Retail Marketing Strategy: The Ultimate Guide for 2024 and Beyond + Examples

Retail marketing is a tricky business. That is why, for this guide, we consulted the retail marketing experts at Acceleration Partners, an award-winning, global partner marketing agency with extensive experience in retail, to give you a deeper understanding of what a great retail marketing strategy involves, and the best tactics for retail marketing success in 2024 (and beyond!). 

Retail marketing as a whole doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Most people focus on e-commerce alone, and the potential it has, but in reality, it only accounts for 14% of global retail sales. The other 86% comes from people walking into stores and buying products in person. 

This presents a unique opportunity to use both online and offline marketing to drive revenue for your business. If you don’t take advantage of the right channels for retail marketing, then potential customers will go to a competitor without thinking twice. That is why it is so important to have a great retail marketing strategy!

So, what makes for a truly successful retail marketing strategy? And how do develop and implement one that works for your unique brand?

That is exactly what we’re covering today – everything you need to know to create and implement your own successful retail marketing strategy, along with examples, case studies and tips from the best of the best in retail marketing! 

Ready?

Let’s dive in!

What is Retail Marketing?

Retail marketing is the process by which retail businesses promote their goods and services, to their target audience, in order to build awareness, goodwill, and generate sales. 

There are countless ways a retailer can market their services. Some of them are free and others are paid. Traditionally, retail marketing has relied heavily on mass media advertising and commercials. 

That said, retail marketing has rapidly evolved to include more peer-driven marketing techniques, such as affiliate and influencer marketing.

According the experts at Acceleration Partners, to be successful in the highly competitive space that is retail, brands must leverage the power of social influence to reach through the noise, establish trust and build meaningful connections with their customers. 

It’s important to note that retail marketing is used by both e-commerce and traditional retailers. In fact, almost every retailer uses retail marketing in some form or another. It’s also apparent that online channels are becoming more and more popular. The majority of consumers use search engines to research retail products.  

When those searches are on a mobile device, 88% of consumers call or go to the local business within 24 hours. 

Before you can get 88% of the people who find you to walk into your store or visit your website, there are a few things that should be in place:

The Four P’s of Retail Marketing

The fundamental approach to retail marketing can be broken down into 4 key principles, namely: product, price, place and promotion.

1.Product

This might be a given, but it is considered one of the most important retail components- you first need an actual product, otherwise known as merchandise, to sell.

There are two types of merchandise – namely hard or durable goods and then soft goods. Some stores can sell a combination of these types, or they might sell only one type of merchandise.

Once you have a neat product to sell to your customers, it then comes down to the packaging! And the packaging is way more important than some retailers realize.

According to Inc., of the 95% of products that fail to stay on the shelves each year, they believe that it’s due mainly to poor packaging. And I think they make a good point!

Here’s what they recommended for designing packaging that has a lasting impact:

• Understand your demographic
• Make cheap packaging look sophisticated and personalized
• Try to create a unique unpacking experience
• Use eco-friendly packaging options (a good example is Puma’s clever bag that they decided to use, as opposed to using a cardboard box).

2.Price

Your choice of pricing is a vital part of the retail strategy, as it needs to cover the cost of goods, and any overheads, as well as remain affordable for customers. There are four main pricing strategies for you to use as a retailer:

1. Everyday low pricing: this is when retailers operate within thin margins and try to attract as many customers as possible. This strategy is used by retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target.
2. High/low pricing: this strategy is mainly used by small to mid-sized retailers, and is when the prices begin at a high price and are later reduced, as popularity fades.
3. Competitive pricing: here the retailer looks closely at what the competition is charging for the same merchandise and will base their pricing on the competition. This strategy is normally used after the retailer has exhausted the high/low pricing strategy.
4. Psychological pricing: this is also known as price ending or charm pricing – when a retailer uses odd numbers to price products. This is so consumers think they are paying for lower prices, when in fact they are not cheaper. For example, if an item is going for $1.95, customers might associate it with spending $1 rather than $2.

You can also look at the following two pricing methods for your product:

Cost-plus Pricing:

This involves using a break-even price for your product, where you add a markup, based on the amount of profit you would like to make. This is a very simple approach and doesn’t take your competition or product’s value into account.

Value-based Pricing

This method involves determining how much your product is worth to your target audience and using a price that will attract them to make a purchase. It might even mean using higher prices, allowing you to generate higher profits.

3.Place

You may have the best product, packaging and price, but if it’s out of reach of customers, you’re in for a dilemma! So make sure you find the perfect location suited for your type of product.

The place for a product is where the retailer conducts business with its customers. While most of us think it’s a physical location such as a brick-and-mortar store or a shopping stall at a street market, it can also be the location of a product on another company’s online catalog, platform or an e-store.

