In order to effectively advertise online, brands must be aware of the consumer shopping climate and behaviors within a specific season. Pandemic shopping trends have stretched into “the new normal” for retailers and consumers – producing new shopper insights worth paying close attention to for omnichannel success.
The increase in online shopping has brought a desire for utmost convenience – shoppers want to “click and convert,” meaning they look for ads that catch their eye and take them to the product they want or need. The more brands get customers to their page, the more likely they are to gain customer loyalty.
These new shopping trends have led us to focus on three key shopper insights for brands coming out of the 2020 holiday shopping season.
- Invest in eCommerce and digital advertising channels
- Encourage retailers to stock up on items
- Invest in “buy online, pick up in-store”
Understand Shopper Insights to Invest in eCommerce and Digital Advertising Channels
As brands plan for the rest of the year and 2021, they cannot let up on advertising at the end of 2020. In fact, now is their chance to push marketing efforts to the next level!
As shoppers are looking for their holiday necessities, it is a unique time to capture impressions and engagement online. What is the quality of their online content? Are they using accurate descriptions of products? Are they advertising? Brands have an opportunity to invest and generate a strong ROAS by doing these things to improve their digital presence.
Brands must invest in eCommerce and digital advertising channels into the next year. In 2020, COVID pushed online shopping behavior tremendously, and consumers adapted. Now, going into 2021, brands can take advantage of this trend and adapt their online presence to meet the continued demand.
Encourage Retailers to Stock Up on Items
At Harvest Group, we see that the shopping environment changes constantly… Every day in fact.
One of the major constraints we see is not necessarily the availability of items for consumers to purchase, but gaps in the availability of shippers. This produces difficulty with some major retailers who run into capacity constraints as they get items out of their fulfillment centers and into the hands of shoppers.
For example, look at Target. They paused some consumable, high-frequency items that are currently not available to ship off their site. Target prioritizes some of the gift-giving and holiday items given the current season, so they focus on shipping those. However, items like toothpaste and shampoo are only available in-store. This is because Target is looking at consumers’ wants and needs during this season.
Focus on Serving Customers Who “Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store”
When it comes to convenience, here is an example to consider…
Some shoppers plan to buy gifts for their kids, extended family, and friends. They also have a grocery and household shopping list, but they don’t want to go in the store for those items. What options does Target offer?
Target allows you to add the non-holiday items to your online shopping cart, but you must go to the store to pick them up. So, while a Target customer is on their way home from picking up their kids or getting gas, they can stop by Target for non-holiday goods while the heavily sought-after gifts and goodies are on their way to that shopper’s front porch.
This is the convenience that shoppers want, and this is what 2021 will challenge brands to face.
The Winning Trio
If your brand looks to win—whether in the digital space, competitive space, in-store, or all three—the best way to do so is to proactively lean into the three trends as seen above. While 2020 wraps up, 2021 is a chance to prepare your products for the future.
Now is the time to accelerate digital visibility, prepare your items to meet consumers who buy online and pick up in store, and encourage retailers to stock up on items so they are readily available.
For more information or advice on how to prepare your brand to win in the Walmart advertising space, never hesitate to reach out to us at Harvest Group. Check out harvestgroup.com or send a note to Mike Harvey at mharvey@harvestgroup.com.
Related Reading: 3 Ways to Build Brand Content on Walmart.com
