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Scaling an eCommerce business is no easy feat. As with anything else, learning from leaders in the space can help you avoid costly mistakes & learn tricks to hit your goals quicker. In order to scale in a reliable and profitable manner, the Blend AI team are big believers in attending, learning & networking at conferences.
Below is a list of the top ecommerce marketing conferences that have been announced for Australia in 2024. As the list grows, we will continue to expand this list.
eTail Australia 2024
Dates: 13-15 February 2024
Location: Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park, Australia
eTail Australia is the leading meeting place that brings together Australia and New Zealand's foremost retail leaders. This exclusive event provides a unique opportunity to learn, network, and collaborate with visionary founders, CEOs, CMOs, heads of e-commerce, and digital marketing leaders. Gain practical insights and strategies from industry leaders on:
- Tried and tested retail strategies to survive and thrive amidst interest rate hikes, inflation and other economic forces shaping the Australian retail industry in 2024.
- AI adoption in retail and e-commerce and the wins and regrets of early adopters.
- Navigating the tricky privacy landscape by investing in the right data technology to ensure data clean rooms, consent orchestrations capabilities and proper usage of first party data.
- Creating a standout brand and cultivating consumer thirst in a competitive omnichannel retail world.
- Leveraging on retail media to generate additional revenue and attract more eyeballs to your e-commerce site.
- Creating a business with a heart and giving back to the community.
Industry leaders and experts contributing to this event:
- Ellie Degraeve - Founder, #1 Top 50 People in eCommerce, Go For Zero
- Juan Mendoza - CEO, Martech Weekly
- Michaela Michaut - Group Head of Customer Acquisition, Cotton On Group
- Shannon Clegg - Head of Marketing, Lowes
- Lottie Dalziel - Founder, 2023 NSW Young Australian of the Year and Forbes 30 Under 30, Banish
CMO Summit 2024
Dates: 20-21 February 2024
Location: The Star Gold Coast
The CMO Summit is an invitation-only, premium forum bringing together leading marketing executives, innovative agencies and solution providers. The summit’s content is aligned with key marketing challenges and interests, relevant market developments, and practical, progressive ideas and strategies adopted by successful pioneers.
Some key names on the lineup of speakers set to speak this year include:
- Chantelle Lane - GM Marketing, Bapcor Specialists Group
- Angela Greenwood - CMO, Youi Insurance, APC Marketing Academy Fellow 2023
- Astrud Burgess - CMO, ANZ Group
- Joanna Robinson - CMO, THE ICONIC
- John Clay -Non-Executive Director, Australian Marketing Institute
- Wendy Mak - CMO & GM, Sustainability & Stakeholder Communications Link Group
Sydney SEO Conference 2024
Dates: 1 March 2024
Location: Crown Sydney
In April 2023, Sydney SEO Agency hosted one of the largest Search Engine Optimisation conferences in Australia. This year, Prosperity Media will host another SEO Conference packed with information on SEO applications in retail and e-commerce. Level up your businesss and gain connections and opportunities with 400 SEOs, Digital Marketing Managers, PPC Managers, Business Owners, Affiliate Marketers, and eCommerce Managers attending this conference.
Some key names on the lineup of speakers set to speak this year include:
- Jes Scholz – Marketing Consultant
- Nik Ranger – Senior SEO Consultant, Dejan Marketing
- Greg Gifford (USA) Chief Operating Officer, Search Lab USA
- Sally Mills – Senior SEO Lead, InfoChoice Group.
- Regan McGregor – SEO Lead, Airtasker
- Dejan Mladenovski – Programmatic SEO Expert
Retail Fest AUS
Dates: 16-18 April 2024
Location: Gold Coast Convention Centre, Gold Coast
Retail Fest AUS offers a valuable opportunity for business professionals seeking knowledge, networking, and valuable content to elevate their ventures. With a commitment to delivering high-quality and useful experiences, attendees can learn from dynamic speakers, engage in meaningful workshops, and connect with exhibitors and like-minded peers, fostering an environment of shared experiences and continuous improvement.
This isn’t your average retail conference … it’s where you go for killer growth strategies!
