UK retailer Asda is to focus on targeting their clothing range based on sudden changes based on the UK weather. With a focus on the inconsistent British weather, the grocery retailer has opted to embed key analytics dictated by changes in weather to fine tune how and what range of their clothing product should be targeted towards the consumer.

Focusing on their clothing range, George, which launched in the 90′s and has gone onto great success in being rolled out across the USA, the product provides a wide range of different garments that can be fine-tuned to be promoted depending on weather variances.

The Asda campaign will be promoted under the strapline: “Wear Your Summer” and rolled out through the orgnisaitons offline and online channels. For their online channels, it presents a perfect opportunity to capitalise on specific digital channels to help promote the George range dependent on changes in weather patterns.

Geo-targeting would be expected to be a key opportunity to maxmise the digital focus by providing Asda with Adwords, affiliate and email marketing campaigns around weather changes across the UK.

The theme of weather impacting retail follows a similar campaign run by DIY retailer B&Q who recently re-designed their homepage by categoring products which sell better dependent on changes in weather.

To celebrate the disastrous weather us Brits have had to endure throughout the start of 2013, we thought it appropriate to continue with our series of interviews with a company that perhaps benefits from the prevailing winds and rain soaked sodden land –  the Original Wellington Boot online store,  www.wellieboots.com

1)    When were Wellieboots founded and how did you come up with the concept?

“Barnack country clothes and wellieboots.com were established in 1992 as part of a farm diversification. one of the stone barns was converted in to a shop and when online shopping first began we launched our websites becoming the first online wellington boots supplier”.

2)    What was the inspiration behind Wellieboots?

“As wellies became more popular across the world, particularly the USA, we decided to dedicate a website to wellieboots and www.wellieboots.com was born. our range of Wellingtons has continued to grow from that day on”.

3)    How many people are employed at wellieboots.com?

“We have a small team of wellie boot enthusiasts, each able to offer comprehensive advice on our full range of boots and excellent customer service skills”.

4)    Where can you buy wellieboots products? e.g. mail order, web, mobile?

“We still have our original shop in barnack near stamford, lincolnshire which is open 7 days a week. our website www.wellieboots.com showcases our full range of wellies with speedy despatch on all orders. we also have a stand at the Land Rover Burghley Horse trials in Lincolnshire every year”.

5)    What amazing PR coverage or stories have wellieboots.com been involved in?

“We are regularly mentioned in local and national press as well as online features. we work with a number or charities in the uk and have supported projects in Romania and South Africa”.

6)    How does the good old UK weather impact your business?

“We love bad weather! and we are at our happiest when it rains or snows”.

7)    What tactics do you use to market your business and products and do you take the weather into account?

“We have a variety of marketing strategies depending on the time of year and weather including local and national publications and Google advertising”.

8)    Do you see a correlation between the weather and sales?

“Yes definitely, like a flick of a switch – when it’s raining orders flood in and during the summer the colourful festival wellies  take over”.

9)    Do you use the change in Weather patterns to influence your sales communications?

“We have to be quick to react to the changing weather and run seasonal promotions, communicate through social media, ensure our website is up to date with stock levels and delivery information”.

So there you have it, www.wellieboots.com is one business that takes advantage of the bad weather – so If you’re gearing up for this years summer music festivals be sure to check out wellieboots.com for the latest in wellie fashion when wading through the rain soaked fields at Glastonbury

The primary objective of Weatherlytics is to highlight the growing trend weather can play for digital marketing strategies and over the past year, we’ve brought together a number of examples, case studies and analysis of the impact specific weather parameters can influence strategies

A good deal of the feedback we receive is the fact there is a lack of tools to use to help optimise digital campaigns against the weather. One solution comes from digital media agency, Fast Web Media and the launch of their tool, weatherFIT.

Being prepared for adverse or unpredictable weather and being able to instantly respond to changes in the external environment is a most valuable tool for any business with “weather impacted products” and this is ever more prevalent when it comes to Pay-Per-Click (PPC).

Businesses using PPC should be striving to give customers exactly what they want when they want it, allowing them to be prepared for all occasions and remain fiercely competitive. But how many are factoring in the external weather conditions as an influence? The fact that Google AdWords doesn’t integrate weather conditions into its campaigns means this can only be done manually, which is a time consuming and labour intensive process.

This is when marketers at Fast Web Media realised there was an opportunity to capitalise upon the relationship between sales and weather and created weatherFIT

WeatherFIT is an award winning PPC Management Software designed to take advantage of the weather/sales relationship by retrofitting to existing Google AdWords accounts, enabling users to customise and refine their online advertising, geo-targeting individual campaigns through the addition of real-time UK weather data.

