The anticipation of Black Friday reminds us of the electric energy that surges through a stadium before the kickoff of a critical NFL game. Retailers and marketers worldwide brace themselves for this adrenaline-pumping event, seeking innovative strategies to score big with their Black Friday campaigns. As marketers for Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands, your quest for fresh and dynamic tactics to distinguish your brand in this competitive field might just end on the sports field. Yes, you heard it right – athlete influencers can be your star quarterbacks for the Black Friday season. This blog post delves deeper into the playbook, revealing how athlete influencers can spearhead your Black Friday marketing strategy, leading you to the end zone.

 

Why Athlete Influencers?

The Fan Factor:

Athletes are more than just sportsmen; they are icons revered by fans worldwide. Their influence extends beyond the playing field, creating ripple effects on social media platforms, where their followers number in the millions. When athletes endorse a product or service, fans perceive it as a seal of trust and quality. Harnessing this influence can boost your brand’s credibility, leading to increased consumer confidence and sales during the Black Friday sales rush.

 

Stories that Resonate:

Beyond their impressive feats on the field, athletes possess personal experiences and journeys that strike a chord with their fans. Sharing these stories through blog posts, social media, and video content can strengthen your brand’s emotional connection with consumers, making it relatable, authentic, and trustworthy. For instance, an NFL player who overcame physical adversity through hard work, resilience, and your brand’s products can inspire consumers, driving them towards purchase during Black Friday.

 

Amplifying Reach and Engagement:

A potent combination of fame and the internet puts athletes in an influential position, connecting brands with millions of engaged fans. This wide-reaching influence means your Black Friday promotions can touch a wider audience, surpassing the reach of traditional marketing tactics. Moreover, an endorsement from a beloved athlete can spark interest and engagement among fans, thereby increasing your brand’s visibility.

 

Boosting Product Endorsements:

Partnering with athletes allows you to amplify specific product promotions during the Black Friday season. Athletes’ testimonials and recommendations bear significant weight among fans, enhancing their confidence in your product. Consider launching limited-edition, athlete-inspired collections or exclusive merchandise, which can create a sense of urgency and exclusivity, compelling consumers to participate in your Black Friday sales.

 

Creating Buzz through Social Media Challenges:

Black Friday can serve as a unique platform to engage your audience through social media challenges, driven by athlete influencers. Innovative brand-related quizzes, user-generated content, or creative videos can form part of these challenges, encouraging participation, and generating buzz around your Black Friday deals. Increased engagement boosts the probability of conversion, transforming casual consumers into loyal customers.

 

Hosting Exclusive Events and Collaborations:

Add a layer of excitement to your Black Friday campaigns by organizing exclusive events featuring athlete influencers. Virtual Q&A sessions, meet-and-greet events, or joint product launches with athletes can generate anticipation among consumers, motivating them to participate in your sales.

Preparing for the Big Game:

Now that we’ve explored the benefits of leveraging athlete influencers for your Black Friday campaign let’s discuss some key preparation steps to ensure a smooth and successful season.

Choose the Right Athlete:

Choosing the right athlete is crucial. The chosen athlete’s personality, values, and lifestyle should align with your brand’s ethos. A mismatch could confuse consumers and dilute your brand message. Opensponsorship makes this process easy by allowing brands to search 18,000+ athletes based on a wide range of search criteria and filters.

Create a Game Plan:

Like any good coach, you need a strategic plan. Outline your marketing goals, key messages, and deliverables. Coordinate with the athlete to ensure they understand and resonate with your campaign’s objectives.

Collaborate on Content:

Work with the athlete to create authentic and engaging content. This could be in the form of product testimonials, behind-the-scenes footage, or even a day-in-the-life video. Ensure that the content is appealing to the target audience and accurately represents your brand.

Monitor and Adjust:

Keep track of your campaign’s performance and be ready to tweak your strategy if necessary. As in sports, flexibility and adaptability can be the keys to winning.

