Ecommerce has forgotten about marketing.

I received a puzzled stare this week.

I hadn’t proposed anything radical, not yet anyway. So why did it seem like I was communicating from a different dimension?

Apparently I take it for granted that ecommerce is actually part of marketing, that it’s integral. This week, it became more apparent that most businesses see it differently. 

Ultimately I think every organisation needs the marketing process to define market poisoning, branding, customer segmentation and in doing so generate value and competitive advantage. And then to reach the right people of course, which in ecommerce that’s a day in, day out requirement. So all of this should be a synchronised, cyclical process in an ecommerce set up, along with the CR, AOV, LTVs etc. 

I think my instinctive take on it comes from the fact my experience is mainly brand-direct, so I have always worked across marketing and ecommerce and seen the value for each in doing so. But whichever hat you are wearing, you need to harmonise what you think of as marketing and ecommerce, or perhaps just put a second hat on at the same time.

I suppose I might have had a different experience if I had spent more time in ‘pure’ retail where most of turnover (and acquisition) is delivered through reselling 3rd party products and brands. But when I look at businesses with that set up, I see they are missing - or under serving at least - a crucial part of the puzzle that has helped me produce ecommerce growth.

So if you are looking at ecommerce as a silo where the only metrics are CR, AOV, LTV then I think you might have forgotten that ecommerce is part of marketing and that those metrics don’t exist in isolation.

#fridaythoughts #consulting #ecommerce