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A Path To Revolution

Retail India 2016: A Path to Revolution – 2016 India Retail e-Marketing Research

Highlights

  1. Primary Marketing Goal of 2016: Customer Acquisition has been observed to be the central priority of India Retailers (51%), for 4th year in a row. Single Brand Retailers (73%) and online e-Commerce sites (74%) have moved fast ahead with this goal in mind.
  2. Online Marketing Initiatives: While social sites are still pushing to make social commerce work, retailers are taking note. 61% Marketers have shown an accumulated interest in Social Media Promotions. This was accounted by a majority of 85% online retail operator.
  3. Offline Marketing Initiatives: 61% Retailers agreed using Special Offers for customer attraction. 55% Single brand retailers and 58% of online operations with physical store also voted for this marketing activity.
  4. Importance of Email Marketing: 85% Retailers agreed that email gave them better consumer engagement and is important for them. Mere 8% of them said that email marketing is not important for their business.
  5. Importance of Mobile in Marketing Plan: 94% Retailers embraced mobile as a part of their marketing strategy.

Digital India 2016

Digital India: State of Online Marketing in India 2016

Highlights

  1. Customer Acquisition: Customer Acquisition is the primary focus for marketing activities to be carried out in 2016 for majority (58%) of India Marketers.
  2. For 50% India Marketers, e-Marketing revenue contribution is above 10%: 85% of the Marketers are tracking revenues generated through e-Marketing activities for their business. 50% of Respondents report that e-Marketing activities are contributing more than 10% of share of their revenues.
  3. Integrated Campaigns increase Conversion Rates: 80% of India Marketers believe that integrated campaigns (Email, Social and Mobile) can result in moderate to significant increase in conversion rates.
  4. Maximum Customer Engagement is achieved through Social Media updates: Social Media updates was the top choice for achieving maximum customer engagement (46%) followed by email campaigns (28%).
  5. Top Marketing Activities for 2016: Social Media (66%) tops the list of marketing activities being planned for 2016. Email marketing is voted by 53% of India Marketers. More than 50% of the Marketers are planning to increase investment in Marketing activities.
  6. Online Budget for Email Marketing: 45% of India Consumers respond positively to email offers (which is 3x of US Consumer). For 2016, we see a jump of almost 50% of India Marketers who will be increasing their investments by 31%-50% in Email Channel.
  7. Influences of Social Media on Email Marketing: In 2016, India Marketers are expecting a considerable impact of Social Media on Email Programs. The acceleration in growth of subscribers is expected by 31% of marketers, a 500% increase from 2015.
  8. Email Marketing Segmentation Techniques: India Marketers show an increasing preference for Purchase History to be axis for Email Marketing Segmentation.
Shopping Cart Abandonment

Shopping Cart Abandonment – Recover your Lost Cart Opportunity

Highlights

  1. The rate of Cart Abandonment in India is 51% as reported by India Marketers. However, our research shows that the industry ‘best in class’ rate for Cart Abandonment in India is 70-75%.
  2. Mystery shopping conducted across portals reported that about 34% of the e-Commerce websites deploy a Cart Abandonment Program while 66% have still not considered this route to earn back the lost revenue.
  3. 56 % of the India consumers abandon their cart because of Unexpected Costs such as high cost of shipping, tax rate, accessory charges etc. at the
    Point Of Payment.
  4. Consumers’ View reported that Home Furnishing and Gifting have the highest rate of deployment of Cart Abandonment Program (CAP).
  5. 50% of India Consumers voted ‘Shipping and handling costs listed too late’ in the check-out process as the No.1 reason for cart abandonment.
  6. A whopping 78% India Marketers employ ‘Remarketing Campaigns’ to nurture leads and convert consumers’ interests into revenues.
  7. 69% of India retailers provide incentives such as Discounts, Offers and Coupons to draw in consumers as a part of Consumer Re-engagement activities.
  8. Approximately $4 trillion worth of merchandise will be abandoned in online shopping carts in 2015 globally, and about 63% of that is potentially recoverable by savvy online retailers.

For our latest report on The Annual State of Email Marketing, click here.

India Email Marketing

India Email Marketing 2015 – The Annual State of Email Marketing

Highlights

Analysis of over 10 bn emails sent in India by nearly 300 brands from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, discover the latest email benchmark data on open rates, click-throughs and list churn.

