NetElixir Data Drives Consumer Insights

Our proprietary customer intelligence platform, LXRInsights, provides a wealth of information about your customers. This tool allows you to compare the shopping patterns of your high-value, mid-value, and low-value customers.

What makes a customer “high-value” typically is their loyalty. These customers make repeat purchases from your store and have a high lifetime value. LXRInsights also provides data about the time between purchases — key information for when you should be retargeting shoppers. Decreasing the time between purchases often increases the likelihood of creating a lifetime customer!

You can also use LXRInsights to track your top products by revenue and quantity. This information can help you plan what products to promote in advertising or feature on your homepage. You should also think about why this product — what is it that sets it apart from your competition?

LXRInsights also provides information about customers’ first touch points for your site (paid search, social, or organic) and what device they use to shop. These insights can be helpful when planning paid media campaigns, site design, and more.

NetElixir Research Supports Industry Learnings & Comparisons

Our data-driven team also does our own research into trends. Every year, NetElixir analyzes shopping data across several key e-commerce industries. We look at high-value customers’ shopping patterns during “typical” months versus the holiday season, then aggregate the data into our annual FACES report.

As you examine your business’s data, compare it to that of your industry with FACES. Consider what opportunities exist for refining or redefining your personas. Also consider whether you should be making any shifts during the holiday season to maximize sales.

Google Analytics Adds To Your Data Set

Google provides a wealth of knowledge about those browsing and purchasing from your e-commerce site. Some key areas that can help you with defining your ideal customers are demographic data like age and gender, as well as affinity and in-market audience information. 

Age ranges and gender data paint a broad stroke for who is interested in your brand. Affinity markets show you other interests that your audience has, like “30-minute chefs” or “fashionistas.” In-market audiences are those that are likely to be shopping for a particular product, like home decor or apparel.

Extrapolating Data Into Customer Personas

By putting together all of this information, you can start to develop a sketch of your high-value customer persona. Consider the top revenue-generating age group and gender, and assume that that is the high-value customer identified by LXRInsights. What information can you interpret from layering this data?

If your high-value customer is a woman in her late 30s who is interested in 30-minute recipes and family life, you can interpret that to mean she’s likely busy with her career and her family. Give her an easy-to-remember name, like Mary the Mom. Then, start to define how she is a key client of yours and why. This will help you develop ads, onsite content, and even offline activities such as customer service training. 

Let’s say you sell crafting supplies. Your top-selling product, per LXRInsights, is a block of wood that people make into a carving. The time between purchases averages 15 days. On Google Analytics, your top affinity group is Do-It-Yourselfers who are in-market for Personalized Gifts. Maybe you can define a persona that is someone who makes and sells custom carved wooden pieces: Wally the Woodworker.

Turning Personas Into Effective Content

Once you have your personas developed, the next step is determining their wants and needs, and expressing how your brand and products can help your customers.

Consider Mary the Mom. Based on her interests, you determined she’s very busy. Therefore, she’s probably in need of products that are convenient or make her life easier. In your content, share ways you can help her achieve this. Use language that shows you care and you’re here to help. Highlight the simplicity of your products. Think: “Meals ready to heat & eat!” or “Diaper bags that hold everything you need for a day out.” Mary would probably especially appreciate “Fast, free shipping” and “Easy returns,” too.

What about Wally the Woodworker? Based on his data, you know how often he’s shopping, so aim to send him an email about 13 days after his last purchase to encourage him to come back for his next material stock-up. You could consider retargeting him with different raw materials or list out some carving tools on the product page for the best-selling block of wood. You might even try developing an influencer program or sharing user-generated content on social media to highlight DIY products your users have completed with your products.

As you examine your data, think about any surprising or new data to see if there are any opportunities for your brand. For example, maybe you’ve always considered your brand to be female-dominated, but there’s a rising trend of men purchasing on your site. Perhaps you run a site that is primarily geared towards baby products, so you’ve always been writing ad copy and site content around “mom.” With this new data about men, you should think about revising your branding to be inclusive of all, like using “parents” instead.

Creating Impactful Content Using Customer Personas

Ultimately, identifying your customer personas helps you relate to them on a more personal, more human level. According to a survey by Sprout Social, 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them, and when they feel connected to a brand, 57% will increase their spending. Developing personas can help guide your copy towards being more personal, genuine, and honest, and drive those key feelings of connection and trust.

Instead of writing generic ads or blog posts, imagine you’re speaking directly to Mary or Wally. Consider what they would want to hear. Highlight the ways your product or service will benefit Mary and Wally based on their wants and needs. It’s frequently said that you should walk a mile in someone’s shoes to understand them — but developing a persona works just as well!

Future-proof your content creation strategy by pivoting to a strategy that uses insights to build real relationships with your customers. By connecting with them on a targeted basis, they will feel like the ads are personal, driving affinity and trust for your brand, building out a community, and ultimately growing your brand for years to come.

How NetElixir Can Help Your Brand

NetElixir is here to guide you through your entire e-commerce journey. We can help you gather and interpret data, introduce you to LXRInsights, work with you to develop your personas, and create targeted content for paid search, social media, your website and store, and blogs. Contact us at growth@netelixir.com and connect with our experts today!

The post Using Data To Guide Your Content appeared first on NetElixir.

Fashion and jewelry choices, however, have always been a statement on identity and sales soon began to bounce back. NetElixir found that apparel sales surged in April when the first stimulus checks were sent, revealing a pent-up demand in the market for new fashion items. With extra spending money, people turned almost immediately to treating themselves to personal wants as opposed to essential necessities. As remote working continued, Zoom fashion sparked a resurgence in athleisure wear. The locations of meetings may have changed, but fashion and jewelry were still important identity-markers, especially in a Zoom square. 

The high-value shopper of the fashion and jewelry e-commerce industry adjusted her online shopping behavior as the pandemic continued. Shoppers of all types needed to quickly adapt to the rapid and digital changes the world was undergoing. NetElixir’s 2021 FACES research report delves into how high-value customers’ online shopping behavior evolved in response to the e-commerce surge sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The NetElixir Retail Intelligence Lab analyzed over two million unique online consumer paths-to-purchase across ten e-commerce categories for our FACES research. Our goal was to better understand ongoing changes in online shopping behaviors and trends of high-value customers. We divided our data into three timeframes:

• Pre-pandemic (Jan. 1 – Mar. 15, 2020)
• Non-holiday pandemic (Mar. 16 – Nov. 15, 2020)
• Holiday pandemic (Nov. 16 – Dec. 25, 2020)

Meet the high-value shopper for the fashion and jewelry retail industry: 

Fashion and Jewelry Online Shopping Trends

Prior to the pandemic, the high-value shopper of the fashion and jewelry industry took her time with her purchases. She searched and shopped at a leisurely pace, usually visiting a website around two p.m. and purchased on a Saturday at one p.m. Shopping for new clothes and accessories was a fun hobby for this high-value shopper, as she took time out of her weekend to browse through fashion selections.

