è����Ƶ

Social proof should be one of the most powerful tools in ecommerce. At its core, it’s the influence that the actions, choices or approvals of others have on an individual’s behaviour.

People look to others when they’re uncertain about what to choose, who to trust, or whether to act. In ecommerce, that influence can appear anywhere in the journey. As reassurance that a brand is worth buying from, or as urgency to act before missing out.

It comes in many formats: scarcity messages (“only 3 left”), activity indicators (add to baskets, recent views, recent purchases), reviews and ratings, and trending or bestseller labels. Used well, these cues can reassure, create urgency, and help people find what’s popular or trusted.

The problem is, social proof has become one of the most overused and underthought tactics in the game. It’s often deployed as a blanket message to everyone, with little thought about whether it fits their mindset or the brand experience.

Retailers love it because it’s quick to turn on and almost always delivers an aggregate uplift. But those uplifts are often driven by a smaller group, and the negative effects on others are hidden in the averages.

The status quo of social proof

Most ecommerce teams apply it generically, showing the same messages to everyone – often on every product page. The most common use is as a conversion-driving technique late in the journey, but there’s a growing trend to apply it earlier in discovery (e.g., “bestseller” on PLPs).

Its popularity comes from being considered “best practice,” easy vendor implementation, and the reliable ROI it shows on aggregate. But those aggregate numbers are disproportionately influenced by high-intent visitors, which hides the harm it can cause to others.

What works for one mindset can actively put another off. As part of our research for The è����Ƶ Gap Report, we found:

• “Trending” overlays on PLPs positively impact low-intent browsers.
• “X sold last week” overlays on checkout pages deliver an average +5% conversion lift for high-intent visitors but cause a -1% drop for low-intent visitors.

Luxury and exclusivity-driven brands often avoid generic social proof entirely. In high-consideration categories, it can feel out of place – an engagement ring buyer doesn’t want to hear that “20 others bought this today,” and a £3000 jacket doesn’t need a flashing urgency tag over carefully curated imagery. In these cases, overlays can jar with the brand and undermine the premium feel.

When social proof is everywhere, it stops providing reassurance or focus. The message becomes noise, prompting the question: why stick with this approach?

Because most retailers rely on page-type triggers (e.g., PDP = ready to buy). But many PDP visitors are still browsing. Without behavioural context, tactics are based on where someone is, not how they’re behaving. That one-size-fits-all approach ignores timing and mindset. And that’s exactly why it needs a rethink.

Social proof with intent

Social proof can reassure early in the journey or create urgency later, but timing and fit are critical. Softer cues like “bestseller” or “trending” help those still discovering products. Urgency or scarcity works best when someone has decided what they want and just needs a final nudge. Use it too soon, and it risks creating anxiety or distraction.

Think of walking into a DIY store paint aisle: if you’re browsing, you don’t want someone saying, “Only three tins left – buy now!” before you’ve chosen a colour. But if you’re holding the exact tin you want, that message might spur you to buy. The same logic applies online.

Or picture a luxury sales assistant with a £3000 jacket. They wouldn’t start with “20 people bought this today.” They’d focus on its quality, heritage, or popular combinations, tailoring the message to the moment.

Real-time intent signals mean you can:

• Show discovery-style social proof to those exploring
• Reserve urgency and scarcity for visitors with strong product interest or signs of hesitation
• Avoid showing it altogether to those it might deter

When you match the message to the moment, social proof stops being background noise and starts driving action.

The path to better social proof

While we’ll cover how to move from generic application to something more intent-based in a follow up, the core steps are:

1. Analyse performance by visitor mindset, not just aggregate.
2. Exclude audiences where a message harms conversion.
3. Adapt style and timing to fit both brand tone and visitor context.

The benefits? Higher incremental gains, reduced brand risk, and interactions that build trust.

Social proof works – but not for everyone, not everywhere, and not all the time. The more you align it with intent, the more it delivers.

Ready to deliver social proof that meets the moment? Discover how Feature Delivery with è����Ƶ works.

Abandoned cart emails are often seen as the gold standard for CRM success. They’re easy to set up, look great in reports, and are widely viewed as a no-brainer for driving conversions. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: they’re not the silver bullet we’ve been treating them as.

Most retailers rely on them as a core tactic. Yet the reality is they only reach a small fraction of abandoners. These are the people you’ve identified and secured permission to email. Even when these emails land in a shopper’s inbox, the moment has often passed. It’s like walking out of a store and having the assistant chase you down the high street an hour later. That window to influence the decision has already closed.

To make matters worse, customers have learned how to game the system. Many now abandon carts deliberately to trigger a discount code. According to our è����Ƶ Gap research, 83% of online shoppers have used a discount code even when they were ready to pay full price. That’s margin erosion, but also proof that current approaches are blunt, and shoppers know how to exploit them.

It’s time to rethink how we handle abandonment. And it starts with the emails themselves.

The status quo: Abandonment emails as the default fix

Abandoned cart emails feel like an easy win: a shopper adds something to their cart, leaves, and a templated flow comes to the rescue. Subject lines like “Forgot something?” or “Your cart misses you” flood inboxes, often paired with a discount to lure the customer back.

On the surface, these campaigns perform well. High open rates. Strong click-throughs. Solid ROI. But let’s not kid ourselves: those metrics don’t tell the whole story.

• Limited reach: Only a fraction of abandoners are identifiable and contactable.
• Delayed timing: By the time the email lands, the shopper’s attention has moved on. Or worse, they’ve bought from a competitor.
• Added friction: Unless you’ve captured an email address and marketing consent, most visitors are already out of reach.
• Predictable patterns: Shoppers now anticipate these emails and wait for discounts.
• Generic messaging: Emails rarely account for why someone abandoned in the first place.

If we’re honest, these emails are less of a personalised recovery tactic and more of a reactive safety net. And safety nets don’t work for everyone.