  1. ‘Frequency/Volumes of sending’ is the most important factor that will impact Inbox Deliverability in 2015, replacing ‘Content’ as the primary factor since 2011. ‘Sender Reputation’ is a growing concern for marketers, with 66% increase over the last 5 years (36% in 2015 vs 21% in 2011).
  2. ‘Reaching out to target audiences’ is the biggest Email Marketing challenge India Marketers faced in 2014, with 51% Marketers agreeing to this statement. However, 60% of BFSI factors believe ‘Inadequate Segmentation’ to be a bigger issue for them.
  3. Over the years from 2012 to 2014, ‘Emails being not relevant’ is the top reason for consumers unsubscribing followed by ‘Do not remember signing up’.
  4. Emails viewed on Android and Windows devices have increased by 11% in 2014, abridging the share from Apple products, still desktop views continue to have 67% of all Open % Share.
  5. For Click % Share, Mumbai (30%) leads the consumer email activity followed by Delhi (28%), Bengaluru (17%) and Chennai (11%) in 2014 as compared to 2013.
  6. For e-Commerce sector, from 9am to 12noon there is an almost 300% increase in Open Rates with Click Through Rates (CTR) not far behind.
  7. Shopping Cart Abandonment is an important issue for all Online Retailers. Deploying a simple Cart Abandonment Program (CAP) increases revenue by improving Cart Abandonment Rates. Yet currently only 48% of India e-Commerce Marketers have deployed a Cart Abandonment Program.
  8. 100% of large companies (Rs. 5000+ crores turnover) find Behavioral Targeting effective and the number of retail marketers believe that Behavioral Targeting has brought significant change to their campaigns have increased by 24% (77% in 2015 vs 62% in 2014).
Email Marketing Playbook 2015

Email Marketing Playbook India for 2015

Highlights

Consumers have become smarter in today’s world and they expect contextually relevant communication from the marketers to fit their needs. According to 71% of India Marketers, email is the best way to stay engaged with the customers and is their Primary e-Marketing activity (The Digital DNA 2015).

Octane Research’s Email Marketing Playbook is a single resource which guides the marketers on how to engage the consumer with Email Marketing practices, challenges faced by marketers in Email Marketing, the creative email techniques and many more.

Key Topics:

  1. Email Marketing- Subscriber Management
  2. Email Deliverability and its Challenges
  3. How to create effective and engaging Newsletters
  4. Tips & Tricks for better Email Marketing
  5. Email Marketing mistakes to be avoided
  6. Boosting email ROI through Social Media Outreach
  7. And many more…
Retailers Association of India (RAI)

India Retail Online Marketing & e-Commerce 2015

Highlights

  1. Primary Marketing Goal: Customer Acquisition still remains the Primary Marketing Goal of India Retailers, with 58% Retailers voting for the same.
  2. Online Marketing Activities: Social Media is voted as the Primary Online Activity by 79% of India Retail Marketers, a 30% increase over 2014.
  3. Offline Marketing Activities: Print Promotion (77%) remains the top choice of retailers as their preferred Offline Marketing Activity.
  4. Importance of Email Marketing: More than 85% of India Retail Marketers vote for Email as an important channel of their marketing Plan. Email Marketing continues in the Top 3 Online Marketing Channel for Retail in India.
  5. Importance of Mobile Marketing: 95% Retailers said that mobile is important or very important to them as they use it as a part of their Marketing Strategy.
  6. Contribution of e-Marketing towards Revenue: 72% of e-Commerce companies with turnover of Rs. 20cr to 100cr generate 30% or more of their revenue from Online Marketing.
  7. Frequency of Technology Upgradation: Keeping pace with the constant changes and innovation in IT, 82% of Retailers upgrade their technology within 5 years of time span.
  8. Cart Abandonment Program (CAP): Today, Shopping Cart Abandonment is an important issue for all Online Retailers. Deploying a simple Cart Abandonment Program (CAP) increases revenue by improving Cart Abandonment Rates. Yet only, 12% of India Retail Marketers have deployed a Cart Abandonment Program currently.
Unsubscribe-Report

India Consumer : Why do they Unsubscribe?

Highlights

  1. 46% of subscribers say that the emails they receive are not relevant to them, 24% report that they no longer want to receive these emails with 15% saying that they don’t even remember signing up.
  2. In Retail Sector, 49% of subscribers said their emails are not relevant to them which is the highest across all sectors, on the contrary just 3% said their mails are spam and should be reported which is the least across all sectors.
  3. 15% of subscribers in Telecom, IT and Education sectors say they do not remember signing up for the email updates.
  4. In BFSI sector, 33% subscribers said they ‘no longer want to receive the email updates’ which is the highest including all sectors.
  5. Over the years, ‘emails being not relevant’ is the top reason for consumers unsubscribing followed by ‘do not remember signing up’.
For our latest e-Travel Marketing India 2015 Report. Click here.
e-Travel Marketing India

