign? With digital content creation being a relatively new profession, almost 90% of all influencers on the major platforms are between 18 and 34 years old. And when it comes to influencer advertising, age isn’t just a number. ‘Engaging influencers of the right age on the right platform can pay off when you’re trying to reach your target audience,’ the report states.

Nielsen outlines 28 categories to identify what intrigues and motivates Instagram followers. Analysing the top five audience interests per influencer type, it found out that Nano (1k-10k followers) and Micro (10k-50k followers) influencers’ followers are mostly interested in clothes, shoes, handbags and accessories. ‘Apart from influencer demographics, brands need this in-depth knowledge of audience interests to develop effective influencer marketing strategies. Because if your influencer’s followers don’t have a basic interest in your product, your campaigns will struggle to produce optimal results, even with a mega influencer,’ it asserts.

It is also important for brands to understand that different social media platforms focus on different types of content and different ways for audiences to engage with that content. Nielsen highlights, for instance, that Instagram is primarily a photo-sharing App with likes and comments as the primary engagement actions, while YouTube is a video content publishing platform — on which sharing plays a larger role in determining engagement levels, and views are the main indicator of identifying potential reach. There has now been a shift in preference toward shorter videos and vertical formats.

Hence, with social platforms only gaining in popularity, it’s clear that influencer marketing can be a major revenue generator. And brands that are able to dial in the right combination of influencer, platform, content and interest can create connections that drive engagement—and ROI.

The post Is Your Influencer Influential Enough? first appeared on PHYGITAL RETAIL CONVENTION (PRC).

Blurring the lines between the offline and online world, the Phygital model provides a seamless shopping experience through a digital interface. Many major retailers now use their physical storefronts to provide customers with an immersive brand experience. For instance, US-based Fashion retailer Rebecca Minkoff’s tech-enabled Store in NYC is enhancing customer experience in unique ways. The dressing rooms are equipped with a high-tech interactive mirror that lets shoppers browse products or request specific sizes to try on. This has led to higher customer time spent in stores and boosted sales for the brand. Similarly, global sportswear brand PUMA launched its largest experiential store in Bengaluru, to bring technology, sports, & fashion under one roof. To power up shoppers’ phygital experience, their new store boasts of F1 racing simulators, PUMA x YOU customization studio, and an interactive screen to virtually scan through the entire PUMA range.

Retail shoppers bring high expectations into the store with them as they’re accustomed to immersive digital experiences and access to information and tools to augment their shopping. Physical retail stores still have an advantage over online retailers that they have yet to take advantage of as modern shoppers are looking for more than just a product – they’re searching for an experience.

Interactive retail technology is the missing piece needed by stores to increase sales growth and reduce costs. Through the latest innovations, retailers can work to exceed the expectations of the customer, get them engaged, and keep them in the store longer. Obscuring the lines between the online and offline worlds, the phygital model provides customers with a seamless experience through a digital interface. This journey from physical to digital and now called the Phygital ecosystem is where the future of retail lies.

–Sadaf Anjum

The post How the fusion of ‘Physical’ & ‘Digital’ is reshaping Retail Design first appeared on PHYGITAL RETAIL CONVENTION (PRC).

The difference is obvious, and so is the importance of clear communication as it is important in marketing too, to communicate the product with the right audience. With us spending a significant portion of the day on the internet and living our lives at the mercy of smartphones, what better way can there be for retailers to communicate other than through digital medium. Meme marketing emerges itself as one of the types when it comes to retailers marketing their products digitally. Meme marketing thus has become the go-to marketing option for many brands in India.

According to a global data insights (2022) report by datareportal.com, India currently has 467 million active social media users among 658 million mobile internet users, with an annual growth of 4.2% in active social media users, India poses itself as one of the fastest digitally growing countries among the world.  The same report also claims that among the active social media users, 76.5% are Instagram users followed by Facebook (74.7%), Twitter (44.9%), and Linkedin (37.2%). Memes, circulating at a fast rate over the internet, gain huge popularity on social media platforms. Several brands in India are largely into meme marketing to successfully keep themselves relevant in the minds of their audience. Slim Jim for example, India’s first online hemp lifestyle store started using memes as a part of their marketing strategy even before it was a trend, then Slay coffee, Paws India, Yogabar, etc. are some of the retail brands that use memes regularly as part of their marketing strategy which relates to recent trends or relatable linkages.

With social media usage being hugely dominated by Gen Zs and millennials, memes have become a funny, attractive yet cost-effective way for brands to communicate. Memes are relatable, short, and perfectly compatible with the low attention span of new generations yet carry a great recall potential. To catch up with the constantly evolving scenario in the retail sector, brands need to incorporate a dynamic strategy as well, and meme marketing is just that. It can help brands acquire huge brand value as well as a customer base. Traditional marketing and digital marketing are now becoming simultaneous strategies that brands are adopting, whereas memes on the other side are winning the hearts of the audience, bringing back memories, making people laugh, and bringing customers closer to the brand.

