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As the pandemic has transformed the nature of work with more employees working from home than ever before it has also changed how consumers shop according to new study from IBM and the National Retail Federation. 

The new global study of over 19,000 titled “Consumers want it all” revealed that hybrid shopping which mixes physical and digital channels in shopping journeys is on the rise as a result of shopping habits consumers adopted out of necessity that are now becoming routine. 

Of those surveyed, almost three quarters (72%) said that they use retail stores as all or part of their primary purchase method. The reasons they gave for visiting a store include touching and feeling products before buying them (50%), picking and choosing their own products (47%) and getting products right away (43%). 

However, 27 percent of respondents said that hybrid shopping, where part of their shopping journey is conducted online and the other half takes place in a retail store, is their method of choice. When it came to the generation most likely to be a ‘hybrid shopper’, Gen Z consumers lead the way when compared to other age groups. 

VP of research and development and industry analysis at the National Retail Federation, Mark Matthews explained in a press release how hybrid shopping represents a fundamental shift in consumer behavior, saying: 

“While many surveyed consumers still place high value on the traditional in-store shopping experience, they also now expect the flexibility to build their own shopping journey – according to the behaviors prevalent to their age range, available tools and the product category they are looking to purchase. This ‘hybrid’ approach is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior.”

Growing importance of sustainability

While adoption of hybrid cloud, AI and other technologies can allow retailers to create bespoke hybrid shopping experiences, IBM’s new study has also revealed that they’ll need to keep sustainability in mind to retain and grow their customer base. 

Purpose-driven consumers that choose products and brands based on their own values like sustainability are now the largest segment of consumers surveyed (44%) according to the study. At the same time, 62 percent of respondents are willing to change their purchasing habits to reduce environmental impact which is up from 57 percent two years ago. 

Half of respondents said they are now willing to pay an average premium of 70 percent for sustainability which is roughly double the premium from 2020. Still though, there is a gap between intention and action with only 31 percent of respondents saying that sustainable products made up most or all of their last purchase. 

Dglobal managing director of IBM Consumer Industries, Luq Niazi provided further insight on the study’s findings and the growing importance of sustainability to consumers, saying: 

“The survey shows over the last year, sustainability became increasingly important to consumers, though there’s still a gap between their intentions and actions due to lack of information in the buying process. Increasingly, it’s becoming essential that retail brands demonstrate sustainable choices and options in each step of the customer experience.  At the same time, hybrid shopping has taken hold in most categories, particularly in home goods and apparel; and while stores continue to play the predominant role in grocery, hybrid shopping is growing in these categories too.”  

We’ve also rounded up the best ecommerce platforms and best shopping cart software

This article was written by Anthony Spadafora from TechRadar and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com. 

As the pandemic has transformed the nature of work with more employees working from home than ever before it has also changed how consumers shop according to new study from IBM and the National Retail Federation. 

The new global study of over 19,000 titled “Consumers want it all” revealed that hybrid shopping which mixes physical and digital channels in shopping journeys is on the rise as a result of shopping habits consumers adopted out of necessity that are now becoming routine. 

Of those surveyed, almost three quarters (72%) said that they use retail stores as all or part of their primary purchase method. The reasons they gave for visiting a store include touching and feeling products before buying them (50%), picking and choosing their own products (47%) and getting products right away (43%). 

However, 27 percent of respondents said that hybrid shopping, where part of their shopping journey is conducted online and the other half takes place in a retail store, is their method of choice. When it came to the generation most likely to be a ‘hybrid shopper’, Gen Z consumers lead the way when compared to other age groups. 

VP of research and development and industry analysis at the National Retail Federation, Mark Matthews explained in a press release how hybrid shopping represents a fundamental shift in consumer behavior, saying: 

“While many surveyed consumers still place high value on the traditional in-store shopping experience, they also now expect the flexibility to build their own shopping journey – according to the behaviors prevalent to their age range, available tools and the product category they are looking to purchase. This ‘hybrid’ approach is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior.”

Growing importance of sustainability

While adoption of hybrid cloud, AI and other technologies can allow retailers to create bespoke hybrid shopping experiences, IBM’s new study has also revealed that they’ll need to keep sustainability in mind to retain and grow their customer base. 

Purpose-driven consumers that choose products and brands based on their own values like sustainability are now the largest segment of consumers surveyed (44%) according to the study. At the same time, 62 percent of respondents are willing to change their purchasing habits to reduce environmental impact which is up from 57 percent two years ago. 

