Mastering E-commerce: Strategies for Personalisation, Automation, and Customer Loyalty in a Competitive Landscape
This interview by Research NXT with Megha Agarwal, Marketing Manager at ShopClues, provides insights into her career journey and her approach to e-commerce marketing. Starting as a web developer intern, Megha progressed through various roles in prominent companies, gaining expertise in multiple marketing domains. She now leads marketing efforts for ShopClues’ international business, focusing on the Korean and US markets. Megha shares her strategies for omnichannel marketing, reaching Tier II and III cities, leveraging automation, and maintaining customer loyalty in a competitive e-commerce landscape.
Key Takeaways:
- Creating a consistent brand experience across all customer touchpoints is crucial in e-commerce, requiring integration of various marketing channels and cross-functional collaboration.
- Effective marketing in diverse markets, especially Tier II and III cities, involves using regional languages, mobile-first approaches, and campaigns tailored to local preferences.
- Leveraging marketing automation tools for audience segmentation, content personalisation, and A/B testing can significantly improve campaign efficiency and effectiveness.
- Utilising customer data to create personalised marketing campaigns leads to higher engagement rates, increased conversions, and improved customer loyalty.
- In price-sensitive e-commerce environments, focusing on personalised experiences, excellent customer service, and loyalty programs helps maintain customer loyalty beyond competitive pricing.
- Tracking essential KPIs such as Conversion Rate, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and Customer Lifetime Value is vital for measuring campaign success and optimising marketing efforts in e-commerce.
"The impact of personalised marketing on customer engagement and retention has been significant. Personalised campaigns tend to have higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates compared to generic ones."
Please share an overview of your professional journey and how your role has evolved over the years. What have been the key milestones in your marketing career within the e-commerce industry?
Megha: After completing my engineering degree, I began my career as a Web Developer Intern at a Delhi-based startup, Limetray, where I worked on template management for 15 websites and developed a strong interest in e-commerce development. This experience led me to explore CRM systems to better understand the fundamentals of marketing. My journey then took me through roles at prominent companies like ShopClues and VWO (by Wingify), where I gained hands-on experience in various marketing domains, including SEO, Direct Marketing, CRM, Conversion Rate Optimization, Influencer Marketing, Social Media, and Digital Marketing. These experiences deepened my understanding of the importance of omni-channel marketing, particularly within the e-commerce industry, where direct customer impact is critical. Starting from the basics, I now lead the marketing and growth initiatives for ShopClues and its group companies, focusing on the Korean and US markets.
Could you describe your role within the organisation and your primary responsibilities related to campaign management and automation?
Megha: I currently lead the marketing efforts for ShopClues’ international business through our group companies, managing end-to-end campaigns for new user acquisition and driving business from Indian and Korean products in the Korean and US markets. We leverage cutting-edge automation tools to streamline our processes, ensuring our operations run smoothly and our weekends remain enjoyable.
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How do you approach omnichannel marketing in the context of an e-commerce platform? How do you ensure a consistent brand experience across different touchpoints?
Megha: When approaching omnichannel marketing for an e-commerce platform, I focus on creating a seamless and consistent brand experience across all customer touchpoints. This involves understanding the unique behaviours and preferences of our audience in each market, whether it’s in Korea, the US, or beyond. By integrating various marketing channels—such as SEO, social media, email campaigns, and influencer partnerships—we ensure that our messaging remains cohesive and aligned with our brand’s values.
To maintain this consistency, I collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including creative, tech, and customer support, to ensure that every customer interaction, whether online or offline, reflects the same brand identity. Additionally, we use advanced CRM systems to track customer journeys and personalise experiences, which helps us deliver relevant content at the right time, enhancing the overall brand experience. Through this approach, we not only drive conversions but also build long-term customer loyalty across multiple markets.
How do you leverage digital marketing to reach consumers in Tier II and III cities, which form a significant portion of your customer base? Could you provide examples of successful campaigns that resonated with these audiences?
Megha: To effectively reach consumers in Tier II and III cities, I leverage digital marketing strategies tailored to the unique needs and preferences of these markets. Understanding that consumers in these regions may have different purchasing behaviours and access to technology, we focus on creating localised and relatable content that resonates with them.
One successful approach is using regional languages in our digital campaigns, which helps establish a deeper connection with the audience. We also prioritise mobile-first strategies, knowing that many consumers in these areas primarily access the internet through their smartphones. By optimising our website and apps for mobile use and focusing on social media platforms that are popular in these regions, we can engage with customers more effectively.
For example, a recent campaign involved promoting a range of affordable, high-quality products from local Indian and Korean markets, which aligned with the interests and values of consumers in Tier II and III cities. We utilised targeted social media ads, regional influencers, and Facebook marketing to spread the word, resulting in a significant increase in traffic and conversions from these areas. This approach not only boosted sales but also helped in building brand loyalty by addressing the specific needs of this important customer segment.
