From our regular conversations with merchants on Bazaar, we gathered that a common problem they face is customer retention. Ashish Nichani, founder of Postcard Snacks, says, “The customer retention costs [for merchants] aren’t going down overtime, especially in categories where purchases are trigger-based”.
And so, the pursuit of customer retention remains erratic. Brands are constantly hustling, trying to monetize a consumer’s headspace day and night. From the first time a customer visits the storefront to the time they complete a successful purchase, brands are always prospecting in an attempt to monetize, using neuromarketing strategies.
But there’s rarely any success in this strategy. To put it in perspective, the average consumer is bombarded with anything from 6,000 to 10,000 ads per day! But the human brain can only process 4 to 6 choices at a time. It’s no surprise that customers react to only a handful of the ads they receive.
There’s a simple reason for this behavior. Human brains are designed to be efficient – at all costs, and in all situations. Imagine you’re vacationing far from home. The probability of meeting someone you know is quite low. However, if you do end up meeting a long-lost friend, that experience is bound to shock and surprise you irrespective of the probability. If you run into the same person again in a different context (maybe closer to home) you’ll probably be less surprised to see them. Your brain involuntarily forms a response based on your experience.
Similarly, our brains become immune to the cues on ads that are irrelevant to our preferences and lifestyles too. It throws them in a mental spam folder, neutralizing all the effort put into creating the campaign.
maya.ai’s Bazaar remedies this vicious cycle.
When customers are motivated to shop, especially on a personalized marketplace like Bazaar, such mental barriers are removed. They are willing to indulge in a sale. Furthermore, our one-on-one segmentation greatly simplifies the process of prospecting for merchants. As our CEO, Suresh Shankar puts it, we’re, “Turning the misery of choosing into the magic of choice.”
How, you ask? Let’s break it down!
1. Circle of influence
The fastest way to increase sales conversions is by reaching the right audience. It is easier said than done, because very few people are experts at prospecting. Bazaar helps you cut through the clutter and #UnlockWallets of your target audience, through maya.ai’s context and affinity-based recommendations. maya.ai’s TasteGraph™ also helps customers discover your brand by engaging with those whose tastes and preferences match your products. This is done through merchant recommendations.
2. Tune into the microtrends
maya.ai monitors microtrends within the ecosystem’s transaction behaviors, and helps you to quickly catch them, and ride the waves before they die out. Microtrends typically lasted a few years, but with the growth of social media influencers, you could easily miss them in the blink of an eye. By analyzing behaviors and preferences of our larger customer base, maya.ai provides recommendations to help you maximize your sales.
3. Get on the privacy/GDPR bandwagon
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Would you readily buy from someone when they have information about you that you didn’t give them? Or, would you be thinking, “How did they know that?!” maya.ai provides a recommendation score and a reason for the recommendation to alleviate this concern. The easiest way to lose a customer is by breaching their privacy. We have been cognizant of this. Bazaar’s taste preferences are captured through inferences from attributes in transaction data and not taken from PII (personal identifiable information). #PrivacyFirst is a win-win for you as well as your customers!
4. Stay relevant: Create enhanced customer experience
Customers hate nothing more than telemarketing calls in the middle of the workday. Or the endless beeping of push notifications from their smartphone apps. There is no turning back if you’ve reached your customers’ spam folder, Yet, sales gurus swear by these aggressive techniques. But, to get a 20% conversion rate (optimistically), you’re putting off 80% of your audience. Staying relevant to your audience’s needs doesn’t end with creating the right product. It extends to the context of your engagement as well.
maya.ai, the algorithm that powers Bazaar, analyses contexts such as frequency and time of month at which customers are likely to make a purchase. You can make an informed decision, be stocked and prepared to sell when your customers are ready to buy. It’s the perfect way to #KillSpam!
5. Return on every transaction
Over a century ago, John Wanamaker famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” This problem persists, even with advanced marketing tools. Modern marketplaces solve only half the problem: you know where you’re spending money, but not why you’re yielding low return on investments. On Bazaar, you’ll pay commissions per successful conversion, and save the budget you were spending on unsuccessful showcases. Now you’ll have returns on every transaction!
When you start selling on Bazaar, you gain access to over 20 Mn customers from banks across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Our global network is also rapidly growing to include more regions. These customers’ have a combined spend of more than 103 Bn USD per year.
Want to join 2500+ global merchants on Bazaar to increase your customer reach and improve campaign performance? Share your details below, and we’ll get in touch with you about our beta access.