4.Promotion

Promotion is the last, but certainly not the least, of the marketing principles. Promotion has to do with knowing how to effectively communicate and spark an interest in your product with your customers.

These tactics can include sales promotions, in-store merchandising, face-to-face marketing, and publicity.

However, in a world that is saturated with marketing messaging, consumers are relying more and more on recommendations from other people (not from brands themselves) to inform their purchasing decisions.

According to Acceleration Partners, various forms of partnership marketing, such as affiliate and influencer marketing, are now critically important for retail promotion.

You can also use these different methods at different times, depending on your objectives, which could be introducing your customers to a new product, trying to increase sales, product positioning, or retaliating to direct completion.

What it Takes to Build a Successful Retail Marketing Strategy

It’s not possible to launch a retail marketing campaign without a plan and get everything to work out. It won’t. 

Apart from the right tools, there are three key elements needed before you think about launching any retail marketing initiative:

1. Understand your customers and their needs 
2. Choose the right products and services to meet their needs 
3. Take location, accessibility and convenience into account

Let’s take a closer look at each of these elements, with real-world examples, and a retail marketing strategy case study from the experts at Acceleration Partners:

1.Understand Your Customers and Their Needs

Do you have a clear enough understanding of your target customers?

Do you know what they want and the way they perceive certain brands and styles of marketing? Are you turning them off or hitting the right notes?

Until you can answer these questions with certainty, it’ll be difficult to achieve breakaway success. The good news is that you can get a deep understanding of your customers cheaply and effectively. 

How do you do that?

By sending out questionnaires to past customers or the people who visit your store and website. This isn’t a customer satisfaction survey. Instead, you’re trying to understand what they’d like to accomplish with the kinds of products and services you’re selling. 

For example, if you are selling beard care products you’d want to know why customers buy. Is it to boost their confidence, live better lives, get a date, etc.? The answers inform both what you offer and how you position those products. 

Beardbrand has a deep understanding of its customer base and showcases that with its Keep On Growing® mission. 

The company launched successful retail marketing campaigns, which fostered loyalty and culminated in a partnership with Target stores. 

Here are a few questions you can ask to get a better understanding of your customers:

• What brought you here today?
• What problem are you solving with X product?
• What’s your biggest challenge related to X (with x being the problem you address). 

In online questionnaires, you’ll want to find out what the customer’s needs are. If you have a bigger, more expensive product that takes some time to consider, you also want to know which buying funnel stage they’re in. This gives you the ability to adapt your messaging accordingly. The AARRR lead funnel framework is a helpful method to optimize communication for ‘Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and ultimately Revenue’. 

2.Meet Their Needs with the Right Products & Services

It’s one thing to know what your people want and why they want it. It’s another thing to give it to them with the right products and services.   

For example, let’s say the fictional company Acme Inc.’s customers want a stronger, softer, and shiner beard and hope to achieve that by using natural organic products. A product with tons of preservatives and chemicals would be contrary to that. Even if it helped them achieve their main objective, it wouldn’t be appealing to them.

Part of the preliminary work for retail campaigns involves making sure you have the right products for the audience you’re targeting. 

If you don’t, you can do one of two things:

1. Change the product
2. Change the audience

Neither option is ideal after you’ve launched, so focus on building a solid foundation. 

3.Location, Accessibility and Convenience

The final piece of the retail marketing puzzle is being where your customers can easily find and access your products. If you opened a new physical store, would you go deep in the woods and put it in a place that could only be accessed after a 2-hour hike? 

Of course not. 

It would make a great getaway but a horrible store location. The same thing can happen online. A confusing layout, difficult product discovery, and lack of support will hurt your marketing efforts. 

In either scenario, it would be hard to do business with you. Unless you’re one of kind in every aspect, people won’t work too hard to give you their money. 

The takeaway is to make sure people can access your products and services easily and conveniently, before you launch any campaigns. 

You can do this with usability tools like User testing, Hotjar, and Crazy Egg which allow you to get real testers or see recordings of how people use your website.

Case Study: Retailer Drives $46M Global Revenue Through Buy Now Pay Later Partners

Now that you have a better understanding of the core elements of a successful retail marketing strategy, let’s take a look at a case study to demonstrate how powerful a good strategy is when you take a data-driven approach and fully understand your customers and how best to meet their needs:

Challenge

Acceleration Partners was engaged by a large global retailer, who wished to expand its customer base to include millennial and Gen Z women.

Engaging these previously unengaged demographic groups could drive exponential growth and revenue for the retailer by opening up a whole new market segment.

