Category: Articles

As eCommerce evolves toward more interactive and custom experiences, Preezie helps brands confidently navigate this transition. Born from a vision to bridge the gap between in-store and online shopping services, Preezie’s platform delivers conversational search, instant answers, tailored recommendations, product comparisons, and personalised sizing advice. Its innovative AI-powered shopping assistant successfully turns browsers into buyers. Now partnering with Preezie, LION Digital helps businesses benefit from conversational commerce capabilities that drive measurable results.

AI-Powered eCommerce Transformation

eCommerce is a very competitive landscape, and exceptional customer experiences are one effective way to differentiate a brand. Preezie’s platform transforms standard online shopping into interactive, personalised journeys and helps businesses strengthen customer trust, improve engagement, and dramatically increase conversions.

Replicating In-Store Service

Preezie’s platform goes beyond traditional search functionality by delivering human-like conversations. Shoppers can ask questions like “What goes with this jacket?” and the shopping assistant will provide accurate sizing and styling advice with AI-driven insights. Offering tailored product recommendations in real time and enabling direct add-to-cart actions from the chat, Preezie helps increase conversion rates by up to 110%. It also leverages cross-sells and dynamic bundling, improving average order value by 7%.

Tailored Support Across the Customer Journey

Preezie supports and guides shoppers every step of the way, from product discovery to final purchase decisions. The AI assistant operates within your tone and guidelines and handles all shopping interactions, including FAQs, shipping, and returns inquiries. It provides real-time support, reducing service tickets and call centre traffic and freeing staff for high-value tasks.

Quick Start and Seamless Integration

Preezie’s AI shopping assistant offers a straightforward setup, requiring no developer assistance. The platform automatically scrapes product data, maps attributes, applies brand styling, and implements guardrails to launch your AI assistant as quickly as possible. It integrates directly with your existing tech stack, whether you’re using Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, or a custom solution.

You can customise and optimise AI shopping assistant responses to suit your business goals. Detailed analytics from chat transcripts help uncover valuable shopper intent, pain points, and trends to inform broader marketing strategies and ensure revenue growth.

Proven Impact with Real Success Stories

Preezie’s powerful effect is best demonstrated through the success of Blue Bungalow, one of Australia’s leading fashion retailers. They wanted to replicate their personalised in-store shopping experience online, help shoppers navigate a vast catalogue easily. They needed a solution that would reduce pressure on support teams and find relevant product alternatives quicker, eliminating endless browsing.

Blue Bungalow achieved all that and even more by implementing Preezie’s conversational AI assistant. The results speak volumes:

• Time spent on site doubled
• Add-to-cart rate is up by 40%
• Conversion rate increased by 85% to 110%
• Average order value rose by 7%.

Rafaëlle Champagne, eCommerce Manager at Blue Bungalow, was impressed by the stats and Preezie’s capabilities, remarking: “You can shop our whole website without ever leaving the homepage!” And that’s an accurate description of how Preezie can transform your online store.

Enhancing LION Digital’s Services with AI Technology

LION Digital’s strategic partnership with Preezie offers a unique opportunity for clients to enhance their eCommerce experience with innovative AI-powered tools. You’ll gain access to a powerful platform that delivers:

• Fast deployment with automated setup.
• Instant personalisation through AI-driven sizing, styling, and product recommendations.
• Proven double-digit lifts in conversion rates.
• 24/7 automated support that slashes support tickets.
• Actionable shopper insights to fuel targeted optimisations.
• Seamless, brand-safe integration across all major eCommerce platforms.

While LION Digital excels at building and optimising stores, running multi-channel campaigns, fine-tuning UX, and driving targeted traffic to your store, Preezie seamlessly integrates to capture those visitors and turn them into buyers.

Together, we deliver measurable uplift across lead generation, on-site engagement, and post-purchase satisfaction, driving revenue growth for medium and large eCommerce businesses.

Contact LION Digital to Boost Your Revenue Growth

At LION Digital, we pride ourselves on hand-selecting quality partners that can amplify our customers’ performance. Our collaboration with Preezie is your chance to increase traffic acquisition and transform it into conversion growth. 

Contact LION Digital today to schedule your personalised consultation. Our team of eCommerce specialists will evaluate your current setup and identify key opportunity areas where conversational AI can drive immediate impact for your brand.

Take the next step in your digital commerce evolution and see how AI-powered shopping assistance can enhance your customer experience, boost conversion rates, and increase average order values across your entire product catalogue.

Digital marketing success for eCommerce relies on accurate measurement and optimisation of marketing initiatives. Marketers use a long list of metrics and calculations to track and drive marketing efficacy, although the main goal is always the same: driving revenue. At the same time, two metrics, ROAS and MER, have recently dominated strategic decision-making in measuring and optimising growth.

The Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) each offer a unique lens for evaluating marketing performance. These metrics help you measure the effectiveness of your advertising efforts and make smarter strategic and tactical decisions across channels. While they serve different purposes, MER and ROAS may seem similar, so it’s easy to get confused about which one to use. That’s why understanding when and how to apply each metric is essential in the path of driving growth.

This article will define MER and ROAS in marketing, consider their principal differences, and clarify when and why Marketing Efficiency Ratios vs Return on Ad Spend should be used.  

What is MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio) in marketing?

MER (Marketing Efficiency Ratio, sometimes called “Media Efficiency Ratio”) is the highest-level blended metric related to marketing performance, providing a holistic view across all channels. By definition, the primary meaning of MER in marketing is to express marketing efficiency on a business scale and not be limited to a separate marketing campaign scale. MER is a holistic metric for the overall strategy taken care of at the CMO level.

How to calculate MER?

MER metric evaluates overall marketing efficiency by comparing total revenue generated from all marketing efforts against the business’s total marketing expenses, including marketing costs. Therefore, the calculation of the Marketing Efficiency Ratio could be done by dividing the total revenue generated by marketing by the total spend on marketing channels involved in developing this revenue:

MER = TOTAL MARKETING REVENUE / TOTAL MARKETING SPEND

For instance, a business that invested $100,000 in all digital marketing channels, including but not limited to social media and email, generated a $500,000 return. The Marketing Efficiency Ratio is equal to five, or $5 for every dollar invested. 

What is ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) in marketing?

ROAS is a lower-level granular metric that provides an overview of marketing efficiency on a channel, campaign, specific format, or whatever scale you prefer. The meaning of the ROAS for eCommerce marketing is highlighting short-term performance and profitability by demonstrating the immediate revenue generated for each dollar spent on a specific campaign or channel. 

ROAS calculation for paid ads

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) measures the revenue generated per dollar spent on a specific marketing unit. To calculate ROAS in marketing, simply divide the revenue generated by a single Paid channel or campaign by the total ad spend of the same channel or campaign:

ROAS = TOTAL AD CAMPAIGN REVENUE / TOTAL AD CAMPAIGN SPEND 

For instance, a business that invested $20,000 in Ads on Amazon generated a $100,000 return. The Return On Ad Spend is five or $5 for every dollar invested.

Difference between ROAS vs MER

By now, the difference between MER and ROAS should be evident. To sum up:

When to Use MER vs ROAS

The advantage of using MER is its simplicity in quickly assessing the financial health of marketing efforts. MER could be applied in decision-making when the marketing budget is tight; there is a need to highlight results for investors or evaluate choices applied throughout omnichannel campaigns, such as changing the messaging, launching an initiative to a new audience, rebranding, or expanding to a new market. MER may help you to understand whether the exact change made across all channels actually impacted the results on the business scale. MER is better when scaling brand, evaluating blended performance or working with hard-to-attribute channels such as social media influencers or email. 

