Connected Commerce Promises a More Direct Relationship With Shoppers

Fulfillment data provides a holistic view of the customer journey

When it comes to ecommerce advertising, the ability to track a transaction from the first click to a final delivery point enables brands and their media agencies to understand and optimize results at every step of the process.

Connected commerce is the dream for brands seeking more direct relationships with the people who buy from them, as well as agencies eager to demonstrate and increase the value of their work.

These measurement and optimization capabilities are under threat due to privacy-related changes to Apple and Google browsers and operating systems. Meta platforms in particular, which catapulted many early DTC brands to success, can no longer target ads to users with the same precision, resulting in as much as a 50% drop in its Audience Network advertising business revenue since the implementation of iOS14.

While Facebook, Instagram, and increasingly, Google will still drive massive amounts of revenue for ecommerce businesses, attributing a sale back to advertising exposure will continue to become that much more difficult for brands and their agency partners.

The top five media agency holding companies—WPP, Omnicom, Publicis, IPG and Dentsu, which control nearly all of the $780 billion in global ad spend—must now get involved much closer to the point of transaction, developing technology and partnerships that are capable of connecting an ad to an ecommerce conversion.

Data connects the dots between digital and physical

Online and in-store shopping are increasingly converging. While research shows that 46% of consumers still prefer to shop in-person, they also want the immediacy, ease and speed of digital commerce, which is why 63% of shopping journeys start online.

“Phygital” marketing is the term coined to describe the blending of offline and online channels; a non-linear, omnichannel strategy that provides more immersive, engaging and interactive customer experiences.

This approach will help marketers tie ad exposure back to actual sales, even for ecommerce brands transacting mostly online as they increasingly expand channels to include retail storefronts, wholesale partnerships, buy online/pick up in store (BOPIS), and social commerce tactics like livestream selling and AR/VR for both trying and buying items.

Leveraging these emerging technologies and strategies has proven effective in driving sales, with Shopify reporting that interactions with products through AR technology resulted in 94% higher conversion rates than in those using conventional imagery and video to market.

Activate fulfillment data to get closer to customers

To execute an end-to-end connected commerce strategy, agencies must think in 3D, devising ways to connect and streamline the customer journey from digital ad exposure to physical product delivery by building their capabilities and competencies in ecommerce enablement.

A number of the major holding companies have launched logistics- and ecommerce-specific initiatives, including WPP’s Everymile, Omnicom’s Supply Chain IQ Score, and Publicis’ acquisition of Profitero, to streamline strategy, more accurately tie advertising to sales, and generate higher margins for clients.

Agencies can further expand their ecommerce offerings by partnering with tech-enabled fulfillment providers. With open platforms capable of integrating inventory, order and customer information from any source, these partners provide access to rich, omnichannel fulfillment data that helps media agencies execute ad buys more effectively and efficiently.

With access to a brand’s first-party fulfillment data, agencies can gain a better holistic understanding of the buyer journey across channels, and more precisely target and track the effectiveness of ads. Shifting focus away from metrics like impressions and clicks that don’t necessarily provide a true measure of ad effectiveness, marketers can now connect their ads directly to sales. This is essential as third-party cookies and legacy measurement tactics become obsolete.

Fulfill the customer experience

As media agencies and brands prepare for looming, permanent changes to ad targeting and measurement, first-party, privacy-safe fulfillment data is ripe for activation.

Agencies not only get an avenue for more accurately attributing marketing credit to sales, they also glean robust insights about customer behaviors.

Underpinned by connected commerce strategies, this new understanding can generate brand loyalty through personalization. But it’s only made possible by the holistic view of the customer journey that fulfillment data provides.

Ben Eachus is CEO and co-founder of Flowspace, the software powering ecommerce fulfillment for brands. Ben was an early employee at The Honest Company, where he led supply chain operations, and he founded Flowspace to help brands meet their customers’ post-purchase expectations in the real world.