Supporting research data points showed that:

• The estimated purchasing power of Gen Z amounts to $140 billion, whereas the estimated purchasing power of Millennials amounts to $2.5 trillion
• Over $600 billion in household purchases may be influenced by Millennials
• Female buyers account for 85% of all consumer purchases

Approach

To engage the new target demographics, Acceleration Partners took a data-driven approach, researching the best ways to leverage existing affiliate partnerships, as well as the most effective new partnerships to engage Millennial and Gen Z women.

Based on their findings, the client services team recommended that they continue to pay affiliates a percentage-based commission but add the option to pay flat fees for specific placements.

They also recommended that the retailer engage 10 new Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) enabled partners because the majority of BNPL users are Millennials or Gen Z (75% of BNPL users in the US, and 80% globally).

Adding BNPL partners drove purchases by meeting the target demographic where they were, and offering them an easily accessible and more convenient shopping experience, that involved fewer clicks.

Using BNPL partners also meant that the retailer could implement a one-time card, where customers within the BPNL app could break payments up into installments without the partners needing to be added as payment solutions on the retailer’s website.

This innovative, data-backed, approach led to some incredible results for the retailer:

Results

The retail marketing strategy developed by Acceleration Partners integrated into the retailers existing affiliate partnerships and added new BNPL partnerships. The success of this strategy is demonstrated by the measurable results they achieved:

• $46M revenue driven by all BNPL partners
• 49% of revenue came from Millennials
• $1.3M revenue driven from a single BNPL partner
• 37% revenue increase in placements with one U.S. BNPL partner

As you can see, a good retail marketing strategy is essential for success and, when done right, can drive exponential growth and revenue for your brand.

10 Best Retail Marketing Platforms

When it comes to retail marketing, having the right software makes all the difference. There are loads of options available and choosing the best platform can be a time-consuming and overwhelming process.

To make it easier, we have selected three of the best options for you to consider. We selected these four options based on:

• Key features
• Key integrations
• Demos, trials and our experience with the platform
• Pricing and value offered
• Verified user reviews

These retail marketing platforms are all great options that will provide all the capabilities you need, as well as robust analytics and reporting. Importantly, they all offer automation, customization, segmentation and personalization, which are essential components to any successful retail marketing campaign.

1.Marsello

Marsello is a smart, targeted marketing tool for omnichannel stores. Powered by Point-of-Sale and eCommerce, Marsello does the smart work for you, crunching the data from customer behavior in-store and online so you can deliver targeted, and timely, marketing that gets results. Marsello us a powerful tool, with key features that include loyalty programs, automated campaigns, email marketing, SMS, customer feedback collection, and detailed, accurate reporting. Marsello’s integrations include Shopify, Vend, BigCommerce, Cin7, Lightspeed Kounta, and more.

Marsello is a fantastic tool for retailers who need a marketing solution that works both in-store and online. Their pricing plan is based on three factors: integrations, number of sites, and customer count. They include the first 1000 customers and POS + eCommerce connection within their baseline plan and their easy-to-use pricing calculator makes it easy for you to get an idea of what Marsello would cost for your unique business.

Pros:

• Ecommerce platform integrations are seamless very quick and easy to set up
• Integrates very well with POS on Shopify (5/5 rating on Shopify App store)
• Great customer support and accurate advice on how to improve conversions
• Email and pop-up asset designs are well designed and attractive
• Cost effective option that yields measurable results
• Very easy to use, clean and simple UI
• Thorough and accurate analytics and reporting
• Useful and effective automations
•  Great customizations
• Combination and segmentation of features allows for focused marketing that hones in on the areas you need

Cons:

• One review noted onboarding issues when using both online and brick and mortar stores and slow customer service
• Occasional glitches with email/SMS sending
• Time zone differences between US and customer service may cause delays
• Can become a costly option for multiple stores/POS and very large customer databases
• Free trial version has limited features

 Capterra Rating: 5/5 (2 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: N/A

Pricing:

• Free Forever: For social media scheduling, sales tracking, online forms and a stock media library
• Pro: $100 /month for everything in Free plan + marketing automations, loyalty marketing and signup forms

Website: Marsello.com

2.Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a comprehensive, cloud-based, retail marketing platform. It offers a full suite of features, including a good combination of automation and personalization, as well as customer segmentation. It integrates well with most e-commerce solutions, including Shopify, Big Commerce, Commerce Cloud, Magento, and WooCommerce. While it is mainly used by e-commerce vendors, it is also used by some B2B and B2C companies.

One of the best aspects of Klaviyo is that they offer highly flexible pricing, based on the number of contacts and the number of messages sent to those contacts per month. In this way, you only pay for what you need and use, but you can still scale and grow as needed. There is also a free plan, for up to 250 contacts. The main limitation of the platform is that it offers limited features for social media marketing and lead database storage.

