Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 43
Inspiration from across the world for retail enthusiasts, e-commerce professionals, marketing lovers and technology fans. Welcome back! I summarized some great links again, I stumbled upon this week.
🔍Aleyda Solis: SEO and AI, how to prepare your business
Let’s start with a great presentation from Aleyda Solis on SEO and AI. I think a must-read for every marketer. In very short:
Enhance your product pages with all possible assets, google competes with you on PLP’s
Focus on informational content and identify gaps and opportunities, by research (URLs and free template included)
Ensure your site is the easiest choice for users by providing superior information.
Essential to include as much (meta) data as possible, whether it’s reviews, images, videos, FAQ, or internal linking. Do it, and do it now.
Full details here: https://speakerdeck.com/aleyda/the-impact-of-ai-in-seo-ai-overviews-june-2024-edition
🇹🇭 Bangkok: a short re-visit, some retail pictures
I am back in Bangkok, and I wrote earlier an extensive post on Bangkok’s retail and shopping malls, both on and offline, check it out here. This time, however, I'm just sharing things that caught my eye in retail and advertising during my daily travels.
I always feel good being in Asia, and Bangkok is no exception. Things happen here, and nowadays faster than ever.
It’s important to understand that while many often think of Thailand as a developing country, it is actually classified as an upper-middle-income nation, with Bangkok standing out as a significant economic hub. GDP measured in USD is not always a good comparison; it's better to focus on GDP at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). This method takes into account the cost of living and inflation rates, allowing for more accurate comparisons of economic productivity and living standards between countries. Thailand is around number 20 in the world on this list, thanks in large part to Bangkok's significant economic contribution, which means retail here has lots of opportunities and is doing very well. It confirms from what I see when visiting shops here and ordering online.
This might increase further as Thailand applied for BRICS membership, which -when successful-it will increase trade and, investment.
Yesterday I took a Grab motorbike taxi, and yes, the driver was watching live shopping on one of the major platforms. Live shopping is popular in Asia, much more than in the West, we are lagging on live shopping. You see it everywhere, mainly people watch TikTok Shop, Lazada Live Shopping, and Shopee Live Shopping.
I saw this very tiny shop, in one of the most luxurious and large shopping malls of Bangkok, called Empshere, and this little tiny shop caught my attention. They had their reviews written on Post-it notes. Yes, physical post-it notes.
You don’t have to be a large shop, even in a luxurious shopping mall you can grab attention by being creative.👍
I will make a gallery with a few more pictures below, as otherwise the e-mail gets too long and gets truncated in Gmail.
See a huge interactive advertisement display that grabbed quite some attention. I watched it for a short while and made people stand, see the ads and wait for the game to become available. It’s a bank, by the way who has this display. These interactive displays are designed to both inform and engage passersby, making them more effective than static advertisements.
Saw a tiny little shop that says: “Get whitening skin for just 15 minutes” but I guess they mean “Get whitening skin in just 15 minutes”😂
I still think it is strong, to display in-store banners asking for reviews via the app, as Don Don Donki does.
One of the nice things in Asia is that there are always some themed restaurants or bars. I read about this café, “747-cafe”, and went to visit. It’s outside the city center. A 747 redecorated as a café, and yes you can even sit in the cockpit. Outside there is a stage for performances as well.
A shop owner who probably earned too much money, he “went to the bank” and is temporarily closed :)
A bar owner who shares his “funny” Facebook posts to get engaged (saw the gallery while going to the toilet)
QR codes on street food stands are common in Asia, and so more and more also in Bangkok. Unlike in Europe, no physical device is needed, resulting also in lower transaction costs and thus more affordable and inclusive.
That all in the pictures below:
🛎️Attention product managers: watch this video
I like product ownership and product management. It’s great to solve problems for people. As a product manager you are essentially a “problem solver” This video made me enthusiastic. I can recommend the listen. It’s about “feature product fit” Here are the notes I took:
Retention, monetization, and acquisition are metrics for product market fit but also for feature product fit. Features need to have their own retention and adoption and improve the core product metrics as written above.
When releasing a feature, do not:
Send an e-mail
Place a banner
Do a big press release
First validate the feature, preferably with the most relevant users, so that’s not (always) a random group.
Feature Success: The success of a feature is measured not just by its adoption but by how well it improves core product metrics like retention and engagement.
Data is crucial in determining which features are successful. It's not just about raw numbers but understanding the story behind the data.
Users' behavior and feedback are critical in validating the success of a feature. It's essential to focus on the most relevant users when releasing and testing new features.
I like that the conversation dug into really understanding a user, into qualitative research in combination with quantitative research. The user group had open tabs in their browsers with tools and services they found useful but weren't part of their app they realized how they needed to build new features that were in the open tabs, on the desktop, in the app.
Your features compete. New features that don't improve core metrics are just cannibalizing. Remove them.
They did a survey to distinguish loyal vs non-loyal users of a service, then dug into the non-loyal group to see if new features could make them loyal.
A product manager’s job is to find feature-product fit, not maximize feature adoption" - Fit #1, then growth #2
Customer service is a differentiator. Teams are often separated by functional lines. But there should be a constant feedback loop between customer service, sales, teams, and the product team.
Setting goals for your teams is extremely important. Historically, product teams have been goaled based on the new things they build, but there is no team that owns the holistic user experience. For example, there might be separate teams for checkout and login.
The feature team determines, which features are successful, which then the growth team uses to get the product used/sold.
The speaker explains that Pinterest initially relied on a friend graph to infer user interests, which often didn't align with actual user preferences. They shifted to asking users directly about their interests, leading to better feature development and user engagement. This emphasizes the importance of qualitative research and direct user feedback over purely quantitative methods.
Content Loops for User Growth:
Users don't necessarily come to a product to interact with others, so they might not have a strong incentive to invite friends.
Instead, focus on creating content that users can share, attracting more users through the content itself.
Go check it out, it is a really good presentation! Or just listen as podccast, as I did.
🔍New HREFLang update
For all marketers/product owners with an international multilingual webshop/site. Maybe not new, but newly documented at least:
Details: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-updates-hreflang-documentation-37569.html
🇯🇵Japan: a pillow with a receipt
I wanted to share this. How to attract people via products and also strengthen your brand (visibility)? Well, make a pillow with a receipt. 🤣 Exactly that, did Family Mart Japan.
I believe they also have bags with a receipt printed on them.
That’s it for this edition, next edition, more on Thailand!
Greetings,