Strategic Action Plan to Enhance Primark’s online position from an E-marketing perspective

MARK 3011 E-Marketing

Assignment 2:

Strategic Action Plan to Enhance Primark’s online position from an E-marketing perspective

Andrew Hill

This action plan seeks to enhance Primark’s current online position from an e-marketing perspective. The action plan sets out a strategy detailing three SMART objectives of strategic importance to Primark to be achieved sequentially, outlining recommendations and measurement and evaluation methods towards Primark’s e-marketing success. By undertaking the recommended actions and using the tools identified in the evaluation methods suggested will allow Primark to gain a full understanding of how their customers interact with them online.

SMART Objectives

The objectives and reasoning set out in the table below will enable Primark to enhance their online position by taking advantage of their already established audiences to increase sales and revenue.

#	Objective	Purpose
1	Develop an ecommerce strategy and offer online purchasing and home delivery/in-store collection facilities by November 2020 providing reasons for Primark’s audience to migrate between platforms, primarily from social platforms to Primark.com	Ecommerce will increase the number of customers Primark can serve at any one time, increasing timeliness and convenience (Chaffey et al, 2006). Achieving this objective on time means their ecommerce platform will be established in time for traffic spikes resulting from investment in paid traffic and they will ultimately achieve more sales and increased revenues. Encouraging users to migrate to Primark.com, Primark can at least exclude competitors from being able gain exposure to their audience whilst they visit Primark.com
2	Double the amount of traffic sourced from social media to website by investing resources in social media management (SMM) before the next Winter advertising period (Appendix A) by increasing the number of incentives and opportunities audiences have to click through to the website.	This will improve relevance of ads during advertising period achieving a wider reach on social media with improved chances of conversion. Doing so before Winter means they’ll be able to take full advantage of the resources invested in paid traffic. Primark have the largest social following of many competitors (Appendix C) but offer no ability for these followers to buy from Primark except where they can attend a store in-person.
3	Tap into social media audience to drive online sales to achieve at least £181.3M in ecommerce sales revenue by year end 2021 through the implementation of sales funnels and investing in content marketing and paid traffic sources, as well as integrating online product catalogues with Facebook and other social platforms.	Online sales revenue can’t be measured until objective 1 has been achieved. £181.3M is achievable based on Boohoo 2018 results (BBC News, 2018). The use of sales funnels enables Primark to reintroduce customers repeatedly to their brand with opportunities for up/cross selling. Integrating product catalogues with social platforms contributes toward achieving Objective 1.
Deadlines allow for sequential achievement of objectives as each objective builds upon the last. The assumption is these objectives and recommendations will be implemented immediately, where this is not the case, deadlines should be adjusted relative to when the recommendations are implemented.

Recommendations

The recommendations below set out the strategy Primark should adopt to achieve each objective.

Objective 1

Developing an ecommerce strategy including distribution of home deliveries and in-store collections, for example, will enable Primark to increase the convenience and timeliness customers experience by providing customers with opportunities to purchase when they’re not visiting a store and help them to achieve their first objective. This enhances Primark’s online position by increasing the number of sales, and therefore revenue, achieved online allowing them to compete with Next, Topman and Boohoo who have a much smaller reach than Primark (O’Dwyer, 2020) yet achieve a greater amount in sales (Vincent, 2019; Inside Retail, 2019; Ecommerce News, 2019).

Similarly, by offering stock-checking facilities via their website will make it easier for customers to purchase the products they want in-store, improving timeliness as customers won’t need to spend time visiting a store knowing the product they want isn’t in stock (Chaffey et al, 2006). Stock checking facilities can be achieved by integrating POS and web systems (Walters, 2018) also contributing towards the first objective.

Objective 2

To achieve the second objective, Primark should integrate Facebook Pixel to match customers to their online profiles through identifiable information including payment details, email address, name, phone number, etc. (Wilkinson, 2018) enabling Primark to target them with interest-based adverts across social media and around the web (Loomer, 2015) to further drive online sales and direct customers from social to website. Using custom conversions and offline event tracking, Primark can better understand what marketing efforts work (Pittman, 2017) – if someone checks and reserves an item of stock in-store and later an offline event captures the user using their reservation code then Primark will be able to see the stock-checking facility was fundamental to achieving the sale.