She visited a website seven times across seven days before finally completing her purchase. This high-value shopper is a thorough shopper and carefully reviews each article prior to purchasing. She’d buy just over two items per shopping occasion, with her average order value totaling $168.33. 

While apparel sales dropped significantly at the start of the pandemic, sales began to recuperate starting from April and continuing to surge through the summer for back-to-school. Warmer weather and reopenings drove shoppers to replenish their wardrobe – even if it was the latest piece of athleisure wear for a walk in the park with friends. The high-value shopper was still selective in her browsing, visiting a website six times prior to purchase. However, she placed her orders more quickly, as her latency period declined by half: she now took only three days and about eight hours between the first website visit and final purchase. 

She searched earlier in the day, around eleven a.m., and purchased at noon on a Saturday. This high-value shopper still reserved her weekends to browse through the fashion selection, as style remained her passion even if the occasion had changed. She bought fractionally more items per purchase instance during the pandemic (2.17 compared to pre-pandemic’s 2.15), but her AOV dropped by $10 to $156.48.

While the high-value fashion and jewelry customers probably prioritized new clothes and accessories more than the average customer, innovative apparel companies who pivoted to producing and selling masks helped keep their ware relevant and fresh. This, in turn, kept shoppers like the high-value shopper engaged with new products and allowed them to continue to have a sense of identity through a choice of masks.

Mobile As A Fashion Statement

Continued customer engagement is crucial to any successful e-commerce business and a user-friendly digital interface is important as online shopping continues to gain prominence. Due to the high-value shopper’s younger age of 25-35, she is comfortable navigating her mobile device, presumably even before the pandemic compelled more shoppers online.

Pre-pandemic, she used her mobile phone for almost 22% of her first website visits and to complete 22% of her orders. The role of mobile in her purchase journey only increased during the pandemic. From March to November, she made 24% of her first website visits and final orders on her mobile device. During the holiday season, that number rose further, as she was visiting a website 28% of the time and completing 27% of her orders on her mobile device. 

Mobile apps always had an important role in the fashion industry, especially to help with virtual try-on and simplify social commerce. The fashion industry is a versatile industry, so it will continue to adapt to the increasing role of mobile. 

The Holidays Drove a Heightened Sense of Urgency in Online Shopper Behavior

Equally as versatile as the fashion industry itself is the high-value customer. She quickly adjusted her online shopping behavior to accommodate new e-commerce trends. As the holiday season approached, she made her purchase decisions more quickly and purposefully to secure gifts – for both loved ones and herself. The holidays may have been homebound, but that didn’t mean she needed to skimp on her outfit. 

During the holiday season, the high-value shopper searched around one p.m. and completed her purchase at two p.m. on a Monday. She took one day and about three hours between the first website visit and final purchase — the shortest holiday latency period within NetElixir’s dataset. During this time, she visited a website four times prior to purchase.

Her holiday basket size was two and a half items and her AOV jumped to $183.41. Like other high-value customers in NetElixir’s study, the fashion and jewelry shopper was willing to spend more to secure gifts.

Online Shopping Expectations for These Fashion-Conscious High-Value Customers

The latest trends and styles were never far from the high-value customer’s mind. Early on in the pandemic, she may not have had the full resources and disposable income to splurge on new clothes and accessories. However, pent-up demand will continue to spark economic growth. As the weather gets warmer, vaccines continue to roll out, and more stimulus checks are expected, customers like the high-value shopper will likely spend more in personal categories like fashion and jewelry.

Keep your campaigns running throughout the weekend when she is more likely to be searching and shopping. On social media, showcase diverse models wearing your latest clothes and accessories; if people are hesitant to go in-store, they still want to have a sense of how clothes and accessories will look on them. Forbes reports that more customers are using augmented reality to virtually try on make and clothes in a new digital fashion wave. Continue to drive urgency in your high-value customers by updating your website with the latest styles and new choices.

Further Resources on Understanding Your High-Value Customers

NetElixir’s proprietary customer analytics tool, LXRInsights, charts the paths-to-purchase of your high-value customers. Using our technology, you can track customer touchpoints and build customer personas for more personalized and targeted campaigns – just as we explored in our 2021 FACES report. Request a demo of LXRInsights for specifics into your business at https://www.lxrinsights.com/.

Tune in on Fridays to learn more about your industry’s high-value customers. Browse through our previously published industries:

• Food and Gourmet
• Pet Supplies
• Home Furnishing

The post Fashion & Jewelry: How High-Value Customers’ Online Shopping Behavior Changed in 2020 appeared first on NetElixir.

Beginning in 2018, Statista showed that over half of Generation X and Millennials customers were willing to shop for home accents and large furniture online. By 2020, that willingness became more apparent. According to NetElixir’s dataset throughout 2020, the home furnishing retail category saw explosive growth throughout the year. Sales peaked around the beginning of August, growing at 170%+ YoY after over four months of steady 100%+ growth. 

As the pandemic continued, consumer’s online shopping behavior shifted to adapt to rapid digital and social changes and to accommodate working- and learning-from-home. NetElixir’s 2021 FACES research report delves into the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on consumer behavior trends in 2020 across e-commerce industries. Today, we look at how the online shopping behavior of the high-value customer of the home furnishing industry changed over the course of 2020.

The NetElixir Retail Intelligence Lab analyzed over two million unique online consumer paths-to-purchase across ten retail categories. Our goal was to better understand ongoing changes in online shopping behaviors and trends of high-value customers. We divided our data into three timeframes:

• Pre-pandemic (Jan. 1 – Mar. 15, 2020)
• Non-holiday pandemic (Mar. 16 – Nov. 15, 2020)
• Holiday pandemic (Nov. 16 – Dec. 25, 2020)

Meet the high-value shopper for the home furnishing retail industry: 

Online Shopping Trends for Home Furnishing

Prior to the pandemic, the high-value customer for the home furnishing industry was a morning shopper. She visited a website around ten AM and made her purchases around 11 AM on Tuesdays. Presumably, she shopped earlier in the week and day to be able to have her home remade and decor updated in time for the weekend for whatever she was hosting. She visited a website about eight times prior to purchasing and waited almost four days between initial website visit and purchase. On average, she visited a website just over twice a day.

She seemed to desire a change in her home more often than the average customer, so this desire for something new was heightened during the pandemic. As the pandemic progressed, her online shopping habits became more purposeful. During the height of the pandemic, she visited a website even earlier than before: she visited at nine AM and made her purchase at ten AM on a Monday. While she could no longer host parties on weekends as she did before, she was now possibly changing her virtual background decor or buying new office furniture.

While she still visited a website eight times prior to making a purchase, she now took only two days and about five hours between her first website visit and completing an order. She visited a website about three times a day during the pandemic. 

