Over the years we’ve worked with companies at the forefront of ecommerce and helped them gain traction and buy-in. We’ve worked on those supplying the back-end of the ecommerce business right through to those creating store fronts, like Shopify, to enhance the customer experience.
As a result, we’ve noticed a few common elements that ecommerce companies tend to misjudge. If you’re not doing any of these, then great, you can feel smug, but if you’re about to embark on PR in ecommerce and you think you might be in danger of committing one or even all of these deadly sins, then get in touch with us. It’s not too late…
But my tech is AMAZING!
A lot of companies make the mistake of thinking the thing people are interested in their technology. The journalist, and therefore the audience, wants to know how your tech is going to HELP them. They don’t care if it’s got the most storage or it cost more than the space shuttle, they want to know what difference it’s going to make to their customer experience.
Pivoting bandwidth through global alignment
Nope, us neither. Avoid jargon. You may have been immersed in this world for the past year and done nothing but talk and dream about it, but the rest of us haven’t. It’s off putting and often just baffling. Find a way to understand how people are thinking, make your product relevant and show how it helps.
Are you showing the final iteration?
Do you have a product you are 100% confident about? Have the bugs been solved? When other people trial your product, are they able to operate it successfully, are they able to purchase through it, is it supported by reputable finance back-end software?
Who’s your spokesperson?
Do you have a media trained spokesperson in your company who is the go-to person for quotes, interviews and product briefings? Flapping around trying to source someone who’s petrified in front of a journalist can do huge damage and pretty much ensures you won’t be called on again. If your spokesperson can talk confidently about the wider retail sector and relevant trends, then so much the better.
It’s not all about you
Be helpful first, get coverage later. Give data and stats in bite sized chunks of content and do the legwork for the journalist. Becoming a reliable source of comprehensive data and info will stand you in far better stead than controversial comment.
Keep it relevant
The press has been confidently ringing the death knell of the high street for a few years now and retail is seen as a barometer for the economy. Get your story straight on where you fit within the sector (and avoid the word ‘disruptor’ if you can, see point 2). Nationals are always looking for something that ties in with a major news story or trend. Putting yourself in a context makes you easier to understand rather than just announcing that you are ‘revolutionary’ and leaving everyone to figure it out themselves.
It’s a very crowded space at the moment. We understand what the retail media is looking for and what is going to put them off. Please get in touch if you’d like a chat here.