— Sayan Mukhopadhyay

The post The trend of memes: what does it ‘meme’ for retailers? first appeared on PHYGITAL RETAIL CONVENTION (PRC).

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp business, enable social commerce by integrating a buy button. The predominant format of social commerce that has emerged in India is powered by social reselling platforms such as Meesho, Shop 101, Bulbul, etc.

The explosive growth of social media has made direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands rise to success. There are more than 800 D2C brands in the country today. The D2C sector is worth $44.6 billion currently, projected to touch $302 billion by FY 2030. Social commerce sites are emerging as a major sales avenue for direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. Brand stories on social platforms aided by influencers are significantly increasing discoverability and sales. In the last couple of years, several D2C brands such as mCaffeine, Arata, WOW Skin Science, Plum Goodness, etc. have clocked crores in revenue by occupying unique niches and building a strong brand experience for the consumers through social media platforms.

While many brands are available on the standard e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart, they don’t allow them to create unique customer experiences for their consumers whereas, social commerce platforms create customer experiences tailored to a buyer’s social media preferences and usage habits. This creates more cohesive brand experiences across channels, driving deeper loyalty and increasing customer lifetime value for D2C brands.

But what has made social commerce platforms so lucrative for D2C brands to adopt them as a medium for their retail operations? Social commerce brings content, community, and commerce in one place which solves for discovery, trust, and convenience for the consumer.

Social commerce in India is still in its nascent stages and shows great promise for growth. While there are certainly existing and emerging companies in the sector, there are still large white spaces that exist that make the sector attractive.

— Sadaf Anjum 

The post How Social Commerce is helping India move from Interaction to Transaction first appeared on PHYGITAL RETAIL CONVENTION (PRC).

Nowadays, brands are building a strong digital presence, as it is one of the ways to directly engage with the customers and gather their feedback. According to a report by Salesforce, 85% of consumers conduct research before they make a purchase online, and among the most used channels for research are websites (74%) and social media (38%). 

The different variety of content on the Internet creates an urge in the mind of the customers to try a product/ service. Companies are looking to create awareness so that they can consider the product and drive them to the decision stage. Aashish Batra, Co-founder, myPAPERCLIP stated here, “The word experience is extremely important. As our brand, which is into notebooks and stationery, delivering the right form of content is important. We are a brand that is majorly present across four channels. The experience specifically dedicated to the D2C space starts with generating ads to create impulse on Facebook, Instagram, etc. In this way, we’re trying to basically market our product and create an experience, not by using marketing about the product but by creating content around its lifestyle usage. That is more relatable to the user of the product. We try to create content with more relatability that can create a link with our experience. Creating a WOW factor is really tough for brands and varies depending on the category in which it exists, this is because the experience that the consumer demands is changing every day.”

Kanishk Arya, COO, Sleepycat commented on this and added, “When I look at the experience, it should be shoppable. I would look at it in a way that interaction can add value for the customer and also give an opportunity to the brand to make a sale from the customer. For our D2C brand, I have divided this for our business into four levels.The levels are that we discover content by educating consumers and then advertising in a way that creates profit for the brand”.

The post Content to Commerce: Brands paving a new way to fetch customers first appeared on PHYGITAL RETAIL CONVENTION (PRC).

One of the challenges for managing a D2C brand is to find a balance in all aspects of business and find actual ROI, using the marketing strategies. The perfect combination of ROI comprises seamless brand growth, brand recognition, increased sales, SEO, and paid advertising that will grow the business profitable. The companies are now focusing on e-commerce marketing that relies on digital marketing more than ever before. Last year alone, 78% of the D2C brands indicated an increase in their e-commerce marketing budget.

Akanksha Gupta, Lead- Marketing, Beco and stated, “We definitely agree with it and the brands are operating their own D2C website as a sales channel today, and it’s working tremendously well because it allows them to deep dive into each customer by helping them to understand their likes, interests and purchase behaviour which in turn facilitates a brand to build a more focused strategy for advertising.”

“However, the scalability of the business also depends on the category it operates in, so it’s paramount for a brand to weigh in its category and habits customers hold for their category and eventually cater to them in a way that resonates with them,” she added further.

Nidhi Yadav, Co-founder, AKS Clothing that sells their fashion products on different marketplaces said, “Digital marketing can indeed serve as a revenue source for a brand. It allows you to sell the products and services to more qualified customers, which result in increased revenue for the company.” She further added, “At our end, we make every effort to use digital marketing to generate new revenue streams. Our adverts appear on various social media sites to reach a larger audience. We continually keep posting product photographs and descriptions, as well as a link to our website, on the Instagram and Facebook accounts so that people may go straight to our website and look at more of our items for sale.”

The post Digital Marketing: a strong route to generate revenue first appeared on PHYGITAL RETAIL CONVENTION (PRC).