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E-Commerce

Three CPG Market Trends to Watch Out for in 2019 and Beyond

The consumer packaged goods market is constantly evolving. While the use of technology remains an integral part of customer outreach, it’s most effective when partnered with physical marketing tactics.

This is creating new challenges for brand marketers when it comes to driving the customer in-store through an online platform and personalizing their experience through brick-and-mortar methods to improve conversion rates. The better their in-store experience, the more loyal they’ll grow to your brand.

According to Deloitte in their 2019 Consumer Products Outlook report, “The continued growth of direct-to-consumer brands, the reemergence of pop-up stores, and online retailers developing a brick-and-mortar presence are all accelerated by the deployment of disruptive technologies, creating more avenues for brands to have a dialogue with consumers.”

So, what can brand marketers do to drive sales and maximize profits in coming years?

Open Pop-Up Stores

Pop-up stores are trending in 2019. In pop-up stores, customers can directly engage with your brand without you having to invest in the overhead costs of a conventional retail store.

The temporary nature of pop-up stores creates a fun experience that gets customers excited to shop. With every single item “available for a limited time only” by default, pop-ups evoke a sense of urgency to shoppers to make more purchases.

Pop-up stores are especially beneficial during peak sales times, such as the holidays. They present a great opportunity to utilize physical marketing materials like creative signage and POS displays to drive customers into your store and increase demand.

mall-shop-high-conversion

Establish Both Online and Brick-and-Mortar Presences

In 2019, a number of exclusively online brands are developing brick-and-mortar stores. There’s no denying that the majority of customers prefer to “experience” products before making purchases, and the best way to capitalize on that is to open physical stores.

Deloitte’s report explains, “From an e-retailer’s point of view, the benefits of having a presence in physical stores can include:

  • Minimizing costs associated with product marketing, delivery, and returns.
  • Being able to access shopping data.
  • Centralizing procurement of niche/regional products and merchandising.”

Traditional stores are also important because directly engaging with customers is the most effective way to learn what they prefer in a retail shopping experience.

Then, you can personalize the experience and tailor it to them. It’s just not possible to give customers that same level of brand connection through e-commerce alone.

smart packaging

Focus on Smart Brand Packaging

Modern-day shoppers are growing increasingly conscious of what’s inside the items they purchase. As a result, smart packaging is a significant new trend that is beginning to dominate the consumer packaged goods industry.

Smart packaging involves creating labels that detail the contents and related health benefits of a product. Specialty items such as those that are organic, gluten-free, and fair-trade are attractive to modern consumers. So, packaging that conveniently and clearly shows these features can drive higher sales.

This is a potential avenue to target consumers’ lifestyle preferences, which in turn creates more chances to build brand loyalty. Essentially, if the customers trust your product, the more likely they are to keep buying it.

By coupling the opening of physical retail stores with the right kind of physical marketing assets, your brand can reach new consumer audiences while simultaneously maintaining the loyalty of your current ones.

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New trends are dominating the market in 2019 and forecasted to continue driving the retail industry into the next level. Pop-up stores are providing a fun, temporary environment that drives demand generation among shoppers. Online brands are opening up physical stores to give customers the full “experience.” And the revolution of smart packaging is changing the way brands communicate product value to audiences.

By understanding these emerging market trends, brands can thrive on new opportunities by directly engaging with consumers through various touchpoints in their retail journey.

And by working with a trusted partner who can help you take advantage of these new opportunities in market trends, your brand can compete on the quality and effectiveness of delivering value to your customers.

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How Omnichannel Grocers Can Keep Up with the Digital Age of Shopping

While most consumers still prefer to do their grocery shopping in person, the presence of online grocery shopping is becoming more prevalent and is predicted to triple over the next ten years. This is creating new challenges and opportunities for both brand marketers and the consumer packaged goods industry.

Consumers don’t fully recognize the convenience of online grocery shopping yet, but omnichannel grocers can capitalize on the e-commerce market by customizing the online experience to their customers and incentivizing them to order online more than once.

According to Stephen Caine and Michelle Paratore at Bain & Company, “Only 42% of first-time users say online grocery shopping saves time, but it gets easier the more they try it.”  If grocers can keep customers coming back to online ordering, the likelihood of the customers using the same method and consistent brand products increase in the future.

