3 Digital Consumer Habits You Should Know -
3 Digital Consumer Habits You Should Know

Tag: holiday

3 Digital Consumer Habits You Should Know

Posted on by keepitsimple

With last minute shoppers flooding Amazon, Etsy, and other small businesses with holiday orders, we thought it might be appropriate to share these 3 statistics on current Digital Consumer habits. Take a look at these numbers based on early 2016 trends, and think about how you can improve your website to capture more leads and convert customers!

 

data1

 

With the world at their fingertips, shoppers can immediately compare businesses and prices; ultimately driving marketing and brand competition. Therefore it’s wise to keep up with consumer analysis and adapt your business practices to support the change in purchasing habits, and it has become crucial that business owners have a strong first impression. This includes updating your website for a better overall user experience, creating content to support brand personality and outreach, and having a good marketing team to convey to the world what makes your business awesome and unique. 

 

 

data2

Honesty and responsibility are values that have shown increasing meaning to consumers, especially since Millennials (who care more about brand experience than previous consumer groups) are becoming the largest purchasing power. Data is also showing that the consumers of 2016 were not just comparing prices, but also judged how “professional” a business is by their product descriptions! Clear but fun language that appeals to the lifestyle associated with the item does very well; as does providing more technical information, how/where the product is made, and what the benefit of purchasing is. The importance of language goes hand in hand with the importance of consistent Branding and Brand Personality… proving it’s a key factor that influences customer conversion and drives company growth.

 

 

data3

 

Just in case you haven’t noticed, convenience is key, and alternative payment methods are showing their value by becoming better at driving home customer conversion. PayPal has become a popular option for online businesses because it’s simple, secure, and creates a more streamlined checkout process. It’s worth doing some research (or asking your team to) on various payment options and think about what best suits your ideal customer.

 

 

 

So just in case you’re thinking about giving your website or business a makeover in 2017, remember these statistics about current consumer practices and digital purchases made in 2016! Feeling a little overwhelmed? Rock Paper Simple is here to help!

 

Ahoy!! Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Posted on by Joshua Adams

talk-like-a-pirate-day-rockpapersimpleAhoy! We here aboard the good ship Rock Paper Simple don’t approve of the bilge rats that are “real” pirates. Those guys are just rude and plus they take all your stuff! We much prefer the pirates who are actually just really fun people celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day!

So, drink up your morning coffee, me hearties, and dream of the grog that awaits you later when you don ye boots and hat and venture forth to the local pub to regale the landlubbers with ye tales of glory… and if ye ain’t got tales of glory, make up some incredibly outlandish tales and tell those ones!

 

There are plenty of options for staying in theme today, such as drinking rum and talking like a pirate as well as playing your hornpipe, counting your doubloons, swabbing your decks, sharpening your cutlass, pillaging something (better stick to your refrigerator, so you don’t get arrested), and walking a plank… if you can find one.

Avast, then, ye mateys, and enjoy yourselves! To quote well-known pirate of the Caribbean, Johnny Depp: “Life’s pretty good, and why wouldn’t it be? I’m a pirate, after all.”

Also, and because I feel it’s really important to say on this day… “Why is the rum gone!?”

Start a new story on Book Lovers Day, Aug. 9

Posted on by Joshua Adams

When’s the last time you read a book? If it’s been a while, this might be a good day to start one. Aug. 9 (according to most calendars, says HolidayInsights.com) is Book Lovers Day.

A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that three-fourths of Americans had read at least one book the previous year. The typical American read five books in twelve months. Perhaps more astounding: About a quarter of those surveyed didn’t read a book.

People see the movie instead of reading the book. They play online games for hours, battling their way through a narrative. Or they work hard and come home and collapse on the couch and watch TV. All of these forms of entertainment – or engagement – are valid forms of storytelling, but they lack something: your imagination.

There’s something deeply engaging about reading a book. When reading fiction, especially, a reader fills in visual and emotional details, the kind of color that’s automatically provided to you in other, more passive media. Books are the original interactive experience.

Studies have shown that reading books can make you more empathetic and less stressed. Reading can keep your memory and cognitive skills sharp. And, as book lovers know, reading is a pleasure, too.

