From pop-up retail sites, to virtual reality, to customer-focussed digital campaigns, brands are launching a host of activiations to tap information about consumers. eBay, Etsy and Asos Australia executives reveal some of the core benefits of getting physical.
1. Amber Morris, eBay Australia head of communications
“Each time eBay undertakes an activation or event we see huge numbers of people keen to interact and engage with the brand in the ‘real world’. Although the way we shop has changed, the need for human interaction and physically experiencing a brand hasn’t gone away. Physically engaging with your community is the best way to understand their motivations and the things they love about your business, as well as getting insights into their frustrations and the things they would like to see change. The way your staff and ambassadors deal with these conversations and interactions should accurately reflect your brand personality.”
2. Helen Souness - Etsy Australia MD
“In Australia, we host or facilitate a range of in person events across a year and though they vary in scale depending on the project, the primary focus remains the same: enable customers to connect with the people behind the products and do so in a genuine, mindful and fun way that reflects our brand values. Be it the annual Craft Party events which encourages people to come together in celebration of meeting and making, the nationwide Etsy Made Local markets run by the Etsy community last year and attended by more than 60,000 shoppers, or the Open Day Etsy held to showcase our Etsy at The Cullen partnership with Art Series Hotel Group in 2015, our aim is to let customers connect with makers and the products they create and, by doing so, help bring the values that drive our business to life. In many ways, Etsy has had an omnichannel approach from its very foundation, as do most of the sellers within our community. Etsy was founded to create a global online platform for makers and curators, most of whom already sold locally at markets or wholesale to like-minded retailers.
This recognition and support of the multiple channels that our sellers connect with buyers in continues to drive our strategy."
3. Carly Cazzolli - Asos Australia country manager
“Students are a strategically important customer for us – they’re highly engaged consumers of fashion, digital content and social media. Asos on Campus allows us to tap into their world on a much deeper level, with content that’s created by their peers and distributed through channels that are most important to our student customers. #AsSeenOnMe is a global activation that we launched in Australia last November. ASOM allows our customers to share photos of themselves in their ASOS outfits either through their social accounts or on our website. We can then link the pictures to the product so other customers who are inspired by their style can shop the product. We can also add the imagery to our product pages to surface it to customers who are coming through direct channels such as paid or organic search. This has been very successful globally and we will continue to grow the proposition into 2016."