So, what exactly do grocers need to do to prepare for the rising digital age of shopping?

online grocery shopping

Create a Convenient Online User Experience

Customers still consider shopping at a physical grocery store to be more convenient than attempting to navigate online grocery shopping. Grocers need to bridge the gap by breaking down the online experience to make it easy and convenient for the consumer to find what they need while also saving them money by suggesting cheaper, similar products.

The key is also personalizing the journey for online shoppers. Grocers can design tools that can touch and influence online shoppers’ decision-making process, such as making product recommendations based on the customer’s previously-purchased items and their shopping patterns.

Another tactic is to minimize the amount of effort required by the consumers by providing them with a visual “shelf” that contains their frequent and repeat orders. By doing so, grocers can make online shopping quicker, easier, and therefore more desirable for its customers.

Incentivize Customers to Shop Online with Your Brand

According to Caine and Paratore, “75% of online grocery shoppers say they are still using the first online grocer they tried.” Most people have a trusted local grocery store where they always shop. So, if local grocers create an online shopping platform that effectively reels in their loyal, regular customers, the likelihood that they will transition their grocery shopping with the same grocer online is almost guaranteed (the home-store bias).

Grocers can offer rewards to incentivize consumers to continue ordering online. Promotions such as coupons for relevant products, special sales, and spending rewards can serve to both personalize the customer’s experience, and to entice them to make repeat orders with your brand by making checkout quick and easy.

This is also a great opportunity for cross-channel engagement via things like direct mail marketing. Sending customers postcards with URLs or QR codes to unlock the rewards that they can redeem for personalized online coupons is a powerful way to build brand loyalty.

mobile grocery shopping

Offer Cutting-Edge Online Features that Fit the Consumer’s Lifestyle

Many consumers still use physical grocery lists to keep track of their shopping needs. Grocers can target this routine practice by designing an online feature that enables shoppers to log their frequently-purchased items and search for them quickly and easily.

Grocers can take it one step further and even create tools to relate to the customer’s lifestyle preferences. For example, for particularly health-conscious shoppers, grocers can offer recommendations for products and recipes that best fit their healthy lifestyle online and offline.

It’s all about personalizing the experience for each shopper, so they feel seen, understood, and valued by your brand. “Retailers who can deliver frictionless omnichannel experiences by investing in digital experiences and tools that save time for consumers shopping online or in stores will emerge as winners in this rapidly changing grocery landscape,” explain Caine and Paratore.

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While not occurring rapidly, consumers are beginning to transition into the digital age of grocery shopping. Many still find it more convenient to shop at a physical grocery store, but with the emergence of digital generations – such as Millennials and Generation Z – is expected to take the CPG and retail industry into the next chapter of the digital grocery shopping era.

Practical and data-based online tools are an essential part of the online experience that “do the work” for customers to shorten the buying cycle. Based on the customer’s shopping pattern, grocers can provide recommendations for items, store favorite item information for a timely reminder, offer coupons and special discounts specific toward their frequented items to help them accomplish their routine shopping practices.

By understanding how to transition into the digital age of grocery shopping, omnichannel grocers can capitalize on the growth of the online shopping world and boost the effectiveness and efficiency of their physical marketing activities as well. And by working with a trusted partner who can help you take advantage of this up-and-coming shopping platform, your brand can compete and win on the quality and convenience of your online user experience.

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Three Ways to Make Your POP Pop!

It’s no secret to anyone that as retail marketing technology has begun to transform in-store displays, it is also changing how retailers leverage those displays. According to an Inc.com report, 40 percent of shoppers still make in-store purchases at least once a week. And with so much revenue still flowing through brick-and-mortar retail spaces, one of the biggest ways marketers are seeking to capitalize this business is point-of-purchase (POP) displays.

That’s according to the experts at ThomasNet.com, who explain that POP displays are on the cutting edge of creating new, compelling customer experiences that encourage brand loyalty and drive greater in-store revenue. So, what does a truly exceptional POP display need to have?

three female shoppers-retail

Good POP Displays Are Interactive

Interactive experiences are not only the key to an effective POP display but the secret to a winning in-store retail experience in general. As we’ve discussed on this blog before, brick-and-mortar retailers are embracing the move towards transforming their stores into “experience centers,” where customers can interact with and experience a brand’s products in a way that online shopping just can’t match.