However, ROAS would help when you need to zoom in to determine what impact those changes made to separate channels and which channels reacted the best to the experiments. Thus, if you need to enhance campaign performance by uncovering trends and opportunities, optimising the budget allocation relying on concrete data, or achieving better results by focusing the resources on the best-performing campaigns, ROAS is your metric. It is indispensable when testing ad creatives, managing search engine marketing and social ad campaigns, and operating on a tight budget.

Developing proficiency in both metrics allows businesses to balance short-term marketing wins and long-term revenue increases. If you need help choosing the right metrics applicable to your business processes, LION’ seasoned eCommerce digital marketing consultants would guide you on this path.

Want more sales on Amazon? It starts with showing up where people are ready to buy. 

Selling on Amazon is becoming more and more competitive; just having a product for sale is no longer enough to succeed. You need to find a way to stand out in crowded markets. This involves leveraging Amazon SEO to make your a product listings rise to the top of Amazon’s search results.
This guide covers how Amazon search engine optimisation works, as well as the ranking factors, and actionable Amazon SEO strategies to grow your rankings, find more customers, and grow sales. Are you ready to accelerate your revenue growth on Amazon? Read on.

What Is Amazon SEO & Why Does It Matter?

In contrast to Google, Amazon’s A9 search ranking algorithm favours hyper-relevancy and sales velocity. 

In an environment where millions of products are vying for attention, learning the art and science of Amazon search engine optimisation is fundamental to boosting traffic and conversions on the world’s largest buyer search engine. No matter whether you’re a new seller or an established brand, you need to understand Amazon seller SEO strategies in order to drive organic traffic and sales.

Let’s start with the meaning of Amazon search engine optimisation, the Amazon search ranking methodology and useful techniques to raise your Amazon SEO ranking for best profit potential.

How Amazon’s Search Engine Works

The A9 algorithm from Amazon determines what products show up in search results based on relevancy and performance. While Google uses backlinks and domain authority, Amazon A9 relies on:

• Keywords: Titles, bullet points, Amazon page meta descriptions and meta titles, and backend search terms.
• Sales Performance: Best-selling products generally rank higher.
• Customer Experience: Reviews, ratings, and fulfilment method also impact ranking.

In order to maximise your income on Amazon, you need to analyse your sales performance and optimise your listing keywords for SEO. Engaging the services of an Amazon SEO company will help you develop a better strategy for ranking higher in the Amazon search results, thus giving you significantly more visibility.

Key Elements of Amazon SEO Optimisation

Your success selling on Amazon relies on three significant aspects: market keyword research, competitive pricing, and product listing information.

1. Keyword Optimisation

Keywords are the foundation of an Amazon SEO strategy. As an Amazon seller it’s crucial you discover and optimise for the most searched terms on Amazon — for your particular product niche.

Where to include keywords:

• Product Title: Include primary keywords naturally.
• Bullet Points: Highlight key features using primary and secondary keywords.
• Description: Reinforce benefits and strategically use keywords throughout.
• Backend Search Terms: Add hidden keywords for targeted visibility.

2. Product Listings Optimisation

A well-optimised product listing includes:

• High-Quality Images: Clear, professional photos with engaging graphics improve click-through rates and conversion.
• Compelling Titles: Make your titles highly benefit focused while also using Amazon SEO keywords naturally.
• Bullet Points & Descriptions: Use engaging, keyword-rich content that highlights benefits and addresses buyer objections.
• Enhanced Brand Content (A+ Content): Improves conversion rates and brand trust.

3. Pricing & Competitor Analysis

Price is important to Amazon buyers. Pricing and competitor analysis involves examining your competitors’ pricing strategies to ensure your products are competitively priced while maximising profitability.

Amazon Buy Box & Pricing

The Buy Box is a crucial element for driving sales on Amazon. It’s the box on a product page where customers can easily click “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now.” Winning the Buy Box means your product is the default option for buyers, giving you a much higher chance of making a sale. If you’re not featured in the Buy Box, your chances of generating sales are significantly reduced, as most customers tend to purchase from the seller displayed there.

The Buy Box algorithm takes into account price, seller performance metrics, seller fulfilment method (FBA vs. FBM), and seller inventory. If your product is priced higher than your competition’s product with similar ratings and fulfilment method, your odds of winning the Buy Box go down. Regular price optimisation becomes an essential rather than an option.

Dynamic Pricing Strategies for Higher Rankings

To maximise visibility and conversions, consider these pricing strategies:

• Rule-Based Repricing: Adjusts prices according to seller-defined parameters, hence enabling price competition without actively controlling the process.
• AI-Driven Repricing: Optimises pricing using machine learning depending on current data.
  Value-Based Pricing:  Rather than competing only on price, use its higher premium by emphasising the quality, features, or bundled services.
• Brand Registry: Using Amazon Brand Registry you can have more control of your listing and limit other buying options from competitors.

Through thoughtful analysis of competing prices, revising your pricing model, and utilising repricing systems, you can improve your Amazon search ranking and sell as much as possible.

Amazon SEO Strategies for Higher Rankings

By conducting thorough competitor pricing analysis, adjusting your pricing strategy, and utilising the right repricing tools, you can unlock the full potential of your Amazon account and maximise sales.

1. Increase Sales Velocity: The Fastest Way to Rank Higher

Amazon’s algorithm plays a key role in determining which products are displayed first. Sale velocity refers to surpassing sales targets, but achieving them within a shorter time frame.

Methods to Enhance Sales Velocity:

• PPC for Amazon: Use Amazon SEO services like Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands to drive traffic.
• Coupons and Lightning Deals: These discounts increase sales volume tremendously.
• Optimised Listings: The higher your listing, the better your chances of conversion.

More sales → Higher ranking → More visibility → Even more sales.

2. Improve Click-Through Rate (CTR): Winning More Clicks

Irrespective of how well your product is performing in search rankings, a click will only be guaranteed if the item is eye-catching. The factors that influence CTR comprise of:

• Titles crafted around and emphasising benefits
• Professional images (use your main image strategically to catch buyers attention and entice a click)
• Pricing that aligns with the rest of the market
• Have a review generation strategy in place to increase to quality and quantity of your Amazon reviews. 

If your click through rate (CTR) is low it signals enough activity to Amazon that customers are not interested and they will lower your ranking.

3. Enhance Conversion Rate (CVR): Turning Clicks Into Sales

High conversions tell Amazon that your product is relevant and valuable, leading to better rankings.

Amazon SEO Tips to Improve CVR:

• Encourage Reviews: More positive reviews increase trust and conversions.
• Fast, Reliable Shipping: Products with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) often convert better due to Prime eligibility.
• Answer Customer Questions: Addressing common concerns helps build confidence in your product.

4. Utilise Amazon Advertising: Paid Strategies for SEO Boost

While organic rankings are desirable, Amazon PPC ads can be important for allowing product visibility. And utilising Amazon SEO services such as Sponsored Products or Display Ads can allow new products to find traction.

Best Practices for Amazon Advertising:

• Target High-Intent Keywords: Focus on keywords with strong buying intent.
• Optimise Ad Copy: Clear, concise messaging improves click-through rates.
• Adjust Bids Dynamically: Monitor ad performance and optimise based on ROI.

5. Monitor & Adjust: The Key to Long-Term Success

Amazon SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it process. Regular monitoring is essential to maintain high rankings.

