Any Other Business: 24 July 2020

This week’s AOB looks at the latest e-commerce news including the importance of sustainability to online shoppers, an upcoming virtual art fair, and how tennis fans can still access a piece of this year’s Wimbledon Championships.

Tennis fans may have been denied their annual fix of Federer and Williams excitement when this year’s Wimbledon Championships¹ were cancelled, but there is some solace in the tournament’s new online shop.

Wimbledon’s retail department – like so many businesses during the pandemic – has invested in its e-commerce offering, launching a Magento²-platformed website where fans can buy towels, balls and t-shirts. In fact, 2020-dated merchandise has become collectors’ items.

The brand’s products had previously been sold wholesale online by sports e-retailer Fanatics³, but the new changes have reduced reliance on third-party manufacturers and brands, instead bringing the designing of goods in-house and giving Wimbledon more ownership of its online presence.   

“It’s really been about the online shop stepping into the gap of on-site retail,” David Hewitt, head of retail at Wimbledon says⁴, adding that he’s thinking long term. “It will be interesting to see how we perform outside of the summer – we want to get people to buy into Wimbledon outside the traditional timelines.”

Art lovers, a date for your diary – the world’s first virtual reality art fair is coming to your screens.

The UNTITLED, Art⁵ fair has partnered with Danish art-and-tech startup Artland⁶ to create the unique and immersive experience. Viewers will be transported to a 3D exhibition where they can navigate the aisles of the fair to browse art from over 37 participating international galleries, and chat to dealers in real time in automated chatrooms.

Customers can also purchase their favorite pieces, making the event just one of many experiential e-commerce experiences that have arisen during the pandemic.

The debut iteration of "UNTITLED, Art Online" will run 24 hours a day between Friday, July 31 and Sunday, August 2.

Sustainability is a key consideration for US and UK online shoppers, according to a recent study⁷ by CGS⁸. Of the 2,000 individuals (ages 18-65+) surveyed, 56% of US consumers and 59% of those in the UK said they are willing to pay more for sustainable options when online shopping. Furthermore, 47% of US respondents and 52% of UK respondents said they consider whether a retailer’s shipping and packaging is eco-friendly before making a purchase (at least some of the time).

The findings also suggest that the rise in e-commerce seen during the pandemic is likely here to stay: more than 40% of all consumers surveyed said that they plan to exclusively shop online even after stores reopen.

Online marketplace Shopee⁹, which operates in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, has partnered with Google to launch Google Ads with Shopee¹⁰, a marketing solution to help brands on the platform increase their sales.

Through this integration, sellers will get access to specialized marketing tools to boost their online presence, create deeper engagements with customers, and flexibly manage and measure their marketing campaigns.

Samuele Saini, the sector lead for apps, e-commerce and entertainment at Google, said the launch comes during a transformative period for online sales in the region: “The e-commerce industry in Southeast Asia has experienced massive growth in recent years and is forecast to exceed $150bn by 2025. [This growth] has been further accelerated by the pandemic.”¹¹

Email has long been a tricky marketing channel for brands, who must strike a balance between engaging customers with relevant and interesting content, whilst not being too pushy or sales-led.

In a recent study by Wunderkind¹² of more than 1,000 UK shoppers, nearly a third (32%) said they will unsubscribe from an email list altogether if a retailer is going in for the hard sell.

Yet, getting it right can be lucrative for your business: the average ROI for every dollar spent on email marketing is USD$50¹³. Luckily, we’ve put together an Email Optimization Guide full of tips to help you speak to your customers better, drive them to your e-commerce website, and ultimately, increase your sales.