Pros:

• Targeting and segmentation capabilities, based on detailed data
• Detailed individual user tracking
• Customized email triggers
• Great customer support
• Integrates with paid media campaigns on Google and Facebook
• Easy and intuitive to use, well designed and simple
• Accurate real-time statistics and detailed reports
• Offers A/B split testing (drag and drop, no technical programming needed)
• Visual flow-building makes it easy to create, monitor and test flows
• Many templates that can be customized (HTML and block-based)

Cons:

• Volume of information supplied can be time-consuming to go through
• Quite technical – learning to use it be tricky for some
• Sufficient tutorials and information for new users is lacking
• Data security is not clear and some reviewers were concerned about that
• Occasional bugs when sending emails that took a while to pinpoint
• Rearranging CRM campaigns in flows can be challenging
• Flows can be difficult to amend once they have been set up
• Analytics require a flow to be active to show in the main dashboard
• Several reviewers noted that it was an expensive option (but also said it was worth it)
• Issues with Magento integration

G2 Rating: 4.6/5 (495 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: 8.7/10 (58 reviews)

Pricing: 

• Free Forever: For 0 to 250 contacts, 500 emails and 150 SMS/MMS credits every month
• Email: From $20 /month for 251 to 500 contacts, 5000 emails and 150 SMS/MMS credits every month
• Email and SMS: From $35 /month for 251 to 500 contacts, 5000 emails and 1250 SMS/MMS credits every month

Website: Klaviyo.com

3.Omnisend

Omnisend is an all-in-one retail marketing platform that is designed for multichannel campaigns that include email, social media, and mobile channels. It offers a full suite of MAP features, as well as automation, segmentation, and personalization. It integrates with all major e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop.

Omnisend is great for small and medium businesses that are looking for a scalable solution. Their price plans do not limit user contacts and are differentiated on the features offered rather than the volume of contacts/messages sent.

Pros:

• Provides a lot of options for customization and personalization, including complex forms
• Very easy and quick to use, clean and simple user interface
• Well designed with comprehensive app integrations
• Cost-effective option
• Great, prompt, customer service and support
• Comprehensive, highly detailed analytics and thorough reporting
• Useful and intuitive automation for creating campaigns as well as deploying them
• Offers a free plan (unlimited contacts, up to 2000 emails a day)
• Easy to use templates that can be customized
• Triggered email automation
• Follow-up campaigns are easy and effective

Cons:

• Free plan has limited email options
• Some users noted that there was limited customization and manually altered items can’t be saved as templates to re-use
• Billing is for volume of emails with no automatic cap so costs can be incurred unknowingly
• Limited functionality in Live View
• Customization of email content could be better and more templates provided
• Customer support can be slow when technical changes are required
• Data synching with Shopify can be challenging
• Features are limited on mobile
• Integrating with multiple stores can be a problem
• Limited app integrations
• SMS/MMS functionality can be difficult for some users to use
• Does not pull historical data on customers, will start from scratch when you install it

G2 Rating: 4.6/5 (564 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: 8.1/10 (8 reviews)

Pricing:

• Free Forever:For 0 to 250 contacts, 500 emails, 60 SMS credits and 500 web push notifications every month
• Standard: From $16/month for 500 contacts, 15 000 emails, 60 SMS credits, unlimited web push notifications and a customer success manager
• Pro: From $59/month for 500 contacts, unlimited emails, 3900 SMS credits, unlimited web push notifications, a customer success manager and advanced reporting

Website: Omnisend.com

4.Emarsys

Emarsys (by SAP) is an omnichannel retail marketing platform, with an emphasis on customer engagement. It offers fully integrated, multichannel, campaign management, personalization, segmentation, and data analytics. Emarsys uses AI technology that automates flows based on collected data. It is customizable and offers great personalization features, including optimized timing/scheduling for message deployment.

Emarsys combines CRM with email marketing and automation. It also offers A/B split testing and provides robust data analytics and reporting. Key integrations include Shopify, Magento, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

Pros:

• Very easy, intuitive, and enjoyable platform to use
• Frequent updates and improvements to the software
• Offers training for new users and support using new features, plus customer success manager
• Great on-going customer support
• A/B testing is easy to do, both in automation and directly within a campaign
• Easy drag and drop, block-based customization, and personalization
• Set up is quick and easy
• Customization is easy
• Good integration with supported software
• Creating flows across multiple channels is easy and centralized
• CRM is great for adding targeted paid campaigns alongside email campaigns
• Segmentation and custom lists allow for efficient, hyper-targeted flows

Cons:

• Technical support can be slow to respond/resolve issues
• Opening times are not displayed for delivered emails to specific contacts
• Translations for tools in different languages can be difficult (missing, poorly translated)
• Blocks can be time-consuming to set up and require knowledge of HTML/CSS to amend
• Automation center is not drag and drop
• Restrictions in templating framework when populating changes across crusades
• Limited tracking and management capabilities when using the mobile app
• Issues with user right management
• Automatic flows cannot be edited while they’re running
• Some reviewers reported occasional glitches and bugs
• Admin age is not very user friendly
• Updating a template block requires you to manually update the template
• One reviewer noted that it can be an expensive option with a long contract duration

G2 Rating: 4.3/5 (239 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: 6.9/10 (23 reviews)

Pricing: 

• Contact for quote

Website: emarsys.com

5.Flipkart Ads Manager

Flipkart Ads Manager is an easy-to-use platform for retail marketing ads. This platform offers three main categories of features – an adds manager, a pricing manager, and a product selection manager. With these tools, retail brands create display, product contextual, and product listing ads. These functions allow a lot of customization, however, they’re only ideal for ads on Flipkart’s platform.

The pricing manager enables businesses to offer competitive prices based on competitor and customer analysis. What’s fantastic about this tool is how user-friendly it is. You can easily measure your performance through Flipkart’s built-in analytics.

Pros:

• It’s easy to use and learn this platform. If you’ve used Google Analytics, you won’t find it challenging
• The user interface is attractive and easy to navigate
• You get real-time tips and recommendations to enhance your productivity
•  The customer support is responsive and helpful
• It’s a versatile product for small and mid-level businesses
• Because this software is easy to use, you don’t have to train your team
• You can get a custom quote based on your brand’s individual needs and retail marketing goals
• Many retail and eCommerce businesses use this software.
• It’s easy for users to find your product with full-fledged management
• The group targeting feature is handing to engage specific audience segments
• There are a lot of valuable insights you can gather from this software

Cons: 

• Running ads on platforms either than Flipkart can be a little cumbersome to configure
• There’s no smart suggestion tool for ad bidding
• The mobile app needs serious improvement
• The software should integrate better with other platforms
• The pricing can be expensive for some small businesses and startups
• Limited inventory access to the open market
• The campaign setting only allows users to target negative keywords
• There are a few glitches and bugs when using this software 
• The targeting feature isn’t robust enough for in-depth audience targeting 

G2 Rating: 4.3/5 (239 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: 7.3/10 (24 reviews)

Pricing: 

• Contact for quote

Website: cloud.flipkart.com

6.Perpetua

Perpetua considers itself a boutique investment firm. This retail marketing platform will help you manage the financial aspects of your business, leaving you with ample room to grow. With a rigorous, repeatable, and pragmatic investment process, this platform delivers bespoke investment strategies that are fair to your and your employees and is focused on strategic partnerships and industry relationships.

Perpetua is an excellent retail marketing platform for startups and enterprises that need specialized investment and financial strategies.

Pros:

• This software supports Target and Walmart sites
• You can organize and manage your ad spending
• Perpetua provides real-time suggestions on ad spending
• Many users say this software is affordable
• You can easily contact customer support through live chat
• The automated features optimize productivity
• Onboarding employees is quick and easy
• Having a dedicated project manager makes it easy to achieve results
• Your team can focus on high-level data and actionable customer insights for conversion-driven marketing
• The customer service is incredible and responsive
• Perpetua has advanced keyword harvesting to optimize your ad bids

Cons: 

• Sometimes the software is down and then users can’t complete the tasks they need to.
• The search insights tool needs improvement
• You may run into some technical issues now and again
• There’s a slight learning curve in understanding the platform’s terminology
• There’s a lack of online resources on using this platform.
• There isn’t a milestone function for onboarding campaigns
• There needs to be more strategies
• There needs to be more metrics for the Amazon Store
• Businesses would prefer more sponsored display integrations

G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (71 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: N/A

Pricing: 

• Contact for quote

Website: perpetuaim.co.za

7.Retail Media by Criteo

Retail Media by Criteo is a retail media ecosystem! Talk about putting traditional retail marketing software to shame. This platform will help your retail brand target and acquire new customers, secure brand loyalty in your existing audience and optimize your customer retention.

Another aspect of Retail Media by Criteo that businesses love is their high-level technology solutions. This platform offers technology for an AI engine, product recommendations, and predictive bidding.