Some key names on the lineup of speakers set to speak this year include:
- Marcus Murphy - Digital Innovator. 5ive
- Julie Mathers - Game Changing Leader, flora&fauna
- Olivia Carr - Founder & Leader, Shhh Silk
- Kai Sakakibara - Ispirational Athlete
Digital Marketers Australia
Dates: 9-10 May 2024
Location: Amora Hotel Riverwalk, Melbourne
Take your digital marketing game to the next level with Digital Marketers Australia.
Digital Marketers Australia is the place where Australia's top digital marketers gather to learn, network, and grow. From absorbing mastermind-level content on stage to exploring an exhibition floor overflowing with career-advancing opportunities, this conference is your ticket to push your career forward on the Gold Coast!
The conference will be focusing specifically on digital marketing to help grow your business or client’s businesses. Watch speaker’s breakdown campaigns step by step, so you can roll out strategies that are working right now.
Online Retailer Conference & Expo
Dates: 24-25 July 2024
Location: ICC SYDNEY
The Online Retailer Conference & Expo is a must-attend event for professionals seeking a tech-led future in retail.
Online Retailer Conference & Expo is the #1 meeting destination for the ecommerce industry to access the relevant strategic insights, solution providers, technologies and connections that make a positive difference to your business - no matter what stage of online retail you are in. With opportunities for the entire team to attend and gain key insights, this event is a must for those aiming to drive high performance within their business and stay at the forefront of the evolving retail landscape.
eTail Connect
Dates: 24-25 September 2024
Location: Melbourne
Join senior-level decision makers from Australia’s leading retailers and level up your ecommerce and digital marketing strategies. eTail Australia positions itself as “Your only opportunity to learn from and network with Australia’s leading eCommerce and digital marketing retail leaders at one time”. eTail Australia is broken into interactive roundtables, workshops & networking with some of the brightest minds in eCommerce & retail digital marketing.
International Women's Day occurs annually on the 8th March as a worldwide celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also largely centres on spreading the message that there is a continuous need for the advocation of gender equality and women's rights.
Show your support this International Women's Day by engaging with your audience to educate them about the cause and encourage them to purchase a gift for themselves or women in their lives as a means to acknowledge their appreciation and celebrate their achievements. Continue reading to explore some ideas on how you can embed this throughout your marketing initiatives!
Email Marketing : Gifts for International Women's Day
Send out a personalised email to your subscribers highlighting the products that are perfect for International Women's Day. Make sure you utilise visually appealing content to promote these products and encourage individuals to treat themselves and female loved ones to celebrate the day.
You can use catchphrases like "Make this International Women's Day all about self-love and self-care. Shop now and treat yourself to something special" to promote this.
Additionally, you can consider collating a special Gift Guide that displays products from your store that would be great presents for female loved ones. This does not have to be strictly limited to your email campaign as the same content can also be displayed on your website and social media pages.
Accompany the guide with phrases like "Find the perfect gift for the amazing women in your life this International Women's Day. Shop now and make their day" to encourage viewers to purchase for their loved ones.
Social Media Marketing : Celebrating International Women's Day
Utilise your social media platforms to share posts and initiatives dedicated to International Women's Day. This will allow you to show your support, whilst also gaining traction for your store and its products. Here are some ideas that will enable you to connect with your audience and showcase your products in a meaningful manner.
• Share inspiring quotes and messages from successful women on your social media channels
• Post eye-catching graphics and visuals encouraging women to celebrate International Women's Day with your product
• Run a giveaway that followers can join by sharing their stories of female empowerment
• Share user-generated content from customers who are celebrating International Women's Day with your products
You can accompany these initiatives with phrases like "Join the celebration and spread the message of female empowerment this International Women's Day" to encourage your viewers to interact with your posts and purchase from your store.
Partnering with Female-Led Businesses
Another thing you can consider is partnering with businesses led by women to further raise awareness and support for female entrepreneurship. Some initiatives you could implement could be:
• Creating discounted product bundles that feature products from both of your stores
• Showcasing a dedicated collection of their products on your store
• Hosting a joint giveaway where women can win a basket of products from your stores
Promote this collaboration with headlines like "This International Women's Day, make a difference with every purchase. Shop now and support female-led businesses".
