Retail Slumping – NOW Is the Time to Grab More Market Share.

On Friday, October 27, Whirlpool shares ($WHR) closed -22% for the week. 

If the appliance manufacturer is a harbinger of trends to come, retail and consumer goods are about to get hammered.

It’s not what any e-commerce merchant wants to see – especially in the fourth quarter, when holiday sales can make or break a retailer’s year. But it is a reality brands must be prepared to face.

Excess consumer savings, which exploded in the wake of COVID, have now collapsed to 3.4% (the lowest this year), marking four straight months of decline.

New housing starts are down year-over-year (source), and mortgage applications have reached their lowest levels since 1995 (source). 

Credit markets are tightening while consumer credit card debt recently jumped $45 billion, setting a new all-time high of $1.031 trillion.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell continues to beat the drum of a “two percent inflation mandate,” and gives no indication of a rate cut anytime soon.

The current consumer economic situation is bleak and seems unlikely to change in the next few quarters. Many believe the U.S. is on the verge of announcing an official recession.

But it’s not all bad. This backdrop can provide opportunities for e-commerce brands willing to adapt and explore growth opportunities while their competition sticks to the status quo.

Expand Your Market Share With EKOM

One of Warren Buffet’s oft-repeated mantras is, “Be greedy when others are fearful.” In case there was any doubt about where we are in the cycle, you can check the Fear and Greed Index, which alternates between “Fear” and “Extreme Fear” these days.

So, is now the time to be “greedy?”

These specific market conditions may provide an ideal time for data-driven decision makers to cut into their competitors’ market share.

EKOM helps heads of SEO and e-commerce grab more market share from their competition by vastly improving the speed and quality of how digital assets are optimized for search. Think of EKOM as “dynamically optimized content as a service.”

Here’s how it works:

EKOM takes in data from your e-commerce store (whether you’re using a monolithic core software or a composable stack). This information is combined with search engine data and SEO analysis performed by leading search data providers. These inputs, combined with your brand’s unique voice and existing assets, provide real-time information that can be used to train EKOM’s AI to ensure the best recommendations for optimizing digital assets, such as page titles, product detail pages (PDPs) and more.

EKOM dynamically generates and optimizes content at scale, allowing heads of SEO and heads of e-commerce to rapidly obtain results that would otherwise lock up hundreds if not thousands of human labor hours. 

EKOM is not another SaaS that requires time-consuming training or maintenance on your team’s part. The integration with your existing digital asset management (DAM), product information management (PIM), or content management systems (CMS) is seamless. Publishing can be done with a single click – no code required. (Learn more about EKOM technology.)

Schedule a Walkthrough with EKOM

While other e-commerce stores batten down the hatches, EKOM users are applying the power of AI to their SEO strategy for better search visibility, click-through rates, and conversions.

In fact, one enterprise productivity software saw a 407% increase in overall traffic and a 12.21% increase in time-on-page within just days of implementing EKOM.

Want to see what EKOM can do for you in the midst of these economic headwinds? Schedule a walkthrough today.