What to Track:

• Keyword Rankings: Are your products ranking for high-traffic terms?
• Sales Performance: Are certain products underperforming?
• Competitor Changes: Has a competitor lowered prices or optimised their listing? Or perhaps there are new competitors entering the market.

Using Amazon SEO tools to track data and adjust strategies ensures sustained growth.

Drive More Sales with Amazon SEO

Understanding SEO marketing on Amazon offers the seller a higher chance of gaining visibility and being able to sell. Mastering Amazon SEO, properly crafted product listings, Amazon SEO marketing instruments, and competitive pricing enables the seller to draw in customers and drive more revenue. You need to change your strategies, conduct keyword research, and optimise listings constantly to maintain competitiveness.

If you are ready to maximise your sales and visibility potential, let the experts help. Visit LION Digital and explore our Amazon Marketing Services to help take your Amazon business to the next level.

FAQs

What does clearer.io provide in a nutshell? Why would an eCommerce client want to use your services?

“Discover smart growth with clearer.io. In the complex world of eCommerce, we rise above the competition to give you a clearer view.”

Clearer.io is the parent brand behind a collection of powerful, easy-to-integrate eCommerce tools  –  including REVIEWS.io, Influence.io, Boost, Address Validator, Rich Returns, and ViralSweep.

Each app is purpose-built to enhance a different moment in the customer journey,  from product discovery and trust-building to conversion and retention. Whether it’s helping shoppers find the right product, validating addresses at checkout, or creating a smoother return process, our tools work together to unlock smarter growth.

We help brands rise above the noise, optimize performance, and deliver an eCommerce experience that’s both seamless and standout.

What do you do and how do you deliver?

We support eCommerce businesses by improving how their products are found, explored, and purchased. Each of our apps is focused on a core challenge within the shopper journey, from smarter on-site search and personalised recommendations to social proof, referrals, and returns.

Everything is designed to be easy to adopt, integrate, and scale. But what really sets us apart is how we deliver. We don’t just hand over the tools and leave clients to figure things out. We become partners,  working closely with brands to identify their pain points, tailor the right tech stack, and optimize for long-term growth.

Delivery is remote, flexible, and led by real people –  experts who understand both the tech and the commercial realities of eCommerce.

What led to clearer.io being created?

We saw an opportunity in the market: eCommerce teams were working with disconnected tools, struggling to get support, and burning time trying to make things work together. Growth was possible, but unnecessarily hard.

Clearer.io was created to simplify that picture. We brought together a suite of best-in-class apps under one brand, backed by expert guidance, to help brands cut through the noise and get straight to what works.

What aspects of your service suit eCommerce business owners/operators?

• Stronger Discovery: Tools like Boost and REVIEWS.io help customers find what they’re looking for, and trust what they see.
  
• Plug-and-Play Simplicity: Quick to implement and easy to manage. No bloated platforms or long dev cycles.
  
• Optimised Journeys: From first impression to final mile, our apps help refine every key conversion point.
  
• Built to Scale: Ideal for fast-growing, mid-to-large brands looking for efficiency and performance.
  
• Human Support: Every client works with a dedicated partner who understands their business and goals,  not just another support queue.
  

How does clearer.io complement LION’s offering?

LION is exceptional at Digital Transformation & driving high-quality traffic through performance marketing. clearer.io ensures that traffic converts through sharper on-site experiences, smarter product discovery, and seamless customer journeys.

We’re the next step in the funnel. While LION brings the audience, we make sure they stay, shop, and come back. Together, we create a powerful end-to-end growth engine for eCommerce brands, performance marketing and performance experience.

Who have we worked with?

Some of the amazing brands we’ve helped grow include:

• Waterdrop
• Sage and Page 
• Koh
  

Case Study Highlight – Sage and Page
Australian fashion brand Sage and Paige partnered with us to improve how customers navigate and discover products on their Shopify store. By implementing Boost Product Filter & Search, they created a faster, more intuitive shopping experience – especially for customers filtering by size, colour, and price.

The results? A 4x increase in site search usage within just two months. With enhanced filtering, instant search results, and smart merchandising features, Sage and Paige made it easier for shoppers to find what they love, and convert faster.

👉 Read the case study

Why partner with clearer.io?

Discover smart growth with clearer.io.

In the complex world of eCommerce, we rise above the competition to give you a clearer view. Our suite of innovative, easy-to-integrate apps—REVIEWS.io, Influence.io, Boost, Address Validator, Rich Returns, and ViralSweep—helps unlock smarter growth, enhance discovery, and create an optimal eCommerce experience.

• We bring clarity to complexity.
• Our tools deliver tangible impact, not just features.
• You get real support from real people.
• Everything we do is built to drive growth.
• We help you turn your store into a smarter, faster, more trusted place to shop.

In a noisy digital world, clearer.io helps your brand stand out with clearer tools, smarter support, and better results.

Digital marketers commonly consider many granular marketing metrics that reflect most of the indirect campaign success indicators. However, digital marketers and business owners are more concerned with metrics that directly reflect campaign effectiveness, such as ROI (Return on Investment) and ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend).

In this article, we explore marketing ROAS and ROI topics and answer questions such as: What are ROI and ROAS? What are their differences in impact? How do you calculate these advertising performance metrics? Why is it important to measure both ROI and ROAS? If not, when and why should we focus only on one of these metrics?

What is ROI in Marketing?

Return on Investment (ROI) in marketing measures how marketing initiatives that affect profit and revenue growth. Assessing ROI allows for evaluating the overall contribution of marketing efforts or specific campaigns to revenue growth. In a nutshell, it calculates how much revenue every dollar spent, generates.

ROI on marketing investment helps illustrate the effectiveness of marketing costs and drives informed decisions on efficient budget allocation across marketing activities and campaigns. When ROI is clearly defined for each marketing strategy, it helps make strategic decisions toward overall business profitability and how it contributes to increasing revenue.

How to calculate ROI marketing?

Return on Investment is the profit divided by the investment. ROI can be calculated granularly across the digital landscape or by individual activities/channels. 

ROI = (REVENUE – INVESTMENT) / INVESTMENT 

For instance, a business that invested $10,000 in Blended Search Marketing generated a $50,000 return. The Return On Investment is four times or $4 for every dollar invested.

Investment should include Agency Retainer and Ad spend if applicable.

What is ROAS in Marketing?

The return on ad spend (ROAS) metric in marketing measures the revenue generated divided by the investment and it refers to the success of advertising. ROAS measures the effectiveness of ad spend by expressing the marketing campaign’s ability to drive conversions and sales in factual numbers. For businesses, ROAS justifies the budget investment in specific marketing campaigns by highlighting significant outcomes derived from those campaigns.

How to calculate ROAS in digital marketing?

ROAS = REVENUE / AD SPEND 

For example, a business that invested $10,000 in Advertising generated a $50,000 return. The Return On Ad Spend is five times or $5 for every dollar invested.

ROAS vs ROI: Key differences in measurement and impact

From the first outlook, ROI and ROAS are similar metrics. However, there are significant differences:

The most important consideration is that ROAS calculates the return on investment for a specific ad campaign, while ROI measures the total return on the entire investment. Although ROAS calculates how much revenue is generated for every dollar spent on advertising, it is still essential to remember that there are agency service fees, retainers to manage the advertising or marketing team member salaries, marketing software subscription costs, rewards, etc. 

For example, a business spends $10,000 on SMM Advertising plus a $5,000 management retainer to generate $45,000 in Revenue.

ROAS = $45,000 / $10,000 = 4.5

Return On Ad Spend is $4.5 for every dollar spent.

ROI = ($45,000 – $15,000) / $15,000 = 2

Return On (Total) Investment is $2 for every dollar invested.