“The option to touch, feel, or test products when applicable is paramount to purchasing decisions,” ThomasNet says. In fact, 61 percent of consumers like trying on the item or actually seeing it in person before committing to an item, according to an Inc.com report. So whatever else your POP displays accomplish, make sure they give your shoppers something to physically interact with.

POP Displays Should Showcase Your Brand Identity

Your retail space is a brand’s world. Everything in it represents what your brand stands for, from the signage colors and materials to the music. And that includes your POP display.

“POP displays should give consumers a taste of the brand the product represents. Consumers in younger generations, especially, are looking to feel a connection with the products they buy—they want to feel good about the purchases they make,” ThomasNet explains.

You should use your POP displays to further your brand’s identity. What does your brand stand for in the minds of consumers? By customizing your POP displays, you can project whatever values represent your brand, from minimalism to environmentalism to outrageousness.

commercial printing

POP Displays Create Personal Connections

Especially among Millennial shoppers – who make up a larger and larger percentage of the buying public every day – personal connections can lead to long-lasting brand loyalty.

And POP displays are an excellent way to foster those connections. Maybe your POP display showcases “how Brand X shoppers have removed 10,000 tons of plastic waste from the oceans” by buying your recycled fashion products. Or perhaps you use it to show “real people enjoying Brand Y’s products at concerts and music festivals,” in order to let shoppers personally imagine their lives with your product.

“They want to have a medium to connect with the world around them and the causes they care about when they make purchasing decisions. Through showcasing aspects of a business that highlight these things, a retailer or marketer can anticipate a positive consumer response,” ThomasNet explains.

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By understanding the changing role of brick-and-mortar retail spaces as customer experience centers, brand marketers can start to leverage the true power of POP displays. And by working with a trusted partner who can deliver highly customized and unique POP displays, on-time and on-budget, your brand can compete and win on the quality of your retail customer experiences.

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Looking Ahead: What Winning Customer Experiences Will Look Like in 2020

With 2018 in the books and 2019 officially here, smart brands have already begun looking forward to 2020, and the biggest trends for the coming year. And one of the most significant areas where brands are looking to set themselves apart from the competition is with personalized customer experiences.

In fact, according to a recent report by Econsultancy:

  • 86% of customers prefer brands that offer personalized experiences, even if that brand isn’t the cheapest.
  • 73% of customers call customer experience an “important factor” in their purchasing decisions.
  • 65% of customers say that good customer experiences are more important than good advertising.

So, how can savvy marketers and brand directors capitalize on the biggest customer experience trends of the coming year? According to Mark de Bruijn of The Future of Commerce, there are three areas CMOs and decision-makers should focus on.

Let’s take a look at them.

interactive shopping experience-girl touching touch-screen

Hyper-Individualization of Retail Experiences

Thanks in large part to the increase in connected technology known as the “Internet of Things,” brick-and-mortar retail spaces will compete with online shopping by offering unique in-person experiences. How will such a connected retail store look in reality? De Bruijn offers the example of a shoe store.

“The moment a customer passes the store, he or she should get a personalized deal offer on their smartphone, letting them know that the newest edition of their favorite shoe is on sale for 20% off, and is available in-stock at that store, right now,” he explains. But the opportunity for personalization goes further. That customer can then enter the store, and “get measurements on their walking patterns, soles, and weight. Based on that data, they can get advice on the footwear that best suits their needs.” That is an engaging, personalized customer experience worth coming into the store for.

Putting the Customer at the Center of the Product Cycle

Plenty of companies use focus groups and market research during the research and development stage of a product. It’s an excellent way to make sure you’re giving your customers what they want. But what if you could solicit customer feedback and make improvements during the product lifecycle? That’s what brands like Tesco and Burberry are doing with their customer experiences.

Fashion retailer Burberry invited customers to share the ways they personalized their famous Burberry coats, snapping pictures of clever uses and various ways to wear them. Burberry then took several of the most popular suggestions and used them in marketing materials, from print images of models showing the coats worn a certain way to in-store mannequins featuring them.