Her average order value dropped significantly during the pandemic, from $429.52 for an average of 2.6 items to $366.58 for an average of 2.5 items per order. This high-value customer was probably ordering small pieces of furniture and decor to make small changes throughout her house. She now had more rooms to work with and more people within those rooms who grew tired of looking at the same things over and over. She also probably wanted to recreate her home as both a place of productivity during working hours and relaxation during off-hours.

As Al Bessin, the Chief Operating Officer of Circa Lighting, said in a conversation with NetElixir, “shoppers sought comfort in their home during the pandemic.” He surmised that people sought design changes after looking at the same lamp and furniture day in and day out. Bessin said that the pandemic was “impacting people’s desire and want to have a more comfortable place to work.” 

At Home on Mobile

As customers sought more comfort in their homes, so too they wanted a comfortable and seamless online shopping experience. Shoppers tend to find bigger screens easier to see their home furnishing choices. Pre-pandemic, our high-value shopper used her mobile phone for only 10% of her searches and to place 17% of her orders. Like other industries, this high-value shopper grew more comfortable searching and shopping on her mobile device as the pandemic progressed. From March to November of last year, she conducted almost 15% of her searches and made almost 22% of her purchases on her mobile device. As the holidays neared, she grew even more comfortable with using her mobile device more in her buying cycle. Nearly 20% of her first website visits and 23% of her orders were made on her phone. 

Creating a user-friendly shopping experience helps bridge the gap between mobile and desktop searches. 

How the Holidays Quickened Online Shopping Behavior

In preparation for her homebound holiday celebration, our high-value customer visited a website at noon and made her purchase at noon on Monday. She no longer searched exclusively in the morning, though she was still more active at the beginning of the week. She still visited a website eight times prior to making a purchase but was taking less than two days between the initial website visit and order completion. 

The holidays called for new decorations and new furniture to accommodate different celebrations. Her AOV was close to $500 and the items per order rose to an average of three and a half. These could have been holiday-specific items to create a festive atmosphere to make the homebound holidays special and different than the prior months spent inside, as many more people were spending the holidays in their homes. 

The Home Furnishing industry saw the greatest increase in holiday e-commerce sales, second only to the Food and Gourmet industry. During the Cyber 5, orders for home furnishing grew over 70% YoY. 

Online Shopping Expectations for These High-Value Customers

Between zoom backgrounds and spending long hours working from home, our high-value home furnishing shopper cares about how she navigates her space. She likes to change her surroundings so she is not bored by the same designs. To keep her interested, continually offer new products and patterns to give her options. Consider sending out your newsletters early in the morning on a Monday or Tuesday, when she is more likely to be searching for inspiration. 

Home furnishing brands can get creative in how they display their products. For example, Al Bessin of Circa Lighting took advantage of more flexible work hours and the increase of online shoppers. He sought to create an active dialogue online with his audience by increasing their social media and online events with more virtual tours and showrooms. 

Further Resources on Understanding Your High-Value Customers

Through our research, we can begin to understand what effect the coronavirus pandemic had on online shopping behavior. As part of NetElixir’s ongoing research in online shopping behavior, we will offer a weekly in-depth analysis into one of the ten retail categories explored in NetElixir’s 2021 FACES report. Tune in on Fridays to learn more about your industry’s high-value customers. Last week, we delved into the online shopping behavior of the high-value customer of the Pet Supplies retail industry. We used LXRInsights to analyze and aggregate the data for FACES. Please use FACES as a benchmark for your industry. Request a demo of LXRInsights for specifics into your business at https://www.lxrinsights.com/.

Create a seamless experience throughout your customer’s shopping journey. NetElixir’s proprietary customer analytics tool, LXRInsights, charts the paths-to-purchase of your high-value customers. Using our technology, you can track customer touchpoints and build customer personas for more personalized campaigns. 

The post Home Furnishings High-Value Customers Online Shopping Behavior In 2020 appeared first on NetElixir.

NetElixir’s 2021 FACES research report delves into the impact that the coronavirus pandemic has had on consumer behavior trends in 2020 across various e-commerce industries. Today, we look at how the online shopping behavior of the high-value customer of the Pets Supplies industry changed throughout last year.

The NetElixir Retail Intelligence Lab analyzed over two million unique online consumer paths-to-purchase across ten retail categories. Our goal was to better understand ongoing changes in online shopping behaviors and trends. We divided our data into three timeframes:

• Pre-pandemic (Jan. 1 – Mar. 15, 2020)
• Non-holiday pandemic (Mar. 16 – Nov. 15, 2020)
• Holiday pandemic (Nov. 16 – Dec. 25, 2020)

Meet the high-value shopper for the Pet Supplies retail industry: 

Changes in Online Shopping Behavior for the Pet Supplies Industry

Pre-pandemic, the Pet Supplies high-value shopper took over seven days to complete her purchase. She would first visit a site around 6 pm on a Friday or Saturday and make her purchase around 7 pm on the following Saturday. She would visit a website eighteen times before making a final purchase. Within NetElixir’s dataset for FACES, the Pet Supplies high-value shopper had the most amount of website visits prior to purchasing. She took her time researching and comparing different products and prices. A lot of these purchases could have been wants, in that maybe her dog didn’t need a new toy, but he certainly was a good boy who deserved one. Presumably, she searched around a lot to see what was available, but waited until a sale or she had enough products to acquire free shipping.

Our high-value shopper bought almost three and a half items per order and her average order value totaled $184.18. 

As the pandemic progressed (and at the height of foster adoptions), she made her purchases more quickly. She now searched at 9 am, but still made her purchase at 7 pm on a Saturday. She now took less than four days to make a decision and visited the website eleven times in her research. This averages out to slightly more website visits per day than pre-pandemic (2.8 website visits during the non-holiday pandemic compared to 2.4 visits during pre-pandemic). However, her overall buying journey was cut in half during the non-holiday pandemic. Her AOV dropped $26 to $158.42 and she bought just over three items. With a growing sense of urgency to ensure she could provide for herself, so too she quickly stocked up on supplies for her pets.

The Increasing Role of Mobile in the Pet Supplies Path-to-Purchase

Mobile usage only increased for the high-value Pet Supplies customer as the pandemic progressed. Pre-pandemic, she used her mobile to first visit a website 32% of the time, which increased to 34% as the pandemic continued to spread. Mobile purchases went up slightly from 33% to 34% from pre-pandemic to non-holiday pandemic. 

As our high-value shopper grew more accustomed to shopping online, she relied more on her mobile device for product discovery and to complete her orders. By the end of the year, she was using her mobile even more: she first visited a website nearly 40% of the time and conducted 39% of her purchases on a mobile device. 

How Online Shopping Behavior Changed During the Holidays

During the holiday season, our high-value customer’s online shopping behavior became more intentional and focused. Her latency between initial website visit and purchase dropped further to just over three days. She visited a website eight times prior purchasing or an average of two and a half times a day. This average is lower than the non-holiday pandemic, but just above pre-pandemic. The sense of urgency to ensure she had what her pets needed continued to impact her online shopping behavior. Additionally, with a rise in new pet owners, pet supplies made an easy gift option for the holidays. She could have been searching more thoroughly to secure gifts for other pets.