The Problem: Why they fall short

There’s no denying abandoned cart emails deliver some results. But they’re flawed:

• Low impact at scale: Most shoppers won’t even see one. No email means no campaign.
• Lack of context: “You left something behind” doesn’t consider intent. Were they comparing prices? Still browsing? Waiting for payday?
• Delay kills momentum: The longer you wait, the colder the lead gets. What felt relevant in the moment quickly becomes noise.
• Margin drain: Blanket discounts train customers to delay purchases and wait for incentives.

These emails aren’t inherently bad. But in their current form, they’re blunt and reactive. They’re also increasingly easy for shoppers to tune out or exploit.

The Reframe: Fix the email, then think bigger

We don’t need to throw out abandoned cart emails. But we do need to evolve them.

Start by making them smarter:

• Segment for context: A high-intent abandoner may only need reassurance. A low-intent visitor might require education or a compelling USP.
• Time with care: Not every shopper needs a follow-up within an hour. Some need space.
• Rethink the content: Shift from discount-first to value-first messaging. Highlight free returns, flexible payments, or social proof instead.

This isn’t theoretical. One UK high-street jeweller used intent data to personalise abandonment emails, tailoring content and timing to match each visitor’s mindset. The result? A 12% uplift in click-through rates and a strategy that felt more like a conversation than a conversion ploy. Read the full story here.

But even the smartest emails have their limits. If we know when and why a shopper is about to abandon, why wait until they’ve left to act?

Every abandonment email is, by definition, too late. The shopper has already gone. That’s why leading retailers are complementing smarter emails with in-session interventions.

With real-time intent data, you can:

• Detect when a shopper is hesitating in the cart.
• Surface supportive messaging before they leave (e.g., save-for-later prompts or delivery reassurance).
• Reserve discounts for visitors showing exit signals, rather than everyone.

This approach doesn’t just recover abandoners; it prevents abandonment in the first place. And because interventions happen in the moment, they feel like help rather than a hard sell.

Future Vision: Abandonment reimagined

Abandoned cart emails still have their place. But they’re no longer enough on their own.

The smarter play combines:

• Smarter emails: Contextual, well-timed, and less reliant on discounts.
• In-session interventions: Adaptive experiences that engage all abandoners, not just the small percentage you can email.

It’s a shift from generic flows to contextual journeys. From chasing abandoners to understanding them. From reactive tactics to proactive engagement.

And when you get this right, abandonment isn’t just reduced. It’s transformed.

Ready to rethink your abandonment tactics? Learn how intent makes abandonment emails more impactful or read our article on getting started with intent-based abandonment.

We need to talk about how ecommerce brands collect emails.

Pop-ups demanding your email the second you land on a site? We've all seen them. We've all clicked the 'X'.

Yet this is still ecommerce’s default behaviour. A visitor hasn’t scrolled, clicked or even looked around, and already the brand is asking for their data. Sometimes dangling a discount. Sometimes just promising to keep them "in the loop." But always interrupting. Always assuming.

It’s digital directness at its most extreme. And the numbers show it is doing more harm than good.

As we found in The è����Ƶ Gap report, 55% of shoppers dislike pop-ups that appear early in a session. 45% say those pop-ups make them less likely to buy. And one in five say they would leave a site altogether if interrupted too soon.

Yet 79% of the leading retail sites we analysed fire pop-ups within the first 30 seconds.

Brands might think they are winning because the database grows. But what they are really doing is playing a game of short-term gain, long-term pain.

The people and teams at these brands are aware of this. We know because we asked them for an article on ecommerce’s email capture issue. But despite knowing it, most don’t have an easy way of changing their behaviour.

This is one of the biggest blindspots in ecommerce. It’s time to rethink the entire logic of email capture.

Email capture works...But at what cost?

For CRM teams, email capture is a KPI. The more addresses in the database, the better.

But the real question is not whether these pop-ups collect emails. They do. Some of the time. Around 2% of the time, in fact.

The question is whether they should.

Because when you look closer, that growth comes with a hidden cost. And it is more than just a momentary annoyance.

Shoppers are irritated. Journeys are disrupted. Trust is eroded.

And perhaps worst of all, most email capture pop-ups offer a discount as the incentive. Usually 10%. It feels easy. It feels like a win. But the truth is, you’re not just interrupting a visitor. You’re also handing out margin you never needed to give away.

Yet inside ecommerce teams, nobody measures the downstream impact. Very few ask how those emails perform once collected. Whether they open the emails. Whether they engage. Whether they unsubscribe immediately or, worse, mark it as spam.

Because the metric is the email captured. Not the value of that email.

It is the lazy default. A blunt trade-off between quantity and quality. And it only survives because brands never step back to challenge the assumption that capturing an email is always better than not.

But is it?

Imagine this offline. A shopper walks into a store, takes two steps past the entrance, and a salesperson jumps in front of them demanding their contact details in exchange for 10% off. It would be absurd. Yet online, it is the norm.

We measure the upside. We ignore the downside.

Why do brands still do this?

Because it is easy.

Because the tools make it easy.

Because the KPI is set. Grow the database at all costs.

The truth is, the tools most ecommerce teams rely on aren’t built to do anything else. They only support rigid, rule-based triggers. You can fire a pop-up after a set time, after a certain number of pages, or when a mouse scrolls to the top of the screen. Blunt instruments that don't adapt to what the visitor is actually doing.

Because the tools are so limited, teams don’t have to think strategically. They pick one of the arbitrary options, turn it on, and move on to the next task. When platforms lead with convenience over context, strategy suffers. The tech shapes the behaviour.

But it is not just the tools. Organisational silos compound the problem. Email capture, discounting and experience are often owned by three different teams. Each has valid goals, but they are pulling in different directions.

CRM teams want emails. UX teams want less friction. Trading teams want conversions.

And no one asks the simple question: at what point would you be comfortable giving your email address to a retailer?

