Maximizing Holiday eCommerce Conversions (cohereOne.com)

After several years dominated by pandemics and remote work, it should come as no surprise to anyone that digital fatigue is starting to set in. Microsoft released a study earlier this year reporting that Teams — the digital meeting platform many businesses have turned to as a replacement for in-person meetings — has seen an increase of 252% in weekly meeting times since February 2020. Digital marketing is just getting lost in the crowd right now, with consumers pulling away from connecting with brands on yet another platform that requires the use of a screen. This is a great time to put direct mail back on the minds of customers struggling to stay relevant in this day and age, and the numbers support it. According to the Direct Mail Advertising Global Market Report 2022, the average response rate of the direct mail is around 2.7% to 4.4%, while the email has around 0.6%.

The choices you make about your products' eCommerce packaging have implications that travel far beyond their customers' journey. The moment of unboxing is often the first physical interaction an eCommerce brand has with a new customer – and that moment has the potential to make a significant and lasting impact. It's crucial for brands navigating today's competitive online climate to win over new shoppers and convert them into repeat customers. That's why the people responsible for making decisions about product packaging must educate themselves about these materials. Paper is the Sustainable Choice - Compared to other materials, paper creates a minimal impact on the planet. Consumers Prefer Paper - Modern online shoppers are increasingly conscious of – and interested in – how businesses operate on a sustainability level, bringing packaging to the forefront of the many factors considered when deciding what brands to shop with. Creativity Elicits Enthusiasm - Contrary to plastic void fill options (commonly bubble wrap or air pillows), colorful and printed tissue paper-based interior packaging alternatives create endless possibilities to tell a brand's story while creating a unique and memorable unboxing experience. Adaptive, Efficient, and Innovative - Fortunately, an array of paper-based packaging options that serve an aesthetic purpose also offer protective advantages, adding operational efficiency to the fulfillment process – like Seaman Paper's robust portfolio of multipurpose paper-based products.

In the last two blogs written by Michelle Houston, she covered the importance of using Contribution Per Order (CPO), instead of ROAS when evaluating the performance of marketing programs. At the end of one of those blogs, she talked about the importance of also assessing and understanding the significance of lifetime value (LTV) as part of the equation. I wanted to continue that thread and take it a step further by incorporating LTV as the last step of the proper analysis into the equation. As covered in past discussions, LTV is an important metric to track as it will vary widely by acquisition source. When applied to the first order for a new customer, CPO is the equivalent to cost or profit per customer acquired. This will vary by acquisition source as well. When CPO is combined with LTV, those metrics are a powerful tool in driving your company in the right direction (or wrong direction if you’re not careful). In the analysis below, we can evaluate the total effect that CPO and LTV have on the current and future business.