Marketing

AR, AI gain ground in post-COVID retail marketing strategies

Photo by istock.com

July 28, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is changing retail marketing strategies with more spend taking place on augmented reality, artificial intelligence and messaging in the quest to retain consumers.

Up until the coronavirus hit in early March, there had been a "healthy" increase in retail marketing budgets, according to a study from CommerceNext and sponsored by Exponea. But a poll conducted post-COVID-19 has seen marketing budgets decrease. though there is increasing investment in AR, VR as well as SMS platforms, according to a press release study data.

"While no one knows what the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be on the retail industry, we know that marketers are being asked to make decisions quickly and adapt to this disruption. The data from this report tells us that the best-laid plans for 2020 had to be overhauled due to current realities," Scott Silverman, co-founder of CommerceNext, said in the release

The study reveals that while 32% of all e-commerce marketers expect budgets to "significantly decrease" in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic, digital-first retailers are on a different path with 48% of digital-first marketers increasing their budgets.

Other study highlights include:
• Retention marketing plays a more aggressive role, especially for holiday 2020. Marketers are taking a more balanced spending approach between acquisition and retention. This was a trend that began before the pandemic and continues to hold today.
• Privacy and compliance take a back seat due to COVID. Since COVID-19 hit the US, there is a decrease in focus on privacy & compliance; only 15% of marketers expect to embrace efforts vs 24% before.
• Brand marketing resurges, then wanes due to COVID. Before the pandemic, marketers were planning to take a more balanced approach between performance marketing and brand. Post-COVID, marketers indicated a shift back to performance, sticking with what they know to engage with customers.