How does ShopClues leverage marketing automation across its diverse product categories? Can you provide examples of how automation has improved campaign efficiency?
Megha: At ShopClues, marketing automation plays a crucial role in managing our diverse product categories and ensuring that our campaigns are both efficient and effective. By automating repetitive tasks, we can focus more on strategy and creativity, which leads to better-targeted campaigns and a higher ROAS.
We use automation tools to segment our audience based on their behaviour, requirements, and purchase history. This allows us to deliver personalised content and product recommendations at scale to meet each customer’s needs. For example, if a customer frequently purchases electronics, they will receive targeted emails and notifications about the latest deals in that category, along with personalised offers that encourage repeat purchases.
Automation has also enhanced our ability to conduct A/B testing on a large scale, enabling us to quickly identify what works best for different segments. For example, we ran automated A/B tests on email subject lines for a flash sale campaign. The automation tool quickly analysed the performance and adjusted the email sent in real time to maximise open rates and conversions. This resulted in a 20% increase in campaign effectiveness compared to our previous manual efforts.
Can you describe your current marketing automation stack at ShopClues? What features do you find most valuable, and what capabilities do you feel need improvement for e-commerce marketing?
Megha: At ShopClues, our marketing automation stack is designed to manage the complexities of a multi-category e-commerce platform, using tools like MoEngage for CRM, internal tools for email marketing, Google and Meta Ads for paid, and Google Analytics for data analysis. These tools allow us to automate personalised campaigns, optimise cross-channel efforts, and conduct real-time performance analysis, enhancing our marketing efficiency. The most valuable features include advanced segmentation and personalisation, seamless cross-channel integration, and real-time analytics.
Personalisation is critical in today’s e-commerce environment. How do you use customer data to tailor marketing campaigns at ShopClues? Can you share how personalised marketing has influenced customer engagement and retention?
Megha: Personalisation is indeed crucial in today’s e-commerce landscape, and at ShopClues, we leverage customer data extensively to tailor our marketing campaigns. We collect and analyse data on customer behaviour, choices, purchase history, and interactions across various touchpoints. This data enables us to create detailed customer segments and deliver highly personalised content, product recommendations and offers that resonate with each individual.
The impact of personalised marketing on customer engagement and retention has been significant. Personalised campaigns tend to have higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates compared to generic ones. Additionally, by making customers feel understood and valued, we’ve seen an increase in customer loyalty and repeat purchases, which are key drivers of long-term business success. By incorporating regional languages into our campaigns, we’ve been able to connect more effectively with our international audience, making our marketing efforts more relatable and impactful.
What strategies do you employ to maintain customer loyalty in an e-commerce landscape where price and product variety often drive consumer choices?
Megha: In an e-commerce landscape where price and product variety are critical drivers of consumer choices, maintaining customer loyalty requires a strategic approach that goes beyond just competitive pricing. At ShopClues, we focus on delivering a personalised and seamless shopping experience on our different websites, building strong relationships with our customers, and consistently adding value to their interactions with our brand.
One of our primary strategies is leveraging data to create personalised experiences. By understanding our customers’ browsing behaviour, we work on our recommendations, offers, and communication to meet their needs.
We also emphasise the importance of customer service and support, leading to positive experiences that encourage repeat purchases. We also engage customers through loyalty programs like Spin and Win, which reward daily visitors with exclusive offers, early access to sales, and other perks, making them feel valued. Through social media, email marketing, and other channels, we keep our customers informed about new products, trends, and promotions while also encouraging them to share their experiences and reviews. This builds a sense of community around our brand, which enhances customer loyalty.
How do you measure the success of your marketing campaigns? What key performance indicators (KPIs) do you find most valuable in e-commerce?
Megha: To measure the success of our marketing campaigns at ShopClues, we track some good numbers of KPIs that offer insights into both immediate results and long-term impact. Key metrics include Conversion Rate, Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and A/B test results, which help us evaluate the sustainability of our marketing efforts. We also focus on Customer Lifetime Value to understand the total revenue from each customer, Traffic Metrics such as click-through rates and social media interactions, and Cart Abandonment Rate to identify issues in the purchase process. By analysing these KPIs, we can optimise our campaigns to drive immediate sales while fostering long-term growth and customer loyalty.
Before we wrap up, we want to know your expectations from this report. What do you think would be the most valuable for the readers of this report?
Megha: In reviewing this report, the most valuable insights for readers will be how personalised marketing strategies driven by customer data have helped us to increase engagement and conversion rates, and the importance of different approaches to individual needs. These elements will provide readers with actionable insights on optimising their marketing efforts and creating long-term customer relationships