She now searched late at night at 10 pm (maybe waiting until her pet was asleep so as not to spoil the holiday surprise). Maybe shopping for pet supplies became one of the later priorities on her holiday to-do list and she conducted her research at the end of the day, after searching and buying for other friends and family members. She still made her purchases at 7 pm, but on a Sunday during the holidays. 

AOV increased to $200.52, while items per order dropped to an average of three. Brands offered less promotions during the 2020 holiday season to make up for profits, consumers across industries spent more on fewer items during the holiday season. However, as more people fostered more animals this year, as well, the new additions to the family also needed a special holiday treat.

Online Shopping Expectations for These High-Value Customers

Despite the slight fluctuations in when the Pet Supplies high-value shopper searched for products, she predominantly shopped for her pets during off-work hours. Overall, her online buying behavior remained consistent: she made her purchases at 7 pm on a weekend. This could be because she wants to devout more attention to finding her pets the right things (whereas she can shop for herself a bit more quickly and during work hours). Or, she finds it relaxing to shop for her pets at the end of the day. Regardless, pet supply brands should ensure a seamless user experience to make her searching and shopping as easy as possible. 

As she predominantly made her purchases on the weekend, consider running your promotions through Saturday and Sunday when her buying intent is likely to be higher. Consider scheduling your social posts during off-work hours when she’s more likely to be searching or shopping. Reserve a portion of your ad budget for retargeting  to keep her attention.

Build up your brand by sharing relevant information on caring for different types of pets. In NetElixir’s conversation with Ruth Jeffers, founder and CEO of Jeffers Pet, Jeffers said she had seen an increase in questions about animal health and care-taking during the pandemic. More pet owners were at home grooming and caring for their pets, so there was an increased need for information. She also found that she had more engagement with her email campaigns on the weekends, which aligns with NetElixir’s findings on the increased shopping intent of the high-value Pet Supplies customer on weekends.

Further Resources on Understanding Your High-Value Customers

It is crucial for marketers and retailers to have a thorough understanding of their consumers’ online shopping behavior to be able to meet them in the moments that matter.

As part of NetElixir’s ongoing research in online shopping behavior, we will offer a weekly in-depth analysis into one of the ten retail categories explored in NetElixir’s 2021 FACES report. Tune in on Fridays to learn more about your industry’s high-value customer. Last week, we delved into the online shopping behavior of the high-value customer of the Food and Gourmet retail industry.

How can you develop a strategy to engage your high-value customers? NetElixir’s proprietary customer analytics tool, LXRInsights, charts the paths-to-purchase of your high-value customers. Using our technology, you can track customer touchpoints and build out customer personas. 

We used LXRInsights to analyze and aggregate the data for FACES. Please use FACES as a benchmark for your industry. Request a demo of LXRInsights for specifics into your business at https://www.lxrinsights.com/.

The post Pet Supplies Industry: How Online Shopping Behavior of High-Value Customers Changed In 2020 appeared first on NetElixir.

The NetElixir Retail Intelligence Lab analyzed over two million unique online consumer paths-to-purchase across ten retail categories. Our goal was to better understand ongoing changes in online shopping trends. We divided our data into three timeframes:

• Pre-pandemic (Jan. 1 – Mar. 15, 2020)
• Non-holiday pandemic (Mar. 16 – Nov. 15, 2020)
• Holiday pandemic (Nov. 16 – Dec. 25, 2020)

The pre-pandemic timeframe serves as a baseline; had 2020 been a year like any other, e-commerce adoption and digital transformation would have continued at its expected pace. McKinsey found that the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies by several years. The pandemic also helped thousands of shoppers cross the initial barrier to online shopping — and once these consumers regularly began shopping online, their average order value was 12% higher than pre-pandemic shoppers. According to NetElixir’s data, they also purchased more frequently.

As online shopping behavior continues to evolve, it is crucial for marketers and retailers to have a thorough understanding of their consumers to be able to meet them in the moments that matter.

For an overview of your high-value consumer profile, download our report now at https://stage.netelixir.com//faces/. Keep reading for a deep dive into the online shopping behavior of the Food and Gourmet industry’s high-value shopper.

Meet the high-value shopper for the Food and Gourmet retail industry: 

Changes in Online Shopping Behavior for the Food & Gourmet Industry

During the onset of the pandemic from March into April, the Food and Gourmet retail industry experienced massive YoY growth. Back in March, as NetElixir was studying the daily changes in online orders, we saw unprecedented growth across the majority of online industries, but none saw growth quite like the Food and Gourmet industry. The Food and Gourmet retail industry experienced its greatest growth from March 22 to April 4, with online sales surging at nearly 600% YoY. Sales continued to increase at over 100% YoY through June, and skyrocketed again during the holiday season.

Pre-pandemic, 50% of food consumed was done outside the home and 38% of occasions were celebrated outside the home, according to NetElixir’s conversation with Parag Shah, the VP of Grocery at Wakefern Food Corporation. 

Prior to the pandemic, our high-value shopper took her time in her online search. She would first visit a website around 12 pm and was most likely to purchase around 9 am on a Sunday. She would visit a website five times prior to purchase and wait just over five days between initial website visit and first purchase. On average, she’d buy over two items per online order and spend $245.48.

As the pandemic progressed, people shopped more quickly; our high-value customer waited only two days between first website visit and first purchase. Although she still visited a website five times prior to making a purchase, as our high-value shopper was just as fastidious in her research as before the outbreak spread, she made her purchase decisions much quicker. She researched and shopped earlier, as she was more likely to visit a website and make a purchase almost first thing in the morning at 8 am. This was presumably to ensure her essential food items were available. She was more likely to make a purchase on a Tuesday. Her AOV dropped $15 to $229.96 and she shopped for marginally less items per order. 

Our high-value customer focused on finding the items she strictly needed. Brand loyalty dropped in favor of securing essential items. As an always-on shopper or new to online shopping, she still conducted thorough research, but had more time throughout her week to research and shop. She quickly finalized her order to ensure she could feed her family.

The Role of Mobile in the Food and Gourmet Customer Journey

Our high-value customer predominantly favors researching and shopping on her desktop. However, as the pandemic continued, she used her mobile device more. Prior to the pandemic, she used her mobile only 16% of the time when first visiting a website. During the pandemic, that rose to 20% of the time as she grew more comfortable using her mobile phone. Her comfort level only grew during the holiday season, as she conducted 21% of her initial website visits on a mobile device.

Presumably, she would see deals or meal ideas while already scrolling through her phone and researched there and then. She was less likely to make a purchase on her mobile phone, completing a mobile purchase only 15% of the time pre-pandemic, which rose to 19% during the pandemic. When the holidays came around, she preferred her desktop again, with mobile purchases dropping to 18% of total online orders. 