WeatherFIT is tailor made to enable easy use for customers who already hold an account with Google AdWords to help improve a campaign’s quality score, overall ROI and cost-per-click and its seamless integration with AdWords works as a wrapper on top of existing campaigns, meaning there is no need to change campaign structures or parameters. This enables advertisers to instantly exploit the online offering when hit by adverse or unpredicted weather, making online communication more accurate to the external environment.

The benefits of weather targeting a company’s marketing communications are clear: sending the right message at the right time, capturing an opportunity, reducing risk associated with weather, better quality stock control etc. and weatherFIT aims to cover all these points while offering a creative solution for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

weatherFIT is available at an annual subscription fee of £995; sign up today and receive 14 months for the price of 12!

Award winning digital marketing agency 7thingsmedia recently presented findings of an in depth study which assessed how the weather impacts online sales. Research consisted of looking at the number of their clients across our portfolio and specifically measuring within the female fashion sector. Various studies have been conducted on how the weather impacts traditional (offline) retail sales with Mintel recently completing an analysis on Gardening products indicating that “Wet and cold weather, particularly in the early part of the year, is particularly bad for sales of garden goods” and supermarket giant Tesco conducting their own research into how Supermarkets use weather predictions to decide what to stock

But there has been little analysis on how weather impacts the digital sector and specifically e-commerce which is remarkable considering in the first 2 weeks of December 2012 alone, consumers are expected to generate £4.6bn in online sales with 20% expected to be spent using mobile devices. This detailed analysis and findings report by 7thingsmedia provides a definite correlation to certain weather parameters impacting online sales in a positive way.

Weather analysis

3 yrs worth of online site-wide sales data was correlated with the corresponding days of weather. Importantly, rather than taking a generic view of how UK weather parameters impacted online sales data, this was disseminated by focusing on splitting the weather data into 15 major cities covering each region of the UK which included Aberdeen, Inverness, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Norwich, Cambridge, London, Bristol, Brighton, Southampton and Plymouth.  Specific Weather Parameters were then analysed which included Snow, Rain, Sleet and Fog.

Objectives of the Weather analysis

The key objectives of the study was to get a better understanding of does weather impact (positive / negative) to online sales? What weather system impacts peak sales? Do certain products sell better / worse at certain temperatures or events? and is there a North / South divide?  

Findings of the analysis

Key findings of the analysis concluded that:

• The highest grossing sales revenue day was not Black Friday or Cyber Monday but one of the coldest days (Sunday) recorded in November     
• 6 highest grossing days were when it was raining 
• As the temperature increased the less items we tend to buy, however  the higher the temperature the higher the amount we spend 
• There were optimal temperatures for specific products such as Casual skirts (19 degrees), Jeans (11 degrees and raining) and Swimwear had two optimal buying patterns based on the weather event.
• Bank holidays were affected by the weather with the warm weather of 2011 impacting sales greatly with footwear being the highest selling item during this holiday period          
• Manchester and Glasgow spent more as cities compared to London at the lowest comparable temperature (-4 degrees) but as soon as the temperature increased by 1 degree Londoners spent more than both Northern cities put together.

You can browse the full presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/7thingsmedia/stop-raining-on-my-parade-deck 

Sticking with the theme of rain (it does seem very apt at present!), we caught up with Sally, founder and brains behind this fascinating  niche raincoat company, Cambridge Raincoats - providers of stylish, all year round raincoats that should be in everyone’s wardrobe!

The company was formed in July 2010 and Sally came up with the concept after experimenting with various kinds of rainwear for her bike-based lifestyle – didn’t like anything I tried and couldn’t find what I wanted so I thought I’ll make it myself!

Continuing with our regular feature of interviews, Weatherlytics took some time out to interview Love Umbrellas, a UK based company that relies heavily on the impact of the good old British weather, specifically if it’s raining! Love Umbrellas have created bespoke brollies what ever the occasion…

Question: When were Love umbrellas founded and how did you come up with the concept?

Love Umbrellas (LU): Love Umbrellas was born in July 2011, when Elaine was getting married. We could not find anything ‘stand out’ for her wedding photos, we made some umbrellas for the big day, and then it grew and grew with customer demand.

Question: What was the inspiration behind loveumbrellas

LU: The inspiration was to make a little light of the unpredictable British weather we have, just a little something to make people smile, when they don’t really want to go out in the rain.

