What is shoppable media?

Sometimes being a successful brand marketer comes down to being in the right place at the right time.

Of course, if you’re a successful brand marketer, your next thought is probably, “Ok, but how do I repeat, optimize, and scale that?” There’s no crazy hack here, the answer is simple: shoppable media.

Shoppable media at its core is any marketing content that includes a direct opportunity for purchase. Examples include an ad on social media, the CTA in an email marketing campaign, even QR codes.

Brand assets that allow consumers to engage, experience, and purchase with the click of a button are all considered “shoppable,” and present an opportunity to convert a virtual window-shopper into a verified purchaser.
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Why is shoppable media important?

Shoppable media offers a personalized digital shopping experience and seamless customer journey.

From the customer’s perspective, convenience during the buying process and/or an expedited path to purchase at their retailer of choice helps them find, select, and buy items they need in the moment. It creates a frictionless experience that, oftentimes, leaves them feeling delighted.

From a CPG brand’s perspective, harnessing insights and data from the many touch points available in the shoppable media sales funnel allows for customization of offers, products, checkout options, and more. These insights can help:

• manage abandoned carts
• build custom audiences of retail shoppers
• understand and optimize return on ad spend (ROAS)
• understand how to optimize retail e-commerce ad campaigns to drive more growth
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Types of shoppable media

As with most things in marketing, every brand’s shoppable media strategy and channels should be dependent on their target customer and industry. There are three common types of shoppable media. Brands should consider testing a mix of each to see what resonates with their audience:‍

1. ‍ Shoppable social posts: posts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest can all contain shoppable images. They act like a digital product catalog with clickable and immediately obtainable images.‍
2. Shoppable video: video is one of the top ways we consume info online, and short videos that tell a story are particularly engaging to shoppers. A recent report found that 84% of people have been convinced to buy a product after watching a brand video. (Imagine the conversion rate if you made it possible for viewers to buy directly from that video!‍
3. Shoppable UGC: the key to gaining an audience’s trust is earning social proof. Implementing shoppable user-generated content from influencers, in particular, can elevate a shoppable media strategy. (Note - consumers find UGC posts to be 76% more trustworthy than branded ads.)

What is shoppable media in retail?

Historically, shoppable media in retail involved circulars and coupons - distributed content attempting to drive awareness and sales at a retailer.‍

1. ‍Content marketing - Recipe blogs that include specific products or marketing emails announcing product launches and new retail locations can include direct-to-cart links to a customer’s preferred retailer‍
2. Store locators - “Where to buy” pins-on-a-map pages can now be made actionable. Instead of simply showing customers where to find a product near them, brands can include shoppable links for purchasing directly from those retailers on their store locators‍
3. Embedded shoppability on owned properties - Product display pages can provide information beyond nutritional facts and descriptions. Brands can embed “buy near you” functionality directly on all web pages

All forms of content and owned media can now be connected to a retail ecommerce shopping experience, providing a clear path to purchase on every landing page and ultimately tracking that purchase at a retailer back to a single shoppable link.
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How CPG brands can maximize shoppable media capabilities

At Pear Commerce, we help CPGs dive deep into the shoppable media strategy that’s best for their brand.

We go beyond the basics of shoppable ads that convert, and enable brands to: create shoppable media landing pages, display specific retailers with products in stock (updated in REAL TIME), track consumer action data linked to specific ad campaigns, UPCs, and clicks, and better understand which campaigns are driving the most growth.

Here’s how it works:‍

1. Pick your strategy.

• Do you want to make a digital ad campaign shoppable?
• Do you want to highlight a single product, multiple products, or “better together” product offerings like peanut butter and jelly?
• Do you want to allow shoppers to purchase directly from your store locator on your site?
• Have you considered adding a dynamic and personalized retail checkout widget to your product pages to compliment your DTC store?
• Would you like to split test campaigns or media variables with A/B tools? Coupons and rebates? Other ideas?

2. Choose your creative.

• Incorporate whatever copy, images, or video you want to use to capture your audience’s attention.
• Split-test different versions to see what works best.

3. Customize your retailers.

• Choose which stores you want at the top of the list - we work with over 2,000 retailers, including regional favorites.
• You can also include your brand’s DTC store!

4. Direct your media to your shoppable link and start receiving ad campaign data.

• You’ll get access to a full dashboard of datasets for your analysts to explore. This dashboard includes full-funnel, attributable retail e-commerce sales data and conversion events.
• Pear automatically sends data to your ad network so it can apply machine learning and begin auto-optimizing your campaigns.
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Pear has taken shoppable media to the next level, creating opportunities for any CPG brand that sells in retail to merge their retail and e-commerce strategies to drive growth.

Schedule a demo and find out exactly how your brand can maximize its shoppable media potential.

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