Partnering with Kickfurther:

While preparing for your Black Friday campaign, you might face budget constraints that limit your marketing initiatives. This is where Kickfurther comes into play. Kickfurther offers a revolutionary inventory funding solution that allows brands to free up capital traditionally tied up in inventory. This can help you access the necessary funds to create more impactful and successful Black Friday campaigns.

With Kickfurther, you can fund your entire inventory order(s), giving you the flexibility to invest your existing capital in crucial areas like marketing… There are no immediate repayments, giving you control over your cash flow. Importantly, Kickfurther’s funding model is non-dilutive and not a loan, meaning it does not put debt on your books, nor does it take away your company’s equity. With quick access to funds, Kickfurther can help you keep up with the speed of Black Friday preparations.

Conclusion:

As we approach the Black Friday season, leveraging athlete influencers can be a game-changing move. Athletes offer a unique combination of influence, authenticity, and emotional appeal that can set your brand apart from competitors. Whether it’s creating meaningful connections through storytelling, extending reach and engagement, or boosting product endorsements, athlete influencers can add a compelling dimension to your Black Friday marketing strategy. By aligning your brand with the right athlete and preparing effectively, you can ensure a successful campaign that leads to increased sales. Meanwhile, partnering with Kickfurther can provide the financial flexibility to invest in impactful marketing campaigns, taking your Black Friday strategies to the next level. Gear up for the big game and make this Black Friday season your most successful one yet.

 

In today’s digital age, customer data has become a driving force behind e-commerce growth, empowering businesses to make informed decisions, understand customer behaviors, and gain a competitive edge. Whether you’re a small start-up or a DTC giant, the ability to capture and effectively use data for growth and retention has become a crucial aspect of omnichannel success.

In this blog, we’ll dive into the world of zero and first-party data and explore how ecommerce businesses can use it to build more effective marketing strategies. We’ll explore the difference between the two types of data and examine the various sources of each on your website.

Then we’ll cover how to collect, store, and analyze zero and first-party data, and how to use it to create personalized customer experiences that drive engagement and revenue.

Data Collection: Defining Data Types

Let’s start with the easy part—deciding what kind of data it is that you’re wanting to collect:

 

Zero-Party Data: Is anything that a visitor intentionally and voluntarily shares with you. Examples include:

• Product preference indicator (i.e. cat vs dog toys)
• Polls, surveys, quizzes (i.e. Where did you first hear about us?)
• Comms preferences
• Email/SMS signups
• Birthday

Think of zero-party data as conversational data, like something a friend explicitly tells you. This is commonly mixed up with first-party data, which, while still “owned,” has distinct differences.

First-Party Data: Is anything about a visitor that is passively gathered from interactions and behavior. Examples include:

• Browsing data
• Purchase history
• Offsite channels (i.e. email clicks)
• Discounts used
• Social data (i.e. follower count, influence)

Think of first-party data as implied data, like something a friend shares with you indirectly. Still important, still useful—but different from zero-party data in how the user grants consent.

Data Collection: Zero-Party Data

Zero-party data collection strategies are a careful mix of providing a more relevant, personalized experience without asking too much of your visitors. So let’s get into some of our favorite ways to do this on your website:

 

1. Enhanced Pop-Ups: These are lead captures collecting more than just an opt-in. Add a secondary piece of zero-party data to these to immediately personalize a new subscriber’s welcome experience, like birthdays, product preferences, zip codes, etc. Make sure to actually use this data to provide them with the right user experience right from the start not just collect it and forget it
2. Quizzes or Surveys: Quizzes/surveys are such an engaging way to interact with customers and can be something you do at the start or leverage in an exit offer to help them find the right item. Finish with a product recommendation that makes it easy for them to continue moving toward the point of conversion.
3. Comms Preferences: Zero-party data isn’t just a set it and forget it thing, it can evolve over time. Allow customers to change their preferences so they continue to receive the content they want, where they want it, and especially when they want it.
4. Create an Account: We don’t encourage forcing shoppers to create an account to check out. However, accounts are a great way to continually collect zero-party data and provide additional touchpoints to engage consumers with. For example, a loyalty program, membership, or product subscription program. Gamify data collection for these customers by rewarding every piece of data they share with you while simultaneously providing increasingly more personalized/effective experiences.
5. Reviews: Product reviews are important to have on your website no matter what since 95% of shoppers read them before making a purchase. But they’re also a gold mine for zero-party data that can be linked up to individual customer profiles or to understand trends for segments as a whole. 

