Consumer Behavior

Consumers expect seamless experiences post-pandemic, but new data privacy laws present a challenge

John Tyreman, director of marketing at Silverback Strategies, shares insight on consumer behavior during the pandemic and how some of this behavior is likely to stick post-pandemic as restrictions ease and the economy returns to normal. One thing is clear: consumers experienced a new level of convenience that they would like to see continue.

Photo by istock.com

June 24, 2021 by John Tyreman

Retailers faced an incredible challenge in 2020 navigating a pandemic that turned the industry on its head. Admirably, many transformed their operations and evolved the way they conduct business, offering new ways for customers to acquire products and interact with stores online.

Some of this behavior is likely to stick post-pandemic as restrictions ease and the economy returns to normal, some may not. But one thing is clear: consumers experienced a new level of convenience that they would like to see continue.

However, marketers may need to find new ways of executing their strategies in 2021 and beyond to satisfy consumer thirst for convenience. New data privacy regulations like the California Consumer Privacy Act and Virginia's Consumer Data Privacy Act set in motion a chain of events that will heavily impact retail marketers. Third-party data that once enabled specific user targeting will no longer be available on ad platforms like Google and Facebook. Retailers will instead need to explore new ways to use first-party data in their digital marketing strategies.

During 2020 holiday season, consumers turned to in-store and online shopping

Silverback Strategies, a digital performance marketing agency in Washington, D.C. polled over 1,000 shoppers between Christmas and New Year's Day to look at how the pandemic impacted their holiday shopping behavior. The survey's research report showed 76% of shoppers traveled to a physical store location during the pandemic. Of this group, nearly 80% made an in-store purchase. Driving in-store foot traffic and optimizing that experience should still be a marketing priority.

Overall, retailers did a good job giving shoppers a positive in-store experience during the holiday season. More than 50% of shoppers said hand sanitizers, mask policies, and social distancing reminder signs helped them feel safe.

While an impressive amount of shoppers visited a physical store during the pandemic, more than 83% of shoppers bought gifts online. Of these shoppers, nearly 72% browsed products on e-commerce sites like Amazon. Consumers are used to this kind of user experience, and expect it across websites. Retailers can take advantage of this behavior by offering similar digital experiences online. In fact, retail store websites were the next most common place online shoppers browsed for gifts, with 51% of respondents saying they visited a store website. Retailers who can create a seamless user experience across both digital and in-store will have a marketing advantage in 2021 and beyond.

Alternative pickup methods likely to stick post-pandemic

Shoppers interacted with retail stores in many different ways. Other than traditional in-store purchases, the study found 37% of shoppers took advantage of buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) to skip lines and maintain a comfortable social distance. Another 30% said they used curbside pickup to acquire gifts.

Some consumers found curbside and BOPIS to be not only safer, but more convenient alternatives to traditional in-store purchases. For example, a Brick Meets Click survey showed alternative pickup methods captured nearly half of all online grocery sales in February and grew in importance with 58% of consumers reporting they would be "extremely likely" to order with the same pickup service within the next 30 days.

It's likely this behavior will stick because it allows consumers to bypass the inconvenience of going into a store. In some cases, stores that see heavy repeat purchases have an opportunity to create a "logged in state" to promote positive customer experience as well as a tool for marketers to harvest first-party data.

Marketers will need to alter data strategy to maintain cohesive customer experience across channels

Major changes have already happened to advertising platforms that will force marketers to change the way they acquire new customers. For instance, Apple's iOS 14.5 update that rolled out on April 26th, 2021 automatically opts users out of tracking for advertisements. Instead, users must explicitly opt-in to ad tracking. Campaign performance on platforms like Facebook have taken a hit, as advertisers have fewer insights and smaller audiences to work with.

Another byproduct of new data privacy legislation is the deprecation of third-party tracking pixels, commonly known as "cookies." This change will make it hard for retailers to re-target users who had browsed in-store, but did not make a purchase.

According to the Silverback Strategies study, an incredible 45% of shoppers purchased a product online after they saw it in a retail store. If retailers want to continue re-targeting shoppers like this, they will need to find new ways of acquiring customer contact information during their in-store experience and following up with them on channels like email and SMS text.

Conclusion

Customer experience in retail is complex in the variety of channels to manage, but the core principle is simple: make it easy for shoppers to buy your product.

Now that consumers have had new kinds of experiences, retailers have an opportunity to differentiate based on operational prowess and digital sophistication. This can be made possible with a deep understanding of customers and a marketing strategy fueled by first-party customer data.

John Tyreman is director of marketing at Silverback Strategies