Online Shopping Behavior During the Holidays

The Food and Gourmet retail industry had the highest YoY growth during Cyber 5, growing over 95% compared to 2019’s Cyber 5 weekend, according to NetElixir’s dataset. Consumers wanted to make the holidays special with delicious home-cooked meals. With smaller holiday gatherings, more people had to buy their own food.

Our high-value customer’s sense of urgency to buy food items only grew during the holiday season. As she knew her way around e-commerce stores more by mid-November, she researched less prior to purchase: she’d visit a website only four times prior to purchasing and take one day and six hours to complete her purchase. She was more likely now to buy on a Friday at 1 pm. She was visiting the website later than she was during the pandemic, now at 10 am, but still not waiting as late as pre-pandemic. 

The biggest shift in her online shopping behavior was her attitude towards prices. While her AOV decreased during the pandemic in an effort to be mindful of costs, she wanted to make the holidays special this year. Her AOV rose 24% from pre-pandemic time to holidays as she spent about $305 per order, while the items per order decreased to just over two. She was now spending $150 per individual item for the holidays, compared to $96 during the pandemic and $101 pre-pandemic. 

In an effort to make the holidays unique in their own way, she zeroed in on what she wanted. She had an idea of what she wanted to make and quickly followed through with her purchases to make new traditions with her home-cooked meals.

Targeting and Engaging New High-Value Customers

To cater to this high-value shopper, ensure all product availability is fully listed and updated on your website so she knows exactly what she can get. Entice other high-value shoppers like her by including early bird deals or adding countdown clocks to your website. As she grows more comfortable using her mobile, consider offering mobile-only deals to encourage a quicker conversion.

Further Resources on Understanding Your High-Value Customers

Tune in each week for a deep dive into one of the ten retail categories explored in NetElixir’s 2021 FACES report. 

Why do we study high-value customers? NetElixir has found that high-value customers account for over 60% of total website purchases. We used our proprietary customer analytics tool, LXRInsights, to analyze and aggregate the data for FACES. 

Our cutting-edge customer journey mapping technology gives brands the power to engage the right shoppers responsibly and effectively in the moments that matter most. Please use FACES as a benchmark for your industry. Request a demo of LXRInsights for specifics into your business at https://www.lxrinsights.com/.

The post How Online Shopping Behavior of High-Value Food & Gourmet Customers Changed In 2020 appeared first on NetElixir.

The pandemic accelerated digitization on a global scale, but it also humanized us, as we collectively adjusted to virtual workspaces and events. Our deeper connection to technology – and the rapid improvements of that technology – allowed us to easily create better dialogue, send e-greetings, increase engagement, and shop online like never before. We online shopped live never before. 

But you don’t have to be reminded of that – we all went through it. During this period where we take some time to reflect on our challenges and accomplishments, NetElixir wanted to share our key learnings from working with over 100 retails brands this pandemic holiday season, with some insights from our Founder and CEO, Udayan Bose, into the non-tangibles and the non-digital things we learned this year.

A Note on 2020 from NetElixir’s CEO

I am sure we will forever remember 2020. Unfortunately, given the magnitude of what we have had to deal with during the pandemic, there are residual effects that we expect to roll into 2021. I will also remember 2020 for how much it taught us all. Here’s some of what 2020 taught me: 

• Humility: Matters that may have been considered important felt trivial as the pandemic swept through the world.
• The importance of Prioritization: The pandemic forced us to prioritize what’s important for us.
• We are who we are (the importance of authenticity): The Zoom calls brought our co-workers, clients, partners, and prospects inside our homes. Since every communication was through Zoom, people saw us as we were, not what we wanted to show them. And, this, in my opinion, was one of the biggest positives of continued remote work. It helped humanize our professional relationships. Suddenly it wasn’t a vendor-client or a partner-partner conversation – it was a conversation between two people – a person to person conversation.
• Adaptability: We had to react quickly to the ever-evolving eCommerce landscape, to meet clients and customers where they were, and seize opportunities as they arose. Indecision was costly. Agility and adaptability will continue to be crucial to success in the future.
• It is NOT about me. It is about YOU: The pandemic amplified the importance of a fundamental business truth – every interaction with internal and external customers is always about them and not us. Asking “how can we help” is fundamental to fully understanding and meeting the needs and expectations of others. We need to provide solutions to problems customers are dealing with directly, not what we think they are dealing with. 
• The Importance of Positive Momentum: As a result of numerous initiatives that we undertook, at a very rapid pace to proactively meet the challenges of the pandemic head-on, we emerged stronger together. We kept building on our positive momentum to do better, learn from both what went wrong and what went right, and progress onto the next thing.
• Leaders are everywhere: People just need an opportunity to have their leadership skills blossom. Establishing an environment of continuous experimentation and open innovation and communication inspires everyone to do better, reach higher, and create something bigger than themselves. New leaders help organizations grow further and faster.
• The Importance of taking a pause to self-reflect: Burnout is real. Taking planned breaks from work and slowing down occasionally is important to be able to recharge and tackle a problem with fresher insights. Spending some “me time” is crucial to maintaining the work-from-home flow, while keeping us mentally and physically healthy and capable.
• Thankfulness is an incredible energizer: There is so much to be thankful for this year, I don’t even know where to start. I will just share my favorite quote that I think defines the importance of being thankful:

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. – Melody Beattie

2020 will soon become history. While we can’t really control the unfortunate loss the pandemic has caused, we can definitely look back on the lessons that we have learned and how we have grown as a human being in 2020. 

From the NetElixir family to yours, we wish you a very happy and healthy New Years!

The post NetElixir’s Farewell to 2020 appeared first on NetElixir.

By understanding the real data around the latest eCommerce trends and online shopping behavior, we can better navigate through this challenging year. As marketers and retailers, we have to follow where, when, and how our customers are shopping and searching online and be there for them at every turn. During this holiday season, customers are looking for an easy and seamless online shopping experience, promotions, and ways to connect more with each other. By providing a helping hand, brands can better support their customers. 

Customers’ Online Shopping Behaviors

Consumer preferences are changing at a rapid pace, based on Bain & Co.’s Elements of Value Pyramid. Customers are prioritizing safety and wellness when they shop.

“Safety has become and continues to be one of the primary drivers [of shopping behavior],” Bose says. “We have seen very specific emotional drivers play a very important role [in the buying process]. For example: reducing anxiety, as well as wellness.” 

Hope and nostalgia have also played an important role throughout the months of the coronavirus pandemic. Bose suggests that hope and safety should be retailers’ main focus, especially during the holiday season, as consumers continue to navigate new shopping situations. Consumers will remember brands that they felt safe with.

As new shopping trends and motivations continually emerge, it is hard to pin down exactly what will be the new normal. However, based on the data collected by NetElixir’s Retail Intelligence Lab so far, we see that 1 out of 8 new-to-online shoppers (i.e., those who made their first regular online purchase during the coronavirus pandemic) continue to make 50% of their purchases exclusively online for the Food and Grocery retail industry. NetElixir first marked this trend around mid-April, as lockdowns eased and people could choose to shop more freely in brick-and-mortar stores. 

