Post-Pandemic Routines: It’s digital that keeps life interesting.
Follow the second part of our Post-Pandemic Superhero series, the consumer charged for 2021. In this article, we focus on her routines: shopping, brand and entertainment. For the first part of this series, check our intro article.
To help you start 2021 at best, we are presenting her in a (free) Webinar on the 20th of January at 4pm CET. Register here!
The most obvious aspect of the Post-Pandemic Superheroes is their digital lifestyle. Amazon’s second-quarter 2020 numbers recorded 40% year-over-year growth and online payments skyrocketed in both volume and users, since COVID-19 locked countries down.
From intermittent lockdown restrictions and social distancing, consumers turned to e-commerce as their favorite way of buying things and being entertained. Additionally, they also discovered Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands, followed Shopstreaming on to keep buying experiences interesting, and relied on algorithm-based Instabuying to discover new products and experiences that fit their lifestyle.
And it’s not only Gen-Z that drove this behavior - Silver Surfers* have massively gone digital as well. In this accelerated growth of e-commerce, an important factor is that the online customer-base has grown from 64% to 78% of all Dutch consumers by mid-November. The influx of new consumers to e-commerce is largest among older consumer groups; 45% of all consumers aged 65+ years old shop online in March, and this share grows to 66% by mid-November, equivalent to a +44% growth in this age bracket.
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Only in the Netherlands, the customer-base of online shoppers has grown from 64% to 78% by mid-November.
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Image: AfterPay
What does this change mean for 2021? The Post-Pandemic Superhero mastered the art of online shopping: browsing, comparing multiple websites, finding the best prices and service, timing the optimal delivery. And that is a signal of higher expectations towards excellent digital experiences.
#1 Shopping routines
Local stores & big chains are expected to operate in the same way - be always online.
Amazon’s second-quarter 2020 numbers recorded 40% year-over-year growth (McKinsey), online payments skyrocketed in both volume and users, since COVID-19 locked countries down.
Last year, we’ve seen an explosion of small local stores that are adding e-commerce to replace (closed) retail outlet. With new interesting routines developed (remote working, home-baking, indoor workouts), a huge opportunity for 2021 is are local stores going online (selling through online platforms, or providing phygital experiences, and touchless payment options). During the pandemic, local retail has also discovered e-commerce: bakeries, specialty shops, local fashion brands, and many others shifting to digital platforms.
Consumers have gotten used to online local-buying and look for opportunities to support them; when times will go back to normal, they will still visit shops in person, but increasingly browse and order online. In fact: creating a digital footprint represents an opportunity for retailers to improve their in-store shopping experience.
Levi’s is a brand that is further complementing its retail strategy with digital tools like Squad, an online co-watching video app where friends can shop together. The app launched in April as a way to recreate some of the social experiences people miss and have been craving amid the pandemic. The next phase of augmented retail will likely be a gamified social experience. Burberry recently partnered with Snapchat on an in-store AR game, and I can see the concept being extended to digital store fronts and virtual closets where you can play, explore, and shop with friends. This coincides with a current trend popular among fashion and beauty brands such as Estée Lauder, Gucci, and Miu Miu: mobile arcade games.
Only in the UK, more than 30,000 businesses have looked for guidance on how to operate an online business and design a delivery model. Businesses will have to rethink their sales channels & strategy in this environment to survive and thrive.
Industry highlight: Nike
Nike continues to shift resources on digital investments and they have strong evidence that it’s working. Before Covid-19, Nike had set a goal of having its e-commerce sales represent 30% of total revenue by 2023. But it has already exceeded that. Now, it’s on track to break 50% in the coming years.
Image: Nike.it
What does it mean for 2021? Digital needs to be highlighted as an entry point for customers. COVID-19 provided a hard lesson for brands who still today don’t invest in a digital presence — Your customer doesn’t commute to work anymore, so where does your marketing budget go to? The relationship between brands and consumers is now up for redesign. Online will gain further ground across all brand-consumer touchpoints and will now be seen as a critical barrier against future risks such as those posed by Covid-19.
#2 Brand Routines
The Post-Pandemic Superhero prefers brands that understand their convenience-driven, digital native lifestyle.
The service Rent the Runway provides designer dress and accessory rentals via a membership.
Image: Rent the Runway
In 2021, Building on the Gen-Z way of consuming - that means having access to products or services, not necessarily owning them. Car-riding (and owning) services, video streaming, and subscriptions from all industries are popping up and creating value. Products become services and start having an ongoing relationship with customers, offering convenience and personalization. And with service, comes Customer Experience (CX).
