Marketers need to evolve their campaign planning to effectively engage with consumers in a post-pandemic world, says new ressearch from programmatic company MiQ that found shopping behaviour has changed post-pandemic, with online shopping at an all-time high and spending set to significantly increase across Asia, including Singapore, China. and India.
The report “Unboxing the Global Retail Consumer,” looks at how consumer shopping habits continue to evolve, and how can elevate consumer experience across the shopping journey, and how marketers can leverage the insights to be effective in their campaign planning.
The report shows the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the way people shop, with 87% of people globally admitting to now shopping hybrid, embracing a mix of online and brick-and-mortar retail, including when they’re researching products to buy.
Noting China specifically, the report said that “the adaption of hybrid shopping, particularly for pre-purchase research, has been adopted more readily, while consumers in India and Singapore lag in this trend.”
For most of the Asian market, online shopping is more popular than ever – more people in China and India are using online platforms to shop than in other nations, and most of them are in the younger demographic, aged 24 to 45.
Across Asia, 86% of people in China, 70% of people in India and 60% of people in Singapore say they now regularly shop online, with the most popular buying categories of essential items, beauty products and personal care, fashion, consumer electronics and entertainment, home improvement and kids and baby products and toys, albeit in smaller numbers than during the pandemic.
The report adds that Asian nations are also set to spend up big this financial year, with around half the people in Singapore, China and India will spend more than they did in 2021.
In India, nearly six in 10 people are set to up their spending this year (58%), followed by 50% of people in China and 47% in Singapore. The figures are on-track with global data, showing almost half (46%) of people worldwide are looking to increase their retail spend, compared to 2021.
Given the predicted rise in shopping globally, elevating the customer experience will be top-of-mind for many brands, with major investment set for product development, feature enhancements, and cutting-edge technologies like AR/VR, and virtual shopping guides.
NFTs and web3 transactions look set to be commonplace in eCommerce in less than five years, especially with web3’s focus on blockchain concepts like decentralization and token-based economies and the metaverse’s use of AR, VR, blockchain, crypto, and social commerce.
It is also an opportunity for marketers to re-evaluate their campaign strategies, the report said, and how they can use complex data intelligence to better understand consumers and drive successful programmatic campaigns.
MiQ APAC CEO, Jason Scott said personalized, omnichannel campaigns and planning for a presence in emerging technologies that stand out from the crowd would be most successful in light of the new shopping cohort.
“Reaching the right audience across the right platform with the right messaging is the bare minimum that advertisers need to be able to do post-pandemic. Now, brands have to stand out by tailoring campaigns to user preferences. Think: ‘where should this ad go and what does it look like?’” he said.
“With nearly half the shoppers globally likely to spend more on retail purchases in 2022, compared to last year, it’s more important than ever for marketers to keep pace with the shopping evolution and ensure their campaigns are working effectively across multiple touchpoints to reach shoppers in the moment.”
According to the report, video advertising is the most memorable and grabs the most audience attention, particularly among millennials and Gen Z, but advertising on online platforms like mobile, desktop and tablet remains popular.
The report recommends a diversified, omnichannel strategy, to help mitigate risks caused by over-dependency across a single platform, while also establishing incremental reach in alternative segments. It also notes that marketers need to account for seasonal CPM variations, with high inventory demand inflating advertising costs by up to 30%.
“With nearly half the shoppers globally likely to spend more on retail purchases in 2022, compared to last year, it’s more important than ever for marketers to keep pace with the shopping evolution and ensure their campaigns are working effectively across multiple touchpoints to reach shoppers in the moment.”
“For marketers, success in the new shopping era will come down to making the most of retail opportunity, by knowing your audience, planning and connecting cross-media efforts,” Scott added.
“We know consumers are constantly evolving so it’s important for marketers to continually look at how their audiences are shopping, how they’re researching their buying, and how budgets have changed, to reach them effectively.
Personalization and high-impact creative that aligns with business goals will be key to maximizing engagement and ROI, while cross-platform campaigns will also be key to exposure.”
For the report, the data was sourced from digital devices including PCs, laptops, and viewing data from connected TVs with location data from mobile devices. User activities were compared from last year to determine how behavior had changed.
This data was then combined with critical insights from a survey of more than 8,000 consumers in Australia, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, China, and the Middle East.
