Churning And Yearning: Online Shoppers More Likely To Leave Brands During COVID-19 Pandemic
By Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 11, 2020
It’s no surprise that consumer shopping patterns have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Retailers have seen a 59.89% increase in online acquisition from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2020 and a 62% hike in new mobile customers, according The Future of Retail, a global study conducted by Braze in partnership with Wakefield Research.
But what happens next? Churn. Customers who signed on during COVID-19 have a retention rate 82% lower than those acquired during a non-COVID, non-holiday period, and 50% have already dumped a brand.
And online retailers shouldn’t put too much focus on branding — only 10% of consumers now rank “familiarity” as a top consideration.
It seems that the deciding factor is how a brand conducts itself right now.
Of the consumers polled, 89% in the U.S. will switch brands because of a weak pandemic response, as will 86% in EMEA and 94% in the APAC regions.
It varies by age — 95% of Gen Zers and millennials worldwide will jump if they are unhappy with the brand’s performance during the crisis, versus 92% of Gen Xers and 86% of boomers.
Moreover, 26% say a retailer’s COVID-19 response will be a key factor in their holiday shopping decisions, and 47% cite a store’s safety policies.
It doesn’t stop with COVID-19 — consumers will also dump brands that anger them by:
Mistreating employees — 24%
Polluting or damaging the environment — 24%
Taking a political stance they disagree with — 17%
Not taking a stand on certain issues — 13%
These propensities also depend on the generation. For instance, here are the percentages that are likely to drop a brand based on their treatment of employees or customers during COVID-19:
Gen Z — 35%
Millennials — 43%
Gen X — 34%
Boomers — 20%
And here are the numbers that have left retailers over poor environmental and sustainability practices:
Gen Z — 31%
Millennials — 29%
Gen X — 23%
Boomers — 17%
How can brands counteract this tendency to abandon ship?
“You can easily send emails that highlight each customer’s recently-favorite purchases, deliver personalized recommendations, or even translate messaging to your audience’s language preference,” Braze advises.
In addition, take a cross-channel approach. “By leveraging email alongside mobile push, in-app messages, and other channels, your brand can drive 800X higher engagement rates,” the study continues.
On the positive side, 26% worldwide have tried at least one new brand. And 95% says they’re likely to return in the future.
Meanwhile, this year’s holiday season will be like no other.
The way it stands right now, 42% are decreasing their holiday spend.17% will increase it, and 37% will do most of their shopping at small local retailers.
Of those polled, 86% will be more comfortable shopping at brick-and-mortar stores in the next six months.
Boomers, despite their presumably greater vulnerability, are more willing to shop in physical stores despite COVID-19—82% will do so, versus 78% of Gen X, 73% of millennials and 66% of Gen Z.
In the U.S., 47% cite better availability when repurchasing. In Europe, 45% say it’s better value, and 67% in APAC are driven by better quality.
Braze and Wakefield Research surveyed 8,000 consumers worldwide.
Galloping Personalization: Ecommerce Brands Rush To Meet COVID-19-Driven Surge
By Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 20, 2020
Ecommerce brands have seen 10 years worth of growth in a 90-day period as COVID-19 has driven shoppers online.
This, in turn, has accelerated the use of personalization, according to Personalization After COVID-19, a study by Yieldify.
Of the retailers polled, 74% have a website personalization program in place, and that number is expected to hit 93% next year.
UK marketers are ahead — 81% have website personalization programs, versus 65% in the U.S.
Mobile apps are second to websites — overall, they are personalized by 56%, with 26% planning adoption in 2121.
Email is third — 60% have email personalization, and 30% plan to adopt it in 2021.
Website personalization is being driven by:
Real-time behavioral data (i.e., targeting shoppers dwelling on cart page) — 76%
Individual user profile data — (i.e., using a Customer Data Platform) — 63%
Cookie-based historical data (i.e., ‘new users’ vs. ‘returning users’) — 62%
Data ingested from other channels (i.e., targeting email subscribers) — 62%
All this is happening as retention has taken over acquisition as a website personalization strategy. Sports and leisure retailers lead the way, with 82% hoping to improve retention.