Having successfully crossed the first barrier to online shopping, customers are becoming increasingly more comfortable navigating eCommerce sites. Customers are even open to exploring new brands, creating ample opportunities throughout this holiday season.

How ECommerce Trends are Evolving

Current eCommerce trends point to a sustained explosion of online sales. NetElixir’s Retail Intelligence Lab has tracked the YoY changes in online sales across seven categories for now nineteen two-week periods, starting from February 9th, detailed below:

The Food and Grocery retail category is starting to pick up momentum again, after a slight dip throughout the end of summer. Bose forecasts that Food will see a 100%+ YoY growth during the holiday season as more people prepare home-cooked meals instead of eating out. Apparel has also declined YoY from its peak in the first two weeks of September, presumably bolstered by back-to-school sales.  Home Furnishing, Tools and Hardware, and Home Décor continue to see strong YoY increases. Overall, NetElixir forecasts that the remainder of the holiday season will see online sales grow at 30% YoY across retail categories.

Prime Day 2020 helped to jumpstart an early holiday shopping season, but the online spike it generated subsided quickly. Online sales for the Food and Grocery retail industry did, however, see sustained growth, trending upwards from October 18th on, as pictured below:

While this may not be attributed solely and directly to Prime Day, as Food’s spike started a few days after the Prime Day event concluded, monitoring the residual effect of online sales events is important to monitor where else consumers shop.

Likewise, current events influence consumer’s shopping habits. Election Week in the United States did have an impact on eCommerce trends and online sales. The Gifting, Home Decor, and Tools and Hardware retail categories experienced a marginal decrease of less than 10% in eCommerce sales during Election Week compared to the week prior. Apparel, Home Furnishing, Pet Supplies, and Food and Grocery all experience substantial growth during Election Week compared to the week prior. Conversion rates across all retail categories, however, were 5% lower during Election Week than the week prior. 

“There are events of this magnitude – and Election Week was definitely an event which had a pretty massive impact and importance – which has a direct correlation with the eCommerce trends,” Bose summarizes. 

Google Ad investment will increase across businesses, as CPCs themselves are also increasing across all retail categories. As the holidays draws nearer, marketers are advertising more aggressively and earlier to avoid last-minute shipping delays.

Your 2020 Holiday ECommerce Sales Calendar

For the past 13 years, NetElixir has released an eCommerce calendar to help retailers mark important dates they should consider in their marketing strategy. Some key insights from this year’s calendar includes:

• Weeks of November 22nd and November 29th: will account for the two biggest online shopping weeks of 2020;
• Week of December 6th: most retailers will set a cut-off date for guaranteed holiday shipping (delivery by 12/24);
• Week of December 13th: BOPIS commerce will surge and most retailers will lower their digital marketing spend;
• Week of December 20th: while usually a busy week for last-minute deals and buys, it is forecasted to be the quietest week of the 2020 holiday shopping season.

Download your 2020 Holiday ECommerce Sales Calendar now at https://stage.netelixir.com//holidays/. 

Overall, NetElixir forecasts a 30% YoY aggregate growth for eCommerce sales throughout the rest of the holiday season. We forecast 45% growth in November and 20% growth in December YoY, as consumers try to get the bulk of their holiday shopping done early.

Q&A with the Vice President of Marketing at GovX

GovX is an online-only retailer, who caters exclusively to people who are currently serving or who have served in the United States Armed Forces and law enforcement, including firefighters, first responders, and other government service agencies. GovX works with over 400 brands to provide a military discount to GovX’s members. 

While Veterans Day is normally a kickoff for larger holiday events that wrap up the year for GovX, this year has obviously been different. Pelander explains that the company has been digging into holiday planning for the past month to capitalize on the early shopping season.

“This whole year has been uncertain,” Pelander says. “I think, partly, what has helped the planning for the holidays now has been more due to this year’s worth of adjustments, changes in strategy, all leading up to this point.”

GovX shifted their December budget into November and late October for aggressive paid search and social advertising to capture early shoppers sooner rather than later. New customer acquisition has still been the focus of GovX’s strategy in first generating awareness of GovX’s mission amongst veterans and first responders, and then encouraging those members to shop through the site.

“A big focus for us this year has been on new customer growth, so not just getting a new member for the sake of a new member, but we want them to make their first purchase with us within the first 30 days of their membership,” Pelander explains.

By partnering with NetElixir, GovX has been able to shift their budget and spending to target and engage new members more effectively. We have helped them expand into YouTube marketing, as GovX has focused on pressing forward to make the most of the eCommerce boom that the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated.

How has GovX Pivoted their Marketing Strategy?

Pelander explains that through strong conversion rates, the company has been able to drive up more ad spend because consumers are converting more quickly during the pandemic months than before. As long as the conversion rates continue to hold strong, GovX will continue to advertise aggressively to maximize new memberships and sales. What’s important, Pelander notes, is pushing the right promotion at the right time and to the right person. GovX’s members continue to buy for themselves even in the midst of the holidays, as they will buy from a brand they like at the right price.

GovX’s holiday messaging kicked in right around Prime Day so as not to specifically compete with the sales event, but to coincide with the flow of online traffic the event created. This holiday season started in mid-October for the brand, as they offer week-long sales that typically lasted only a day in prior years, such as extending the Veterans Day sale and Cyber 5 promotions.

What has helped GovX maintain growth throughout these past few months is their agility and drive to keep being aggressive in a time when they could reap those benefits and other companies have hesitated. Their new customer focus has become GovX’s mindset to set the tone for the first 30 days that can propel new members to become loyal customers. Pelander says the scale of data from 2020 is so immense that fully analyzing the eCommerce trends and online shopping patterns that have emerged for the company over the course of the year will help create new strategies moving forward.

“It’s been a great year for learning,” Pelander concludes.

For a Deep Dive into Other ECommerce Trends

If you have any questions about the data provided or the eCommerce sales calendar, please contact us at university@netelixir.com.

Read more:

• Get Results with Progressive Web Apps
• October 2020 Retail ECommerce YoY Insights
• Strategic Views on Peak 2020 with UPS

The post Real-Time Data on Holiday ECommerce Trends appeared first on NetElixir.

VIP Roundtable Discussion

At the first event, Bose discussed how marketers are using their consumer data to make their search marketing better. To Bose, average order value is not as crucial a marker of success, as not all consumers are equal buyers. There is a distinct difference between high-value customers and average customers. Understanding the unique paths to purchase between your high-value and average customers is crucial to an all-around engaging and effective search marketing strategy.