Half of respondents said they are now willing to pay an average premium of 70 percent for sustainability which is roughly double the premium from 2020. Still though, there is a gap between intention and action with only 31 percent of respondents saying that sustainable products made up most or all of their last purchase. 

Dglobal managing director of IBM Consumer Industries, Luq Niazi provided further insight on the study’s findings and the growing importance of sustainability to consumers, saying: 

“The survey shows over the last year, sustainability became increasingly important to consumers, though there’s still a gap between their intentions and actions due to lack of information in the buying process. Increasingly, it’s becoming essential that retail brands demonstrate sustainable choices and options in each step of the customer experience.  At the same time, hybrid shopping has taken hold in most categories, particularly in home goods and apparel; and while stores continue to play the predominant role in grocery, hybrid shopping is growing in these categories too.”  

We’ve also rounded up the best ecommerce platforms and best shopping cart software

This article was written by Anthony Spadafora from TechRadar and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com. 

The retail sector is in “a momentous period of change” with the pandemic sparking mass market disruption for both big heritage brands and small, local businesses. The evolution of the traditional retail experience has presented marketers with a ripe opportunity to re-examine their strategies and rework their offerings, to create a more connected experience in-store and online. 

As part of The Drum’s Predictions 2022 Festival, Carina Moran, head of strategy at Yahoo UK, considers how marketers can create a more seamless shopping experience in keeping with the changing demands of consumers. As we move from pandemic into longer term endemic, some consumer mindsets may have reset but many new and lasting behaviors have emerged. Marketers need to accept the challenges brought on by the pandemic and understand where to go from here. 

“The biggest challenge induced by the pandemic is that consumers are now mandating convenience from retailers,” says Moran. But marketers shouldn’t fear delivering convenience; they can meet consumer needs with exceptional service by focusing on quick delivery and turnaround times; providing free and easy returns; and simplifying the shopping experience across touchpoints. 

“Consumers are also expecting engaging, entertaining and tangible interactions with brands,” says Moran. “And since the surge in online shopping during the pandemic, if these demands are not met, consumers are not hesitant to shop elsewhere.” 

The type of customer who shops online has changed and now encompasses a much wider range – with baby boomer consumers continuing to purchase three times more online than they were pre-pandemic. The closure of the high street during lockdowns prompted new users to explore online options and this rise in online shoppers will only continue to increase demand and create a new standardized norm for convenient high-quality experiences. 

With so many options, consumers may appear more fickle-minded now than before, meaning marketers need to work harder to earn their attention. 

New challenges to overcome

With this surge in online purchasing, brands and retailers must now consider how consumer behavior around trying on and returning items has been impacted. “We’re buying more online and our bedrooms now also act as our changing rooms,” says Moran. “But we’ve adopted the attitude that if something doesn’t fit or work out, we’ll just send it back.” 

According to Retail’s CBE, the number of returns for online purchases ranges between 15-30%, meaning that a fifth of all purchased online goods are returned. Logistically, this is a nightmare for retailers as it is time-consuming and costly dealing with returned items and having to restock digital shelves. “It also poses a big question around sustainability with this way of shopping and how to sustain this approach,” adds Moran. 

“One of the biggest limitations to online shopping is that you can’t see the product in real life,” says Moran. “74% of people said that was one of the benefits of purchasing items in-store. People do miss the tangible in-store experience particularly after a year of being locked up inside.” 

Embracing hybridity and new technology

“The typical shopping journey now involves both brick-and-mortar stores and digital interactions,” says Moran. “We’re entering a new era of hybridization. Consumers want to be able to browse anywhere, buy anywhere, and have their orders fulfilled anywhere, and retailers need to be able to deliver on all three of these at scale in order to survive in the current climate.” 

Marketers should consider modernizing their physical locations through embedded digital touchpoints to create a space that advertises the brand and allows for easy omni-channel engagement. The aim is to combine how consumers interact online and in-store to help them discover new products, conduct product research and make product purchases – whether it’s in the physical or virtual space. 

“Really good in-store experiences need to become high touch, sensory experiences,” says Moran. 

Shoppers already use their phones when physically shopping, so installing purchase-enabling technology in-store and utilizing existing smart solutions like QR codes will help connect the two experiences. 