Since not all marketing expenses are included in measuring it, ROAS almost always being higher than ROI is evident.

Why is it important to measure both ROI & ROAS?

Measuring both ROI & ROAS is important since they’re different by definition and design and depict the view on different scales. ROI provides a broad strategic view of ultimate results after covering all expenses. In contrast, ROAS measures the outputs of an individual ad campaign, which makes it a more tactical metric.

For instance, measuring Return On Ad Spend is prevalent in Search Engine Marketing (SEM/PPC) to demonstrate marketing campaigns’ efficiency and outcomes. However, it’s also critically important to measure Return On Investment to assess the effectiveness of the investments in this channel as a whole, considering all costs that running the SEM campaigns implies. 

When to focus on ROI vs ROAS for business decision-making

ROAS can be focused on when there is an evaluation required for the advertising efficiency, for example channel performance across performance media such as Google Ads or Meta Ads. ROAS can be used to compare campaign performance side by side and make business decisions based on campaign investment.

ROI can be used to understand the full profitability of a campaign, taking into consideration all costs involved. It can be used to understand bottom-line impact and not just revenue generated, as it takes into consideration all costs, fees and operational costs.

It is important to take into consideration both ROAS and ROI when analysing and deciding how the business moves forward with their investment from both these perspectives in order to improve overall marketing efficiency and effectiveness.

LION is excited to welcome Techweave as the latest addition to our Partnership Program, bringing their deep expertise in back-office software solutions to support the seamless integration of inventory, warehouse, and accounting systems for eCommerce brands.
With a team boasting decades of combined experience, Techweave understands the complexities that businesses face behind the scenes. Their hands-on approach ensures that retailers have the right technology in place to efficiently manage operations and scale with confidence.

Who is Techweave?

Techweave is a specialist retail and eCommerce solutions provider with expertise in Shopify POS, Inventory Management, Warehouse Management, and Accounting Integrations.

Unlike many software consultants, Techweave truly understands retail because they’ve been on the front lines themselves. With Trent owning a retail business and Adam bringing over a decade of eCommerce development experience, they know the challenges firsthand and have built solutions tailored for retail and eCommerce businesses.

Techweave helps clients through the entire process. From discovery to implementation, go-live, and ongoing support, they ensure businesses have the right systems in place to scale efficiently.

How Techweave Helps eCommerce Businesses

Techweave specialises in integrating back-office systems that streamline business operations including:

1. Shopify POS Implementation – Ensuring a seamless point-of-sale experience that integrates with inventory and finance systems.
2. Inventory & Warehouse Management – Helping businesses track stock accurately, optimise logistics, and improve fulfillment.
3. Manufacturing & Supply Chain Solutions – Assisting businesses with managing production workflows and supplier interactions.
4. Accounting & Reporting Integration – Connecting financial systems to ensure accurate reconciliations and real-time business insights.

Techweave’s Approach

Techweave takes a structured, hands-on approach to every project, ensuring solutions are tailored to each business’s unique needs. They oversee projects from start to finish with the same meticulous attention to detail that defines their work. This approach includes:

1. Discovery & Documentation – Every project starts with onsite in-depth analysis  and documentation of key business processes and project requirements. 
2. End-to-End Project Implementation – From software selection to implementation, go-live, and beyond, Techweave guides businesses every step of the way.
3. On-Site Training & Support – Unlike many providers who operate remotely, Techweave prioritises on-site delivery to ensure teams are trained and fully supported.
4. Flexible Ongoing Support – Support is built into every project, with discounted support packages available for clients needing long-term remote assistance.

Why Techweave?

Techweave was founded to fill a gap in the market—offering high-quality system implementation without the enterprise-level price tag.

While large corporations have access to expensive ERP solutions, mid-sized businesses often struggle to find an affordable yet powerful system that integrates seamlessly. Techweave’s structured approach delivers enterprise-grade solutions at a fraction of the cost, helping eCommerce brands gain control over their operations without overspending.

Techweave was started by four industry experts from retail, eCommerce, and accounting backgrounds, who saw an opportunity to combine their skills to provide end-to-end technology solutions for growing businesses.

How Techweave Can Support LION’s Clients

LION is dedicated to delivering high-performance front-end eCommerce solutions, and Techweave ensures the back-end systems are just as strong.

Techweave partners with agencies like LION to ensure that inventory, finance, and fulfilment systems are fully integrated with the customer-facing website, so brands can:

• Offer seamless customer experiences from checkout to delivery.
• Keep inventory accurate and prevent stockouts or over-selling.
• Ensure financial data is reconciled and provide real-time business insights.
• Streamline fulfilment and warehouse operations to improve order efficiency.

Some of the brands Techweave has worked with include:

• Carla Zampatti
• Taylors Wines
• Above the Clouds
• Up There Store

Together with LION, Techweave can enable eCommerce brands to scale smarter, operate efficiently, and maximise profitability with an integrated tech ecosystem.

The Benefits of Partnering with Techweave

Techweave isn’t just a software provider—they’re a true business partner committed to ensuring long-term success. They offer:

• Decades of hands-on retail and eCommerce experience – Deep industry knowledge to help businesses make the right tech decisions.
• Full-service implementation & support – From discovery to go-live, Techweave handles the entire process.
• On-site delivery & training – Ensuring businesses are fully equipped to use their systems effectively.
• Flexible, ongoing support – Techweave remains invested in keeping systems running smoothly post-launch.

LION is proud to partner with Techweave to provide eCommerce brands with the best of both worlds—cutting-edge front-end experiences backed by a robust and reliable back-end system.

During economic uncertainty, eCommerce remains resilient. In 2024, eCommerce made up about 20% of all retail sales worldwide, and by 2027, it’s expected to hit almost 22%. With that kind of growth, it’s clear that selling online is a smart move for any brand.

Yet, with so many online marketplaces out there, do you really need your own eCommerce website? The short answer: Yes! While marketplaces give you access to a wider audience, having your own branded eCommerce website puts you in control. Even small businesses and startups can strengthen their brand awareness and compete in expanding markets with a sustainable customer experience. An eCommerce website allows you to own your customer data, use various multimedia to showcase your products and connect with your audience through multiple channels without relying on third-party platforms.  

The foundation of a successful eCommerce site comes down to a few key elements. These include intuitive and accessible information architecture (IA) to deliver a clear and easy-to-navigate site layout, a well-organised page hierarchy, and landing pages that grab attention and drive sales. You’ll also need smart eCommerce customer segmentation models to personalise the shopping experience. Let’s break down each of these in detail.  

Information Architecture

Website information architecture (IA) defines how the user interface is arranged. Efficient IA makes it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for with logically organised content, starting from broad categories and shrinking towards specific categories, products, services or articles. Apart from enhancing the user experience with a smoother shopping experience, it helps search engines understand your site when crawling and indexing the pages to help your site rank higher in SERPs.

Key steps to create an effective information architecture for the eCommerce website:

1. Find the right target keywords with higher search volume and lower competition based on core topics. Then, group a list of search terms and phrases into relevant categories and product names to make it easier to optimise your content.
2. Organise your categories smartly and structure your website logically so it makes more sense for customers. Group certain categories, products, services, and articles so users can browse them effortlessly. Hierarchically plan out your key pages—like the homepage, about us, and contact pages—then map the minor pages like category and product, service or information pages.  
3. Build a simple, easy-to-use menu structure that clearly reflects the main categories of the eCommerce website. Use logical links to ensure other navigational elements easily connect pages, including product pages’ automated links. Use keywords strategically in page titles and navigation links to highlight the high-value content. Your menu is the guide that helps customers find what they need quickly while prioritising the pages that hold the most importance. 
4. Refine the navigation flow, ensuring users can move seamlessly through your eCommerce website. Every click should feel natural, navigating easily without confusion or frustration. Poor navigation is one of the main reasons users leave the page and the website—so keep it smooth and straightforward. 