While new customers are important to acquire, engaging your brand’s high-value customers should also be a priority. The lifetime value, order frequency, favorite products, and more purchasing behaviors can vary widely between high-value and average customers, which is easily tracked through NetElixir’s proprietary customer analytics tool, LXRInsights. LXRInsights, as Bose explains, categorizes your customers into “finite, more measurable groups [to] help you run a more responsible marketing campaign.”

A quick way to test your customer base’s actions and evaluation process is an old-fashioned one: pick up the phone and call 100 customers to ask. While 100 may not be much to map out entire customer journeys and experiences, it will allow for a solid, basic understanding of where your customers stand. The personal touch of a phone call will also go a long way in creating engagement and displaying empathy – two important metrics in these difficult times.

As the future becomes more digital, there can be an issue of presenting digital options and changes in a positive light, as many consumers may be hesitant to shop exclusively online. Creating a mobile first and frictionless shopping experience can help ease consumers into the digital world. 

“We are all trying to figure it out together,” Bose says.

In a survey on B2B global sentiment, McKinsey and Company found that at least 80% of respondents are more comfortable continuing with virtual models rather than in person meetings when making B2B purchasing decisions. 

A digital presence is essential now more than ever. B2B searches often begin with generic product names in a Google search (with 42% of those searching beginning on mobile, according to Google) so be sure to strengthen your keyword profile and research how customers are finding your website. 

The digital future cannot be ignored and the evolution relies on understanding your customer data.

Harnessing the Power of Customer Data to Make B2B ECommerce Search Marketing Work

Udayan Bose joined Cole Parmer’s VP of Marketing Andrew Carlson to present a Case Study: Harness the Power of Customer Data to Make B2B Search Marketing Work.

NetElixir managed paid search for Google and Microsoft in the United States, France, Germany, India, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany that drove a 20%+ improvement on ROAS and resulted in YoY growth in new customers acquired across all channels. NetElixir also managed Amazon Marketing that resulted in a 5X increase in orders and the SEO strategy for Cole Parmer for complete synergy across all channels.

NetElixir extended the lookback period for Cole Palmer to give products time to accrue revenue. Longer latency periods had impacted optimization techniques, so ad reports were often misleading. Orders with the highest value had the longest time from first visit to final purchase, so allowing for a longer lookback period captured the true customer journey that fully measured how well the product and ads performed.

Cross-channel synergy helped Cole Palmer see how well different products performed in Google and Amazon, as some performed better in one channel but not in the other. Building cross-channel analytics into measurement and optimization cycles creates an easy opportunity to move ad budgets to where products are performing well without scraping entire search marketing campaigns because one channel does not see a lot of success.

“Different customers use these different channels to buy different products,” Carlson explains. 

To help Cole Palmer thrive on Amazon, NetElixir started with brand recognition and then refined further toward exact products and specializations. The formula is simple: continuously expand upon winners throughout the refinement process to build upon success.

Real-time customer analytics empowers more targeted, efficient, and effective cross-channel campaigns for greater success in the future. 

Request your 2021 Digital Marketing Playbook to chime in the New Year.

Watch the full conversation here.

Read More from NetElixir

• Building Trust and Sizing People Up
• Get Results with Progressive Web Apps
• Prime Day’s Impact on Non-Amazon Website Sales

The post B2B ECommerce Search Marketing Case Study appeared first on NetElixir.

Overall, 73% of all respondents from NetElixir’s survey have an average to high level of comfort buying from a new brand — these potential customers just need the right opportunity to find your business. As these consumers are shopping almost equally on mobile (37.2% of respondents primarily shop on mobile) and desktop (37.9%), creating a seamless online experience across all devices is crucial to capturing these new shoppers. A very user-friendly online experience will ease in those new-to-online shoppers who are still learning about the digital world.

 ECommerce businesses have an enormous potential to attract new customers, which encourages a promising start to the holiday season and a chance for retailers strategically grow their digital presence. This holiday, entice shoppers to try something new by expanding your digital footprint and placing targeted ads where your audience is searching and shopping.

For more insights polled directly from consumers, download NetElixir’s new ebook. Along the Road to Recovery: How the Coronavirus Pandemic Reshaped ECommerce Trends and Online Shopping Behavior details four months of ecommerce data and strategic perspectives from academic and industry thought leaders to guide retailers to a better holiday season strategy. 

Learning Who Your Holiday Shopper Is

The pandemic holiday shopper is going to be different than any other holiday shopper before. Because there is so much uncertainty surrounding the holiday season and how customers will shop, Google notes that the retailer who responds the most quickly will probably be the most successful. The 2020 holiday retailer needs to be nimble and adaptable, while constantly learning more about how, where, and why their customers are shopping and searching. NetElixir’s proprietary customer analytics platform, LXRInsights, humanizes every click by giving real-time data on how users are interacting with your website. This holiday season, the most popular products and categories people are shopping for, as well as when and where they are shopping, are changing dramatically from prior years.

McKinsey’s customer sentiment reports show a higher and lasting intent to shop online, even after the pandemic subsides, especially among millennials. Digital shopping will be a huge factor of the new normal. 

Consumers are focused on getting the most value for what they spend and prioritizing essential goods. Initial consumerism resurgence in early August centered on self-pampering luxury items and sales, finds UPS Longitudes. While this trend is not sustainable, the category of self love will probably feature prominently in the holiday season as customers seek to treat themselves and their loved ones to comfort items. 

Product availability and shipping information drives what consumers buy, severing loyalty ties (though brand loyalty isn’t completely dead if it’s cultivated right). Ensure your website is updated regularly; if you have a strong social media presence, use stories for quick updates to keep customers informed about new deliveries, what’s out of stock, and shipping issues. Showing some behind-the-scenes of inventory and packaging can go a long way in humanizing your business this holiday season, while keeping customers in the loop. 

However, each retailer and marketer needs to understand who their own unique customers are, as well as their behaviors and preferences. Catering to and helping your customers will help you better navigate this holiday season.

FURTHER READING ON HOLIDAY INSIGHTS

• Google’s Digital Insights to Uncover Clues for Q4 Readiness
• The Holiday Season Starts Now
• Executive Panel Discussion: Holiday Season Insights Learned Over the Course of the Pandemic
• Getting Ready for the Near Future of Advertising with Microsoft
• A Different Holiday: Challenges and Opportunities in a Covid World

The post What Does Your Holiday Shopper Expect? appeared first on NetElixir.

Google Data on the Impact of COVID-19 on Purchase Habits

Dillon is offering, as he says, “practical implications of the impact of the pandemic on consumer and shopper purchasing behaviors.” Google compiled data based on search queries and a consumer survey through Ipsos.

Back in April, 63% of consumers were buying only the essentials – think toilet paper, groceries, hand sanitizers, and wipes. In June, only 50% of consumers were strictly buying essentials. 

As indicated above, while 50% of consumers are still focusing on the essentials, they are currently shifting their attention to different wants and needs. Most importantly, they are planning for future purchases by researching now. Retailers have the opportunity to showcase their product range beyond the essential market and offer inspiration to consumers.

