With the U.S. continuing to grapple with COVID-19, retailers and brands are on a mission to innovate and adapt to our new reality as quickly as possible. Rightfully so, the priority has been to first ensure that stores and physical locations are safe environments for employees and shoppers alike. This has required significant efforts and the rapid development of new technology and protocols. While these advancements will set the stage for the future of in-store shopping, there is a more immediate area that can ensure retailers and brands stay afloat through the pandemic — their digital presence.
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It’s not that companies have ignored investments in digital channels the past few years so much as that they aren’t moving fast enough. This has only been exacerbated by the virus. McKinsey has pointed out that we’ve experienced 10 years’ ecommerce growth in just 3 months. Moreover, recent data from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows no signs of this slowing down with consumer spending online up 44% year over year. Are organizations reacting and accelerating to meet this behavior at a corresponding pace? It appears that many are not.
(Source: McKinsey)
While most are focused on their owned website properties and technology enhancements to facilitate smooth purchase experiences, there are other core areas of the digital ecosystem that are going overlooked which I believe will have an outsized influence on the consumer experience.
Search and Discovery
Before many shoppers ever reach your website or view products they are searching for information. From a content perspective, good SEO practices are table stakes for ensuring your pages appear in search. What is now emerging as a new requirement is the need to optimize the visibility of your product listings and ensuring the proper information is available to support a modern digital-to-physical journey.
Google has recently revamped the way visual search and shopping works on their search engine as well as made it easier for more retailers to participate on their platform. Savvy organizations will want to ensure that their products listed online are appearing correctly through search and that these listings are enhanced to include all the data a consumer will want to know (price, inventory availability, photos, etc.). In addition to this, brands looking to bring shoppers back to stores will need to make sure their physical location information is up to date with hours of operation, map and direction functionality, and recent reviews.
Shopper Tools and Experiences
While safety remains the priority, companies are starting to turn to digital solutions to provide contactless and innovative ways to service their customers. At physical locations we’re seeing a rise in QR codes being used to access product information while online experiences are being enhanced with AR and VR technology to give shoppers another way to evaluate products. Companies like Lululemon are even expanding their at-home offerings via acquisition and building out new services to expand their business for the future.
Whether your business is just building up capability in this area and investing in features like product comparison tools, digital wallet integrations, and product tutorial videos or considering adding advanced experiences like virtual consultations or AR product viewings, now is the time to kickstart your digital transformation.
New Channels and Presences
Along with search and website advancements, organizations should not lose sight of tertiary and emerging channels for commerce. While some brands may have been biding their time looking for greater usage or stronger signals to invest, they no longer have the luxury of waiting. If customers aren’t there right now, they likely will be soon and brands will want to make sure they are ready.
Established social networks like Facebook, Pinterest and Snapchat have all introduced ecommerce capabilities for businesses and advertisers. Since then, social commerce has grown significantly with platforms like Instagram and TikTok seeing success with large brands and attracting a substantial user base of consumers. Retailers who haven’t yet explored these tools are missing out on a powerful and influential audience.
In addition to reconsidering the role of social media, organizations should keep an eye on digital touchpoints like chatbots and smart speakers as the next battleground for commerce visibility. Brands like Mango and Amika have seen early success deploying chatbots as a way to further connect with consumers and drive engagement with products while consumer engagement with smart speakers is up 34% since the start of the pandemic. These more intimate and interactive mediums are showing strong potential to keep garnering favor with consumers. While still developing, preparing your brand to be present and available through these channels will be key for the coming years.
Partner Power
Last, but not least, it is critical that businesses selling through or working with partners assess how their products are appearing on those platforms. Whether it is a digital partner like Amazon or Google or a distribution partner like Target or Walmart, brands should consider the following questions:
How do products appear when searching on my partner’s website and mobile app?
Are there content areas for my product listings that I’m not taking advantage of? (i.e. photos, videos, description copy)
Which competitors are appearing near or alongside my products?
Are customers being encouraged to leave reviews or add my products as a preferred item or brand?
How can I better compete with the platform’s search ranking? (i.e. Amazon’s Algorithm)
Reviewing these will help companies understand how their products are being seen outside their own walls and point to actionable opportunities to improve their presences and sales.
As we head toward the end of the year, many are speculating that the digital shopping behaviors established as a result of the pandemic will be sticking around for the long-haul. The areas discussed here can help businesses level up their ecommerce presence and build capabilities that will keep them ahead of the curve. This is essential for businesses that want to remain a part of that future. Getting there requires commitment to innovation and a willingness to not put off until tomorrow what can be done today.
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