The Power of Visual Hierarchy in eCommerce: Design for Clarity

Visual hierarchy uses size, colour, and placement to direct the viewer’s attention to important information. An eCommerce website with a well-designed visual hierarchy makes it easy for visitors to navigate, drawing attention to key elements such as product categories, calls to action, and essential information and products, services, and information without frustration. Good design isn’t just about how the site looks; it is critical because it directly affects user experience and, ultimately, sales. 

Website visual hierarchy principles rely on common sense and best practices. For instance, best practices recommend that action buttons be green or blue, whereas premium buttons be gold or purple. 

Big eCommerce players like eBay and Amazon are masters of visual hierarchy, knowing even small design tweaks on their sites can significantly impact sales. Given the scale of the daily traffic on these eCommerce platforms, small businesses can apply the same principles by studying what works on these platforms. Following these giants, SMEs can help create a seamless shopping experience, boost conversions and build customer loyalty.

eCommerce Landing Pages: The Key to Conversions

When prospective customers click through ads or other marketing campaigns, they are sent to landing pages. An eCommerce landing page is a fundamental part of the sales funnel, unlike a regular product or category page. It is designed for one specific goal—to take action! Make a purchase, sign up for a subscription, download an app, or begin a free trial. Every element of the landing page is meant to motivate that action without the distraction of extra navigational links.

So why are landing pages vital for an eCommerce website? 

• They boost ROI on paid traffic: When users click an ad, they already have a clear intent. A well-crafted eCommerce landing page ensures they find exactly what they’re looking for, increasing the chances of conversion. Paid traffic visitors’ have a higher expectation to land on a page related to their search, so it’s important to build them into your marketing campaigns. High-quality landing pages can lower your cost-per-click in search engine marketing campaigns like Google Ads.
• They’re perfect for testing: Since landing pages are built for marketing campaigns, they’re a great place to experiment. A/B testing different images, headlines, or CTAs (calls to action) can reveal what resonates most with your audience. If Image A outperforms Image B on your landing page, chances are it will work better in social media ads, too.
• They allow precise targeting: You can create multiple complementary landing pages tailored to customer segments or campaign goals. Customising aesthetic elements like headlines, value propositions, images, and CTAs makes each page more relevant to its specific audience, increasing engagement and conversions.  
• They are easy to build: Modern CMS platforms and landing page builders make it simple to create and customise landing pages with templates and drag-and-drop tools. Research shoes that business websites with 10 to 15 landing pages can achieve a 55% increase in conversions compared to those with fewer than 10.

What Makes a Landing Page Effective?

Key attributes of effective landing pages and best practices:

1. Fast loading times: In today’s modern marketplace, nobody likes waiting! Use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check your page speed and keep things quick so visitors can complete the action without any temptation to leave. 
   Simple ways to improve landing page load speed include:
   – Compressing images
   – Optimising the code 
   – Minimising the animation 
   – Minimising plug-ins and apps 
2. Clean, responsive design: Keep it simple, use bullet points to break up text, and remove anything that doesn’t serve the page’s main goal. A mobile-responsive design is vital as it directly affects conversions. Since mobile users account for almost 62% of web traffic, if it’s not mobile-friendly, you’re losing sales. 
3. A clear, compelling headline. Your landing page headline should instantly tell visitors what they’ll get. Follow this with a strong subheading highlighting the value—whether it’s a special offer, free resource, entertainment or exclusive content. Keep sentences short, clear, and confident. 
4. One clear call to action (CTA): Too many choices can overwhelm visitors. Your landing page should focus on one single CTA—whether it’s “Claim your discount,” “Buy now,” or “Sign up”. Use action-driven text that makes it clear what the user is getting, and avoid generic CTA buttons that distract the focus, like “Complete” or “Submit”. 
5. Eye-catching visuals: A great hero image or video grabs attention and reinforces your message. Product demos, screenshots, GIFs, customer images and videos diversify the content and help engage different types of learners to keep people interested. 
6. Social proof: People trust other eCommerce customers more than brands. Communicating the benefits through customer reviews, testimonials, and case studies makes the offer more credible and drives conversions. 
7. A simple form for collecting info: Less is more when it comes to forms. Only ask for essential details—too many fields can push away potential customers before they complete the action.

Customer Segmentation in eCommerce

Every shopper is different, with unique preferences, habits, motivations, and various characteristics, which are defined by interests, age, education, location, devices, browsing habits, and more. These factors influence what, why, and how of their buying decisions. 
Customer segmentation in eCommerce groups customers with similar characteristics. By identifying patterns, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies to each group, ensuring a more personalised shopping experience that leads to better engagement and higher conversions.

Customer segmentation helps businesses connect more deeply with shoppers by delivering personalised marketing strategies for each segment, tailored promotions and relevant product recommendations. The smaller the segment, the more customised the shopper experience. 

By combining different segmentation models with behavioural data from eCommerce marketing platforms, online stores can create highly personalised shopping experiences. This often exceeds what’s possible in brick-and-mortar stores with personal shopping assistants.

Segmentation is a powerful tool in website design (UI) and personalised user experiences (UX). By applying eCommerce segmentation models, businesses can create a more targeted and effective user experience, making websites more engaging and user-friendly.  

A few ways segmentation influences website design:

• Personalised Content: Segmentation allows websites to display products, offers, and recommendations that are most relevant to each user segment. For instance, an eCommerce site can draw on a user’s past purchases or browsing histories.
• Higher Engagement: When users see content that matches their interests and needs, they are more likely to engage with the website. This can lead to higher conversion rates and increased user satisfaction.
• Better User Experience (UX) User Interface (UI): Different user segments have different needs, so tailoring navigation and layouts makes the site more intuitive for each segment.
• Targeted Marketing: Segmentation enables more precise marketing efforts. Personalised email campaigns and promotions reach the right people at the right time, increasing the chance of conversions.
• Efficient Resource Use: Focusing on the most valuable user segments helps businesses allocate their resources more efficiently and prioritise their attention.

How to Choose the Right Customer Segmentation Model

Picking the right customer segmentation models is all about understanding your business and marketing goals. Here’s how to do it:

1. Review Your Data: Look at the customer data that drives revenue. If there are gaps in important information, something essential is missing, and you need to plan how to collect it. 
2. Set Marketing Goals: Set clear and smart objectives, whether reducing the marketing cost or increasing the customer’s lifetime value.
3. Find the Best Segmentation Models: Choose a model that complements your marketing strategies and allows you to reach ideal customer segments and established goals.
4. Test and Adjust: Once in place, use the insights in your marketing strategies, track performance and tweak the model as needed for better results.

No matter the size, whether it’s a global marketplace like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, and Etsy or a small eCommerce business, every successful online store is built on the same key principles: a well-structured website, clear navigation, convenient information architecture (IA) and hierarchy, high-converting landing pages, and smart eCommerce customer segmentation. Ensuring you get these right from the start sets up your business for sustainable growth, helping you attract new customers while keeping existing customers loyal. Establishing these foundations is easy with a trusted partner.  

Contact LION Digital eCommerce Digital Marketing Team Today!