Customer experience overtook price and product as the key brand differentiator, and it is the top priority for the next 5 years, beating product and pricing. Indeed, 72% of customers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people, while only 13% of them will share a negative experience, and with 15 or even more. The challenge here lies in the fact that, in most cases, customers don’t tell you they are unhappy. In fact, only 1 in 26 unhappy customers actually complain. The remaining 25 just stop engaging with your brand.
The key to succeed in the digital landscape is a digital experience centered on the customer instead of operations.
D2C brands kept selling online with more than half of survey respondents (52%) experiencing surges in demand.
Source: Totem
Digital, marketing, sales, customer support are meant to move closer together, as the experience translated to the outside exists independently of organization departments. Direct-to-consumer (or D2C) are a good example of brands that show resilience and keep selling even in challenging times.
By manufacturing, marketing and shipping products directly to buyers without relying on traditional retail, the popularized D2C model have also led to transforming how people shop. It seems natural that a digital-native organization does better in COVID times, once it does not have the weight of expensive locations, sales personnel on the floor, and traditional marketing costs. They are swift and adapted perfectly to the current context.
Conducted in June 2020, a research of 89 D2C brands across home, fashion, beauty, electronics, food and other verticals revealed that, while traditional retailers struggled to manage store closures and rebalance inventory, D2C brands kept selling online with more than half of survey respondents (52%) experiencing surges in demand.
To start delivering convenience like a D2C, open a direct channel of dialogue with your customer, discover their real stories and act upon them.
Industry Highlight:
The Body Shop AT HOME
The brand’s reseller programme division had a year- to-year increase in turnover of 65% during April 2020. In a smart move, it fought back the pandemic in 2 ways: activating an old-school mouth-to- mouth sales approach to support women going jobless during the pandemic, while continuing sales directly while stores are shut down with global lockdowns.
The Direct Selling Association’s members, also revealed a rise in people joining D2C brands to become independent sales people during the crisis to earn additional income as the coronavirus crisis began to escalate.
Image: The Body Shop
Takeaways:
Reducing your reliance on retail partners means driving your own sales. Selling direct to drive sales can insulate you from partner demands to cut prices.
Selling direct allows you to own your custome data, useful to create unique shopping experiences, and to build a stronger brand with those insights.
#3 Entertainment Routines
Social Media’s “Lives” and “Stories” are where the PPSH is finding entertainment, education and money matters.
The internet penetration rates and use of mobile were never as high as in 2021 (95% at EU), particularly by young people. On closer look, the openness to trying new apps (for example the app House Party during Covid) is higher, the younger the consumer is. Gen-Zers are especially open-minded inform themselves through social media and by try new apps.
When it comes to financial apps, this statement holds to be true, as they openly use digital money-managing platforms. These include PayPal, Venmo, and Google Pay. Apps that offer comission-free stock trading & cryptocurrency management, such as Coinbase and Robinhood, are in an all time high.
The most downloaded apps of 2020 on the Apple Store involved streaming (Disney Plus), connecting with friends (Zoom), but also transferring money easily (Cash App). On the other hand, TikTok is the second-most downloaded app of 2020. TikTok is in 2021 a solid source of beauty information, starting to touch mainstream. An army of skincare influencers have emerged, who can make-or-break sales for brands.
Companies are picking up on new social networks as a valuable sales channel, and the Post-Pandemic Superhero is eager to learn, improve and better manage his/her life through social.
Image: FastCompany
Industry Highlight: Peace Out
Influencers get serious. 2020 was the year of influencer acceleration. They add to the digital footprint of brands. Sales of Peace Out’s pore strips saw an escalating increase in 24 hours after Hyram Yarbro, posted a duet with a fellow “skinfluencer” on TikTok. The D2C beauty brand sold out of its pore strip product, with 15,000 new customers buying its pore strips.
Image: Totem
To kickstart 2021, ask yourself the following questions
The new consumer has gotten tech-hungrier than ever, but with high expectations and mastery. From seeing your local baker with his own webshop to TikTok and Instabuying - do you know where they are and what they are looking for? Here are some starting points to get on with their routines:
Design better marketing actions by knowing the specific consumption patterns of your buyers in your industry, through designing personas & their customer journey;
Organize a business modeling workshop to test new ways of consumption: subscription-based, lease, and community-ownership are only some of the ways of creating new profit;
The Silver Surfers have e-commerced. Have you considered a digital campaign and experience designed with their language and preferred content format in mind?
Want the full insight? Join the Post-Pandemic Superhero Webinar.
On the 20th of January at 4pm CET, meet us online to understand the full profile of this customer, learn how to align your product, services and marketing initiatives to draw business value from engaging with her.
Get to know her before she walks out of sight!
For more information, check our pages below:
Have you met your consumer of 2021?
Out of the ashes of 2020 came a new consumer. And although the pandemic isn't over yet, consumer behavior, motivations and routines have changed forever.
