Crowd Wisdom in eCommerce

It’s not a secret that the world had changed since Covid-19. If we try to sum it all up, 3 key changes are leading to a big shift in consumer tastes and behaviors (aka crowd wisdom)

• Consumers are mostly at home
• They have financial concerns
• There are no social events

Crowd wisdom is the sum of all data that is collected through call centers, reviews, feedbacks on any platform, forum, website, or social media. The information gathered from the reviews is then transformed into an opinion that reflects a group of people rather than a single voice.

When isolated at home the way to communicate, purchase, share is online. eCommerce is booming and with it the feedback data is piling up in the form of reviews, social media, as well as an array of corporate feedback channels such as call centers, chats, surveys, emails, etc.

In this mountain of data hides the gold – the new trends, likes, competitors that once you get to you can quickly react.

Unlike peaceful times, where still the consumer markets are the most competitive in the world, in times of crises, changes are coming quickly and brands that can’t respond quickly will lose ground.

At Revuze since we mine insights from unstructured data we already have some great examples of industries and shifts in tastes:

• In the consumer electronics space where headphones are becoming now a necessity instead of a recreational item, with remote learning and remote working, consumer sensitivity to price is dropping while there is increased demand for productivity gains with quiet, high quality sounding headphones
• In the laundry care market, price sensitivity is on the rise but consumer take a growing interest in add on products for sanitizing their cloths and also since they are spending more time at home with their pets in detergents that can better handle pet stains and smells

These examples easily highlight valuable information that can be leveraged across product, marketing, sales and eCommerce to drive revenue and customer satisfaction.

This is why we recommend to all brands to embrace the source – unstructured customer feedback and opinions, from these 3 reasons:

Unstructured opinions are becoming the majority of the world data

According to IDG unstructured data and opinions are growing at a rate of 62% per year and IDG predicts that by 2022, 93% of all data will be unstructured.

Can you afford ignoring the majority of the data in the world?The 2 drivers for this immense growth are eCommerce and User Generated Content (UGC), which make sure that the trend is continuing. eCommerce thrives on UGC as research shows that confirmed buyers opinions can grow online conversion rates by up to 270%.

This is why Brands love UGC and encourage feedback from customers. Consumers, on the other hand, love to voice their opinion and now it’s so easy – from mobiles, tablets, smart watches and even computers.

Innovation starts online, so you need to watch for threats there

These days literally anyone can start a new brand online. Costs are low and reach is high. Not to mention the great success stories like Dollar Shave Club or even apps like Uber. This is why brands must stay on top of what is going on online, covering the 3 ‘T’s:

• Threats (New brands or products)
• Trends (“Green is good”, “organic”, “gluten free”)
• Tastes (Wireless headphones instead of wired. Smart phone instead of flip phone)

The reasons its so easy to start a new brand online are:

• Marketplaces – You can start on eBay or Amazon, don’t even need to setup your own site
• Wide reach – The marketplaces are a focal point for buyers. They are already there. 
• Quick feedback – since setup time is short, time to feedback is short as well. 
• Affordable – The marketplaces were setup for the masses, setup fees are low
• No pre-requisites – New brands often start with just one product

Brands need to respond faster during periods of crises

At time of change brands need to pick up on trends quickly, and make decisions fast. The luxury of waiting 6-9 months to react is gone. As demonstrated earlier, consumers are online now and looking for new products that fit their new budgets or their new functional needs. If they don’t find what they want in your portfolio they will move on with the push of a button…

To speed decision making up we recommend that you:

• Listen and analyze as much customer opinion data as possible, across channels
• Be able to distribute the insights so decisions can be made quickly
• Use tools that are simple so they can be widely used by non-experts

This way you create a decision funnel that is short, fast and is not dependent on outside help of experts or IT.

Conclusion

We are in the beginning of the Corona crises and must respond quickly to adapt and survive. If we adapt fast enough, we can actually come out stronger. 

Consumers are driven these days to eCommerce, digital presence and isolation and with this they are changing their tastes and behaviors to match the new world order. 

For brands to stay on top of what is going on, covering the 3 ‘T’s – Threats, Trends, Tastes and they need to change the way they look and respond to their environment. Walk away from slow decision makring, centralized processes, tools or methods that deliver results over a long time, and spend more time where their customers are found – online and in electronic feedback channels. 

The good news is that the data is there, and growing like crazy (UGC, VOC).  All you need now are the tools and processes. Revuze is part of the new generation of CX/VOC Analytics vendors offering Proactive, Automated solutions that mines consumer insights at the single SKU level as well as at the entire market level.

Boaz Grinvald