Online revenue growth top priority for brands in US: Survey

The top e-commerce Initiatives include maximising return on e-commerce technology investments (56 per cent), optimising shoppers’ digital experiences (48 per cent), and decreasing page load times (47 per cent), said Yottaa in its e-commerce survey titled ‘2022 eCommerce Executive Key Initiatives Survey Report’.

The top investment areas for brands are investing more in customer acquisition, data security, improving site speed and site analytics. More than 79 per cent of brands are investing 25 per cent to 50 per cent more in customer acquisition than in previous years. That’s an increase of $125,000 per month for the average brand. Survey respondents stated they are planning to spend between $300K and $450K per month on customer acquisition.

One of the top e-commerce investment areas is data security/privacy as 60 per cent of online shoppers say they will not do business with a brand that has experienced a data breach in the past 12 months, the report said.

The e-commerce heavy hitters are spending money to make money in 2022. The focus is on investing in digital experience and maximising online ROI. Over 72 per cent of large retailers will increase their investment in e-commerce initiatives by 25 per cent or more in 2022.

The report further added that over 86 per cent of respondents acknowledge that site speed is one of the most important factors in e-commerce success. This is a big change from 2021 when 53 per cent of brands were unaware that over 50 per cent of shoppers will leave a site that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Improving site speed by just 1 second can increase conversion rates by 5.7 per cent and reduce bounce rates by 12.2 per cent.

In 2021, 33 per cent of respondents to this survey viewed Amazon as a competitor. Fast forward 12 months, and only 11 per cent of brands view the retail giant as a competitive threat. Close to 57 per cent feel that recent innovation and investments in e-commerce sites and digital experience have levelled the playing field for brands to compete with Amazon.

Additionally, 43 per cent of respondents stated that their brands are re-platforming. The top five choices are Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Netsuite, Oracle Commerce Cloud, SAP Hybris, and Shopify Plus.

The report examined online retail trends based on feedback from some of the biggest brands in the industry. The report contains data from questions answered by 128 executives from leading e-commerce brands across a wide range of vertical markets. Although this year the majority of respondents were from brands generating greater than $200 million in online revenue annually, over 40 per cent of respondents represent smaller brands.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)