All of these zero-party data collection strategies will help you understand customer needs, their preferences, and why they’re shopping with your brand. The key, though, and what so many brands are lacking in their zero-party data approach, is the next step of properly using that data to personalize communications with subscribers to both delight them and provide value beyond the initial flow. But lucky for you—-we’re going into that below!

Data Collection: First-Party Data

Now collecting first-party data on your website is helpful for predicting trends and inferring likely behaviors to trigger onsite messaging AKA pop-ups.

 

Here are some of the most effective examples for when to use and collect first-party data onsite

• Upon add to cart— show product recommendations and curated exit offer
• Time on site—trigger pop up based on percent scroll, pages traveled, time on specific page
• Previously ordered—highlight reviews AND UGC of the collection/product
• URL-based— target a referring URL or opted-in status (aka gave you their email and/or SMS)
• Location-based—show certain messaging based on locale

 

Use first-party data to get ahead of conversion objections and frictions. Combine your onsite experience data like that listed above with heatmaps or session recordings and you’ll be able to unlock a whole new level of customer understanding. All without asking anything more of your customers.

 

Putting Your Zero & First-Party Data To Use

Now that you’ve started gathering zero and first-party party data using one or multiple of the above methods, it’s important to actually use it.

Customers are providing this with the expectation it will be used to better their experience, not just sit in the backend of a database somewhere. And that’s where automation comes in.

The welcome series based on the data points collected in the opt-in is a great place to start. It’s small, but it makes a big first impression since so few brands are doing it. Justuno customer, Premama, does this extremely well via a drop down selector in their lead capture asking the subscriber’s parenthood stage. The stage selected determines which branch of their welcome flow they go down, with content tailored precisely to the right products and resources someone would need. 

Subsequent campaigns feature different product recommendations, educational content, etc. for a continually personalized experience.

 

Then they check in again with consumers to see if they should update their stage and adjust their messaging accordingly. There’s that always-on approach to data collection coming into play!

Once you’ve created a strategy for initial use it’s important to keep collecting and feeding subsequent data points collected into more advanced automations to maximize the value of your campaigns.

But beyond that it’s important to think about your data application strategy within the larger context of your customer journey. Map out all the touchpoints a visitor might have and where you can collect or use existing data to improve it. From clicking a retargeting ad with the same item they browsed before and reading product reviews with UGC and customer attributes, to not asking existing email subscribers to sign-up for your newsletter and beyond. The key is to create a seamless look and feel for consumers that effortlessly guides them towards conversion. 

It’s important to note that while we’ve really only covered the collection and use of zero and first-party data in the context of your website it’s use isn’t limited to just that. It can extend to the other aspects of your business like:

1. Inventory Forecasting: Build a better understanding of what customers are shopping for and when to avoid sell-outs and excess inventory. Something Kickfurther can also help with!
2. Product Development/Improvement: For example, if you have a trend of bad reviews that a product breaks often or wishing you made XYZ item.
3. Feature Implementation: Zero-party data can help dictate where to focus new retention efforts, like introducing a loyalty program or adding a product subscription option.
4. Content Marketing: Improve performance by understanding what interests customers the most and how they interact with it.

It all comes down to establishing trust by using the data shared with you to power personalized experiences. Once you start, it will have an exponential impact on your business in almost every area.

