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Hey, y’all and welcome back to the Southern Fried eCommerce podcast from EYStudios! This is the recap for episode 33 with our co-hosts Jay Brimberry and Emily Faulkner. We start today’s podcast out with a brief discussion of Tenacious D and Jay referring to “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” by Panic! At The Disco as “that wedding song with the ‘D’ word.” We then discuss weekend plans with Emily hanging out with her parents who are in town and Jay going to see a movie with his wife. This will be the third time they go to a movie theater in their 15-year relationship. We wish them the best of luck in staying awake through the entirety of the nearly 3-hour “Elvis” movie.
New From EYStudios
With that, we jump into what’s new from EYStudios. This week we’ve posted the following blog posts:
- Southern Fried eCommerce Episode 32 Recap
- Why Every eCommerce Business Needs PPC
- The Benefits of Advertising on Facebook
Augmented Reality Shopping Lowering Return Rates
The first article we jumped into was, “Shoppers Who Use AR Less Likely To Return Purchases” from Retail Dive. The article discusses a recent survey from Alter Agents that found that two-thirds of consumers are less likely to return a product after using an augmented reality feature. The survey also found that overall shoppers are more confident in their purchases and are more likely to purchase again from a brand that offers AR shopping.
Jay starts off the conversation by asking a very simple question of Emily (the podcast’s resident millennial), “Do millennials and Gen Zers still use Snapchat?”
Emily responded that that was her main thought while reading this blog. She says that she doesn’t know many millennials that still use Snapchat and overall she is trying to limit how many social media platforms she’s on because it all gets so overwhelming. Having a conversation with the same person on different platforms is a common occurrence for millennials. She does, however, propose that there are still more Gen Zers on Snapchat. The numbers from the article back this up with Emily also theorizing that features like AR shopping will be what keeps Snapchat alive. Jay agrees and says after all they were the pioneers behind filters.
They also mention the social aspects of this feature with the ability to snap a picture of you trying the product and then send it to your friends to see what they think. Jay says that’s exactly how his wife shops so he thinks this would be very useful.
Interview With PacSun CEO Highlights Focus On Generational Trends
The next article we dove into is an interview from the National Retail Federation with the new CEO of PacSun Alfred Chang. The article, “How PacSun Engages Young Consumers in the Physical and Virtual Worlds,” goes through Chang’s plans for technological innovation to reach different generations including the metaverse, NFTs, and virtual reality.
Jay says he was never really a PacSun shopper in his youth and if he were to go into one now he would be kindly escorted out with claims of “we don’t have anything for your age, sir.”
Emily, on the other hand, says the article makes a lot more sense once she realized that PacSun is a clothing company and not a sunglasses company. Clearly, she’s an avid mall shopper.
After establishing that neither of them are the target audience for PacSun, both agree that their approach to constantly maneuvering to find what the next big thing is going to be is smart. Jay says when you have a youth or teen-focused market like PacSun, you need to be looking at technology.
Emily agrees and says that if you’re a small business, you should be staying up to date on what these big companies are doing. Essentially letting them spend the money to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Despite Possible Recession, Ad Spending Will Continue to Increase
The third article we discussed in this episode is, Ad Spending Will Remain Strong Despite A Looming Recession, from eMarketer. The author calls for a 13.2% year-over-year increase in ads in 2022 despite the possible recession. He theorizes that this time will be different than the 2008 recession because of the way ad spending is occurring now vs. then. He says that the majority of the cutbacks in 2008 were in print which was already in its decline.
Emily says that she’s actually been having this conversation with clients lately who are concerned about spending any money at all on ads considering the current economic climate. She says though that you won’t see any return if you don’t try.
EMILY: It’s about taking the time and doing the research. Don’t be afraid. If you have the relative data to back up your claims, it’s good to make that first step. Because once you see all the data coming in from there, then you can pivot then you can change it. Maybe you need to change your ad copy, maybe Tik Tok’s not for you, maybe you need to go to Facebook. It’s all about experimentation and understanding like hey, we’re all a little bit of mad scientists here. We’re all kind of paving the way. We don’t know what 2023 or 2024 looks like because we’re not there yet.
Jay agrees and says this is one of the benefits of having an eCommerce agency working alongside you instead of relying entirely on in-house marketing. An agency is experiencing all different kinds of methods and strategies from across the spectrum whereas a marketer at a company may become comfortable with Facebook Ads so they do Facebook Ads and never explore anything else because it’s safe. “People tend to go with what they’re comfortable with,” Jay says. He continues by saying by not exploring other opportunities you’re leaving money on the table. And he understands that people want to be cautious with their money but an agency is going to be able to try different things and find the best ROI for you.
‘Old School’ Businesses Make Their Way into B2B eCommerce
The last article of this episode is “A Startup Marketplace Aims to Digitize Metals Procurement” from Digital Commerce 360. This article discusses a startup Felux that aims to take the paper out of the metal procurement business and in their words, “make steel sexy again.”
Jay wanted to highlight this article because of the number of B2B companies that claim they’re an old-school business and want to continue to do things the way they’ve always done it, i.e. without involving the internet. Founded in 2019, Felux is expected to top a billion dollars by the end of the year. Clear proof that moving business online has its benefits.
JAY: The world is moving on. You have to decide if you want to move on with it or stay where you used to be. So many people decide to stay where they used to be. The ones that are willing to jump on the train and move on with the world…those are the people that are going to survive any economic downturn.
Emily cites one of EYStudios’ clients as evidence of this. They sell bricks and while bricks would not normally be deemed very “sexy” in the eCommerce marketing world they have tried all sorts of platforms and avenues to promote their product because they want to be ahead of the game. For instance, while they typically just sell to carpenters or builders they decided to try an influencer campaign. They contacted an influencer who built a beautiful fireplace using their bricks and then promoted it on their social media and made a YouTube video about it. From this one campaign, they had traffic from thousands upon thousands of people. Emily says this is what you need to be thinking about regardless of your product.
And with that, we sign off for the week. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Southern Fried eCommerce and we hope to see you again soon. Don’t forget to like and subscribe!