Burberry saw a 36% rise in sales of their coats during the campaign. Your products should be designed with your customers in mind. Now, you can make sure your customers know it.

augmented reality mobile for shop - retail continuity

Virtual Reality Blending In-Store and Online Experiences

One customer experience trend that will carry over from 2018 is the rise of virtual reality (VR) in shopping. But as de Bruijn explains, retail brands will soon be using VR to bring the in-store shopping experience online. “Consumers will not just use [VR] for gaming, but also for home shopping sessions. They can literally walk through the virtual store from the comfort of their couches,” he explains, adding that retails gain an edge, too. “Retailers will enjoy the traditional advantages of brick-and-mortar stores in an online setting: the element of surprise, the ability to steer impulse buying and strategic product placement.”

Meanwhile, de Bruijn says, brick-and-mortar gets the customization treatment from VR. “The digital setting also offers a unique feature that is not available for brick-and-mortars. The store’s layout and even the inventory are fully customizable to the preferences and habits of the individual customer.”

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2020 is shaping up to be a big year for retailers and marketers. Big on keeping the growing importance of personalized customer experiences in focus, brands can compete and win by delivering truly engaging, winning shopping experiences.

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How Blockchain Will Revolutionize
Marketing in 2019

With 2018 coming to a close, brands and organizations around the country are shifting their focus to 2019. Rapidly changing customer demands have left many marketing teams scrambling to capitalize on every advantage, while also making sure they can deliver the experiences customers want; convenience, flexibility, and affordability. For marketers, that’s where blockchain comes in.

What Is Blockchain?

If you’re not a mathematics or computer science Ph.D., the specifics of blockchain will be challenging to follow. But that’s okay – just about anyone can grasp the basics.

Put simply; blockchain is a digital record of ownership that cannot be altered or modified.

Whenever ownership or possession of something is transferred, both parties leave a sort of encrypted digital signature in the blockchain, like signing a ledger, that is verifiable by every other user in the world and cannot be altered or modified. So, why should marketers care about blockchain? Campbell R. Harvey and Christine Moorman at Harvard Business Review examine a few good reasons.

marketing-brainstorming

Blockchain Will Make Email Marketing More Effective

“Fraud verification via blockchain will also help verify the origin and methodology of marketers,” as HBR explains. *135 billion spam emails are sent every day, making up approximately 48% of all emails sent. Varying in sophistication, this tidal wave of fraudulent and unwanted emails has led to catch-all spam filters that dilute the effectiveness of email marketing for everyone.

But with blockchain, brands and marketers can verify their authenticity with an extremely small microtransaction (thousandths of a cent), thus proving their identity and eliminating the need for overreaching spam filters. And this will make email a more effective part of a multichannel engagement strategy for marketers everywhere.

Blockchain Will Make Real Marketing Revenue Attribution Possible

“By using blockchain technology to track their ads, marketing teams can retain control over their automation practices, ensure that marketing spend is focused on ROI-generating activities, and directly measure the impact of marketing down to a per-user, per-mail matric,” HBR predicts. And that has real upshot for marketers.

“By tying user behavior and micropayments together, blockchain could solve the attribution problem that has bedeviled marketers for decades.”

Indeed, given that blockchain works by keeping a record of a sort of transactional handshake, it could present the ultimate answer to attribution – a granular, user-by-user record of every single interaction of every single customer with your brand. That’s powerful marketing revenue attribution and opens up a world of possibilities into ROI accountability and analysis.

woman working on her laptop in the office

Blockchain Will Offer Better Customer Experiences by Making Personalization More Effective

Unlike credit card companies who charge a 3 percent fee to process payments, blockchain enables nearly zero-cost transactions. As a result, blockchain eliminates the need for “minimum purchases” to ensure profitability for brands. And marketers can use that to boost the effectiveness of personalized customer experiences and loyalty programs.

As HBR explains, “Blockchain could allow merchants to use micropayments to motivate consumers to share personal information – directly, without going through an intermediary [like paying Facebook or Google].” This means that brands can offer their customers a small reward for, say, allowing location tracking on their app, or even just opening the app for a minute at a time. “During that time, they push deals and special offers to the user. Indeed, user-tailored deals open a legitimate mechanism to deliver personalized prices that are a function of the consumer’s profile.”

With blockchain, marketers can deliver the granular personalization that not only builds brand loyalty but delivers superior customer experiences.

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Blockchain is more than just the latest buzzword. It’s a technological revolution, and the shortcuts to efficiency, security, and personalization. What it offers marketers are a big reason why brands will be leveraging it more in 2019. From customer experiences to email conversion rates, blockchain has a lot to offer marketing teams.

*Referenced source: The Statistics Portal

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