With the rise in new tech innovations such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and extended reality (XR), retailers can offer more immersive digital experiences for shoppers and get them to try products digitally. 

“Marketers need to make experiences in-store and online feel as personalized or personal as possible, so that the tech feels like a convenient add-on for customers,” says Moran. 

Times might be changing for retailers but there are plenty of opportunities and possibilities for marketers to seize. With the change in cookies and access to more first party data, marketers can be more autonomous with the data that they are extracting online and can use this to both understand consumer online behavior and weave this into in-store activations. 

“We need to make all aspects of the user’s journey shoppable and seamless,” concludes Moran. “Customers are not limited to one screen or one experience. We need to think in the same way they do if we want to scale up and reach them – and use smart data to create a combined and aligned approach.” 

This article was written by Olivia Atkins from The Drum and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.

Following the global shakeups caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 found the business world hyper-focused on innovation. According to a report by Celerity, “63% of leaders stated that Covid-19 made their organizations embrace digital transformation sooner than they had expected and were making greater investments in technology as a result.” 

Loyalty programs are among the technologies that have seen an increase in adoption due to this newfound focus on digital transformation. MarketsandMarkets forecasts that the global loyalty management market size will grow from $8.6 billion in 2021 to $18.2 billion in 2026. Considering the emerging value of the loyalty management industry, it’s pivotal to understand the underlying trends so that companies can build a relevant and successful concept for their program. Because just like the business world in general, loyalty programs have also been affected by the pandemic. 

My company, Antavo, recently surveyed over 320 corporate respondents from all regions of the world and analyzed the data from over 25 million member actions tracked via our platform. We published the Global Customer Loyalty Report 2022, which allows us to see through the eyes of loyalty program owners and to identify important trends not just for loyalty programs but also for post-Covid-19 customer retention in general. 

Redefined Engagement, Tiers And Technology

After examining companies’ motivation behind running (or planning) a loyalty program, we found out that “increasing customer engagement’’ ranked first, indicating that companies wish to use loyalty programs as more than an incentive to generate more sales, and they are actively seeking ways to have more touchpoints with customers. Customer sentiment backs up the assumption that it’s worth focusing on engagement: According to Gallup, “Customers who are fully engaged represent a 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue and relationship growth over the average customer.” 

As for the engagement itself, loyalty programs offer a wide range of options: gamification, badges, tiers, birthday surprises, early access privileges — and the list goes on. Tiers, in particular, were proven to be popular. Still, consider doing more than just the default three groups (bronze, silver, gold tiers). For instance, consider adding a VIP tier that requires annual buy-in by spending loyalty points. Also, offering early access to sales events and new product drops is an excellent high-tier reward. 

The Importance Of Performance Tracking

Loyalty programs helped keep customers engaged during Covid-19, but does this actually result in a positive ROI for companies? High-profile examples, such as Amazon Prime or Starbucks Rewards, demonstrate that loyalty programs can be — and are — profitable. However, it’s hard to draw a conclusion for the majority of loyalty programs. In our report, only 32.8% of respondents offering a loyalty program reported that their organization measures the ROI of loyalty. Interestingly enough, 93.1% of those who do measure ROI indicated they had a positive ROI. If anything, this data should provide strong motivation for loyalty program owners to start tracking their program’s performance. 

Of course, this presents its own conundrum: What metrics need to be tracked to consider a loyalty program successful? Recurring revenue and customer lifetime value are seemingly obvious answers, but ROI isn’t the only indicator of good performance. Being able to increase the number of participants and refine the segmentation using loyalty data collected from members is also a sign of success, just like the number of active referrals or the activity rate on social media. In the end, it all comes down to what KPIs each brand wishes to pursue. 

Shifting Toward A More Emotional Loyalty Model

With digital transformation in full swing across the globe, businesses have more channels to reach their customers than ever before. However, the question of how to build loyalty is just as important as where to build loyalty. 

To put it simply, in an age where customers have access to a huge selection of web shops and retailers, a brand has to catch customers by the heart, and not the wallet, because discounts are now less effective than rewards that have an emotional component to them. According to Capgemini, “86% of consumers with high emotional engagement say they always think of the brands they are loyal to when they need something, and 82% always buy the brand when they need something.” 

But what are business leaders thinking about emotional loyalty? In our survey, only 20.7% of existing program owners classified their program as more emotional than rational, while 53.6% of companies in the process of launching or relaunching their program specified that their program would be more emotional than rational, signaling that in the future, much more loyalty programs will focus on generating emotional loyalty. 