The anonymity of ecommerce only deepens the problem. I call this the veil of anonymity. Because shoppers can’t push back or protest, teams feel detached. When you remove human connection from the buying experience, it becomes easier to justify inappropriate interruptions. It becomes easy to forget that shoppers are real people.

How intent changes the game

This is not an argument against email capture. It is an argument for more appropriate email capture.

Not based on arbitrary page views or timers. Based on real behaviour. Real signals. Real moments of relevance.

You need to wait for the right time when the visitor has committed something towards that relationship before you ask that question.

And those moments will vary. There is no single 'right' page or second. Instead, teams should look at the journey through the lens of the visitor. Not the website.

For example:

• Browsing content? Offer to send more, like recipes or inspiration.
• Comparing products? Offer to save favourites to their inbox.
• At the basket, but hesitating? Offer to email them the basket or send price alerts.
• Showing signs of exit? Use that as the trigger to invite them to continue the conversation.

This is exactly what brands like Le Chameau and On The Beach have done by adding real-time intent to their email capture tactics.

Le Chameau used intent signals to show email capture only to disengaging visitors, not those in a focused, progressing journey. You can read the full play here.

The result:

• 3% more sign-ups.
• 24% incremental revenue from that segment.
  ‍

On The Beach used exit signals to trigger email capture earlier in the session, before visitors had fully disengaged. Explore their play here.

The result:

• 28% more email captures.

Not more pop-ups. Not more impressions. Just better timing. Better targeting. And better outcomes.

A more considered playbook for email capture

Want to do the same? Here’s how to rethink your approach:

When should you ask?

• Not on entry
• When visitors show signs of struggle, hesitation or exit
• When they have built some product affinity or journey progression
  ‍

Who should you ask?

• Not everyone.
• Exclude visitors in a Focus state, who are progressing naturally
• Target those most at risk of leaving or showing hesitation

What should the offer be?

• Not always a discount
• Offer content, save-for-later prompts, alerts, or softer relationship-building asks

And above all: stop thinking of email capture as a one-shot pop-up. Think of it as a sequence of opportunities to connect, at the right moment for the right customers.

You get a pop-up demanding your email before you’ve even looked around. How does that make you feel?

That is the question we should be asking of every tactic, every journey, every decision.

Because this is not just about collecting more emails. Or it shouldn’t be. It is about thinking in terms of value as much as volume. From interruptions to relationships. From blunt force to appropriate timing.

It is always better to start a relationship with respect than to do a fast grab for 10%.

Want to see how others are using intent to grow email lists without hurting experience? Read up on Email Capture with è����Ƶ.

The status quo of ecommerce discounting is broken.

A pop-up offering 10% off before you’ve even looked around. A banner shouting about today’s limited-time deal (limited or not). Indiscriminate abandon cart emails. If you’ve ever shopped online you’ve seen these tactics. If you work in the industry, you’ve likely done at least one of them.

Discount codes are everywhere. Retailers use them to drive urgency, clear stock, reward loyalty and, more often than not, to hit this week’s revenue target.

But, despite its shortcomings, discounting itself is a strategic choice. Discount codes themselves aren’t the problem. The way we use them is.

We recently shared the floor with retail professionals to hear the in-house view on ecommerce’s discount dilemma. This is our perspective. One that reframes why discounting, as it stands, is failing both customers and brands.

Why online retailers rely on discounting

It’s not hard to understand why discounting is so widespread. Ecommerce teams have a limited set of levers they can pull. When the goal is fast execution and short-term impact, discount codes often win by default.

They’re fast to deploy. Easy to measure. Valuable to customers. And they usually produce some sort of lift.

But that default setting is precisely the problem. Discounting isn’t being used strategically, it’s being used generically.

Most retailers still rely on a narrow set of triggering rules. Things like page type, category or product viewed, basket value or visitor type (e.g. new vs. returning).

These are blunt instruments. They don’t reflect how someone is behaving. They don’t consider their mindset. And they certainly don’t factor in what stage of the buying journey that visitor is in.

So when these rules are used to trigger promotions, it means most discount codes are offered to the wrong people, at the wrong time.

The immediate problem isn’t that retailers are defaulting to discount codes for short-term revenue gains. The problem is that these discount code campaigns aren’t run effectively due to the current limitations of triggering rules that retailers have at their disposal. And this leads to issues.

Let’s be honest. Blanket discounting does one thing really well: erode margin.

Need more proof? The è����Ƶ Gap report found that 83% of online shoppers have used a discount code even when they were ready to pay full price. That’s not incremental. That’s revenue left on the table.

Mass discounting also trains customers to expect a deal. It teaches them the rules to trigger offers. It hurts brand perception. And makes it harder to measure what’s actually working. After all, not every abandonment is price anxiety. Not every visitor needs a financial incentive.

If you can't time your discounts to context, you're not optimising their delivery. You're often just giving them away. This is something intent can solve.��

Why intent data changes things

People don’t buy in fixed journeys. And they definitely don’t all behave the same just because they’re on the same page.

But today’s discount logic doesn’t recognise that. A new customer on a PDP gets the same code as a casual browser with no interest in buying. A focused, high-intent visitor gets the same popup as someone barely engaged.

This is the real issue: discount codes are being fired without understanding what the visitor actually needs. What the context behind their actions is.

Starting to think in terms of customer intent fixes that, by letting you understand not just who the visitor is, but what they need in that moment. Regardless of where they are on site.

This is what our real-time intent agent unlocks for ecommerce teams. But I’m here to cover the change in thinking, not our product.

With intent data, you can make predictions on your visitors’ likely actions. You can identify not only the current stage of their purchase journey and what you need to do for them, but behavioural signals on whether they’re focused or struggling.

By starting to think about discount codes through this lens, you can move from fixed experiences. You can start to:

• Identify which visitors are likely to abandon but are also likely to convert if nudged
• Spot hesitation in real-time and respond with the right incentive
• Avoid discounting visitors who would have bought anyway

While the possibilities vary by brand and category, this unlocks some fairly universal opportunities. If you are going to do discounts, there are a couple of moments you really should be targeting. And they aren’t linked to page type or other retrospective data.