Let’s give your online store a big advantage over competitors! Our team of experienced eCommerce experts can help you reach much bigger goals with our proven strategies. Get in touch today—we would love to explore new ways to grow your eCommerce business!

The Importance of eCommerce Foundations for Business Success

According to the projected market volume studies, revenue in the eCommerce market is expected to reach $4.791 billion in 2025 and grow annually by 7.83%, resulting in a market volume of $6.478 billion by 2029. The accelerated growth of global eCommerce revolutionised business operations. It offered almost unlimited opportunities for brands of all sizes to capture the online market and reach global demands. However, to reap these rewards, eCommerce brands need to overcome the significant challenges of rapid growth in terms of scalability. To name a few, maintaining an eCommerce platform able to handle increased demand and operational pressure without sacrificing performance or customer experience or establishing a brand equity that will not dilute in a new market or scale seamlessly. 

A well-planned eCommerce digital marketing strategy can help businesses build a scalable eCommerce platform that supports growth and improves ROI. By focusing on eCommerce scalability and performance and prioritising scalable eCommerce architecture and solutions early on, businesses ensure that their infrastructure is better equipped to manage those challenges, ultimately driving sustainable growth and profitability as they evolve. 

Robust eCommerce foundations are the essential building blocks that ensure the scalability, sustainability, and long-term success of an online business that aims to thrive in the competitive online marketplace.

eCommerce Foundations include several strategic and technical components: 

1. Website architecture 
2. User experience (UX)
3. Conversion optimisation (CRO)
4. Technology stack and Martech solutions 
5. Optimised workflows
6. Data management, analytics and customer insights.

Website Architecture

Scalable eCommerce website architecture refers to website design that enhances user navigation as part of the user experience and helps search engines index and rank the website pages easily. 

LION Digital provides Information Architecture Consulting services to create a scalable eCommerce website architecture that is adaptable to future needs. We take a 360-grade approach to keep the website architecture relevant by considering all ranking data, applying manual keyword research overlaid and longtail keyword targeting, helping to capitalise on the site’s strengths, creating target category pages and eCommerce landing pages for all channels, increasing visibility for generics, mapping out the website architecture, and expanding keyword reach. This allows our partners’ websites to handle growth, for instance, increased merch categories or seasonal demand, the need to add new content categories or CMS platform upgrades during the stage of growth and expansion.  

A good example of poor SEO architecture is Catch of the Day, which resulted in the loss of 250,000 Page 1 keywords and 10’s of millions of annual organic revenue.  Our team analysed the project and found:

There are no physical landing pages for size, colour, model to capitalise on the thousands of longtail keyword opportunities Non-sensical URL structure with duplicate categories EG: https://www.catch.com.au/category/apparel-footwear/footwear/sandals

User Experience (UX)

Effective UX is particularly important for eCommerce websites in the scalability phase. Even the tiny cornerstone in the users’ journey from browsing to purchasing may significantly improve the bottom line. The primary strategies to uphold are reducing friction points, positively impacting conversion rates by meeting user needs, and increasing the likelihood of customer retention by encouraging repeat visits.

When designing websites’ UX/UI at LION Digital, we adhere to the principle that the best design efficiently solves business problems. A seamless user experience (UX) on a website is attributed to the overall experience a user has when interacting with it, embracing the ease of navigation, visual appeal, loading speed, and intuitive design. Aesthetics does not limit our designs. We delve into business processes, research the market, and conduct tests to design the best solutions. Thus, LION website designs are functional, converting, and user-friendly.

Conversion Optimisation (CRO)

Conversion Optimisation (CRO) is a collection of strategies that enhance an eCommerce website to increase the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, from adding items to carts, subscribing to a newsletter, and leaving a request to making an actual purchase. CRO strategies are based on analysing user behaviour and identifying the conversion blockers in the customer journey.

There are several principal strategies for conversion rate optimisation (CRO) to improve ROI, drive customer retention and achieve scalable growth:

• Reduce cart abandonment rates and optimise the customer journey touch points. This involves mapping out the entire customer experience, from the first interaction to post-purchase follow-ups, and identifying opportunities to enhance each touchpoint and making them as user-friendly as possible. A powerful eCommerce digital marketing strategy should focus on seamless navigation, simplified and efficient checkout processes, enhanced page load speeds, intuitive design, engaging product information and persuasive calls to action, targeted email campaigns, retargeting ads, social proof elements like reviews and testimonials to reduce friction, drive complete conversions and encourage repeat purchases and easily accessible customer support options for post-sales stage and retention.
• Personalisation. One of the most effective eCommerce marketing strategies for boosting conversion rates and maximising ROI involves personalising the shopping experience to customer preferences. Businesses can significantly enhance the likelihood of conversion by leveraging customer data and applying advanced marketing solutions based on AI, such as offering AI-driven product recommendations, marketing messages, and dynamic content that resonate with prospects and customers’ preferences. 

Technology Stack and Martech Solutions

A stable and strong tech infrastructure is the basis for a sustainable and long-lasting eCommerce business. The technology stack manages core eCommerce functions, including the platform’s operations support, inventory scalability and security, payment processing, customer data, and website performance.

Providing Architecture Consulting on eCommerce Martech Solutions, LION Digital streamlines operations, drives business growth and boosts your eCommerce marketing efforts by cutting through software pitches to find the best marketing technology stack. 

In difference with competitors, LION Digital Architecture Consulting services are not limited by: 

• Analysis of current business technology stack;
• Tech state and roadmap analysis;
• Identification, gathering and documentation of eCommerce technology requirements;
• Searching and selecting the best-fit eCommerce technology and platform;
• Architect future technology roadmap. 

LION Digital upholds a comprehensive approach, and our partners also obtain a complex of services, such as:

• Product SWOT analysis;
• Product roadmap development and identifying a product-to-market fit;
• Product viability assessment;
• Competitive environment;
• The best-fit eCommerce technology implementation and delivery partner;
• Due diligence for tech and eCommerce investments;
• Omnichannel, GTM (Go To Market) and digital strategy;
• Best digital and eCommerce project approach, configuration and guidance.

Optimised Workflows

Having optimised workflows that streamline eCommerce operations and foster productivity while simultaneously decreasing costs is a significant challenge not every business can handle. LION Fractional Chief Operating Officer services allow businesses of all sizes to benefit from the years of experience our dynamic and strategic senior executives with 20+ years of B2B and B2C can bring at a cost far less than hiring a full-time COO.

Depending on business needs, some brands may need an outsourced Chief Operating Officer with strong financial expertise, while others bring on a part-time COO to assist the CEO with major strategic initiatives, enhance communication, and propel the company forward. At LION Digital, we streamline operations of the various department areas and take ownership of the business strategy, including financial planning and resource allocation, supply chain management, change management, operations and project management, product or market expansion, team management, driving growth and sales, and direct them towards long-term scalable growth. 

Data Analytics and Customer Insights

Implementing the best eCommerce marketing strategies involves continuous monitoring and adjustment based on data insights to create a cohesive plan that drives traffic, boosts conversions, and ultimately supports business growth. Effective data management and analytics allow businesses to track key metrics of customer behaviour, sales trends, inventory levels, and marketing performance. Subsequently, retrieved customer insights help to personalise user experiences, optimise marketing strategies and drive informed strategic decisions, for instance, such as identifying traffic peak times and optimising eCommerce architecture, potentially avoiding bottlenecks of unresponsiveness during high-traffic periods. 

