Experts: What to focus on in e-commerce in 2022.

E-commerce is one of the most exciting and fast growing industries over the last years. That is great, especially if you are able to keep up with the trends to stay successful. However, most people will have a hard time keeping up with everything that is going on. It is simply moving too fast, and there are many way to go. Something that can make you lose focus and steer the business in the wrong direction.

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That is why we teamed up with some of the best and brightest in the e-commerce world today. They give their advice on what to focus on if you want to keep up with the trends and grow your e-commerce in 2022.

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Our guest experts:

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Casper Ackermann:

Founder and owner of Ackermann, one of the most successful email marketing agencies in Scandinavia. Over the last 6 years, Casper Ackermann has collected extensive knowledge on digital marketing for e-commerce stores, working directly with them.

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Micky Weis:

With more than 13 years of experience in digital marketing, Micky Weis has one of the most extensive backgrounds in e-commerce marketing. Today, he is an advisor for multiple different e-commerce companies, where he offers his expertise.

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Filip Evaldsen:

As CMO of Firtal a multiplatform e-commerce company with 5 different webshops, Filip is one of the sharpest marketing minds when it comes to e-commerce and how they should market themselves.

We asked these 3 leading marketing experts one simple question:

“If you could give one piece of advice to an e-commerce marketer today, what would it be?”

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Focus on owned media to combat rising e-commerce struggles

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“As many e-commerces across various sectors face increasing consumer restraints, a renewed focus needs to be put on the marketing mix. With consumers holding on to their money, more marketing resources will be required to acquire the same customers. If the majority of a company’s marketing mix is centered around the top funnel and – especially – paid channels, these societal macro factors add to the already existing pressure on said channels.

With that in mind, it’s paramount that e-commerce businesses start investing heavily in building up owned media. Because the cost structure of the channel is not affected by external competition. And where the company itself is entirely in charge of the channel’s ownership.

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With a renewed focus on owned media, an e-commerce business in today’s digital battlefield will need to recognize the need for both paid lead generation and on-site lead generation to maximize the output of the efforts. Additionally, a well-structured plan on how to execute the owned media activities is not to be forgotten. The e-commerce businesses is fighting over the attention of the consumers against other companies also looking to grab the attention of the consumer”

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– Casper Ackermann

Managing Partner, Ackermann

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Honeymoon days for e-commerce are over

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“I do believe the honeymoon days for e-commerce are over, at least for a period of time. The pandemic gave the e-businesses golden years, as everything else was closed. You barely had to do anything else than turn on advertising and ROAS was then skyrocketing. As the pandemic soars, the unfortunate war in Ukraine is still raging and the economic growth seems to ease – e-commerce and online business will indeed have their struggles.

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Naturally. We’ve already seen it with several layoffs from various companies in the industry. Now is the time to get creative, to actually be good at marketing. And at the same time understand your business. Metrics have never been more important.

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We might be heading into an economic recession. In such an environment it’s not only enough to be good at one singular performance marketing platform. You have to have a more holistic perspective to take the business in the right direction.

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So data and experience will have a huge role in your success. Many of the newcomers within e-commerce in the last couple of years have never experienced a downfall in the economy. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out.”

– Micky Weis

E-commerce specialist and advisor, Mickyweis.com

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Have a deep understanding of your business model

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“The scenario: Rising inflation, budgets still influenced by corona-uplifted optimism, and competitors who therefore fight against each other. Because they are afraid of losing market share or chasing growth against last year without focusing on the bottom line. All these things are putting pressure on the market and your business.

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My advice is therefore a 3-in-1:

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• Understand your businessmodel
• Make a clear direction
• Define a clear-cut process and execute it continuously

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It sounds quite simple, but only a few do it because a business focus constantly shifts. You start to chase short-sighted solutions, with the best intentions of course.

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The foundation for a sustainable business requires that you first and foremost understand your business model – like truly understanding its essence. If you don’t have a deep understanding of this, then it becomes impossible for you to make the right decisions. And even more importantly you get to opt out of mistakes, which makes you able to succeed in the long run.

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To make your marketing successful, you have to make a clear direction (based on your business model). This should be backed up by clear goals and a well-defined deadline/timeline.

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Once this is in place, then it is all about continuously executing, supported by strong and simple processes (a wise man once said, that complexity increases cost). You can then take this 3-in-1 and improve it with all the other advice in this article. Of course only if they fit your business model!”

– Filip Evaldsen

CMO, Firtal.com

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It’s time to take control of your business – and data

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What great inputs from all 3 of them. I hope it provided with some very important considerations and thoughts on how to approach the future.

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While the 3 experts might give different advice on how to approach e-commerce in 2022, it seems like one thing kept repeating itself. You need to look inwards at your own channels and resources. It is time to take control of your business and data. You need to understand both your customers. And you need to understand your business on a deep level to succeed with what is coming ahead.

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One way of achieving that is with a Customer Data Platform. It can provide you with one platform to see all your insights about your business. We are talking everything from paid advertising to emails, to webshop behavior on your website, and much more.

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A Customer Data Platform (CDP) can collect, consolidate, and analyze all your data from all your sources and give you these insights. By having them in one platform you won’t have to crunch numbers in a bunch of different sheets and tools. It’s all there for you, ready to increase performance and improve your decision-making.

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Think of it as your cockpit for your e-commerce. The one place where you can see all the insights you need to take smarter decisions. The cool thing is you can easily export it out to your email system, your ad channels, and much more.

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That is e-commerce marketing made easy.

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