Two real-time moments where discounts works wonders

Discounting becomes impactful when it's tailored to real-time visitor context. We’ve seen this play out again and again across brands, and across shoppers’ journeys.

With this in mind, two of our è����Ƶ Segments are not only popular with our customers, but effective targets for discounting:

Convert | Abandon

• These are visitors deep in the journey, showing signs of exit
• They’re likely to buy, but not guaranteed
• A timely incentive here can rescue revenue

Maintain | Abandon

• Visitors who’ve built intent but are showing abandon signals
• They might be looping, hesitating, or comparing
• If their likelihood to return to the site is also low, a discount here protects the sale

These are moments when a discount can pay off incrementally. And while they are informed by visitor actions, they are not triggered directly by them but the context behind them.

While our product buckets visitors into è����Ƶ Segments from our framework, it’s just a starting point. è����Ƶ data can give ecommerce teams an abundance of datapoints to combine with their existing insights, from affinities to specific behavioural predictions.��

This gives retailers the flexibility to trigger discounts for the most appropriate segments to maximise incrementality. All based on where they are in their buying journey and how they are feeling in real-time.

This approach isn’t theoretical. Appliances Direct used this logic to save 42% in margin by only offering discounts to visitors with high purchase intent showing abandon signals. Seasalt Cornwall saw an 89% uplift in conversion by combining these segments with affinity data.

Flipping the traditional discount logic

Let’s take things further and rethink three common discount triggers based on the typical rules.

New customer discounts. Just because someone is new doesn’t mean they’re unsure. Instead, look for signs of struggle. Not all new visitors need a discount to convert.

Product-based discounts. Some people are already sold. Others never will be. Target hesitation, not just product type. Sell the value, not the price.

Time on site discounts. Time alone isn’t a sign of purchase intent. Look for signals like repeated views, erratic navigation or clear signs of exit.

To summarise, discount codes aren’t evil. The way we do them is often just…a little lazy.

Discount codes should be used to influence behaviour, not to cover for a lack of understanding. They should incentivise action, not act as a tax on uncertainty.

The good news? Most ecommerce teams don’t need different discounts. They just need better timing. Smarter triggers. And a shift in mindset.

Rethinking retail discounting doesn’t mean giving it up. It means doing it with more precision, more relevance, and more respect for the customer journey. It means delivering them with intent.

Want to see what discounting with intent looks like in action? Learn more about how Made With è����Ƶ makes it possible.

Visitors filling up their carts before abandoning them is a constant source of frustration for ecommerce retailers.��Reducing cart abandonment is often at the top of to-do lists.

The way we both see and deal with this challenge needs a rethink.

Not all visitors reaching the checkout stage have the same intent or are in the same stage of their buying journey.

Data shows that intent at checkout varies, and therefore nuanced strategies are required to truly understand and address this persistent problem.

Key takeaways

Focusing on intent to combat cart abandonment

1. Data shows varied intent at checkout.��Our LLM data validates distinct differences in intent at the checkout stage.
2. Higher intent equals higher purchase likelihood.��Visitors with stronger purchase intent are more likely to complete their transactions.
3. Tailoring treatment based on intent.��Different intent levels require different approaches to maximise conversion rates.
4. Checkout visitors differ from browsers.��Visitors at checkout are not the same as those just browsing; treating them differently is crucial.
5. Reconsidering the traditional checkout mindset.��Evidence from our LLM suggests that people buy in stages and should be treated based on their intent throughout the buying journey.

So, let’s dive in–starting with the big question…

Abandon the old way?

Should ecommerce ditch the traditional checkout mindset?

We're all familiar with the traditional checkout funnel:

Conversion rate optimisation specialists have spent years showing that navigation complexity, weak CTAs, slow page loads, ambiguous pricing, insufficient product information, site security, and cumbersome checkout processes all contribute to cart abandonment.

Yet it's easy to overlook a critical factor:��intent.

è����Ƶ is everything

Traditional approaches have treated every visitor at checkout as if they are the same.

Some are ready and willing to buy, while others are still browsing or wrestling with indecision. Missing these differences means missing out on potential sales.

Sophisticated data models now give us more precise insights into visitor behaviour.

The conventional checkout mindset is outdated.��Our data-driven insights reveal that buying is a process occurring in stages, not on product pages.

Visitors at checkout can range from curious to committed. Recognising and acting on these differences is essential.

High è����Ƶ = High conversion & lower likelihood of cart abandonment

Visitors with a strong intent to purchase are focused shoppers. Even though they may move items in and out of the cart, they are progressing steadily towards conversion with a low likelihood of abandoning.

Conversely, low-intent visitors often abandon their carts.

Treating both groups the same means irritation for those with high-intent (and often unnecessary discounting), and ineffective messaging for those with low-intent.

High-intent visitors crave a seamless, swift checkout process. Low-intent visitors might need a nudge—a well-timed discount or additional information could tip the scales.

In-session strategies

Maximising conversion through intent recognition

Take a look at the graph below. It shows visitors ranked by their likelihood to buy, from lowest (red) to highest (green), and how well they actually convert (CVR).

Our data reveals a clear distinction: from cautious 'considerers' (red) to decisive 'buy-now' enthusiasts (green).

High-intent shoppers boast an impressive 77% conversion rate, while low-intent browsers lag behind at 63%.

è����Ƶ is a critical factor to conversion.

It’s not just about items in a cart; understanding intent helps us tailor our approach—guiding the unsure and facilitating seamless transactions for the ready-to-buy.

Browsers vs Buyers

Tackling cart abandonment: The spectrum of intent in segments

There's a nuanced spectrum underlying audience segments and their varied intents.

Grouping your audience by states: focused, struggling, or abandoning; allows you to target each segment uniquely and intervene effectively, even during the checkout phase.

