Research from Zenith has found that the traditional structure of sales and marketing teams is keeping brands from taking advantage of the digital media age.
The Five Commerce Imperatives for Marketers research found that brands have kept their sales and marketing teams separate, despite the transformation of commerce platforms.
To keep up with the changes, it recommends they close the gap between the two teams and put forward five key areas of focus to maximise ROI from commerce.
The first recommendation is that brands break down their silos to better meet consumer journeys on online platforms and have both the marketing and sales team inform commerce strategies.
It also suggests brands think of retailers as publishers, this means working with them to plan and activate the right placements.
It also highlights the need for brands to recognise the importance of e-commerce data to optimise digital marketing.
Zenith Australia CEO Nickie Scriven says e-commerce is only just starting to gain traction in Australia with the arrival of Amazon.
“Organisations that move to integrate marketing, sales and service functions and truly adopt an end-to-end consumer and customer experience approach will be the ones that position themselves for long term business growth,” Scriven says.
“This requires the right balance of brand building and retail-focused messaging in order to
build brand appeal and relevance with consumers, as well as incentives to move them along
the path to purchase.”
“E-commerce provides the potential to connect the consumer and customer experience and gain invaluable data and insight along the way.”
It also suggests brands rethink the distribution of their products to focus on partnerships with retailers that offer the most growth potential by reaching loyal customers.
Its final recommendation is that brands push for retailers to learn from Amazon's ability to create self-serve marketing solutions to help them promote their products on their platforms.
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