 

Pros:

• This platform works for businesses of all sizes
• It’s very easy to use this tool and the features are intuitive
• The customer support is quick and helpful
• The inventory is easy to manage and customize
• Users love this software for remarketing ads
• You can match user history with advertising strategies
• The account management team is helpful and responsive
• Sponsored products are included in dynamic marketing, giving you less ads to optimize

Cons: 

• The ad bidding optimization needs improvement 
• The reporting issues have problems
• The sales reps aren’t very transparent
• This platform has many bugs and technical problems 
• There could be better customization options
• The customer prospecting tools need improvement 
• There limited data and insights 
• There are a few glitches and bugs when using this software 
• The targeting feature isn’t robust enough for in-depth audience targeting 

G2 Rating: 4/5 (18 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: 6.7/10 (18 reviews)

Pricing: 

• Contact for quote

Website: criteo.com/solutions/retail-media-platform/

8.Pacvue

Pacvue is a dedicated eCommerce marketing platform for retail businesses. You can use this platform to grow your brand on several well-known platforms like Amazon and Instacart. Pacvue will start by improving your campaign’s performance through sales optimization and high-level automation.

You can also count on this retail marketing platform to optimize your products’ shelf life. Pacvue will manage your inventory, optimize your landing pages to accelerate sales, and drive organic sales through increased online visibility.

Pros:

• There is a vast variety of training resources to use this platform
• There are loads of automated features
• The reporting is accurate and in-depth
• There are lots of custom rules for different functions
• The AI bidding feature makes it easier to secure valuable ad placements
• The user interface is beginner-friendly and easy to navigate
• You don’t need a lot of technical skills to learn this software
• You can use various filters to find what you need without wasting time
• You can view all the analytics and metrics for your campaigns with one tool

Cons: 

• You have to log in and out of different platforms and views which is cumbersome
• It’s a little complicated to pause campaigns and modify budgets
• Some integrations take a lot of time to work
• Some functions and features could use an update

G2 Rating: 4.4/5 (12 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: N/A

Pricing: 

• Contact for quote

Website: pacvue.com

9.Quartile

Quartile is the top retail marketing platform for retail brands selling on Amazon. With a team of Amazon selling and marketing experts, you can rely on solutions and campaigns that drive results. The purpose of Quartile is to be an external extension of your brand and develop, implement and manage your campaigns for you. You’ll receive detailed, weekly reports to evaluate your campaigns’ performances.

What’s unique about Quartile is its advanced technology solutions. There are so many ways to customize your campaigns and bidding processes through automation. Every business gets a dedicated account manager so you don’t have to look to resources or guides for help.

Pros:

• They have a team of Amazon experts
• You can easily collaborate with your account manager
• Quartile provides strategy support for optimized retail campaigns
• The AI and hourly bidding features are highly valuable
• The team is highly responsive and can answer all your questions
• You get weekly reports of your campaigns’ performances
• Working with a platform to manage all your retail marketing efforts saves you a lot of time and resources
• The technology solutions are impressive
• Real-time tracking will keep your account in good shape
• You don’t need a lot of technical knowledge for this platform

Cons: 

• The naming conventions are confusing
• It can take two weeks to learn how to use this platform
• Some users say sometimes this platform doesn’t capture exactly what you wanted in a campaign
• Some industries may not find all the features as valuable
• You may get a lot of new account managers and the transitional period can be tricky
• It can be time consuming to identify the performance of certain items
• The analytics dashboards are confusing
• You can’t always track the metrics you want

G2 Rating: 4.2/5 (31 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: N/A

Pricing: 

• Contact for quote

Website: quartile.com

10.Kevel

Kevel is a high-level API that allows retail brands to develop custom ad platforms. You’ll own this platform while Kevel’s team will be on the sidelines, ready to offer speedy guidance. Within a few weeks, businesses can build a bespoke ad server with functions and features like sponsored ad listings, native ads, retail media, and email ads. You can also leverage personalized content and digital out-of-home ads to accelerate your bottom line.

Kevel is not that challenging to use given how powerful this platform is. While the team is small, they are super responsive and helpful.

Pros:

• This platform is very flexible
• The API documentation is user-friendly
• You can easily contact customer support via Slack or email
• There are always new feature releases and software updates
• You don’t have to worry about bugs and technical issues happening often
• You can easily place ads in specific locations or for specific keywords
• The integration support is fantastic
• The team is smaller so they deliver a more personal approach than most retail marketing platforms

Cons: 

• You may have problems understanding why certain ads aren’t performing 
• The analytics for unique users isn’t easy to access
• There are time limits on when data is refreshed 
• It takes time to learn how the group assets function works
• You can get confused if you’re not to careful when navigating the interface
• There aren’t many customization features for reporting
• No variety of ad templates and formats
• Some of the API design choices aren’t helpful

G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (42 reviews)

TrustRadius Rating: 10/10 (2 reviews)

Pricing: 

• Contact for quote

Website: kevel.com

4 Retail Marketing Strategies for 2024

Now that you understand what’s required for successful retail marketing, let’s look at the different tactics you can use to make the most of it: 

1.Targeted Social Media Platforms

Social media, when used properly, is a powerful way to connect with your ideal customer. Advertisers from every industry have taken note. Worldwide retail digital ad spending will surpass $50 billion in 2024. 