You can dig into the intent-based segmentation framework for a clear approach to optimise your ecommerce strategy, including tackling cart abandonment.

Actionable tips

Implementing intent-driven practices

• Segment Visitors by è����Ƶ:��Use analytics to categorise visitors by behaviour and intent.
• Tailor Checkout Experience:��Customise the checkout for different intent levels.��Provide extra assistance for low-intent visitors and streamline the process for high-intent visitors.
• Monitor and Adjust:��Keep an eye on your checkout performance and tweak based on intent data.

Tools and resources

Enhancing execution with precision

• CRM Systems:��Integrate with intent data to personalise visitor experiences.
• Heatmap Tools:��Tools like Hotjar can help you understand visitor interactions on the checkout page.

Conclusion

Leveraging intent for ecommerce success

Understanding and acting upon intent isn’t just beneficial—it’s essential for driving conversions.

By adopting an intent-based approach, ecommerce retailers can enhance customer satisfaction and achieve sustainable growth.��

So, harness your data insights, personalise the shopping experience, witness fewer abandoned carts and watch your checkout process prevail.

"Data is the new oil," Clive Humby famously said, and in ecommerce, the importance of real-time analytics cannot be overstated.

Ecommerce operates at lightning speed. It's a competitive arena where every moment counts.

Real-time analytics is not just a trend but a transformative capability,��potentially boosting sales by up to 30% and enhancing customer retention rates by 20%.

In today’s fast-paced landscape, relying on delayed insights from traditional analytics is simply insufficient. Real-time analytics provides immediate feedback on critical metrics such as customer behaviour, order trends, and emerging market shifts. This capability empowers businesses to make agile, data-driven decisions in real time, ensuring they stay ahead of the curve.

This article explores the strategic importance of real-time analytics in ecommerce, illustrating how it revolutionises customer engagement and operational efficiency. It will help you understand how integrating real-time analytics can elevate your ecommerce strategy and equip you to thrive in a dynamic marketplace.

Comparing analytics

Real-time vs Traditional methods

In the world of ecommerce, the battle between real-time and traditional analytics shapes how businesses navigate data-driven decision-making.��

Real-time analytics operates on swift intervals—seconds to minutes—providing immediate insights into vital metrics like sales performance and website activity. While it may require robust infrastructure and investment, the payoff is clear: a decisive edge in responding to real-time market shifts and customer behaviours.

On the flip side, traditional analytics spans longer durations, capturing historical trends and enabling strategic forecasts. This method, cost-effective for handling vast data volumes, excels in unveiling broader patterns but lacks the agility demanded by today's dynamic markets.

Key metrics to track

Essential real-time Indicators in ecommerce

For ecommerce enterprises, harnessing real-time analytics hinges on monitoring a spectrum of critical metrics:

• Visitors Right Now: Live data on active visitors provides a pulse on site traffic and engagement levels at any moment.
• Total Sales: Instant updates on sales figures in your preferred currency offer a snapshot of revenue streams.
• Total Sessions: Tracking daily visitor sessions reveals trends in site traffic and engagement patterns.
• Total Orders: Monitoring daily order volumes helps gauge transactional activities and revenue generation.
• Top Locations by Sales: Identifying regions driving the highest sales aids in regional targeting and marketing strategies.
• Top Products by Sales: Real-time insights into best-selling items empower agile inventory management and promotional tactics.
• Active Carts, Checking Out, Purchased: Visualising customer progress through the sales funnel facilitates conversion rate optimisation.
• First-Time vs. Returning Customer Sales: Distinguishing between new and repeat customer sales illuminates loyalty trends and customer acquisition strategies.
• Click-Through Rates: Assessing campaign effectiveness through real-time click-through data guides ongoing marketing adjustments.
• Visitor Engagement: Measuring visitor interaction levels informs site content and layout refinements to enhance user experience.
• Bounce Rates: Monitoring bounce rates pinpoint pages needing improvement to reduce visitor exits without engagement.
• Cart Abandonment: Real-time data on abandonment rates aids in timely recovery strategies to boost conversions.
• Site Performance: Metrics like load times and payment system reliability are vital for maintaining a smooth user experience and reducing churn.

Ecommerce businesses gain actionable insights to optimise operations, enhance customer experiences, and drive sustained growth by actively tracking these metrics in real time. Whether adjusting marketing strategies on the fly or fine-tuning website functionalities based on live user data, real-time analytics empowers businesses to stay agile and responsive in today's competitive landscape.

Strategic benefits

Advantages of real-time analytics for ecommerce businesses

Real-time analytics empowers ecommerce businesses with immediate insights into customer behaviour and real-time market conditions. It's more than just reacting; it's about staying ahead of competitors. Businesses maintain a proactive edge in a dynamic marketplace by swiftly adjusting marketing strategies and website offerings based on real-time data.

Understanding customer behaviour through real-time analytics allows businesses to make informed decisions instantly. Whether optimising ad spending or tailoring promotions, this agility distinguishes successful ecommerce ventures, ensuring continuous relevance and customer satisfaction.

Working towards a mindset shift

Real-time analytics isn't merely about crunching numbers; it's about deeply understanding and enhancing your ecommerce operations. Imagine detecting emerging customer trends as they unfold or promptly assessing the effectiveness of your latest marketing campaign.

The true advantage lies in never being caught off guard. Instead of discovering problems after the fact, real-time analytics lets you tackle them head-on as soon as they pop up. For example, if a sudden spike in cart abandonment occurs, you can pinpoint exactly where visitors are dropping off and take action immediately, such as refining the checkout process or offering targeted incentives.

Catching and fixing issues like checkout glitches promptly can save you from losing out on sales. It's all about staying informed and proactive in the fast-paced world of ecommerce. Real-time analytics isn't just a tool; it's a mindset shift towards agility and putting your customers at the heart of everything you do.

Enhance decision-making

Immediate actions with real-time data

Real-time analytics transforms decision-making by providing immediate insights for both tactical and strategic actions. While historical data informs long-term planning and evaluates past strategies, real-time data adds critical immediacy to address current challenges effectively.

