Direct Commerce Autumn Assembly

There isn’t a person in the sector who didn’t see the coverage that Johnnie recently attracted in the national media and has been shared multiple times across social networks including LinkedIn. Boden is one of those fabulous British brands which has enjoyed great success over the years. Yet, as Johnnie candidly shared in the media, things haven’t gone quite so well of late. Hear what went awry and how the business is turning it all around. Not to mention how it is reintroducing print catalogues. And what a PR triumph the recent media coverage has been. Encouraging, as it has, many columnists to pick up on the story and wax lyrical about their (past) love of the Boden brand, reigniting consumer interest and bringing back some very loyal customers.

Interview by Allie Oldham.

If demand and customers are falling away, the CMO is invariably first in the firing line. Businesses which are in rebuilding mode and/or looking to scale need strong teams working together to succeed with both short-term and longer-term goals. There’s huge demand for senior Business Growth and Transformation professionals, but where do these newly created functions sit within a multichannel retail business? How can you be certain they will deliver, achieve team buy-in? Who approves budgets, measures performance and keeps it all on track? Is there an ideal model for today’s marketing, business management, business growth, transformation team? Is there a case for making greater use of expert fractional, interim and consultancy services, or external agencies? Which businesses appear to be getting it right…Managing marketing’s CO2 as well as your bottom line.

In this session, Colin will reveal how data can drive segmentation and inform next best action.

He’ll take a look at how we can bring context to what is going on in the world around us and understand our customers better, to enable us to interact with them in an optimal way.

Explore the future of publishing with a deep dive into Coopers of Stortford’s transformative journey. Discover how the implementation of ec2i’s Renaissance solution revolutionised their catalogue production, boosting productivity by 30% and reducing production costs significantly. 

From initial concepts to print-ready PDFs, discover how digital integrations can be a game-changer in today’s omnichannel world. 

Join us to uncover the secrets behind increasing output, minimising corrections and ensuring brand consistency across channels. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to stay ahead in the ever-evolving publishing landscape!

Many businesses are working with smaller budgets and have little ‘contingency’ for testing new media. We’re also hearing that the ongoing cost of living worry has impacted response for many brands. How can marketers pinpoint the best of direct and digital options for their media spend, achieve greater stand-out as well as be certain that their advertising messages are hitting the spot.

Explore how to create meaningful customer experiences directly from your website. One-to-one live shopping provides real-time engagement and tailored recommendations when shoppers are researching their Christmas purchases. Learn how innovative retailers and direct to consumer e-trailers are building a competitive advantage in what is shaping up to be an increasingly competitive peak trading season.

Roundtable:

What does effective data-driven marketing look like?

Data gives you direction. It allows you to improve the efficiency and impact of your marketing campaigns. It gives you an understanding of which channels work best and to reallocate spending to those that yield more. 

Using data to inform your decision-making is essential for eCommerce digital marketing success. In this round table session, we’ll be sharing and discussing with you the key metrics you should be tracking, how you can find that data, using AI for forecasting and how to set realistic benchmarks for success.

UK marketers want to reduce the CO2 impact of their marketing campaigns at the same time as maintaining their return on marketing investment (ROMI).

This can be done, but it needs a marketing CO2 calculator that gets into the detail of which elements of campaigns are causing the greatest damage, such as which creatives and which channels – social, email, search, TV, direct mail?

It also needs a marketing planning approach that can forecast the financial impact of changing campaign plans.

Jo Young will explain with some case studies how to bring together both sides of this equation, to create a win for the planet and for the marketing budget.

• What growth looks like in a turbulent socio/economic landscape
• Outlining the importance of distinguishing between top line growth and bottom line growth.
• How to determine which one you need to be chasing.
• Why you need to be crystal clear as a business about what growth means for you and why you need to communicate that throughout the whole company.
• How you can grow profitably – revenue and profit and not mutually exclusive.