This shows just how effective social media marketing can be for your business. However, there’s one problem most people don’t realize – it’s difficult to grow a large presence on all social media channels at once. 

Look closely and you’ll realize that most businesses that are successful with social media started with one or two platforms. After they built up their presence, they expanded to other social sites.

If you want to succeed in retail marketing, it’s important to do the same thing. What channel works best for you, based on the products you’re selling and the audience you’re targeting? 

For example, brands such as Frank Body have built large Instagram followings. In fact, it used Instagram to grow to $20 million in annual revenue, and secure deals with the likes of Target, Sephora and Ulta Beauty.

The platform is introducing even more tools like Instagram stories which retailers can use to grow their reach and build an engaged customer base.

Other brands are using Facebook to get in front of their ideal customer. Thursday Boot Company went from selling a few boots a week to selling thousands a month with targeted Facebook Ads that focused on the lifestyle of its customers.

Williams Sonoma focused heavily on Pinterest and has grown a massive following. It now derives a lot of referral traffic and sales from the platform. 

I’m not showing you these examples so you go and try your hand at each of them. Select a single platform that works well with your products and audience and focus on growing there first. 

2.Email Marketing with a Twist

Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect with customers and generate revenue. 

There’s one big challenge, inboxes are crowded. The average office worker receives over 100 emails a day. Unless your emails can stand out from the crowd, they’ll be ignored or people will unsubscribe. 

Prevent this by using simple behavioral segmentation to send targeted emails to your audience members and past customers. I’ll touch on a few of the highest impact tactics: 

 – Pages visited

The average e-commerce store has multiple products for sale and each one has a unique page. When someone visits, they’ll interact with the product pages they’re interested in and ignore the rest. Track this using your email marketing software and send out relevant email automation based on the pages a visitor has viewed. 

There used to be a time that the software was very expensive, but there are modern email marketing tools that are quite cheap and they make it simple to segment people based on website activity.

Start by setting an automation trigger that goes out to people who’ve visited a page 2 times or more within 30 days (or however long it takes people to go from consideration to purchase). If you have a large product catalog, focus on the most popular product first and expand from there. 

– Email opens and clicks 

This segmentation method focuses on finding the kind of content your subscribers are interacting with and sending more of it. When someone first becomes a subscriber, it’s natural to lead them through a welcome series and send them different types of content. 

After that, what do you do? 

It would be far from ideal to send them multiple offers about products they may or may not be interested in. Get around this dilemma by tracking what kind of emails subscribers are opening and the links they’re clicking. 

For example, someone signs up for Acme Inc.’s mailing list, which is about an active lifestyle and activewear. Acme Inc. doesn’t know whether they’re a man or woman, if they prefer running or weight training, or any other information about the subscriber. 

It sends out all kinds of emails to the new subscriber and notices they’re only clicking on links related to women’s products and content. It also realizes that the subscriber likes yoga pants and running shoes. Going forward, Acme Inc. sends more content tailored to the subscriber’s behavior. 

This is not a manual process. Advanced tools like Active Campaign or OmniSend make it possible to apply tags or update contact records based on behavior. You can then send messages to specific groups of people, which get opened, clicked, and generate revenue. 

– Past purchases

This may be the most powerful type of behavioral segmentation. Your subscriber has told you they’re interested and is ready to spend cold hard cash. 

You can send similar promotions to them regularly. Even if they don’t buy from you, it’ll be well received because it’s something they’re interested in. 

ASOS takes this strategy to heart. The only things I buy from it are shoes and jackets. The company sends me an email every few days. About 70% of them are focused on shoes and outerwear. The other 30% are emails about interesting content and different product categories. 

These emails are created through email content automation. The software inserts the right products for you. But there’s an important aspect to keep in mind when you’re segmenting based on behavior. Your customer may be interested in much more than you know. In addition to emails promoting similar products, be sure to add different product categories to the mix.

3.Pop Up Shops

E-commerce has a significant drawback – you can’t touch, feel, or smell a product before buying it. In many situations, that matters. Another thing to consider is that some consumers only shop at places they’re familiar with. That means they’re not willing to try a new brand they found online. 