e-Travel Marketing India

Highlights

  1. Consumers are turning to the internet to take advantage of ease of booking and comparative pricing. 95% of consumers search online before making a travel purchase.
  2. The research indicates that majority of consumers are comfortable with online ticket booking, but tour packages and hotels are still booked online. It indicates that there is a gap between expectations of consumers and actual facilities promised by hotels when booked online.
  3. Best deals are an important motivation for customers to go online. According to our research 36% consumers make unplanned trips if offered a discount.
  4. Social media affects purchase decision of 48% consumers but personal experience of a consumer affects the decision more than the experience of others.
  5. According to our research, 41% consumers make a purchase after receiving a promotional/discount offer over email and 25% consumers make a purchase after receiving an offer over SMS.
  6. It is easier for a desktop user to look at more websites and switch from one competitor to another. But an app user is a loyalist; so majority of e-travel companies are incentivizing the consumers to use their Mobile app.
For our latest Annual e-Marketing Outlook 2015 Report. Click here.
Voice of India Marketers Report

Annual e-Marketing Outlook 2015

Highlights

  1. Customer Acquisition still remains the primary marketing goal for all marketers. However, we see an increase in votes for Customer Retention that saw an 80% increase since 2011. On the contrary, Brand Awareness dropped by 32% in 2015, despite a steady growth from 2011 to 2014.
  2. The impact of integrated campaigns increased by 84% from 31% in 2011 to 57% in 2015. With 54% Travel Marketers and 69% BFSI Marketers leveraging the most from these types of campaigns.
  3. Surprisingly, for 72% India Marketers ‘Websites’ is the primary e-Marketing activity in 2014. However for Retail & e-Commerce and Travel sector the primary e-Marketing activity is ‘Email Marketing’.
  4. Content Marketing is earning its place with India Marketers. 61% marketers believe ‘Blogs and Newsletter’ is the most effective content marketing tool. However for Education (63%), Retail & e-Commerce (71%) and Travel (55%) sectors, Social Media acts like a more robust tool for content marketing.
  5. ‘Reaching out to target audiences’ is the biggest Email Marketing challenge India Marketers faced in 2014, with 51% marketers agreeing to this statement. However, 60% of BFSI factors believe ‘inadequate segmentation’ was a bigger issue for them.
  6. ‘Frequency/volumes of sending’ is the most important factor that will impact Inbox Deliverability in 2015, replacing ‘content’ as the primary factor since 2011. ‘Sender Reputation’ is a growing concern for marketers, with 66% increase the last 5 years (36% in 2015 vs 21% in 2011).
  7. 100% of large companies (5000+ crores turnover) find Behavioural Targeting effective and the number of retail marketers that think Behavioural Targeting has brought significant change to their campaigns have increased by 24% (77% in 2015 vs 62% in 2014).
  8. 33% India Marketers think that over 50% of emails are viewed on mobile devices, seeing a YoY growth of 25%. BFSI sector is on the forefront with 39% BFSI Marketers’ reporting the same.
For our latest e-Travel Marketing India 2015 Report. Click here.
Voice of India Marketers Report

Annual e-Marketing Outlook 2014

Highlights

  1. For the fourth successive year, Customer Acquisition remains the top choice as the primary marketing goal for marketers in India with 51% of the respondents choosing this option over customer retention or brand awareness.
  2.  Social Media updates and Email Campaigns continue to dominate the minds of marketers in India (both at 35%) when it comes to preferred channels of customer engagement. While mail had significantly dropped last year (29% in 2013 vs. 39% in 2012), it now seems to be back in favour with a 21% growth in the number of marketers choosing it for 2013-2014.
  3.  The number of marketers that don’t yet believe in engagement via smartphones, apps or email on the go has decreased by about 31% since last year. At the same time, 45% of the marketers surveyed said that they believe in mobile devices as an important aspect of customer engagement and are adapting their strategies to leverage it better. 
  4. For 29% of the companies surveyed, e-Marketing currently contributes between 11% to 30% of their total sales revenue while an additional 19% chose the ‘31% to 50%’ option for the same. Out of these, 57% indicated that they plan to increase their e-Marketing budgets again in 2014 by 21% to 50%.
  5. 65% of the marketers believe that Social Media integration in Emails can lead to increase in brand awareness and reputation. At the same time, 44% think it helps in extending the reach of their Email content to new markets and 24% said it helps in generating more qualities leads.
  6. 47% of the respondents shared that they think that between a quarter to half of all their Email marketing messages will be viewed on mobile devices in 2014. A further 25% were even more confident and chose the 50% to 75% option while 22% of the marketers were cautious and said that less than 25% of all Email Marketing messages will be viewed on mobile devices in 2014.
  7.  According to marketers in India, Content (at 50%), Frequency/Volume of sending (at 46%) and Black Listing/Sender Reputation (at 34%) are the top three factors impacting inbox deliverability rates for Email campaigns.
India Online Research & Data