It’s worth highlighting that emotional loyalty isn’t a zero-sum game. You can still have transactional elements, like coupons and collection in your loyalty program — just remember to add a couple of features and rewards that emphasize emotional attachment. For example, provide invitations to member-only events celebrating the anniversary of your brand, privileges that make the shopping journey smoother, such as private concierge and dedicated customer support, or input opportunities for product and service development.

In Conclusion

To sum it all up, the world of loyalty programs is changing behind the scenes at worldwide organizations that prioritize customer loyalty. So businesses that wish to capture the attention of customers should adapt their strategies to focus on engagement, tiered program structures and emotional loyalty. 

This article was written by Zsuzsa Kecsmar from Forbes and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.

Marketing plans don’t last forever, particularly in these fast-changing times. Beware the signs that your plan needs to spend some time in the shop. 

Businesses invest a significant amount of time and money in creating comprehensive marketing plans. They set ambitious goals, lay out strategies, and execute a plan to achieve them. In fact, they may be so focused on the end game that they fail to pay attention to what’s going on around them–that is, until they feel their plan crumbling and wonder why. 

Many companies figured out how to pivot their businesses to survive a global pandemic. Others, despite experiencing the accompanying tectonic movement in marketing, believe they can just wait it out and then resume with their pre-pandemic tactics. Those shifts, however, have reshaped how brands market to their customers and clients forever. 

If you think your business is doing OK with its current marketing plan, you may be missing some critical early warning signs that it needs a tune-up. Take off the blinders and watch for these three important clues.

1. Your Customer Retention Rates Are Falling

It’s easy to blame the ever-mutating pandemic and its aftermath for falling customer retention rates. The fact is that customer priorities have been irrevocably altered by these events, and your marketing plan needs to reflect them. 

When you can no longer keep customers coming back like you used to, don’t blame them. No matter how successful your marketing plan used to be in achieving retention, it’s no longer doing the job. Recognize that you aren’t doing something they need in order to stay loyal to your brand. 

The past couple of years has had major marketing trends related to artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, and automation. However, with these trends and the pandemic, there will be a need to add more personalization and human connection so customers feel in touch with your brand. In 2022, think about the ways you can help your customers feel a human element to the service so they don’t want to leave. 

2. You Aren’t Attracting New Customers Like You Used to

It may take fewer resources to retain an existing customer than to attract a new one, but if your lead generation is deteriorating, sit up and take notice. Examine all the strategies your current marketing plan uses to find new customers. Then analyze why they’re no longer working. 

Two key factors may be in play. First, your prospective customer’s wants and needs have likely changed, and they’re no longer finding your content because it’s no longer relevant to them. Second, your brand’s life cycle has reached a new stage, which means you’ll require new growth strategies that combine credibility, visibility, and authority. 

You’ll have to explore new markets, target audiences, and product offerings. Those opportunities may require adjustments to your core business as well as your marketing plan. But it’s a one-two punch that may give you the burst you need to grow. 

3. You’ve Lost Your Online Credibility

There’s a variety of techniques and tips to boost your online credibility. Not only do you need to offer information, products and services that target groups find personally relevant, they need to trust your brand to deliver what you promise. Without that combination, your brand is in trouble. 

Your marketing plan must acknowledge and adjust to market realities. How will you know whether it’s a hit or miss? Start by checking your search rankings. 

If you aren’t findable, it’s likely because your content simply isn’t relevant to customers and prospects. If you’re talking to audience members with scripted messaging, you need to be talking with them about their problems and solutions in ways that encourage unscripted dialogue. 

You’ll need to revise your content marketing strategies to rebuild credibility and get those clicks, shares and likes moving again. Discover how to engage with audiences reshaped by their own new realities. That’s the secret to making your brand relevant and credible with them again. 

Marketing Plans Must Be Nimble and Quick

The days of multi-year marketing plans are long gone. Audience priorities, desires, problems, and solutions are mutable at best and capricious at worst. Foundational tactics for differentiating your brand from your competitors are more enduring, but only a nimble marketing plan that responds to changing dynamics quickly will succeed. 

Admitting your marketing plan has a problem is the first step. Adjust accordingly and monitor hits and misses. And always watch for the early warning signs that could mean it’s ready for a tune-up. 

This article was written by John Hall from Inc. and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.