Post pandemic, the way we shopped changed forever, flipping consumer behaviour on its head, but how do we work with the lingering effects in 2024? Our Paid Search Account Director, Sasha Howells, gives her thoughts.
How many more articles must one write or read where someone mentions how the COVID pandemic changed consumer behaviour and habits forever? Probably for many more years, and here is another to add to that list.
Fact is, COVID did change consumer behaviour and we are still feeling the effects of it today. Humans are habitual by nature and it’s easy to figure out certain habits and patterns when observing data, and then using that data to make plans for the future. COVID changed all of that and threw a lot of predictions out of the window, especially online.
In 2020, more people than ever before were shopping online because they had to, it was a necessity for many with the high street shut, and only supermarkets open for the essentials. People that have never done it before were all of a sudden embracing online shopping and realising how easy it was to get what they wanted, when they wanted, delivered straight to their door. One of the biggest shifts in shopping behaviour happened for those over 45, who may have flirted with online shopping before, but preferred the tangible experience of going to the store. The majority of us expected this trend to continue and many more were worried about the future of the high street, but then 2024 happened.
Against the odds, the high street has returned to centre stage for its second act, maybe even third or fourth act, with more people moving back to the store for an offline experience. Fashion, Beauty and Tech have all seen an increase in users going to their stores in 2024 compared to 2020. Interestingly, while online food shopping was for many people an act of survival in 2020, the ease of having the food delivered hasn’t stayed with people, with 48% back shopping in their local supermarkets compared to 2020 when there was just 31%.
You are probably wondering, what does all of this mean? Is it a contest between offline vs online? Absolutely not, and in fact, the best plan for survival is to use one to help the other.
Customers are more connected than ever before, with some purchases having more than 500+ touchpoints before the purchase is made. People are also device hopping more, taking their journey from device to reality and back again. They are turning to online search engines for an improved local experience, with 65% of people checking stock levels online before heading to the store. Showing up at the right time with the right information is important to help win these customers as well as gaining their trust and long-term loyalty.
As part of futureproofing your business, you need to opt into these shopping trends and behaviours to keep up with the competition and shopper demands. The businesses that continue to thrive are those that offer online and offline solutions to the customer. IKEA is a great example of an omnichannel business along with B&Q. Both offer shoppers the option to check the local store's inventory for the products which takes the hassle and worry of potentially finding the item is not in stock and their journey was a waste of time.
Businesses also attract two different types of customers and it is important to cater for both. Online customer's needs are very different from offline customers and it is important to consider what these differences are and how they fit into your business.
So what are the next steps? Start at the beginning: First point of contact.
The first point of contact for many people is the digital touchpoint. Overlooked by many that assume that people will ‘just find you’. People have become more savvy and know that they may find what they want cheaper online, but for whatever reason, want to buy it in-store. This is where their search kicks in to find where to go. 2 in 3 people have already made their decision on what they want to buy before they walk into a store, which means that it is vital that you have an online presence so that you are ready and there for when they begin their journey.
Your first focus should be ensuring that you have an up-to-date Google My Business (GMB) page. By making sure that your GMB is up to date, you are building trust with the customer from the start as they can trust that their time travelling to the store will be worthwhile. Additionally, including a picture of your store will assure the customer that they are visiting an established business, and they don’t turn up at the store.
Before you begin building your empire of Google Ads local campaigns, we need to make sure that the account is built to measure the conversions. By integrating conversion actions for Store Visits and Store Sales, you will be able to leverage both online and offline capabilities to fully capture the opportunity.
Next, you can begin building specific local campaigns that will help maximise your omnichannel strategy, enabling cross-channel shopping behaviour.
You can do this through search campaigns with keywords that are targeted around “service or product near me” and target a radius around the store. You can launch a local Performance Max Campaign which will push both the shopping products and also capture the search terms for when users are searching.
Once these actions have been completed, you can optimise the campaigns to work towards the right consumer action and improved results. By utilising Smart Bidding, Store Visits or Store Sales, you will be tailoring the campaigns to find more like-minded shoppers at the right time and place.
But it doesn’t stop there. As your campaigns begin generating data and you start to see conversions coming through in the form of store visits, you may want to grow the omnichannel campaigns even further. Reviewing Search Term Reports regularly to find how users are pulling your ads is important as you begin to understand your customers, and also reviewing the possibility of scaling budgets to help reach more shoppers should be part of your quarterly plan. Performance Planner is a great tool for helping you visualise what a budget increase will look like in the form of metrics, and this includes revenue that can be generated offline.
While it is tempting to put all the focus on the online side of a business, doing so will increase risk to that business. With the invention of AI and more impersonal interactions, customers are returning to physical stores and the need for real people. ASOS was for a long time the go-to place for women’s clothing, however, they have seen a decline in their shares, while high-street shops such as M&S and Frasers have seen a steady uplift since 2022.
Online and offline is like the yin and yang of shopping, they need to be in balance to compliment each other. If recently, the website has taken more of a focus than the shop, we recommend trying to run local campaigns to help take the pressure of the current campaigns having to convert but also help spread the risk within the business as a whole.