{"id":26764,"date":"2016-03-23T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/content26.com\/?p=26764"},"modified":"2017-02-14T11:18:57","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T19:18:57","slug":"how-to-champion-your-digital-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/987654321.space\/c26_dev\/blog\/how-to-champion-your-digital-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Champion Your Digital Strategy – Keith Anderson, Profitero"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profitero'sOne of the biggest challenges facing digital brand managers is making strategic ecommerce decisions. When coming up with a digital strategy, how many internal resources should be allocated? Which online retailers should be prioritized? What role does content play? How do you make sense of retailer analytics?
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Profitero<\/a> VP of Strategy & Insights Keith Anderson offers his expert advice on how to build digital strategy that everyone in your organization will support.
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Also, be sure to keep an eye out for an upcoming Profitero podcast episode<\/a><\/span> as Mark White joins Keith Anderson to discuss topics ranging from the evolution of the rising product page to the growing globalization of content needs.
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I\u2019ve seen a growing consensus among Fortune 500 companies that ecommerce can\u2019t be ignored. Yet even as more money gets poured into online as a channel, major challenges remain to setting priorities and gaining insights into metrics.<\/p>\n

Here are my thoughts on the key components that go into forming a successful digital strategy.<\/p>\n

#1 Define Success<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Before you can even think about winning in the online channel, you need to start by defining success. Is success about ecommerce sales growth, or is it more about maintaining brand equity \u2013 ensuring your brand is best represented in the online channel to help influence offline sales?<\/p>\n

Whatever your definition of success, it\u2019s also important to consider the growing risk of doing nothing. <\/em><\/p>\n

What we see in our monthly Amazon FastMovers<\/a> reports, which rank best sellers in more than 10 categories, is that some of the fastest moving brands and products are emerging brands \u2013 and not necessarily the incumbent market leader in the brick-and-mortar channel. These brands have nothing to lose by investing aggressively online: establishing a compelling foothold and starting to displace \u2018traditional\u2019 leaders in the physical world.<\/p>\n

Always estimate the size of the prize and understand how you compare to established competitors, but be aware that there are emerging brands playing offense aggressively in the online channel.<\/p>\n

#2 Define your digital strategy and focus<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Once you have a clear picture of success, you need to prioritize, as no brand manufacturer has infinite resources. This means assessing markets, retailers, categories, and brands for their current and future potential in the online channel.<\/p>\n

This is a complex process that depends on your vertical, but for most CPG companies with shelf-stable products, we believe Amazon is one non-negotiable priority. After all, its share of the total online market in the US estimated to be somewhere between a third and 40%, (which varies by category).<\/p>\n

Amazon is also increasingly focusing in the CPG space both in terms of its growing portfolio of products such as Pantry and AmazonFresh, as well as new devices and interfaces oriented to CPG products like Dash and Echo.<\/p>\n

Planet Retail<\/a> predicts that Amazon will see the highest growth between now and 2020 against all major retailers, so without question the e-retailer should be core to your online strategy.<\/p>\n

#3 Build a world-class team <\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the early stages of maturity, many companies assign responsibility for ecommerce to leaders with many other responsibilities. But it\u2019s difficult to plan and grow without dedicated <\/em>staff who are measured and motivated to focus on channel success.<\/p>\n

As companies begin to prioritize ecommerce and dedicate budgets to hiring, we often see two different profiles of candidates considered to lead the initiative:<\/p>\n