1/100: Attention Recession to Inbox Commerce
Unless ecommerce businesses have established a strong brand recall or have become indispensable fixtures in the lives of their customers, push messages are the only tool to entice shoppers to their properties (website and app) completing transactions. Push channels available to marketers are email, SMS, RCS, app notifications, and in some countries, WhatsApp. Each of the channels has their pros and cons, but what’s common is the low clickthrough rate: typically 1%, or 1 in 100. This constitutes the first funnel friction fraction.
I wrote about this problem as one of the marketer’s OR Conundrums:
The conundrum for marketers has been about the balance between push and pull: brand marketing versus push marketing. Brand marketing is about the emotional connection and becoming a utility in the customer’s life, so they return to the property whenever they have a need. Push marketing is about crafting the right content and creatives to ensure the messages sent are opened and acted on. In both scenarios, the objective is the same: ensure a visit because the conversion takes place on the brand’s property.
The problem is that the vast majority of push messages sent are largely ignored by customers. Email open rates are low, SMS read rates (in India) are even lower, and push notifications are blocked by many. Marketers too have overdone the push messaging in their desire for clickthroughs. If consumers do not react to the push messages and don’t have the brand pull, then the only path left to the marketer is to retarget the customer on the adtech platforms – a very expensive proposition considering that an acquisition cost was probably already paid for. This problem of attention recession and limited activity on the brand’s property also limits the data marketers have about the customer to do personalisation.
This was the solution I had proposed: “In many markets, WhatsApp has opened up for business. Its primacy in the end customer’s life for personal messaging allows brands (for a fee) to insert themselves into the message flow. In markets like the US, pricing changes on SMS have increased its popularity, especially because 2-way interaction is possible. The biggest bang is coming via email, with the power of interactivity (AMP with Email 2.0) and gamification (Atomic Rewards with Loyalty 2.0). Interactivity is also coming to notifications. In short, the 1-way push channels are becoming 2-way conversion funnels. This transformation into “hotlines” is the big shift marketers have to prepare for.”
For ecommerce companies, the solution is Inbox Commerce. It is about bringing the conversion funnel closer to the customer – from the website/app to the inbox. It seeks to consolidate the customer’s journey from awareness to purchase within the inbox itself, effectively acting as a micro-ecosystem. This is particularly powerful in an era of overwhelming digital noise, as it provides a streamlined, focused, and more personalised user experience.
Email has emerged as the most promising channel for this strategy due to its widespread use and acceptance, especially in developed markets. I explored the idea of Email Shops in a recent essay: “The transformative solution in eCommerce is to think of websites and apps inside emails – where the entire journey from search and browse to purchase can be completed right inside the inbox. AMP makes this possible. These “email shops” are the next storefronts – and one which marketers can control because they can “push” these messages to their customers rather than relying on them to remember to visit their properties. Combined with Atomic Rewards to incentivise opens and other non-transactional actions, email shops have the potential to increase conversions exponentially, thus reducing the need for expensive and continuous new acquisitions to drive revenue growth. Email shops can thus become the profitability drivers for brands.”
In conclusion, the first friction, Attention Recession, can be effectively combated through a strategic implementation of Inbox Commerce, with Email Shops playing a pivotal role in its execution. By cutting through the clutter and bringing the shopping experience directly to customers, brands can not only increase engagement but also exponentially boost their conversion rates and profitability.