At LION Digital, we take this a step further with Customer Data Platforms (CDPs). Through our partnerships with Klaviyo and Lexer, we help brands unify their customer data, creating a 360-degree view of their audience to drive hyper-personalised marketing, increase retention, and maximise customer lifetime value. By leveraging CDP insights, businesses can segment audiences effectively, optimise ad spend, and craft highly targeted messaging that resonates with the right customers at the right time.

Keeping an eye on data analytics and customer insights also helps brands adapt quickly to changing market conditions, customer behaviours, preferences, and forecast demand. This allows brands to make informed decisions about inventory management, pricing strategies, and marketing tactics. Thus, data-driven decision-making improves operational efficiency and enhances the overall customer experience, leading to higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, which supports sustainable growth and maximises ROI in eCommerce.

The first step in partnering with LION Digital is access to the LION View eCommerce dashboard, an entirely customisable platform that helps our partners obtain the most accurate and recent business performance results for making informed business decisions and aligning their eCommerce strategy based on solid data, available statistics, and recommendations. 

LION view offers:

Contact Our Veteran eCommerce Digital Marketing Team Today!

If you’d like to see what our experienced eCommerce digital marketers can do for your online store, reach out to us today! See the difference our expertise can make in helping to push your brand to reach greater goals. We would love to walk you through new ways of thinking about your business success today!

Stay tuned for the next part of this series as we explore eCommerce marketing strategies and services for improved scalability and ROI.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) have come and gone, leaving retailers and merchants across the globe reflecting on their results. Whether your brand experienced record-breaking sales or fell short of expectations, now is the time to focus on capitalising on the rest of 2024 and laying the foundation for a strong start to 2025.
For businesses generating over $5 million in annual revenue, achieving sustained success requires more than just seasonal promotions. It’s about partnering with the right experts who can drive long-term growth and unlock your full potential.

Unlock Year-Round Growth with LION Digital’s Post-BFCM Expertise

At LION Digital, we’re not just another marketing agency—we’re a true eCommerce-focused partner with the credentials and experience to deliver impactful results. As Shopify Plus Partners, Klaviyo Elite Master Partners, and Google Premier Partners, we bring a wealth of expertise to every multichannel project we undertake.
With nearly two decades of experience, we have a track record of helping brands achieve a consistent return on investment (ROI) of 20 to 40 times. Our team understands the intricacies of digital marketing and specialises in designing strategies that fuel sustainable growth for ambitious businesses just like yours – focusing on turning BFCM momentum into a year-round advantage.

What’s Going to Be Big for 2025?

Earning shopper loyalty will make or break your brand, with online retail trends dominated by a list of buyer demands. Technology consultancy Restive’s predictions for 2025 eCommerce shopping trends in Australia say online shoppers prioritise convenience, personalisation, and streamlined shopping experiences. This puts an emphasis on seamless checkout, data-driven segmentation, sustainability, and omnichannel integration throughout the customer journey.

Proactive Strategy Drives Long-Term Success

At LION Digital, we take a proactive, data-driven approach to your marketing strategy. We don’t wait for success to happen; instead, we leverage proven methodologies and innovative practices to design campaigns that are planned months in advance and optimised in real time. Here’s how we help you build impactful campaigns that resonate with your audience and stand out amidst the holiday noise:

Veteran Head of Client Success: Leverage 20 years of agency and digital experience, through one of the most senior Account Director teams who act as your trusted advisor and digital strategist.

Data-Driven Strategy: LION takes a metrics-focused approach, identifying what worked and what didn’t work during BFCM to create campaigns that resonate with targeted audiences.

Global Market Expertise: With experience in 14 different international markets, LION understands the nuances of localising campaigns, whether it’s adjusting for UK vs US audiences or understanding how cultural trends impact purchasing behaviours.

Cohesive, Multi-Channel Campaigns: LION goes beyond paid ads to offer integrated strategies across SEO, SMS, email, and social media, ensuring all touchpoints are optimised to convert.

eCommerce & Retail Specialisation: With deep expertise in eCommerce and a founder with hands-on retail experience, we develop strategies that maximise the impact of key retail opportunities while driving consistent, year-round growth. Our team designs tailored campaigns that engage your audience and leverage proven methodologies and industry best practices for sustained success.

Ensure Your Website is Fully Optimised for Successful Conversions & Seamless Sales

A seamless user experience starts with a high-performance website. With 90% of eCommerce sites failing core web vitals, your site might be losing potential sales. Our Technical Director can help you resolve these issues and ensure your website performs at its best for both SEO and customer conversion. Don’t let poor performance hinder your success – reach out now to start improving your site’s user experience.

Sustainability and Responsibility: Key Drivers of Consumer Loyalty

Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword for eco-warriors anymore. It’s the conscious choice to shop mindfully, considering the planet we live on. Shoppers aren’t just focused on the products needing to be environmentally aware; it’s the materials, the packaging, the logistics, and the partners and their relative footprints. The re-Commerce (repair, recycle, reuse, resell) market is becoming big business, with our country’s used-items economy valued at over $60 billion and 58% of Australian consumers frequently buying secondhand goods.

Likewise, the most durable eCommerce marketing campaigns include key elements such as transparency, collaboration, education, customer value marketing, and consumer-focused innovation.

One example of a forward-thinking partner we work with is Try With Mirra, an innovative Shopify app that enables eCommerce fashion, swimwear, and accessories brands to offer a unique “Try Before You Buy” experience. This service allows customers to try on products at home before committing to a purchase, enhancing satisfaction and reducing returns.

Partnering with LION Digital ensures that your marketing reflects sustainable practices and meets the needs of today’s environmentally aware shoppers, driving long-term growth and success.

Structured Project Planning & Reporting Across Multichannel Environments

Our Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) leverage our Lion View Dashboard to deliver comprehensive, cross-channel insights into your marketing performance. This tool consolidates data from SEO, paid media, social media, CRO, and email marketing, providing a holistic view of growth opportunities. We dedicate significant time to these reviews, uncovering actionable insights like a $3 million annual email revenue opportunity for a client. The process includes detailed marketing calendar planning and allocating guaranteed hours to key channels, ensuring your campaigns stay on track. By combining the power of the Lion View Dashboard with our expertise, we provide the clarity and strategy needed to drive measurable, sustainable results for your business.

Get Your Email Marketing On Track Early to Build Customer Loyalty in Time

Ready to boost your Revenue? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) offers a variety of strategies for eCommerce businesses aiming to boost profitability throughout the year. At LION Digital, we help businesses leverage automation and segmentation for highly targeted email and SMS campaigns, optimise product recommendations, and craft personalised content to drive engagement and conversions. Using these strategies effectively can uncover significant growth potential, such as a $7.2 million missed revenue opportunity identified for one of our clients through advanced data analysis.

The most successful campaigns utilise real-time data to adjust campaigns quickly, enabling businesses to react dynamically to customer behaviour. Our cross-channel approach drives higher retention and increased conversions, especially during crucial periods like BFCM.

To maintain momentum year-round, talk to our Email Marketing team about specific tactics, such as inventory management, timing of offers, and post-BFCM customer engagement strategies.

Maximise Your Sales Strategy for Year-Round Success

Ready to unlock your brand’s potential for 2025? Whether your BFCM performance highlighted strengths to build on or areas to address, our multichannel approach ensures every part of your marketing ecosystem works harmoniously. From optimising email campaigns to enhancing your SEO strategy and running targeted ads, we focus on driving measurable outcomes for your business.

Our bespoke solutions are tailored to your goals, helping you:

• Reach new audiences and expand your market share.
• Increase conversion rates through personalised strategies.
• Build stronger customer loyalty with data-driven insights.

