NetComm Forum 2024: our tools and insights for e-Commerce businesses
Hundreds of live demos at the booth, dozens of interviews with the protagonists of the Italian digital world, moments of confrontation and, of course, chats and lots of networking: we attended NetComm Forum 2024 and, as always, it was a fantastic experience to be together with so many friends and professionals! Let’s try to get our hands on our memories to tell what we brought home from this important event, one of the top events on the 2024 marketing calendar!
SEOZoom at NetComm Forum 2024: AI, Content Marketing and Data Driven SEO Approach
At a time when e-Commerce represents a pillar of the national economy, as confirmed by the data presented at the opening of the proceedings at MiCo in Milan, SEOZoom represents the strategic partner for companies to take full advantage of the opportunities of the digital market.
This was the message we brought to the 19th edition of Netcomm Forum, the two days full of meetings, debates and content – more than 350 speakers, 300 companies including sponsors and exhibitors, conferences, workshops and round tables on innovations and trends in ecommerce and technologies that are reshaping the customer journey and communication in the digital commerce sectors – that offered us the ideal opportunity to present all the exclusive features offered by our software.
And the feedback we got at the fair comforted us: we had the chance to meet hundreds of users interested in the tool, between those who participated in a live demonstration at the booth and those who, instead, “only” asked for information to the team present in Milan.
There was also no shortage of networking, with chats with so many – indeed, we can say the most influential SEO, digital marketing and online world professionals in Italy. Small spoiler: we interviewed most of these names, who told us their experience and point of view on the latest trends taking place in the world of content marketing and online work, with interesting and useful insights especially on the impact of Artificial Intelligence. And soon these interviews will be posted on our social channels!
The value of data for SEO
There’s more: we also interviewed our users and clients, whom we asked to tell a bit of their “story” with SEOZoom, including favorite tools and strategies used, to provide insights and application examples to draw inspiration from.
A common bottom line emerged: data is critical to SEO (and everyone agreed that they appreciate the accuracy and reliability of the data we provide)!
So too, speaking of data, particularly welcome was the opportunity reserved for NetComm visitors: requesting a comprehensive, automated SEO report with different levels of site analysis. To be precise, three specific documents provide solutions for improving performance based on hard data:
- Quick Audit, for an instant SEO overview. All the insights to understand at a glance the health of the site, with a list of priorities to act on to improve performance on Google.
- SEO Audit, to refine the site right away. The comprehensive technical SEO analysis, with a list of all the critical issues and errors present, which helps to clearly define the interventions to be performed to perfectly optimize the online business.
- Core Web Vitals, to check whether the site has good Core Web Vitals metrics, which are necessary to ensure a great user experience and be in line with what Google’s core ranking systems seek to reward.
SEOZoom tools for e-Commerce businesses
More generally, at the NetComm Forum we told precisely about our Data-Driven SEO approach, while also giving concrete demonstrations of how AI can be used as a complement to human ingenuity, leveraging its ability to analyze and understand to enrich digital marketing strategies.
Particularly attracting attentions were AI applications for writing texts, and in this sense our AI Writer certainly won acclaim, being the only content generator that combines AI and SEO to produce “SEO oriented” texts in seconds, optimized to meet the information needs of the audience and also suitable for the transactional and commercial intent of e-Commerce.
Positive reception from “insiders” also for AI Tools, a toolkit of irresistible text writing tools, represent another valuable resource for increasing visits, improving conversions and multiplying earnings with ease and speed. These tools, driven by SEOZoom’s algorithms, come with ready-made, SEO-optimized prompts and are perfect for solving specific problems with copywriting.
But broadening the analysis, what convinced NetComm Forum participants was our proactive approach to Artificial Intelligence applied to SEO and beyond. As our CEO Ivano Di Biasi said, “Our innovative insight is to make AI reason about specific data, not let it generate it in an open-ended way, so as to reduce hallucinations and create more targeted and accurate content.” Specifically, SEOZoom instructs the AI with SEO data and insights into what Google is liking about the best-positioned competitors: not just content, but also the structure of the information, topics covered, and tone of voice, so that it tailors responses to what you really need to succeed online.
This method also overcomes another common problem in the production of textual content for e-Commerce: generative AI tends to create informational and almost academic texts, while for sites active in online commerce, a focus geared precisely to sales, to the commercial aspect, is necessary. With SEOZoom’s AI Writer, then, it becomes “possible to generate a perfect SEO text in a few seconds on any topic, structured to respond in the form and topics covered to the informational urgencies of the audience performing a Google search, with the right tone and the right cut, even for transactional and commercial intents that interest e-Commerce,” Ivano further explained.
AI as an enabler of ideas
This means “using and having AI used as a complement to human ingenuity, leveraging its ability to analyze and understand to enrich e-Commerce marketing strategies. In this way we can use AI as an engine of reasoning and understanding to accompany our work,” Ivano Di Biasi concludes.