Examples of immediate actions

We can apply real-time analytics immediately, let’s explore how:

• Managing Experiences and Personalisation: Adjust content and offers in real-time based on user interactions to enhance conversion rates precisely when it matters.
• Dynamic Ad Spending: Scale advertising investments dynamically based on real-time user engagement to maximise return on investment.
• Dynamic Pricing: Adjust prices in real-time based on user behaviour and purchase rates to optimise sales performance and competitiveness.
• Stock-Level Alerts: Notify customers promptly about low stock levels on popular items to drive immediate purchases and prevent stockouts.
• Personalised Deals: To increase engagement and loyalty, send tailored offers based on the real-time browsing behaviour of specific customer segments.

Best practices

Implementing real-time analytics

• Decide on Strategic Objectives:
  • Identify opportunities for immediate impact, such as optimising marketing campaigns or improving website performance.
  • Enhance the buyer journey with better personalisation, smoother navigation, and quicker response times.
  • Develop deeper relationships with customers through targeted marketing and personalised content.
  • Focus on high-margin items, popular brands, or key customer segments that offer the highest ROI.
• Define Key Metrics:
  • Revenue, conversion rates, and average order value.
  • Inventory turnover rates, fulfilment speed, and shipping times.
  • Click-through rates, promotional redemption rates, and campaign metrics.
  • Response time, return rates, and live chat utilisation rates.
  • Customer interaction with products and brands, engagement levels, sales volumes, and affinities.
• Understand Appropriate Frequency:some text
  • Determine if the data requires immediate action or periodic review. High-frequency data (e.g., stock levels and web traffic during campaigns) needs real-time alerts.
  • Assess the relevance of data processing speeds for decision-making. Real-time adjustments are crucial for pricing and stock management.
  • Evaluate the cost-benefit ratio of real-time monitoring—reserve high-frequency monitoring for critical areas like revenue or customer experience.
  • Implement a tiered approach to data frequency:some text
    • Immediate action (e.g., fraud detection, checkout issues): second or minute intervals.
    • Quick needs (e.g., hourly sales, user engagement): minute-to-hour intervals.
    • Strategic insights (e.g., weekly performance reviews): daily or extended intervals.

Effective integration

Real-time analytics tools & techniques

• Select Appropriate Tools: Choose analytics tools that can handle real-time data at scale and integrate seamlessly with the existing tech stack.
• Integrate Data Sources: Connect all data sources to the analytics platform, including web traffic, transactions, customer interactions, and inventory levels.
• Develop Data Visualization: Create dashboards and visualisations that update in real-time for quick stakeholder understanding and action.
• Automate Decision Processes: Implement automated decisions based on real-time data, such as dynamic pricing, personalised content, and user segment activation.

No longer optional

Real-time analytics is transformative

Throughout this article, we've delved into real-time analytics' profound impact and undeniable benefits, contrasting it with slower traditional methods. It's clear: real-time analytics isn't just a choice anymore; it's a lifeline for ecommerce businesses aiming to thrive.

The ability to act swiftly on real-time data isn't just advantageous—it's imperative for staying ahead. Customer behaviour shifts rapidly, and those who lag behind in adopting real-time analytics risk losing relevance.

Real-time insights empower proactive decision-making, which is essential for optimising customer experiences, streamlining operations, and boosting sales and loyalty rates. It's about transforming reactive responses into strategic advantages, offering unparalleled agility in the competitive ecommerce arena.

Practical steps

Harness the full potential of real-time analytics

• Identify Strategic Objectives: Define clear goals for leveraging real-time analytics, whether it's enhancing marketing effectiveness, refining user experiences, or improving operational efficiencies.
• Define Key Metrics: Focus on metrics that directly impact your business goals—monitor real-time data on sales trends, customer behaviours, website performance, and campaign outcomes.
• Select the Right Tools: Choose robust analytics solutions capable of handling real-time data effectively, ensuring seamless integration with your existing tech infrastructure.
• Integrate Data Sources: Connect all relevant data streams to your analytics platform to gain comprehensive insights across your business operations.
• Develop Real-Time Visualisations: Create dynamic dashboards and visualisations that update in real time, enabling quick, data-driven decision-making across your organisation.
• Automate Decisions: Implement automated processes for actions like dynamic pricing adjustments, personalised content delivery, and targeted marketing based on real-time insights.
• Ensure Data Quality: Regularly audit and maintain data accuracy to uphold the reliability of your real-time insights.

Now is the time to embrace the transformative power of real-time analytics in shaping your ecommerce strategy.

Get started with strategies and ideas here, and explore how conversion rate needs an update here.

The ecommerce landscape has evolved dramatically over the past decade. Technological advancements, shifts in customer behaviour, and global events like the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated online retail.

An estimated 24 million online stores worldwide compete for attention and spending. Platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce have simplified online retail, empowering entrepreneurs and established brands to establish their digital presence.

But a significant challenge bubbles underneath all this progress: competitive advantage through pricing strategies—a race to the bottom.

In this race, profit margins are sacrificed in favour of cutting prices to stay relevant and keep conversions high. Unfortunate side effects like eroding brand value and conditioning customers to expect discounts as the norm have been accepted at the price we pay to play.����

For many ecommerce brands, this has become a dangerous balancing act: how to drive sales without compromising profitability or brand integrity.

But there are ways to leverage discounting, not as a desperate measure but as a strategic growth lever.

You can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty by tailoring discounts to customer behaviours while safeguarding profit margins.

In this article, we’ll explore the challenges ecommerce retailers face with traditional discounting strategies, examine segmenting and targeting your audience effectively and discuss the impact of strategic discounting on brand perception and profitability.

Protecting your margin

The problem

• The cost of goods is skyrocketing
• Prices are constantly under pressure due to intense market competition
• Brands feel compelled to sacrifice margins to maintain or grow market share through widespread discounting��

Discounts can give an immediate boost to sales figures, but often don’t contribute to sustainable growth. They merely accelerate revenue to meet short-term goals.