Opportunities abound as Google’s data reveals that 41% of retail web visitors were new to the online shopping experience throughout March and July. These new to online shoppers are an entirely unique demographic providing what Dillon names a “once in a lifetime digitization opportunity.” These shoppers are open to exploring new brands, with 32% of American shoppers saying that will continue to buy from a brand that they discovered during the pandemic. Retailers have an opportunity to cultivate brand loyalty and reach a wider audience than ever before.

Nearly half of the consumers polled by Google and Ipsos say they expect discounts to be offered – and these consumers are committed to keeping up with promotions via store websites and apps, emails, online searches, and digital and paper flyers from stores to wait for those sales. It is imperative that retailers keep pricing information as updated as possible and ensure sales information is widely circulated. NetElixir recommends:

• Using paid search and social media ad campaigns to notify new and potential customers of upcoming sales and reach a broad audience;
• Ensure your website is current in regards to pricing information and that any promotions are notably displayed on your website;
• Make your email subscription button prominent and give subscribers the latest information on upcoming sales, inventory, and new products.

Customers are willing to wait for the best deals. If they cannot find the information they want on your site, they will turn elsewhere.

People now have a new set of heightened expectations, especially in regards to quality, inventory, and shipping. Global search data has increased 700% year over year for “best grocery delivery,” according to Google’s data. Searches for “with free delivery” have increased 300% year over year. Additionally, shoppers want to be notified of shipping delays as much as possible. Consumers expect more convenience in their online experience.

Shoppers have moved beyond the essentials to explore more of their wants and needs and are willing to try new brands. Because consumers expect updated inventory and delivery information and discounts (and will wait for those discounts to be available), an ongoing communication and strong relationship with brands are critical factors to maintaining customer loyalty throughout the holiday season.

“This is a once in a lifetime digitization opportunity.” Bob Dillon, Google.

The Evolving Role of the Brick-and-Mortar Store

Google reports that 52% of survey respondents said that they had visited a store or mall in the last two days in January; in April, that number dropped to just 28%. June saw an increase in foot traffic with 36% responding to just recently visiting a physical store. Shoppers are feeling safe to return – but safety is still their priority.

“There’s a hyper focus on their safety. They want to be in, they want to be out, and they want to be safe,” Dillon says. 

To be safe, consumers are aiming to spend less time in stores and more time planning their trips through online research into promotions, what is in stock and in store that day, and BOPIS options. In-store shoppers are willing to make sacrifices such as not always getting the lowest price, exploring availability with other brands, not always shopping at their preferred store if the space is too crowded, and curbside shopping. 

Curbside shopping, a product of the pandemic, may be here to stay long after the pandemic. Retailers are investing in resources for a more seamless and efficient curbside experience, while consumers are practicing the behavior more and more; the actions of both parties create more value in that behavior. While sameday curbside pickup may not be a necessity, it can certainly be a competitive advantage.

The Google Shopping Experience is reducing friction for omnichannel shoppers by providing store information on availability and distance, BOPIS and ship-to-store options, and curbside pickup services. When retailers make this information available, they have the opportunity to “tell the full story of what they have to offer,” Dillon explains. This allows customers to know exactly what to expect and they can comfortably plan their shopper excursions accordingly.

“I hope that these insights lead you to helpful actions to understand the broader landscape and to drive your business to success,” says Dillon.

Holiday 2020 Expectations

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, the shopping behaviors and insights learned during the pandemic are expected to be the same looking forward: ecommerce will continue to rise, with online shoppers looking for a frictionless experiences and in-store shoppers looking for a safe experience.

As consumers plan for their holiday shopping, 73% say they will shop more online this season. Their behavior will change slightly, as noted in the chart below:

Of importance to holiday shoppers is the ability to conduct strategic online research beforehand to know of inventory and sales opportunities. Shoppers will be patient for a discount, as they will most likely start shopping even earlier this year.

Online shoppers want a reliable experience. Many had a bad experience during the height of the pandemic in terms of shipping delays, so they expect to be notified of any delays, out of stock items, and return policies; these three factors should be prominently displayed on websites and repeated to customers. 

In-store shoppers want a safe experience. Contactless and self-serve checkouts will most likely continue to rise in popularity, as well as BOPIS options. For BOPIS, customers want dedicated lines for just in-store pick up so that they do not have to wait inside for a long time. If possible, customers are also interested in booking appointments to shop online so that they can avoid crowds. 

New shoppers are willing to try new brands so retailers have a unique opportunity to capture and retain customer attention. Messaging of ad campaigns should promote safety and efficiency, prioritizing the customer experience above all else. Media should begin as early as mid-September – or sooner, if possible – to entice early customers and to allow retailers to begin collecting data so as to make data-backed decisions later on in the holiday season. 

“Expect an unpredictable ride,” Dillon says. 

The time to prepare for the holiday season is now! Dillon predicts that the holiday season, “rather than [having] a number of very intense spikes on days like Black Friday, it’s going to be much more of a consistent drumbeat that starts much earlier.”

Google’s Holiday Retail ToolKit

For a solid foundations for retailers this holiday season, Google has compiled free holiday resources:

• Google Rising Retail Categories: realtime data on search queries that shows the rise and decline of categories on a daily and global basis, as well as the keywords driving those changes
• Google Grow My Store: improve your digital window to the world to benchmark how your store compares to your competitors based on your mobile performance, updated information, flexibility, and more

Google’s Holiday ToolKit is available to you now to help you succeed this holiday season. 

Additional Holiday Readiness Resources

On August 13th, NetElixir hosted Connecting the Dots: Holiday Readiness Summit for Retailers to bring together retail industry leaders, marketing mavens, supply chain experts, and strategic thinkers to share their advice, strategies, and holiday marketing resources to help retailers connect the dots for this financially critical holiday season. Each week, we will recap one of these ‘dots’ with any additional information and insights relating to the holiday season so retailers can continue to adapt their strategy and have a successful end of the year.

To help guide retailers, NetElixir compiled consumer insights, four months of research, thoughts and experiences from retail industry leaders, and strategic perspectives from academics into our eBook, Along the Road to Recovery.

The more pieces of information that you have, the more you can connect the dots for a stronger holiday plan. Our Connect the Dots conference may be over, but the holiday season is just beginning. The holiday help continues in our new webinar series Connect the Dots: Holiday Strategies from Retail Leaders. On Thursday, September 10th, NetElixir will be joined by Lenovo’s founding executive of global online strategy, Ajit Saviadasan, to discuss A Different Holiday: Opportunities and Challenges in a Covid World. Register now at https://stage.netelixir.com//webinar/.

Further reading on holiday insights:

• Back-to-School Readiness
• The Holiday Season Starts Now – Celebrate the Small Holidays Like Friendsgiving
• 2020 Holiday Data: Consumer Trends & Digital Marketing Strategies

The post Google’s Digital Insights for Q4 Readiness appeared first on NetElixir.