What if it cost you nothing to recruit a new customer? The holy grail of customer acquisition? Well, it’s entirely within your reach using an off-the-page campaign in the national press….and if you’re looking for the affluent 65’s the national press is where to find them. The mature market controls 80% of the spending power of the nation, over £15 trillion. As recruitment from traditional list sources has been ravaged by with market and GDPR pressure…Off-the-page has seen a resurgence. If you think the press is an old maid media, then think again. It still has a critical mass of affluent wealthy ABC1s with disposable incomes. They are loyal, responsive and PROFITABLE.

Have you ever wondered why it is so hard to effectively increase customer loyalty? In this session, Kevin will explain why most e-commerce brands are better served by focusing on awareness and customer acquisition. For those who do want to focus on customer loyalty, Kevin will share “inflection points” … key timeframes when customers are responsive and can be pushed to greater customer loyalty.

Many young brands, as well as longer established players, know that there is a world of opportunity beyond the UK market but lack the time to do the legwork. In this session Lincoln will share how the Fruugo proposition has helped many businesses to carve out profitable online sales using its unique family of international marketplaces. Ordinarily, these are in markets that the larger players have ignored but where there is strong demand for new, exciting products and brands. With all of the tricky aspects taken care of – translation, currency, order taking – Fruugo can also offer speedy access to high-potential markets opening up new opportunities for businesses to grow.

These days consumers are looking to brands to take the lead when it comes to sustainability. They are also attracted to brands which are purpose-led, ethical, and which are in tune with their own personal cleaner living goals. Add these factors to the complex back-office business of ‘policing’ all elements of the supply chain for every SKU, as well as conforming with EU product labelling requirements for all who are trading internationally, and there are many new and emerging challenges to deal with. In this session Richie will discuss these issues and share experience gained through working with a number of clients.

Roundtable:

Delve into why the post-purchase phase is a goldmine for businesses and explore how effective CRM strategies can transform one-time buyers into loyal advocates. Discover the secrets to enhancing customer retention and satisfaction, learn actionable strategies and best practices for crafting and implementing post-purchase CRM initiatives, and explore how emerging technologies are shaping the future of CRM.

Retailers and brands have faced a challenging period. It has forced us to be smarter than ever and more efficient with our limited resources. What are those businesses that are winning doing differently? A back to basics look at guiding principles, strategies and tactics.

Hear how Bridgman are using Nibble to boost online sales.

Roundtable:

How predictive analytics is providing a refreshing new way to model offline & online consumer behaviour and its impact on future purchasing decisions.

Whether we offer a product or a service, or whether we’re selling to consumers or business-to-business, one thing is common for all of us—we’re all trying to connect with human beings. The fact is, we’re not selling to a “demographic” or a “target audience.” We’re trying to form a relationship with real people. So shouldn’t we try to better understand what makes people tick? What motivates them? What do they respond to? What do we all have in common?

Recent discoveries in neuroscience have shed light on how all human beings process information and how we all react to certain things. If we have a better understanding of these basic human truths, we can craft our marketing messages to be more effective.

Sumi will discuss with Pete, how eFOLDI has successfully grown its UK multichannel mobility business via an innovative direct marketing strategy.

Roundtable:

How close are you to understanding marketing’s CO2 emissions and how to reduce them?  What effect will changes have on marketing’s return on investment? If you have plans in place, what are the benefits and key challenges? In this roundtable discussion, we can share the impact that marketing is having on CO2 emissions, how we can reduce it and discuss how businesses can gain from managing marketing’s CO2.

If we cast our minds back, to when DCA was founded (as Catalogue Exchange) one of its goals was to negotiate for member companies on key services, like bulk mailing postal rates. We enjoyed considerable success ‘back in the day’, securing special rates for members and now, with the threat of significant price increases, it is time to fight the corner for our sector once again. John Ellis has taken on the mission as spokesperson & co-ordinator of this challenge and, having already enabled a direct conversation between several catalogue mailers who would be adversely affected by the proposed price increases and senior people at Royal Mail, is now keen to build momentum by inviting additional businesses which will be impacted.

If you mail catalogues in volume then get involved by pulling up a seat and finding out what happens next.