Question: Tell us more about the company, what’s the team and size of the company?

LU: Just the 2 of us!

Question: So where can we buy your products? e.g. mail order, web, mobile?

LU: You can order on our website – http://www.loveumbrellas.co.uk, and various online shopping sites. We have over 10 designs, and this is growing all of the time, we also offer a bespoke service for something wanting something very different. We also recently  won the ‘WOW’ (Women on Wednesday) award by successful business woman Jacqueline Gold.

Question: How does the good old UK weather impact your business?

LU: There is a serious buzz around Love Umbrellas when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and the photos, videos, and the orders come flooding through!

Question: What tactics do you use to market your business and products and do you take the weather into account?

LU: We always take the weather into account, and tailor our marketing depending on the weather.  We have a good following on Facebook and Twitter and we believe these are incredibly important to interact with our customers.

Question: Do you see a correlation between the weather and sales?

LU: Definitely – We see a large uplift in sales if it’s raining, and even more so if it’s been raining for a few days in a row – no-one likes the ‘drowned rat’ look – do they?

Question: Do you use the change in Weather patterns to influence your sales communications?

LU: Yes, why wouldn’t we? Our business relies on the weather, so we will often be quieter in communications when it’s not hammering it down with rain, and you’ll see us all over twitter when the heavens have opened!

So what ever the occasion, from weddings, to festivals, to jubilees or just to brighten up a murky day, Weatherlytics recommends you check out Love Umbrellas and go order yourself your own bespoke brollie!

The Rain Appreciation Society

With a break from our normal postings and to mark the wettest June on record, we were granted a backstage pass to speak with Martyn Scruby of the Weather Appreciation Society, their remit being: “If you love the rain and the beauty of the planet, you’ll love visiting the pages of the Rain Appreciation Society”. For all followers of rain you can join their membership program, benefiting from a range of incentives. As Martyn points out: “For every new membership to the Society we will donate £3 to WaterAid. Everyone deserves clean water, so please, join today and help us provide water for those who need it most”.

The Rain Appreciation Society is a place for people who enjoy a spot of rain filled activity to share their love for the wet stuff and have fun with like-minded  peers…They will be holding a poetry competition as well as monthly photography ones for all members of the Society. We all  hope to make the community a lot of fun and share all of your stories of the rain with us”.

Where can I find out more?

check out:

www.rainappreciationsociety

www.facebook.com/RainAppreciationSociety

@RainAppSociety

Welcome to the great British summer –  with a deluge of rainfall hitting the length and breadth of the UK,  severe weather warnings have been in overdrive. 

It’s a challenging time for high street retailers during this time as they experience a drop in footfall when rain becomes the order of the day. A recent article in the Guardian reflected that a drop in retail sales volume of 2.3% was in part due to April 2012 being a wash-out because of heavy rain directly contributing to this monthly plunge in sales.

However it’s not all doom and gloom for retailers, especially if you sell seasonal products and  what every household in the UK should own, the brolly. Fittingly, evidence of the first shop to retail the umbrella was based in Oxford Street, London which opened in 1830 by the company James Smith & Sons 

Fast forward 180 years and retailing umbrellas has evolved dramatically. A quick search on Google for “Umbrellas“ lists a multitude of  retailers listing a plethora of various sizes, shapes and colours of our nations must have accessory. 

Now more than ever you need to differentiate yourself and create a buzz within a saturated market. Step forward www.loveumbrellas.co.uk – an online retailer who specialises in the good old brolly by adding a twist and their own unique selling point, “creating unique, beautiful umbrellas for any occasion” 

Their exciting range of umbrellas and unique fit within this niche market sector is refreshingly not led by price but by offering something of added value to the customer, such as the ability to offer customisation for your favourite colour scheme or for a particular event you have planned, be it a wedding or sporting occasion you’re attending.

For any online retailer to capitalise on additional sales, factoring in the weather conditions to your analytics helps to make decisions in driving specific product lines that correlate to different weather parameters as proven in my previous posts on Pollen count and Pollen remedies or snow and winter clothing.

For product sales impacted by the rain, in this case umbrellas, there are a few tactics you can put in place to ensure you capitalise and below are a few thoughts…

Differentiate yourself from the competition

What’s your USP compared to the competition? Perform a Gap analysis on your competitors and identify ways to maximise your brand and product range? Try and be a little more creative than just offering the lowest price point, it’s not imaginative and it’s not a long term strategy. 