To domain or subdomain? That is the question: As your eCommerce business grows or explores new markets, expanding your website’s content categories and assessing your site’s informational architecture can be exciting—but it also raises a key question: should this new content sit on your main domain or a subdomain? There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer; it depends on your business needs, competitive landscape, and digital strategy. In this article, LION Digital dives into how running Google Ads on subdomains can impact campaign performance, weighing the pros, cons, and tactics for maximising your ad results while avoiding potential risks.

What is a Subdomain?

There are 3 fundamental parts in each URL:

1. Top-Level Domain or TLD: This is the extension at the end of any website URL, such as .com, .net, .org. It’s the highest level in the Domain Name System hierarchy after the root domain. It includes familiar endings like country codes (.au, .uk, .nz, .us) and specific-use types (.gov, .edu). These TLDs help categorise websites, giving clues about their origin or purpose, which is worth considering when structuring a domain strategy for SEO and ads.  
2. Second-Level Domain or SLD: This is where brands showcase their identity. It’s the creative part of the URL, typically featuring a brand’s name or something unique to them. For example, “Nike” in nike.com or “Starbucks” in starbucks.com.au. The SLD is a powerful branding tool that makes the website easily recognisable and memorable, helping to establish an online presence that users can instantly identify.
3. Subdomain: This part appears before the main domain name in the URL, helping to organise and separate content. It’s like the “shop” in shop.starbucks.com.au, setting apart site sections for specific functions. Businesses often use subdomains to create distinct areas tailored to different goals, making navigation easier and enhancing the user experience. They’re a flexible way to segment content while maintaining brand identity. 

Using a subdomain is a smart way to create distinct sections within a website, helping businesses separate specific areas for different purposes. This setup aligns sections with business goals, enhances user experience, and keeps content organised. For example, eCommerce brands might use subdomains for areas like a customer portal, blog, or online store, ensuring smooth navigation without cluttering the main site.

Subdomain or Subfolder (Subdirectory): Which is Better?

The important thing to remember is the difference between a subdomain and a subfolder, otherwise known as a subdirectory. If “shop” in shop.starbucks.com.au is a subdomain, “about-us” in starbucks.com.au/about-us is a subfolder or subdirectory. In a URL, subdirectories come after the main domain (like example.com/blog), while subdomains appear before (like blog.example.com). 

A subdirectory is part of the main domain, so search engines treat it as part of the same site. However, it’s important to note that subdomains are seen as separate entities by search engines, giving them independent identities. This distinction influences how search engines process and rank content on each, impacting SEO strategy.

Google Ads on Subdomains

To gauge the impact of subdomains on search engine marketing, it’s essential to look at SEO together with Google Ads strategy.

Here, we’ll break down the potential benefits of running Google Ads on a subdomain, including situations where this approach can enhance campaign performance. We’ll also look at the possible drawbacks, from campaign outcomes to broader SEO implications, along with strategies to reduce any risks.

How Subdomains Can Be Good for SEM?

1. Relevance and Quality Score: If your SEM campaign targets a subdomain that closely aligns with ad content and keywords, it can boost your Google Ads Quality Score. This relevance can lead to better ad placements and potentially lower costs per click, making campaigns more efficient and cost-effective.
2. User Experience: Subdomains let you create a focused, user-friendly setup. For instance, if the main site covers general content, a subdomain can tailor experiences for a niche audience or product line—often boosting conversions. 
3. SEO Considerations: Google treats subdomains as separate sites, so using one for ads can be helpful when keywords and audiences differ significantly. However, because of this separation, poor management could risk lowering your main domain’s authority and diluting SEO.  
4. Brand Perception: Subdomains help organise and segment content, improving navigation and professionalism. This structure can positively impact user experience and Google Ads performance, including Ads Quality Scores and costs.
5. Targeting Foreign Markets: Using a market.domain.com (us.liondigital.com) structure is great for targeting multiple markets. With this approach, English language nuances for spelling or keywords can be addressed EG Flashlight vs Torches. Many international brands use this strategy to improve site organisation while catering for the consumer and aligning the way they search with Googles guidelines.

Why Subdomains May Be Bad for SEM?

1. Separate Domain Authority and SEO efforts: Subdomains are treated as standalone sites by search engines, meaning any SEO work you do for your main domain won’t help your subdomain and vice versa. This separation can damage the Quality Score for Google Ads, leading to higher costs per click. The Quality Score is a main predictor of the Google Ads campaign ranking, and its decrease will result in higher cost per click (CPC). To maintain a subdomain’s Quality Score comparable to the main domain, you’ll need to invest significantly in SEO for each subdomain, which can strain your marketing budget.    
2. User Mistrust and Confusion: Having multiple subdomains can confuse users, especially if branding and navigation aren’t consistent. If someone clicks on an ad and is taken to an unexpected URL structure, they may lose trust in your brand, leading to higher bounce rates and lower conversions. Over time, this can negatively impact your Google Ads Quality Score, damage ad performance, and increase costs.
3. Ad Irrelevance and Quality Score: If your subdomain lacks the authority or relevant well-optimised content that matches your main domain, it can lower your Google Ads Quality Score. As the SEM campaign attached to the subdomain is not aligned with the main domain’s authority, this misalignment reduces ad visibility and drives up costs, making your campaigns less effective. 
4. Tracking Complications: Running Google Ads on subdomains can complicate tracking by creating accuracy difficulties that can impact attributing traffic and conversions. Data gaps may arise, especially when using remarketing tags across the main domain and its subdomains, making it harder to assess campaign performance accurately.

Short Tips on Running SEM on Subdomains

Wrapping up the items above to watch out for, at LION Digital, we recommend running search ads on your primary domain when possible. This ensures you leverage your established domain authority, developed user experience, and data and analytics infrastructure.

However, you do need to use subdomains, here are some key strategies to minimise the potential negative impacts of running SEM on subdomains:

1. Ensure Relevance: Keep content on your subdomain relevant and closely aligned with your targeting ads and keywords. This helps maintain the Quality Score and ad performance at an acceptable level. 
2. Consistent Branding: To create a seamless experience, maintain consistent branding—visual elements, navigation, and overall user experience—across your main domain and subdomains. The user needs to be certain that the page they land on is trustworthy, and the final destination needs to be clear and aligned. 
3. Appropriate Linking: Ensure your subdomains are correctly linked to your main site to improve navigation and indexing. This improves user navigation from the main domain to the subdomains and can help search engines crawl and index your site as a whole.
4. Constant Performance Monitoring: Regularly track metrics related to the subdomains, like click-through rates (CTR), conversions and user behaviour to refine your approach. Don’t forget to add the subdomains to Google Analytics for marketing analytics​.
5. SEO Best Practices: Treat your subdomains with the same care as your main domain. Invest in SEO best practices to boost their authority and improve ad performance. This includes meta tag optimisation, using relevant keywords, building high-quality backlink profiles, and more. These practices increase the subdomain authority and affect the performance and costs of Google Ads through the Quality Score.
6. Advanced User Experience: To enhance user satisfaction, prioritise fast loading times, mobile optimisation, and intuitive navigation. A good user experience can lead to higher conversion rates and lower costs when running SEM campaigns on subdomains.
7. Test and Iterate: Rely on data-driven decisions, not just guesswork. If you think something is working, always double-check it. Use A/B testing to optimise ads and landing pages continually. Continuously test different ad copies, landing pages, and strategies. Never rely only on gut feeling; always try to make data-driven decisions.

Connect with our specialist eCommerce team at LION Digital to craft a tailored SEM, SEO, or blended search strategy that drives your business forward. Schedule a discovery call today!