Currently, Primark benefit from a large amount of organic traffic from search engine referrals, whilst the organic traffic from social makes up 2.39% of their overall website traffic, almost half of Boohoo.com (Appendix C) which is surprising as Primark boast a social following of 14.6M, nearly more than half the amount greater than Boohoo.com – Boohoo.com only sell via ecommerce channels (Jahshan, 2019), by modelling after Boohoo and engaging with customers more on social networks and dedicating more resources toward social engagement, like Boohoo (Rountree, 2019), Primark should be able to replicate Boohoo’s success.

Objective 3

It’s recommended that Primark improve the accessibility of lead-capture opportunities, such as moving the email newsletter offer above the fold along with social buttons and CTAs (Brebian, 2018), being mindful of different viewports so as to not deter any customers using smaller screens where elements are pushed off screen. In doing so, Primark increase the opportunities to reintroduce customers to their site by offering methods to customers to follow the brand without having to visit the website. Moving the social buttons to the sticky menu, for example, would provide website visitors an opportunity to interact with Primark across social platforms easier than having to scroll to the bottom of the page to access them (Appendix D) improving user experience and enabling customers to keep up to date on latest fashion trends and products for sale without necessarily having to share any personal information.

Primark can then introduce customers to sales funnels via email and content marketing to further drive sales. Funnels allow Primark the opportunity to cross–sell other products to customers, introduce them to new ranges and offer loyalty bonuses (Adams, 2017) and with sales funnels being mostly evergreen, Primark can leave them to run on autopilot using very little resources (Brunson, 2015). This also helps to achieve the first objective by opening new sales channels throughout Primark’s own marketing actions.

Alongside this, they should integrate product catalogues with Google search and Facebook (Appendix E), enabling the use of dynamic product ads (Bucknell, 2018) to display specific products to customers that they may have viewed or added to basket but later abandoned – these events are monitored through custom conversions. Integrating Primark’s catalogue with Facebook will enable Facebook to identify products outside of the Facebook platform, doing so means purchases can be made without visiting the website further increasing sales.

Evaluation Methods

To measure the success of the strategy, Primark must implement tracking facilities across their website and in-store monitoring how customers interact with Primark’s digital presence relative to the SMART objectives.

Primark should use Google Analytics, using browser cookies to identify and track visitors around the web; cookies are crucial to the success of retargeted advertising (Google Developers, 2020) around the web and enable Primark to build a complete digital profile of their website visitors allowing them to segment their audiences.

Correctly setting up custom conversion tracking via Facebook Pixel allows Primark to see exactly what components of their digital presence are most effective, enabling Primark to prioritise resources (Facebook, n.d).

By tracking unique visitors and retention rates via Analytics and Pixel, Facebook can evaluate the success of their marketing efforts relative to objective 1 & 2 as this will show the number of new users visiting the site and how often they return (Looker, 2015). Whilst using custom conversions, Primark can evaluate their success towards objective 3 by monitoring how many customers and from what channel they’re referred from are completing the checkout process and interacting with other parts of the website.

Measuring the success towards objective 2 & 3 can also be done through the use of unique promotional codes, if a unique code is shared via email, social or in-store and later used on the website, Primark can track exactly where the code was obtained from allowing them to evaluate which traffic source is the most effective thus allowing Primark to further optimise their strategy. A simple customer survey asking customers to rate their experience will also allow Primark to understand how customers feel about the actions they’re taking towards achieving these objectives.

Using tools like Hotjar heat maps will allow Primark to see where their customers are focusing their attention (Hotjar, 2020), this allows Primark to optimise their site, placing lead capture forms and important content where it matters most whilst integration with other analytics tools as described will demonstrate which marketing efforts are most effective.

Conclusion

Primark already have a strong digital presence which realising its full potential, by implementing the strategy and recommendations outlined throughout, Primark will be able to enhance their digital presence to maintain a competitive advantage both online and offline, whereas currently, in the absence of online sales, they have a limited competitive advantage, if any, online.

References

Adams, R., 2017. What Is A Sales Funnel? The Guide To Building An Automated Selling Machine. [online] Entrepreneur. Available at: <https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296526> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

BBC News. 2018. Sales And Profits Surge At Boohoo. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43891129> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Brebian, A., 2018. Above The Fold Vs. Below The Fold: Does It Still Matter In 2019?. [online] AB Tasty. Available at: <https://www.abtasty.com/blog/above-the-fold/> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Brunson, R., 2015. Dotcom Secrets. New York: Morgan James.

Bucknell, J., 2018. How To Retarget On Facebook And Instagram With Dynamic Product Ads. [online] Social Media Examiner. Available at: <https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-retarget-on-facebook-and-instagram-with-dynamic-product-ads/> [Accessed 20 March 2020].

Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Johnston, K. and Mayer, R. (2006). Internet marketing. London: Prentice Hall Financial Times.

Ecommerce News. 2019. Boohoo Group’s Sales Grow 48 Percent. [online] Available at: <https://ecommercenews.eu/boohoo-groups-sales-grow-48-percent/> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Google Developers. 2020. Google Analytics Cookie Usage On Websites. [online] Available at: <https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage> [Accessed 20 March 2020].

Hotjar. 2020. What Are Heat Maps? Guide To Heatmaps/How To Use Them. [online] Available at: <https://www.hotjar.com/heatmaps/> [Accessed 20 March 2020].

Inside Retail. 2019. Topman Follows Suit With E-Commerce Launch. [online] Available at: <https://insideretail.com.au/news/topman-follows-suit-with-e-commerce-launch-201704> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Jahshan, E., 2019. Boohoo Eyes Foray Into Bricks-And-Mortar In London. [online] Retail Gazette. Available at: <https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2019/06/boohoo-eyes-foray-into-bricks-and-mortar-in-london/> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Looker, 2015. Making Friends With Cohort Analysis: 5 Ways To Deep-Dive Into Customer Data. [ebook] Santa Cruz: Looker. Available at: <http://discover.looker.com/rs/131-VDZ-197/images/CohortAnalysis.pdf> [Accessed 20 March 2020].

Loomer, J., 2015. Facebook Custom Conversions: A Beginner’s Guide. [online] Jon Loomer Digital. Available at: <https://www.jonloomer.com/2015/11/17/facebook-custom-conversions/> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

O’Dwyer, M., 2020. Defying The Downturn: What Boohoo, Primark And JD Sports Teach Us About The Brave New World Of Retail. [online] The Telegraph. Available at: <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/06/12/defying-downturn-boohoo-primark-jd-sports-teach-us-brave-new/> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Pittman, M., 2017. Facebook Offline Events: What Marketers Need To Know. [online] Digital Marketer. Available at: <https://www.digitalmarketer.com/blog/facebook-offline-events/> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Vincent, M., 2019. Boohoo’S Ecommerce Deal Leaves Rivals Stuck In The Middle. [online] Financial Times. Available at: <https://www.ft.com/content/e2a5cf4e-b838-11e9-8a88-aa6628ac896c> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Walters, N., 2018. How To Integrate Your POS System With A Website. [online] ShopKeep. Available at: <https://www.shopkeep.com/blog/how-to-integrate-pos-system-with-website> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Wilkinson, E., 2018. Track Sales More Effectively With Facebook Offline Conversions. [online] Zapier. Available at: <https://zapier.com/blog/facebook-offline-conversions/> [Accessed 18 March 2020].

Appendix

Appendix A: Organic and Paid Traffic over time

Source: SEM Rush

Charts show the estimated amount of traffic from paid (ads, sponsored content, etc) and organic (search, social media, content marketing, etc) sources over time. Primark sparingly invest in paid traffic, notably engaging in Christmas and January Sales (Winter Advertising Period) events.

Appendix B: Traffic Sources

Source: SimilarWeb

The graph above compared traffic sources between Primark and Boohoo.com. Boohoo have demonstrated success in social referral driving a large portion of their traffic overall due to their use of influencer marketing across social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram, as well as YouTube, resulting in almost double the amount of traffic from social referrals than Primark. Primark, on the other hand, have a significant gain over Boohoo.com in search referrals but there isn’t as significant a difference as exhibited in Primark’s social referral when compared to Boohoo.com.

If Primark can match Boohoo.com’s social referrals, they will sustain a competitive advantage. Boohoo.com still have room to improve on SEO as a result of their focus toward social media meaning they could catch up with and overtake Primark in search referrals which puts Primark at risk of losing any competitive advantage they currently maintain due to their search dominance.

Appendix C: Comparison of Social Engagement

.	Brand
Social Platform	Primark	Topshop	Boohoo	Next
Instagram	8.3M	10.1M	6.4M	1.5M
Twitter	248’666	1.2M	501’846	274’979
YouTube	43’000	72	10’500	10’100
Facebook	6.1M	4.2M	3.2M	2.6M
*Total*	*14.6M*	*15.5M*	*10.1M*	*4.3M*

Table data collated from sources listed below and each brand’s individual Facebook page from Facebook.com. All data is as displayed via the relevant source as of March 2020. Table shows Primark has the second largest social following with 0.9M fewer followers than Topshop but with 4.5M more followers than Boohoo.