So you have created a niche in the market place – it’s now time to focus on what digital tactics you want to implement to support your product

Weather alerts

Set yourself up for Weather Alerts. There are a number weather providers that offer the facility to subscribe to email alerts associated with weather conditions affecting your product range.

A number of weather sites provide a forecast outlook. Use this to your advantage to plan in advance of changing weather patterns. Access and subscription to weather alerts will then provide you with actionable insights in driving the following digital tactics:

1) Affiliate Campaign

I mentioned in a previous post in creating a successful affiliate strategy, it’s essential to ensure you’ve created a targeted campaign around the product offering to your affiliate base focusing on such as:

*Set up and categorise the relevant rain affected products available and check stock inventory. There is nothing worse in creating a relevant category and not having sufficient stock to support your affiliate base.

*Communicate to your affiliates of the planned promotion and background due to the fact the specific weather patterns are expected to see an uplift in this product category.

*Are you looking to set a promotional commission rate and for how long? Has this been communicated to your affiliates?

*Landing Page

Create a dedicated landing page associated with this product range that has been optimised to provide a clear path to conversion. Make sure you’ve included and provided the product range (with sufficient inventory levels), included pricepoints, input of product description and conversion to sale with a clear click to purchase route

*Search campaign – Pay Per Click

Perform keyword research on identified keywords associated with Umbrellas and set up a campaign group targeting associated keywords. Depending when to launch and pause the campaign would depend on your analysis of weather alerts and forecast information.

*Search campaign – SEO

 From the creation of a dedicated landing page, look to optimise this page associated with the products and weather parameters dictating sales and create a link building strategy to target identified websites to deep-link to your product page.

*Email – Create a tailored campaign to target your customer base with key product lines and time the email delivery on your weather alerts so your potential customer receives the email in a timely fashion. Look to be creative in the email subject line to ensure appeal and achieve a healthy open rate and ensure the email features your range of targeted products

Social Media – The weather is one of our favourite subjects in the UK and there is no shortage of opportunities to get involved in promoting your product range through social media channels and be involved in discussions

UK Snow arrived during the first weekend of February 2012  gracing the UK with temperatures plummeting across the country and bringing public transport to a standstill with Heathrow having to take the decision of cancelling flights.

For online retailers, the arrival of UK snow provides a time to think creatively in promoting their product range to capitalise on the impact of a return to colder temperatures. Lessons were learnt from December 2010 when the UK experienced the coldest winter on record and with it, a number of examples of retailers utilising the extreme weather conditions to assist with their online marketing tactics to fuel additional sales.

Analysing the cold spell of 2012, Google trends provides an interesting snapshot in the increase in searches associated with “snow” at the tail end of 2011 and moving into the New Year as provided in the chart below. The chart refers to UK searches:

For online retail, the return of the cold weather provides a perfect time to push their product range associated with cold weather – an example of one such retailer to do this was through an email campaign received over the weekend from Men’s clothing retailer, Samuel Windsor with the headline on “Beat the Big Freeze”

For other online retailers, this is a perfect opportunity to capitalise on the extreme winter weather to also push their product range, retailers such as clothing, sporting goods and in house entertainment (as people decide to remain at home and opt for DVD/Music entertainment). 

With this in mind, below are a few digital marketing tactics online retailers could embrace to maximise their sales opportunities during the winter weather: 

*Google Adwords – Current analysis of  the competition for weather related keywords within adwords suggests a low competition i.e. there is minimum bid activity on some key search terms. Below is an image for generic “snow” related search terms – notice there is no PPC bidding activity around these terms – a perfect opportunity for a retailer to capitalise on a tactical adwords campaign?

For clothing retailers looking to target their product range (e.g. ski jackets, overcoats, scarves, hats) this is a perfect opportunity to promote their products and capitalise on the growing trend for searches associated with “snow” related keywords and phrases.

*SEO – Similar to an adwords campaign, retailers should look to create an optimised web page to use as a tactical promotion to target keywords and phrases. *Twitter – A tactical tool to target users and collaborate with other retailers/news sites by promoting your product range around relevant hashtags (e.g. #snow) Listed below is for Tweets associated with the snow

*Affiliates – Optimise your product feed/banner inventory associated with cold weather/snow to reach out to affiliates with your relevant range of products. A timely promotion but something your pool of affiliates could engage with in promoting a targeted range of products.

These are just a few suggestions on how to create a digital marketing strategy associated with the weather impacts, for further reading I would recommend an industry post by Econsultancy that lists in detail on how online marketers can adapt to the weather