Fundraising for Women's Rights Charities
If you want to directly support the cause through your business, consider donating a portion of your sales to an organisation advocating for women’s rights. You can do this by donating a certain percentage of profits site-wide, or even from specific products that you have selected. Make sure you promote this on your website to not only encourage people to purchase, but more importantly, educate your store’s visitors about the cause and the organisations you are supporting.
Additionally, you can consider setting up an optional donation option within your store's checkout function to encourage buyers to donate to further support the cause.
You can use phrases like "Join us in celebrating the strength of all women this International Women's Day. Shop now and contribute to a great cause" to promote your fundraising initiative.
St Patrick's day is annually observed on the 17th of March as a cultural and religious celebration that traditionally commemorates the death of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
Though it is not recognised as a public holiday in most countries, St Patrick's Day is still widely celebrated across the world. Nowadays, this day has largely evolved into a celebration of Irish culture with celebrations often including Irish parades, food, music, dancing, drinking and the colour green.
As a result, St Patrick's Day initiatives can be implemented by e-commerce stores to drive more sales. Here are some a copy ideas that you can use to make use of this opportunity!
Lucky Sales! 🍀
With shamrocks and four leaf clovers being emblems of this celebration and linked to good luck, a "lucky sale" promotion will allow your business to engage with the celebrations whilst also incentivising potential buyers to purchase.
Incentivise potential buyers with exclusive discounts across your site and promotions on green themed products to celebrate St Patrick's Day and use catch phrases like "Get ready for the luckiest day of the year with our St. Patrick's Day Sale!" and "Good luck and great savings await you this St. Patrick's Day" to promote your sale.
Green-ify Your Brand 💚
Get into the St Patrick's Day spirit by filling your website, social media pages and ad campaigns with the colour green as well as other symbols associated with the day.
For example, you can incorporate shamrocks ☘️, four leaf clovers 🍀, rainbows 🌈, leprechauns 🎩, beer 🍻 and the Irish flag 🇮🇪. Don't forget to incorporate this spirit in your ad copies and content as well - you can use headlines like "Find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with our amazing deals."
These small touches are not only a fun way to engage with the festivities, but will also allow your store to stand out and appeal to your potential customers!
Valentine’s Day is a celebration of romance and love and has consequently become a highly meaningful day for many couples across the world. A largely important aspect of this day is exchanging gifts - something that has been traditionally employed as a kind gesture to express love and appreciation to one another 💌
Here are some ideas on how you can utilise the gift-giving nature of this occasion to encourage customers to purchase gifts from your store for their significant other and consequently boost your sales!
A Curated Collection of Valentine’s Day Gifts
Finding the perfect gift for a loved one can often be extremely tricky - many people will have no idea what to get for their partner. With the abundance of product offerings available online, gift options can become confusing and overwhelming for potential buyers.
Offering a curated collection of gifts and/or gift sets particularly for this occasion can make Valentine’s Day a lot easier for customers and hence make your store an attractive option for individuals on the hunt for the perfect gift 🛍
You can utilise phrases like “Our Exclusive Valentine’s Day Collection” and “The Perfect Valentine’s Day Gift” to effectively promote your store’s offering!
Special Deals and Promotions
Encourage potential customers to buy from your store by offering deals and promotions exclusively for Valentine’s Day. Sometimes, people will need a small incentive to encourage a purchase and more than often, special deals can be enough to prompt individuals to purchase.
You can do this by providing discounts from your store, offering free shipping or including special gifts with purchases. Taglines like “Share the Love with 20% Off!” can be used to effectively advertise your promotions 🛒
Personalised Gift Packaging Options
Adding an element of personal touch always adds to the gift giving experience, where the recipient will feel more special when unboxing their present 🎁
Gift wrapping, cards and even handwritten notes are all amazing components of a thoughtful and personalised gift. By offering these services during the Valentine’s Day period, it can incentivise people to shop from your store and can be advertised by saying this such as “The Perfect Gift With a Personal Touch”
Offering Express Shipping
Individuals may forget to purchase a gift for Valentine’s Day and if they’re not quick enough, standard shipping may mean that their gift won’t come in time.