A pop up shop can help you reach a segment of your market that would otherwise be inaccessible. Other benefits include:

• You’re able to create a multi-channel experience connecting consumers online and offline
• More cost-effective than a fully fledged retail location
• The ability to create deeper connections with customers and get feedback in real time
• An opportunity to soft launch new collections at select locations and test market demand

These are just a few of the many benefits associated with pop up shops and brands like Kylie Cosmetics have taken note of just how powerful it can be. 

People reportedly waited outside for 11 hours or more before getting inside. Smaller retailers are also creating meaningful experiences for their customers who, in many cases, travel to participate in the activity. 

For an offline businesses, it’s also possible to partner with an online retailer to expand your reach and test demand. 

There are a number of things to keep in mind when you’re planning a popup shop campaign. It’s more than choosing a space and sending out an email to your subscribers:

• Do you want a new space or a section of an already existing business? Kylie Cosmetics pop up shops took advantage of Top Shop’s stores. 
• Will you need any licenses, permits, or insurance?
• What kind of payment system will you be using? 
• Will the furniture be provided or do you have to rent/buy your own?
• What’s the goal of the event (a certain sales figure, brand awareness, etc.)
• Staff policies and guidelines (or hiring new staff) 

It takes a considerable amount of effort but it can be one of the most powerful ways to connect with a larger market because it’s an experience. 

The RealReal launched a pop up shop and had guests from Vogue and Vanity Fair cover it. The end result was exposure, revenue, and goodwill. 

4.Brand Ambassadors

The last retail marketing tactic I want to touch on is using brand ambassadors to extend your reach, both online and offline. 

A brand ambassador is someone who’s paid (or otherwise rewarded) to endorse a company’s products and services. They work closely with your in-house teams to create and conceptualize marketing campaigns that build awareness and increase revenue. 

In fact, it’s the exact strategy Lululemon used to go from a single yoga studio to a multi-billion dollar company. 

I want to make something clear. A brand ambassador marketing initiative is different from an influencer marketing initiative. Take a look at this article to get a feel for how different brands are empowering their ambassadors.  

Of course, your brand ambassadors can be influencers in their own right, but it’s not a prerequisite. Depending on your reach, products, and goals, there are many ways to run a brand ambassador program. Consider the following things before you launch it:

Take cues from successful programs in the past

Brand ambassadors have been in use for a long time. It’s not something that started with social media or the internet. Research companies that have gone before you to understand what set their successful campaign apart and how you can replicate that success. 

Start small and iterate

This is obvious, right? Not exactly. 

Many retailers are so excited about the thought of a brand ambassador program that they recruit as many people as they can. In the end, they’re unable to give their early ambassadors the tools and attention they need to succeed. 

It’s better to move slow and steady in the early stages. Focus on finding people who’re already talking about you and recruit them to your cause. Use social listening tools like Mention or Brand24 to find them. 

How are you compensating ambassadors?

Influential ambassadors may require cold hard cash but many of your early converts won’t. The best ambassadors are people who’re already familiar with your brand and would use your products whether they were being paid or not. 

With that being said, they’ll be working closely with you to build awareness and drive revenue. This will require time and energy on their part, so a simple thank you won’t cut it. 

Daniel Wellington runs a college brand ambassador program that rewards participants with merchandise, exclusive event invites, concert tickets, gift cards, and more. 

Finally, let your brand ambassadors do their thing. Apart from a few guidelines, it’s important to give them room to work. 

Why?

They’re advocates of your brand and are best suited to communicate what makes you unique to them. They can add their own spin to your marketing, which you may have never considered. If you make them rehearse that message or change it too much then it loses its ring of authenticity. 

Conclusion

Retail marketing is constantly evolving and it’s important for you to evolve right along with it. If you don’t then it’ll be impossible to stand out from the crowd. 

The specific techniques may change from year to year but the underlying strategies remain the same. It’s important to understand what your customers want and need from you then deliver it in a way that’s convenient to them. 

Choose one or two of the tactics outlined here to focus on and you’ll be sure to see massive improvements in revenue, engagement, and brand awareness. 

Let me know what your favorite retail marketing strategies are in the comments and don’t forget to share. 

About the author: Daniel Ndukwu is the founder and CEO of KyLeads. There, he helps businesses create meaningful experiences and increase audience engagement while generating more leads using surveys, quizzes, and smart popups. When not working, you can find him spending time with his family or and traveling as much as possible. 

References

Yoobic: Retail Efficiency: Best Practices in Retail Store Operations

Insider Intelligence: US retail media ad spending will reach $31.49 billion in 2021, up 53.4% from 2020

Emarketer: Global Ecommerce 2019 and The Ad Platform: What we think about retail media

Statista: Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 3rd quarter 2022

Shopify: 53 Data-Backed Retail Statistics Shaping Retail in 2022 and Beyond