Overall, brands hope to:
Increase retention rates — 58%
Increase conversion rates — 55%
Increase order size — 53%
Increase engagement rates — 50%
Meet customer demand for personalized experiences — 50%
Keep up with competition — 46%
Increase return on acquisition spend — 45%
But brands face obstacles. The biggest barriers to website personalization are:
Resource: a lack of expertise — 37%
Tool: limited functionality — 36%
Resource: a lack of time — 35%
Tools: too expensive — 34%
Data: lack of actionable data — 34%
Data: privacy laws preventing action — 31%
Strategy: concerns over ‘over-personalization’/creepiness — 29%
Return on investment (ROI: not measurable enough — 24%
Strategy: too complicated a project — 23%
Strategy: lack of internal buy-in — 23%
Strategy: higher priorities elsewhere — 22%
Return on investment (ROI): too low — 20%
N/A—nothing in particular/don’t have any impediments — 6%
In the U.S., 75% of customers have tried new shopping behaviors since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. So have 71% in the U.K. And 58% have done so in France, and 54% in Germany.
To meet this demand, 60% overall use dynamic creative, product recommendations that change from user to user, and 69% use static creative.
In contrast, 57% have user-specific content in which the person’s name is used, and 55% have variable copy that changes with the target audience.
Meanwhile, 68% of the respondents employ real-time behavioral decisioning, in which customers are shown different content at the checkout page. And the same percentage uses dynamic segments — i.e., customers who have purchased in the last 30 days.
In contrast, only 54% use AI-driven predictive segments — customers least likely to convert.
Yieldify surveyed 400 ecommerce leaders in the U.S. and UK.
Marketing At Play: Brands Are Slowly Moving Toward 'Immersive' Content
By Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 20, 2020
Here’s a warning for firms that produce white papers and other forms of static content.
Give it up. The time has come to provide more engaging material, judging by the Embrace Of Immersive Content, a study by Ceros.
Of the executives polled, 90% agree that content designed to create an experience performs better. And 81% wish their company published more interactive and immersive content.
However, the latter statistic “makes me cringe!” states Alex Kelly, director of digital marketing at Ceros, who led the survey.
Clearly, companies are not there yet: they describe 56% of their content as static and only 33% as interactive.
The top three hurdles are securing budget (52%), lack of in-house skills (36%) and getting leadership buy-in (23%).
Over half say their firm produces too many PDFs. And a third think their company’s content is boring.
The study defines immersive content as “words, charts, data visualizations, quizzes, et al. — content that a reader interacts with or experiences, rather than merely reads passively, as they would static pieces of content such as PDF or white papers.”
That’s the whole premise behind email videos and various forms of interactive content enabled by AMP (accelerated mobile pages) for email.
AMP is an open-source framework designed to make mobile pages load faster. Extended to email, it leads to “more engaging, interactive, and actionable email experiences,” Google says.
Some brands have gotten the message. Those who describe themselves as “very effective marketers are 200% more likely to use data visualization and 200% more likely to create games. And they’re significantly less likely to publish e-books.
It depends on the culture, with 85% who say that their marketing team values creativity, and 44% strongly so. And 55% agree their teams highly value good design, whereas 43% say it is only moderately valued.
In the end, only 16% say they are very near the ideal.
Traditionalists may deplore the move toward immersive content. Even historians must entertain people above all else. Serious topics take on a storybook quality — it’s almost as if readers lack the attention spans to handle more complex forms of information. But not everything can be dramatic or amusing.
That said, people also have to be able to read the material. While quite dynamic, the study provided by Ceros contains some revolving charts that barely give us time to digest the numbers.
Well, you have to roll with the times, no matter how tough it is.
“The biggest learning from this report is that today’s marketers know and understand the value of immersive content, but struggle to put a strategy in play because they don’t have the proper tools, resources, or internal buy-in,” Kelly states
Kelly adds that “it’s up to the leadership teams to empower marketers and designers with the resources and creative freedom they need to burn those barriers.”
Ceros surveyed over 1,000 marketing, PR and design professionals, with 40% in B2B and 43% in B2C.