In addition, there’s something to be said for the long form. This blog is short, suitable to feed the modern appetite for digital bon bons, for Facebook updates, for 140-character Tweets. And we’re really glad you stopped by! But after this appetizer, consider picking up a book, a real reading meal. Then, maybe, you can come back here for dessert.

Moon Day calls on the explorer in all of us

Posted on by Joshua Adams

moon-day-largeJuly 20 is Moon Day. This year, it also happens to be Monday.

Maybe you have a case of the Mondays. Around here, we like to think of it as the awesome start to a new week with lots and lots of opportunity to be had. But you can always think of it as a case of the Moondays, because doesn’t that sound so much better? It works because “Monday” comes from an Old English word that means “Day of the Moon.”

But that’s not why this Monday is Moon Day. July 20 is Moon Day because of the tremendous achievement that happened on July 20, 1969, when men who launched from right here on the Space Coast actually walked on that timeless orb of dreams and mystery. Neil Armstrong made his “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” at 10:56 p.m. EDT.

 

Then Armstrong got right back into explorer mode, describing what no human had ever felt under his feet: “The surface is fine and powdery. I can kick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles.”

Maybe this is a good day for you to explore something new. Careful about your definition of how to celebrate today… if you go mooning about, you’re moping. If you go mooning, you might get arrested, and we will adamantly deny we encouraged anything of the sort.

Instead, venture forth. And look up. Tonight, a sliver of moon sets just after 11 p.m., taking a little bit of us with it.

June 18 is National Splurge Day

Posted on by Joshua Adams

splurgeA lot of us watch pennies. We watch calories. We exercise prudence in potato chips, restraint in restaurants, wariness in wine. We are models of self-control (until we aren’t).

Today, it’s time to open the door, even if it’s only a little bit, for a little while. It’s National Splurge Day.

So assuming you aren’t sitting high atop a mountain of maxed-out credit cards, go ahead and think about getting that purse you’ve had an eye on, or that golf club, or that nice bottle of champagne.

Here at Rock Paper Simple, we’re pretty sure Scott is going to buy us doughnuts. (Right, Scott?)

If your splurge is financial, it’s not bad to save up for it. Splurging doesn’t have to be impulsive or reckless. It can be an extravagance that you’ve planned for and is all the more pleasurable because of it; who wants tomorrow to be Buyer’s Hangover Day?

But splurging isn’t just about money. It’s about your time. There’s an unattributed quote floating around the Internet that goes something like this: “Sometimes you’ve got to put those pleasantries aside and splurge on your dream.” Use your time the way you want to use it. There’s no time like now. Let your splurge be the start of something. Make your dream happen. You’re the only one who can.

We’re all about keeping it simple and awesome here, and sometimes splurging means simplifying and enjoying the things that really mean something to you. Jettison the onerous obligation and engage in that moment of pleasure. Watch the sunset with someone you care about. Ride your bike along the river. Cook a great meal.

Take a breath. Find your smile. And splurge. Life’s short.

May 12 is Limerick Day, if you’d like to play

Posted on by Joshua Adams

limerick-day

There is a bright guy here named Josh
who wishes your site to be posh.
He’ll show how you rock.
I swear we don’t mock.
Our work’s simply awesome. No bosh!

Lest you think this piffle is completely self-serving (which it probably is), it’s really an example of what we’re celebrating today. That’s right: May 12 is Limerick Day, marking the birthday of 19th-century writer Edward Lear, who popularized this form of, uh, poetry in his “Book of Nonsense.”

Limericks are traditionally naughty or funny and may be named for a game that invoked the place name of Limerick in Ireland.

The limerick, despite its silly origins, is a fairly formal way to boil a complex thought down to a few absurd lines of verse. The limerick has a fairly strict form that includes such fancy terms as “anapest” (the da-da-DUM in the meter). And the rhyme scheme means the lines end with AABBA – the first, second and fifth lines rhyme with one another; and the shorter third and fourth lines rhyme with each other.

Go ahead. Write a limerick. Leave it in a note for your kid or significant other, or better yet, recite it at the dinner table and see how many rhymes you can find for “pizza.” (Good luck!)

The poems we write are so pretty,
we’re taken aback by this ditty.
Each primitive line
may struggle to shine,
for in limerick form, are we witty?