 

Final Thoughts

The key to scalable zero and first-party data collection/use is organization–make sure that you’re using the data you are collecting, finding gaps in your program, & adjusting strategy accordingly.

Unorganized data can lead to major no-nos like not actually personalizing the flow (or worse, sending the wrong one).

Finally, you’ll want to tie together how you’re using this data elsewhere throughout your MarTech stack. Take the zero and first-party data you collect elsewhere via channels like loyalty programs, subscriptions, memberships, etc. and feed that data back into your website experience & continuously refine and personalize your campaigns.

Interested in applying some of the zero and first-party data strategies we outlined? Try Justuno free for 14-days to see what kind of data you could be collecting from your website visitors!

In the world of eCommerce, things change quickly. But one fact remains constant – order fulfillment and customer satisfaction are inseparably tied together.

In this blog post, we’re going to talk about why this is, with specific details and examples. This is no abstract concern – customer satisfaction is a necessary ingredient for retention, which is what separates the most successful companies from the average ones. Then we’re going to talk about how you can optimize your order fulfillment processes to maximize your customer satisfaction, and along with it, revenue.

Customer Satisfaction & Order Fulfillment Are Tied Together

Defining customer satisfaction might seem simple on the surface. Everyone intuitively understands what it means – it’s a measure of how well a company’s products and services meet, exceed, or fall short of customer expectations. But how do you measure that? And furthermore, how do you optimize for that? That’s where the simple definition falls short.

Customer satisfaction is a recipe with a lot of ingredients. On the kitchen counter, you’ll find customer service, ease of purchase, product delivery, and even the company’s overall reputation. The seamless blend of these factors, combined together, eventually bakes into a satisfying customer experience.

Think about the experience of ordering a book online. The quality of the book itself is only part of the satisfaction equation. It doesn’t matter if the book is a classic of the entire Western literary canon or if it has five stars on Goodreads if the book is so damaged from rain that it’s unreadable.

If you order a textbook online and a shipping delay leaves you doggy-paddling through the first two weeks of lectures with no text material to reference, that’s not a great experience either.

It’s no accident that both of these examples of bad customer experiences involve shipping issues. Order fulfillment is make or break in eCommerce.

Why Order Fulfillment Is (Sometimes) A Magnet For Customer Satisfaction Issues

Every eCommerce order has to be shipped, and order fulfillment itself has a lot of steps that can go wrong. When a customer places an order, that specific product must be picked from inventory. Then the item proceeds to the packing stage, where the item is carefully wrapped and prepared for shipping. Postage is printed and applied, then a local carrier delivers it to the customer’s home.

If inventory levels show a product in stock when it’s not, the experience goes sour. The same is true if the wrong item is shipped or if the order is shipped to the wrong address. And if the local USPS carrier has a bad day and kicks the package across your customer’s lawn, that’s a problem you’ll have to deal with too (even if it’s not your fault)!

Consider this – according to OptimoRoute, 84% of consumers are unlikely to shop with a brand again following a poor delivery experience. This statistic underlines the tremendous impact of order fulfillment on customer satisfaction.

Imagine the frustration of receiving a long-awaited product, only to find it damaged due to poor packaging or late due to sluggish delivery. Such instances tarnish the overall customer experience, lowering satisfaction rates.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact, good order fulfillment processes can increase your odds of satisfying customers.

Strategies for Improving Customer Satisfaction Through Order Fulfillment

Improving order fulfillment might seem difficult and all-consuming, but there are a handful of broad strategic changes you can make that will have a disproportionately large and positive impact on the ultimate result.

Here are six that come to mind:

1. Streamline Order Processing

If you want to ensure a seamless customer experience, order processing needs to be very smooth. Whenever a customer places an order, the information needs to be sent to a fulfillment center through a software integration. That way, the people shipping orders will have everything they need to get started with no manual intervention.

