Digital inbound marketing: Measuring the economic performance of grocery e-commerce in Europe and the USA

Highlights

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  Leading grocery e-commerce are optimizing Digital Inbound Marketing (DIM) in line with economic theory.

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  E-commerce born on the Internet show a higher DIM-efficiency than click and mortar firms; and less volatile behaviour.

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  The cost advantage in SEO is in general held by the national market leader.

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  US and UK e-commerce best in user attraction under optimal resource allocation; US with consolidated cost structure.

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  Big data tools together with optimization criteria from analytical models allow to control and adjust investment in DIM.

Abstract

This research investigates the cost-result relationship of the Inbound Marketing actions used by grocery e-commerce. The analysis is based on the application of the Dorfman and Steiner (1954) model for optimal advertising budget, which is adapted by the authors to digital marketing and verified with empirical statistical analysis. Considering 29 leading companies in six countries over a time horizon of six years, an analysis of the mix of SEO and SEM techniques aimed at the attraction and conversion of Internet users to the web pages of their companies is carried out. The results confirm that e-commerce is optimizing Digital Inbound Marketing in line with the established model. Differences are identified depending on the type of format (pure player versus brick and mortar) and at the country level (UK and USA versus others).

Graphical abstract