Something that you can do to attract these potential customers is offering express shipping to ensure that their gift will still come before the day. This can be promoted with a tagline like “It’s Not Too Late for the Perfect Gift!”
Best Practices for Reducing eCommerce Cart Abandonment Rate
Abandoned carts are a problem that cost e-commerce brands a whopping $18 billion a year in potential sales revenue. Still, the abandoned cart recovery process has important lessons to teach online merchants about the user experience they deliver. In this article, we’ll look at the reasons behind cart abandonment and share proven solutions to recover abandoned carts.
What Are Cart Abandonment and Abandoned Cart Recovery?
Abandoned cart recovery is the process of trying to lower the frequency of cart abandonment by optimizing the shopping experience and following up with customers who are on the verge of making a purchase.
E-commerce companies that establish an abandoned cart recovery strategy increase their conversion rates and gain better insights into their customers’ habits.
Reasons for Cart Abandonment
To reduce cart abandonment, you’ll need to understand what causes customers to decide not to make a purchase after all.
A less-than-stellar user experience is one of the most frequent causes of cart abandonment. A poorly designed interface, for instance, makes the purchasing process too complicated and erodes a consumer’s confidence in the company, which can drive them to make their purchases elsewhere. Other customers could leave if shipping costs are too high to justify the order.
Shipping and Returns
Surprise or unexpected fees and other customer-unfriendly policies are the main reason visitors drop off without checking out. Lots of e-commerce retailers put strict restrictions on returns, either by not giving customers enough time to make the returns or charging them to make returns.
Other policies—like international shipping fees—could deter would-be customers if they don’t know about them before they try to check out. For consumers, these seemingly small details are crucial, and they’ll just as soon shop somewhere else if they don’t like the terms they’re presented with.
A Lengthy Checkout Procedure
Lengthy and complex checkout procedures do more than put a bad taste in consumers’ mouths; they’re also why 18 percent of would-be consumers said they abandoned their carts. Having to fill out too much information to complete the checkout process can create anxiety in customers who just want to make a purchase.
Limited Payment Options
Customers might not make a purchase if the retailer doesn’t offer their favorite payment method. Make sure to include popular payment methods like Apple Pay or Google Pay to keep more customers happy.
Since the checkout process means having to share personally identifiable information—like bank information and addresses—privacy concerns are also at the top of the list for consumers to abandon their carts.
Window Shopping
People who shop online also use the web to research products, brands, and discounts before buying something. Customers often add products to their carts as a type of placeholder while they research similar products or read reviews. Some customers might even come back repeatedly before finally committing to the purchase.
How to Calculate Cart Abandonment in Shopify, WooCommerce, and Google Analytics
The shopping cart abandonment rate is the percentage of virtual shoppers who add products to their digital shopping carts and remove them before they make a purchase.
To find out what your cart abandonment rate is, you can divide the number of actual purchases by the number of people who just add and delete items from their carts. Take that number and subtract it from one and then multiply that number by 100. Now you’ve got the percentage of customers who abandon their carts.
Shopify users can calculate their abandoned cart rate from their online store conversion rate, which is found in the “Dashboard” section of “Analytics.”
WooCommerce users can pull cart abandonment data using a dedicated WordPress plugin. Cart reports are generated by going to “Reports” and then choosing “Carts” from the main WooCommerce dashboard.
Google Analytics users can figure out their cart abandonment percentage by creating a “Goal” with a funnel that tracks all steps of the checkout procedure, then going to “Funnel Visualization” to view the data.
Identifying Causes of Cart Abandonment
Keeping an eye on cart abandonment data helps companies to take actionable steps to stop a downward trend of purchases.
Heatmapping
Heatmapping uses colors to represent visitors’ engagement with pages, which makes patterns in their behavior easier to see. This makes it much more simple to figure out where they drop off on the customer journey.
Customer Surveys
Even if visitors don’t come back to finish their purchases, understanding why they left can help businesses lower their cart abandonment rates for the future.