The solution

Implementing a real-time segmentation framework.

Their current state (whether focused, struggling, or abandoning), and most crucially, their intent, tells you when to step in and offer a discount or whether you can safely stay out of your customer’s way and allow them to purchase.

By segmenting your audience based on these stages, you can identify where customers stand in their buying journey, allowing you to make more appropriate offers.

This segmentation can be integrated into on-site discounting strategies and CRM platforms for managing discounts in behavioural campaigns like abandoned cart communications.

As an example, customers showing focused behaviour with a high intent to purchase may not need discounts to convert. In such cases, retailers can opt to hide or reduce discounts, preserving margins and focusing on opportunities for incremental sales.��

By strategically understanding customer intent, ecommerce brands can steer clear of the race-to-the-bottom mindset prevalent in the market.

This approach ensures profitability while still meeting customer needs effectively.

Protecting your brand

The problem

• Online retail competition intensifies
• Retailers increasingly rely on promotions
• Constant and widespread discounting
• Brands are trapped in a cycle of perpetual discounts to outdo previous campaigns

Over-reliance on discounts damages brand perception. Many customers now question the authenticity of pricing and categorise some brands as “discount retailers.”

This shift in customer perception threatens brand reputation, especially for retailers focused on quality and higher price points, threatening their long-term growth.

The solution

Discounting based on intent to purchase.

The issue isn’t discounting itself but how we execute it. Generic and blanket discounting strategies need to be replaced with strategic discounting reserved for those who actually need it.

Pinpoint where customers are in their buying journey precisely—whether they’re engaged, hesitating, or at risk of abandoning their carts—and, crucially, their purchasing intent.

Use real-time behavioural data to offer discounts only to those showing low intent, are struggling, or highly likely to abandon. Strategically deploy discounts to these specific customer segments at the right moments.

This approach reduces discounting noise, protects brand perception, and responsibly uses discounts as a strategic tool for sustainable growth.

By demonstrating a nuanced understanding of customer preferences and needs, you can not only meet immediate sales goals but also build trust and foster loyalty.

Discount smarter, not harder

Whether you’re protecting margins or brand reputation, it’s clear ecommerce is stuck in a cycle of dysfunctional discounting.

Effective discounting isn’t just about slashing prices randomly; it’s about timing and relevance.

You need a game plan that identifies where customers are in their buying journey and whether they’re keen to buy or still window-shopping.

Instead, tap into intent data to figure out who needs that little nudge and when.

Segments for discounting

Here are a few segments you can implement to identify those that might need a helping nudge.

Basket Pauser

• Context:��Abandon behaviour
• Summary:��These customers have built up a basket and are now showing signs that they’re likely to leave and may return
• Objective:��Maintain è����Ƶ. What can you do to encourage this behaviour, e.g., save items for later (with email), sign up for payday reminders, etc., or convince these customers that now is the right time to purchase?

Basket Abandoners

• Context:��Abandon behaviour and unlikely to return
• Summary:��These customers have built up a basket and are now showing signs that they’re likely to leave and not return
• Objective:��Maintain è����Ƶ. This is likely one of the last chances you have to persuade these customers; think about appropriate messaging that can reduce their likelihood of exit. This is the perfect segment for you to highlight immediate value. It’s extra time, and it’s probably your last-ditch attempt to keep them and persuade them to convert.

Struggling Buyers

• Context:��Struggle
• Summary:��Customers likely on the checkout who are showing struggle behaviours
• Objective:��Convert. They’re struggling and not checking out. Why? Are they checking discounts? Rather than push them through a checkout when you know this journey isn’t typical, how can you allow for the fact that they don’t seem ready to buy? Without cutting the checkout off, of course. Understanding and addressing this hesitancy is key to converting stalled checkouts into successful transactions.

Hesitant Buyers

• Context:��Struggling, not in Committing
• Summary:��Customers who showed they are ready to convert but are no longer on the checkout and who are showing struggling behaviours
• Objective:��Convert. The challenge with this segment is understanding and addressing the underlying anxieties that hold them back. That can be a set of questions you’re not answering effectively enough, concerns about the product, price, and trust in the brand. How can you influence their experience to remove any anxieties causing hesitation and promote motivating factors?

Last Chancers

• Context:��Abandon, low expected return
• Summary:��Customers who showed signs they wanted to convert but are now abandoning the journey and are unlikely to return
• Objective:��Convert. These customers have demonstrated high levels of intent but are unlikely to return and are predicted to exit soon. This is likely one of the last chances you have to persuade these customers; think about appropriate messaging that can be used to reduce their likelihood of exiting. This is the perfect segment for you to highlight immediate value. It’s extra time and probably your last-ditch attempt to keep them and persuade them to convert.

Segments to avoid discounting

Here are some segments that might not need a discount, but may need other nudges instead.

Unengaged Browsers

• Context:��Struggle Behaviour with active events in Browsing (min. 10 events)
• Summary:��These customers are starting to interact with the website, but they’re not progressing from browsing and actively engaging in product discovery (yet). Unengaged Browsers are characterised by their lack of interaction beyond basic page views.
• Objective:��Engaging this segment means understanding why they’re hesitating, piquing interest and encouraging a deeper exploration of your site. Inspire these customers with categories/products to help progress them in their journey. They interact with the website but haven’t moved into a Refining Buying Stage.

Basket Convincers

• Context:��On a PDP with a high affinity for the current product but has not yet added to the basket
• Summary:��These customers are on a PDP, with a strong affinity for the product they’re looking at and high Add to Basket activity, but they have not yet added any items to the basket
• Objective:��Build è����Ƶ. How can these customers be convinced to Add to Basket? Consider product-specific anxieties and motivators that can be used to influence them. They need just the right nudge to transition from interest to action. The challenge lies in identifying and addressing the factors that can convert this hesitation into decisive action.

