Our friend at L2 Think Tank, the luxury brands digital marketing experts, just published some interesting insights re the link between overall digital performance of these brands and their utilization of E-commerce.
Based on their research, E-commerce enabled brands perform way better than those who don’t sell their goods online.   The differences are significant:  e-commerce brands doubled the traffic growth of none e-commerce brands, and almost triple search growth.

Daniella Kaplan from L2 further explained that it is not that e-commerce is the cause of this increased performance but rather a driver. Brands who sell their goods online see direct connection between their digital marketing spending and their top line. As such, they excel in utilizing digital marketing channels.

For me, this data shows again that companies that see digital marketing as a business driver will have better chance in leading the pack compared to ones who use these platforms for brand awareness only. While online brand awareness takes many ques from traditional advertising playbook, e-commerce companies have to push the envelope in getting business results from digital channels. And while branding is hard to measure, dollars are easily counted.
This does not mean that e-commerce brands are the most creative ones necessarily. But creative thinking, though critical for online digital success, is only one part of the puzzle of creating a successful digital marketing operation. Integration of different channels and platforms, creation of a unified and coordinated marketing initiatives, while playing to the strengths of each platform becomes a huge challenge.

So to sum it up – money talks, BS walks!