Annual India e-Marketing Research

Highlights

  1. 86% of top Indian marketers confirmed their use of digital channel as the most vital client engagement platform.
  2. Overall the use of e-Marketing platform in 2010 was focused on sending promotional communications (62%) and newsletters (52%).
  3. Overall the use of e-Marketing platform in 2010 was focused on sending promotional communications (62%) and newsletters (52%).
  4. 72% of leading marketers have reported of their plans to increase investments in e-Marketing platform in 2011.
  5. Customer acquisitions remain to be the prime goal of Indian marketers (59%).
  6. Overall the responsibility of email delivery is fairly distributed between IT team (22%), Marketing group (22%), partnership between IT group and marketing team (26%) and ESPs (19%).
  7. The integration of email and SMS will result in a significant increase in the return on campaign investments.
Online Marketing Industry Reports

Gearing Up For Growth – India e-Marketing Outlook 2012

Highlights

  1. Remarkable increase (18%) in the number of India marketers who see the importance of integrating email and social media campaigns in 2012. 61.3% of our respondents believe integrating emails and social media is extremely important for achieving higher impact and e-Marketing success.
  2. A greater number of companies intend to use email and SMS for e-Marketing in 2012. Respondents in the two successive years have indicated maximum use of emails and SMS for Sales and Event Promotions.
  3. Trends indicate an increase in the budgets allocated towards e-Marketing. Social media initiatives are gaining momentum and Email continues to be the most effective marketing channel. Social Media (68.8%) and Email Marketing (53.1%) emerge as the top 2 online marketing initiatives that will see an increase in marketing investments in 2012, as compared to 2011.
  4. Satisfaction level on effectiveness of email/SMS for meeting marketing objectives/goal has grown by 20% over the last year.
  5. There has been a major shift in the perception of behavioral targeting. For 2012 more India marketers share that this is paramount in meeting email marketing targets.
  6. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has limited the number of SMS to 200 per day per SIM. As a result of this cap on SMS approximately 35.3% of our respondents plan to increase their budgets towards email marketing by more than 11% in 2012.
  7. Our research revealed that the majority of marketers (36%) wanted a code of conduct for Indian marketers by an industry body like IAMAI while 31.5% of participants who believe stronger anti-spam laws in India like CAN-SPAM would curb the SPAM menace.
India Online Research & Data

Spark The Surge – India e-Marketing Outlook 2013

Highlights

  1. For the third year running, customer acquisition is the primary goal for marketing initiatives with more than 50% of Indian marketers opting for it over customer retention or brand awareness.
  2. More than half the marketers who are planning to acquire new customers in 2013 will focus on Email Marketing to achieve their goal – whereas for increasing brand awareness nearly 32% of Indian marketers will rely on Social Media, Videos or Webcasts.
  3. Social media continues to surge in 2012-2013 with 65% of the respondents willing to provide an investment boost to the channel as opposed to 37% last year. This is despite the fact that marketers are still getting more customer engagement from email marketing than social media; 39% in 2011 vs. 36% in 2012.
  4. Three quarters of all marketers surveyed believe that in 2013, up to 50% of all Email Marketing messages will be viewed on mobile phones. A majority of them (92%) are actively creating Mobile Marketing strategies to adapt to the change.
  5. For 68% of the companies represented in the survey, Email marketing contributes up to 30% towards the overall sales revenue. Additionally, close to 61% the companies will give their Email/Mobile Marketing budgets a boost of 5%-20% for the year 2013.
  6. Up to 94% of Indian marketers are planning to adopt one or the other segmentation technique in their upcoming e-Marketing campaigns in 2013. Segmentation using interest based preferences was the top choice with a third of the respondents opting for it.
  7. Almost 50% of the respondents feel that increasing Click-Through-Rate (CTR) and Conversion-Rate (CR) is the biggest challenge that they face in email marketing. Last year the biggest challenge was to prevent emails from going into the junk folder.
  8. More than half the companies doing e-Marketing campaigns in India rely on professional ESPs (like Octane) to ensure that their emails reach the inbox. Meanwhile, our findings also indicate almost a 50% drop in the number of marketers who feel that Email deliverability is out of their control (15% in 2012 survey to 7.80% in 2013 survey).