It sounds simple, but a lot of businesses still manually process orders! Even if you’re shipping from home, you can configure your Shopify store to help you quickly create the postage you need so all you need to do is pack, print postage, and slap on the label.

2. Master Inventory Management

“Out of stock.”

No customer wants to see these words and you need to do everything in your power to make sure they never do.

Avoid such disappointments by implementing real-time inventory tracking and predictive analytics. These strategies will help maintain optimal stock levels, preventing inventory shortages and fulfilling customer orders promptly.

This is fairly complex to do, so here is a more detailed guide on the subject.

3. Pick A Reliable Fulfillment Partner

Once you’re shipping about 100 orders per month, it’s time to hire a fulfillment partner. At that point, the cost of shipping on your own is likely to exceed the cost of hiring someone to help. And even if it doesn’t, outsourcing will save you a bunch of time.

However, hiring the wrong fulfillment partner can create a lot of problems. Do your due diligence and choose one with a great reputation for timely delivery and communication. It’s an arduous process at first, but it pays off in the end when packages start going out faster than you could ever manage on your own!

4. Communicate Often

From sending order confirmations to providing delivery updates, proactive communication can help manage customer expectations, build trust, and enhance satisfaction. To give you a concrete, and somewhat silly example, Domino’s does this with their Pizza Tracker!

Even delivery delays and mishaps can be made better by taking a proactive approach to communication. Getting a package two days late is bad. Being completely in the dark about why the package is late is worse.

5. Have a Generous Return & Refund Policy

No one likes returns, but they are inevitable. Making the return process easy and transparent will help maintain customer satisfaction, even when things go wrong.

Be clear about your policies, offer free returns when possible, and process refunds promptly. This way, even a return experience can become a positive touchpoint for your customers.

6. Offer Personalized Experiences

Personalization is key to winning customer loyalty. Use customer data to offer personalized product recommendations, special offers, and communication. This can make customers feel valued and appreciated, enhancing their overall shopping experience.

 

Keep in mind, however, that as good as these strategies are, in order to truly achieve success, you’ll also need to track your performance and identify areas for improvement. The next section talks about how you can do that.

4 KPIs to Track to Ensure Great Order Fulfillment

If you’re looking for a way to gauge your progress, you’ll need key performance indicators (KPIs). In order fulfillment, four KPIs stand above the others.

• Order Accuracy Rate: The proportion of orders delivered without errors, highlighting the effectiveness of your order processing.
• Order Cycle Time: The speed from order placement to delivery, providing insights into your process efficiency.
• Rate of Return: The quality of delivered products, with a lower return rate usually indicating satisfied customers.
• Customer Feedback: Though not quantitative, it’s still really important. Surveys, reviews, or direct interactions can serve as critical indicators of customer satisfaction, pointing towards areas needing improvement.

What gets measured, gets done. Pay attention to these four KPIs when making changes to your order fulfillment processes. If you make a point to monitor these indicators and act on them, your odds of meaningfully improving your order fulfillment processes go way up, and that paves the road for improved customer satisfaction and, ultimately, revenue. 

 

You can’t decouple order fulfillment and customer satisfaction, especially not in eCommerce. Bad order fulfillment processes can frustrate your customers, but good order fulfillment processes can delight them.

Remember, the goal is not just to meet customer expectations but to exceed them, turning each order fulfillment into a memorable customer experience. 

Final Thoughts

Outsourcing fulfillment to a 3PL can be tremendously beneficial for your growing eCommerce brand. With the right 3PL partner, you can reap numerous benefits, such as reduced shipping costs, improved efficiency, and the ability to focus on your core business activities.

Finding the right 3PL is a daunting task, to be sure. However, once you know why outsourcing makes sense, you can follow the ten steps in this guide to find the right 3PL and get off to a great start.

Don’t hesitate to explore your options. The right 3PL partner is out there, and once you start working with them, it will be well worth the time put into finding them!