Exit Pop-Ups
Exit pop-ups entice visitors with a too-good-to-resist offer if they try to leave the site. The offer is a call to action designed to keep them engaged longer and, ideally, convert them from prospective customers to buyers. According to OptiMonk, exit popups have an average conversion rate of 17.12%
How to Decrease Cart Abandonment
The bad news is that a lot of visitors won’t convert into purchasers. The good news, though, is that e-commerce brands like yours have options for minimizing the number of abandoned carts at your store.
Transparent and Comprehensive Shipping and Returns
Shoppers decide if a shipping cost is fair by evaluating the delivery in terms of cost, flexibility, and efficiency. Free or low-cost delivery can motivate a customer to complete a purchase, even if it means waiting a couple of days. Other customers place a higher value on faster and more customizable delivery options, like next-day delivery or delivery at a specific time.
Consumers are more likely to be satisfied with their overall shopping experience if the returns process is easy to understand and clearly laid out. Since product returns make for unwelcome operational costs, e-commerce brands need to do everything they can to lower return rates.
Full disclosure of return deadlines, guidelines on the conditions of returned items, and how to contact customer service for assistance all play a role in building consumer confidence in a brand’s returns process.
Customer-Focused Checkout
A seamless checkout procedure optimized for both desktop and mobile is fundamental for motivating consumers to complete their purchases. The most effective checkout flows lead the customer to the purchase confirmation window with the fewest clicks possible because a complicated flow can make them quit and go somewhere else.
Offering customers the option to check out as guests means they won’t have to create a customer account to make a purchase. For some customers, this is a make-or-break option. Even small touches like automatically switching to the customer’s desired keypad make it easier for touchscreen users to complete checkout forms.
One-click checkout is another option that has proven to improve conversion rates by over 35 percent.
You’ve also got to make forms as simple as possible to reduce cart abandonment. A lot of customers will simply go somewhere else if they’re faced with a ton of forms to fill out.
Leading e-commerce retailers with optimized checkout procedures have very few form fields for customers to fill out. Using address search tools on checkout pages, guiding users through challenging form fields, and monitoring analytics data for pain points can help drive form optimization.
Convenience-Driven Payment Methods
Seven percent of customers said they didn’t complete a purchase because the store didn’t offer their favorite payment methods, and a lot more customers are using payment methods other than debit or credit cards.
Along with the most popular payment methods like credit card and PayPal, here are a few other options to explore adding to your store to decrease cart abandonment:
- Shopping apps
- Digital wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay
- Monthly/weekly financing (for larger purchases)
- Cryptocurrency
Abandoned Cart Callbacks
E-commerce platforms can also email would-be customers a reminder of what’s in their abandoned carts so that they can return to the website when they’re ready. Or your customers can get prompts if they get close to abandonment, like when they’re about to exit the page.
Sending abandoned cart emails to almost-converted customers can convert a prospect into a brand devotee. Sending an abandoned cart email or text message within an hour or two after the prospect abandons their cart might convince them to go back and complete their purchase.
Best Cart Abandonment Examples
To make an effective call to action for cart abandonment, you’ve got to be memorable, easy to understand, and in tune with your company’s branding. Here are some of our favorite cart abandonment reminder examples.
Casper. Casper’s front-and-center “Come Back to Bed” call to action is witty, clean, and relevant to its brand. Giving visitors the chance to review testimonials about the items left behind in their carts is a powerful form of messaging that encourages them to look at their potential purchase as a worthwhile investment.
Rudy’s Barbershop. Rudy’s messaging is playful and pokes fun at tedious computer maintenance, saying, “Don’t put this off like a software update.” They also mention limited-time free shipping, which invokes the fear of missing out and the option to unsubscribe gives visitors full control over their user journey, even if they don’t convert into a sale.
Final Thoughts
Recovering abandoned carts is more than mere sales follow-up. It’s about cultivating a customer-focused shopping environment that encourages your customers to browse longer and go through with purchases.
E-commerce brands like yours have to use a two-pronged approach that starts with learning your visitors’ main pain points in the buying experience, then using them to transition into effective callback methods to entice your customers to come back and complete their purchase.