It may sound self-referential and arrogant, but this “vision” is perfectly in line with statements made by some of the leading experts invited to NetComm 2024. For example, Gianluigi Greco, President of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence and Coordinator of the Committee for the Update of the National Strategy on AI of the Presidency of the Council, called “AI an enabler of business, but also and above all an enabler of new ideas,” while Shalini Kurapati, Ceo of Clearbox AI, Researcher and Professor at the Polytechnic University of Turin, presented the results of a study on the subject,
“The global AI market in the retail sector will reach $31.1 billion by 2028, offering huge economic potential that needs to be exploited responsibly,” she said. But most importantly, AI development comes primarily through data, because “Data is the food of AI”: for it to serve its purpose, however, data must not only be of quality, but also treated according to robust ethical standards and regulations for the benefit of both consumers and businesses.
The state of e-Commerce in Italy: data and insights from NetComm Forum 2024
The way forward is therefore written in the ability to collect, process and use data, with respect to quality, privacy and ethics.
This is true for AI but also, more generally, for those who want to be competitive in the e-Commerce market: today more than ever it is necessary to invest in technology and data to understand the new interactions between users and brands and to develop increasingly personalized marketing and engagement solutions.
This is also confirmed by data from Netcomm NetRetail, the Netcomm research conducted in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano, BRT, Confcommercio Milano Lodi Monza e Brianza, EDI Confcommercio, FiloBlu, Magnews, Oney and Banca Sella.
There are 33.7 million Italians who shop online, an increase in the last 5 years of as many as 10 million. The interaction between the digital and traditional store worlds is becoming increasingly close, with nearly two in five consumers (38.9 percent) seeing their in-store shopping choices influenced by online elements. The trend toward purchasing via smartphones and other mobile devices is predominant, accounting for more than half (55.3 percent) of e-commerce transactions, while desktop computers and tablets stand at 48.1 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively.
The search for savings is the main driver for 36.9 percent of Italians who shop online, followed by loyalty to specific sites or applications (27.2 percent) and the variety of available offerings (26.2 percent).
Search engines are confirmed as the main influencers in e-commerce, cited by 55.9% of users, followed by brand sites or apps (50.4%), reviews (48.2%) and sales platforms (43.3%). Social networks (31.7%), push notifications (30.5%) and physical stores (24.9%) also play an important, though less decisive, role.
eRetailers, i.e., merchants operating exclusively online, dominate the market with 62.9 percent of sales, followed by manufacturers’ sites (18.6 percent), traditional stores that have expanded online (12.2 percent), price comparison sites (5 percent), and, finally, private sales and coupon portals (1.1 percent and 0.2 percent).
Digitization also strongly influences physical purchases, particularly for technology product categories such as smartphones (95.5 percent), electronic items (76.5 percent), home appliances (76 percent), sports equipment (69.6 percent), food delivery services (60 percent), household products (59.7 percent), furniture and housewares (55 percent) and toys (53.3 percent).
The effect also occurs in the opposite direction, albeit to a lesser extent: 25 percent of online purchases are inspired by direct experiences in physical stores, with a significant impact on online sales of home appliances (53.6 percent), furniture and household items (44.4 percent), footwear (43.5 percent), food delivery services (42.6 percent), and sports equipment (41.9 percent).
What do these data imply for the SEO management of an e-Commerce site?
In summary, these data highlight the importance of an integrated, user-focused SEO strategy that takes into account online and offline shopping habits and is able to adapt to the needs of a rapidly changing market.
As we often repeat, SEO is not just about search engine rankings, but a key element in connecting consumers with the products and services they are looking for, regardless of the sales channel, and therefore those running an e-Commerce site cannot neglect online shopper behavior and interaction with physical commerce.
In summary, the most interesting thoughts are:
- Importance of mobile. The prevalence of shopping via mobile devices underscores the importance of having mobile-optimized websites, not only to provide a good user experience, but also to improve search engine rankings, not least because Google uses mobile-first indexing.
- Influence of digital touchpoints. The fact that one-third of offline purchase decisions are influenced by digital touchpoints indicates that consumers often begin their purchase journey online. This behavior requires a robust strategy to ensure that products and services are easily found online.
- Relevance of search engines. Search engines are the most influential touchpoint for online purchases, which highlights the importance of an effective SEO strategy to increase visibility and attract qualified traffic to e-commerce sites.
- Reviews and content. Product reviews are a key factor in influencing online purchases. Having positive reviews and actively managing any feedback can improve online reputation and trust, as well as contribute to SEO through user-generated content and relevant keywords.
- The importance to be omnichannel. Integration between online and offline sales is still being developed, but it is clear that consumers expect a smooth shopping experience across channels. This requires an approach that considers all touch points, including websites, apps, and social media presences.
- Customization. The habit of buying from a certain site or app suggests that consumers value personalization and familiarity. We can leverage this through content personalization and targeted offers based on user behavior.
- Breadth of assortment. The importance of assortment breadth to users indicates that having a well-organized and easily navigable product range is crucial. SEO can help structure sites so that search engines can effectively index product pages, thereby improving their visibility.
