New research of more than 300 marketers from Jumpshot, which unlocks walled garden data, uncovers the importance of data insights from within e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, Target and Walmart.com. The big takeaway: respondents indicate they lack customer behavioral data that e-commerce marketplaces do not provide, giving these marketplaces an unfair advantage over other retailers and brands—especially in the era of Amazon.
“We’re constantly hearing from marketers that they lack critical insights into their customers once they leave their website and start shopping in eCommerce marketplaces,” said Deren Baker, CEO of Jumpshot, in a news release. “This survey shows that marketers are eager for more and better data to help compete for online sales, especially in an online ecosystem with multiple marketplace choices, dominance of Amazon and emerging private labels.”
The survey reveals that:
Marketers are concerned about a lack of visibility into consumer actions across online marketplaces
- 84 percent lack insights into buying behaviors on e-commerce marketplaces.
- In spite of benefits, 83 percent have concerns about e-commerce marketplaces.
- Some concerns include an inconsistent view of customer behavior across all e-commerce marketplaces, lack of insights into detailed buying behaviors, and additional and biased competition because of private labels.
- Marketers evenly split on the impact of lack of insights on e-commerce marketplaces. 50 percent are hesitant to invest in marketplaces because of lack of insights into customer buying behaviors.
- Lack of insights most likely to impact travel companies (63 percent hesitate to invest) and those who sell in more than 20 marketplaces (67 percent hesitate to invest).
Path-to-purchase insights are broken—brands are losing sight of their customers
- Only a third think existing understanding of path-to-purchase is excellent.
- 68 percent report marketplace data is not up to par with internal customer insights data.
The Amazon Era is real, and brand marketers would benefit from more customer insights
- 86 percent said it would be beneficial to understand competitors’ search, path-to-purchase, and purchase data on Amazon.
- 73 percent feel Amazon has an unfair data advantage.
There is a strong need for more and better customer insight data across e-commerce marketplaces
- While marketers have a wide range of data, they want much more. 99 percent would use improved purchase behavior data to improve business outcomes.
- 78 percent said they would use improved purchase behavior data to diagnose if customers are buying somewhere else or are simply lost when they leave their site.
- 95 percent would have more confidence in e-commerce marketplaces with better data.
- Insights are particularly important for understanding lost sales and new revenue opportunities. 67 percent indicate the most important area for gaining insights into path-to-purchase behaviors is understanding where sales are being lost.
Download the full report here.
The results are based on a survey of 307 marketers in the U.S. and was conducted by Dimensional Research in April 2018. All respondents had responsibility for marketing intelligence solutions at companies that sold both directly and through e-commerce marketplaces, and worked in retail, CPG and travel.
