When life gives you lemons, get a juicer: Squeezing out e-commerce value under tight economic conditions

When life gives you lemons, you can squeeze them all by hand or get yourself a juicer. Obviously, you go for the juicer since it does the hard work for you. Joke’s on the lemons, right? Well, that’s what we’re going to tell you about. But we’re not actually talking about lemons are we?

‍The Lemons

While the EU economy is still growing, we’re getting handed a few lemons. The European Commission growth forecast for 2023 has been revised downward from an initially projected 1% to just 0.8%, and the outlook for 2024 isn't much better, dropping from 1.7% to 1.4%. The euro area is also facing its share of sourness, with growth rates squeezed down to 0.8% for 2023 and 1.3% for 2024.

Inflation, another lemon in the basket, is expected to persist. The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is now projected to rise to 6.5% in 2023 and 3.2% in 2024 in the EU. For the euro area, expect inflation to reach a zesty 5.6% in 2023 and 2.9% in 2024.

For consumers, these lemons mean tightened budgets and a greater focus on value. The rising costs and reduced economic activity put pressure on households to make every penny count, creating a heightened need for more efficient and personalized shopping experiences.

The Juicer

When the economic landscape is riddled with lemons, you need a reliable 'juicer' to turn them into opportunities. That's where Clerk comes into play. It’s not just any e-commerce personalization platform; it's the ‘juicer’ that makes the most of your customers, allowing you to focus on scaling your business even in tough times.

Conversion Optimized Search and Recommendations: No More Manual Squeezing

Imagine trying to manually squeeze all the lemons life throws at you; it's exhausting and inefficient. Clerk's search and recommendation engine acts like a powerful juicer. The search function ensures that your customers find what they're looking for, while recommendations suggest alternative or additional items to add before checkout. In a tight market where every conversion or increase in average order value counts, Clerk’s platform is invaluable.

Adaptable Audience Segmentation: Lemonade or Orange Juice?

What if you also want to juice sweet oranges, that is, to reach the customers that aren’t so sensitive to inflation? Clerk's audience segmentation tool allows you to categorize your customer base effectively - so you can tell lemons and oranges apart! You can indeed tailor your marketing strategies to specific customers, like ones who are price elastic or have shown interest in a certain product. As a result, audience segmentation ensures that you can adapt to bitter economic trends but still focus to find sweet spots for growth.

Personalized Email Marketing: Juice - When & Where You Need It

Sour inflation rates can eat away at your profitability. Clerk adds some sugar to the mix by enhancing your email marketing with personalization. What does this mean? First of all, this tool helps you produce 1:1 tailored recommendations within emails. This way, you can leverage your existing customer relationships, mitigating the impact of rising costs. Personalized email marketing also empowers you to automate the process, thus reaching customers when they’re interested and saving you valuable time and attention.

Sweet, Sweet, Lemonade

During times of sour inflation and reduced growth, the Clerk ‘juicer’ is more than just a convenience - it's a necessity. Clerk's suite of features, from conversion-optimized search and recommendations to adaptable audience segmentation, not only helps your webshop adapt but also brings tangible benefits to consumers by offering them a personalized, efficient shopping experience. Every customer gets exactly what they're looking for, and you end up saving both time and money! Reach out today and make the most of an otherwise difficult situation.