Struggling Evaluators

• Context:��Customers who haven’t added a product to the basket, have viewed multiple PDPs and haven’t built an affinity for any products
• Summary:��Broad Evaluators are the *tire-kickers*. They are shoppers immersed in the evaluation stage, showing an interest in what your brand offers but without any clear direction or behaviour towards purchase.
• Objective:��Build è����Ƶ. The objective is to guide deeper engagement with your brand first and then your products, not the other way around. They need help finding the right product. They need ease of comparison but also content to help them understand what product is right for their needs.

Product Persuaders

• Context:��Showing struggle behaviours, haven’t added any products to cart, have built product affinity/affinities but are losing momentum
• Summary:��Customers who have built a product affinity but have not added any items to the basket and whose journey is showing signs of slowing down / heading in the wrong direction
• Objective:��Build è����Ƶ. Their behaviour suggests a moment of hesitation or reconsideration. They have potential interest in specific products or categories but also need further persuasion or reassurance. How can you help these customers get back to a product and persuade them to actually add to basket?

Focused Shoppers

• Context:��Positive behaviours
• Summary:��These shoppers are on the cusp of conversion, are progressing nicely and are making their final decision(s) before moving to checkout
• Objective: Maintain è����Ƶ. Keep these customers on track (probably just leave them alone or use subtle enhancements to the journey), and if needed, help move them into checkout. Make things more accessible, and gently persuade them over the finish line.

Ready Returners

• Context:��Landed back on site (at least 2nd session) and have a high likelihood of committing
• Summary:��Landing page customers who have returned to the site and, after showing high intent to purchase, are likely back to purchase again.
• Objective:��Maintain è����Ƶ. Their behaviour is a testament to their previous unresolved actions. Having already shown high levels of engagement, the challenge now lies in nudging them over the final hurdle to complete their purchase. Try to understand why this behaviour exists. How can you get these customers back into their product purchase journey without distracting them when they return?

Embracing change for sustainable growth

You don’t have to get trapped in that discounting death spiral - it’s possible to use discounting as a strategic tool.����

Understanding customer intent allows you to be hyper-targeted with your discounting, protecting your margin and elevating your brand reputation.����

Dig deeper into our intent-based segmentation framework here, or get into some execution strategies for making discounting work harder.

Here’s to shaping the future of discounting—one smart discount at a time.

Pop-ups. Seen as the noisy, uninvited guests of the digital world by customers and a tool for list growth and revenue generation by ecommerce teams.

In the race for conversion, many ecommerce sites bombard visitors with pop-ups from the get-go, hoping sheer volume will lead to clicks and sales.

This “more is more” attitude often results in visitors reflexively closing pop-ups in irritation and possibly abandoning the site altogether.��

Pop-ups can boost engagement and conversion rates when used effectively, but they often miss the mark.

Key takeaways

Pop-up success relies on careful timing

1. Data shows pop-ups are most useful at evaluation stages. Our LLM data shows that pop-ups in the sample were most effective during evaluation for the loyalty campaigns being run.
2. Pop-ups shown too early get ignored. When triggered too early, such as during browsing stages, pop-ups we closed without action taken.
3. Contextual nudges can maximise conversions. Nudges can significantly boost conversions when they’re used in conjunction with intent.

Let’s dive in.

The pop-up pitfall

Ignoring è����Ƶ

Many ecommerce teams focus on showing pop-ups to a broad audience early in the customer’s journey.

This rush for conversions often leads to visitors automatically closing pop-ups without reading them.

‍

‍

Pop-ups should be paired with an understanding of customer intent, only displayed for segments of your audience that need the additional nudge.

To avoid the use of pointless pop-ups, we must provide them to visitors when they’re most receptive.

By leveraging intent data, we can pinpoint the exact stage and intent level where visitors are most likely to engage with a pop-up.

Loyalty program pop-up

The early bird gets... ignored?

Analysing the data for a series of loyalty programs, we tracked the display of pop-ups offering points for spending more.

Despite the attractive offer, 98.5% of visitors ignored the pop-ups because it appeared too early—during the browsing stage.

However,��when shown during the evaluating stage, visitors were 71% more likely to engage, highlighting the importance of timing and intent.��

Though the number of visitors at the evaluation stage varies, analysing this data helps find the best triggers and timings for pop-ups.

These pop-ups are crucial in influencing the buying journey, so it’s essential to show them at the right moments to effectively engage visitors on the site.��

‍

The role of nudges

Conversion optimisation

Nudges, like pop-ups, are key for guiding visitors toward buying by providing important information.

Visitors who see too many pop-ups too early can be overwhelmed and driven away. Instead, spreading personalised information throughout their journey can make a big difference.

Case in point

Digging into the data, an experiment with nudges around product/service USPs based on intent levels saw conversion rate jump by 20% (US) & 44% (UK).��

Aligning pop-ups and nudges with the visitors’ buying stage and intent boosted engagement and conversion rates.

Instead of showing pop-ups to all users right away, a more targeted strategy delivers better results.

Actionable tips

Implementing an intent-based pop-up strategy

1. Analyse è����Ƶ: Use analytics tools to gauge your visitors’ intent level and buying stage when interacting with your pop-ups and nudges.
2. Tailor Pop-Ups: Customise pop-ups to appear at the most appropriate journey stage, reflecting their intent.
3. Test and Optimise: Continuously test and refine the timing and content of your pop-ups to maximise engagement.

Recommended tools and resources

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Track visitor behaviour and intent to refine your pop-up strategy.
• Google Tag Manager (GTM):��Set up tracking for your current pop-ups and include intent data as parameters, allowing you to analyse the data in GA4.

Pop-ups can be a useful tool to leverage engagement and interception strategies.

When timed right and aligned with intent, they can enhance the buyer journey and boost conversions.

By respecting the buyer journey and offering value at the perfect moments, pop-ups can transition from a source of frustration into tools for success.��