CPG

The pandemic has sparked new use cases for social listening, an underutilized tool in marketers' work belts. But some brands, like Johnsonville Sausage, were already well-acquainted with the concept. Stephanie Dlugopolski, the company's senior manager of PR and social media, said her team has utilized social listening for nearly a decade. It has allowed them to not only monitor conversations about the brand, but also see how consumers react to larger issues.

Grocery ecommerce is having a moment. Already at an inflection point prior to the pandemic, the migration of essential goods to online has accelerated this trend by three or four years in the span of three or four months.

Launching a new app can be a challenge for many brands. Getting consumers to download and use it continuously can be just as tough.

Retail ecommerce in Western Europe was already growing at a healthy clip, both in aggregate and as a share of overall retail, but we now expect that the pandemic will cause overall spending to increase much faster than anticipated. Even as overall retail declines by 9.9% in the region, we estimate that ecommerce sales will jump by 16.9% this year—well up from our pre-pandemic forecast of 8.8%.

Since stay-at-home orders were put in place, more adults in the US have significantly increased their alcohol purchases.

Since its launch in 2017, Peace Out Skincare—known for its Acne Dot patches—has been rapidly expanding its business through an exclusive partnership with Sephora, as well as its own direct-to-consumer (D2C) business.

Insider Intelligence research analyst Daniel Keyes, principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst Cindy Liu discuss how the coronavirus changed retail and ecommerce. What are our base, best and worst cases scenarios? They then talk about who frictionless retail is for and what Americans' online grocery experience really looks like.

Even with a partial lifting of lockdown measures, the coronavirus continues to limit movement of people—and this has hit the UK high street hard. From retailers with a high dependency on physical stores to restaurants and coffee shops without delivery facilities, the obstacles have proven insurmountable for some. For others, the longer-term question is, "Will the UK high street be able to recover when (and if) normalcy returns?"

Mosaic Foods has had to acclimate to a new normal in the past few months, and as a relatively new brand, that hasn’t always been easy. Before the pandemic, employees of the meal delivery company were able to test out new recipes and offer feedback right then and there. But today, meals are shipped to co-workers who do video taste tests and offer notes.

Gertrude Allen, CEO of Pet Plate speaks with eMarketer vice president of business development Marissa Coslov about the D2C subscription service’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, including increasing product inventory and its workforce to meet an encouraging growth outlook. Made possible by Salesforce.

A day after launching in Ulta Beauty stores, foot care brand Barefoot Scientist received unfortunate but inevitable news: Ulta's locations would have to close due to the pandemic. For the relatively new company, it was disheartening that consumers wouldn’t be able to test its products in-store. But like other brands coping with the pandemic, Barefoot Scientist has learned to adapt and focus on the present.

Grocery companies—and more specifically their systems and services—have really been put to the test amid the pandemic. Many grocers are having trouble keeping items on the shelves. And even the most prepared are encountering issues with supply chain logistics.

Lunch and dinner subscription company MealPal started out as a service through which consumers could pick up meals from local restaurants during the work week—but, like many in the food industry, it has adjusted its operations for quarantined customers. The company now offers groceries supplied by local restaurants via MealPal Market.

US consumers are shopping online more as they continue to avoid brick-and-mortar. According to a recent eMarketer study conducted by Bizrate Insights, health, food and beverage purchases made digitally are seeing an uptick. Apparel, not so much.

Over the past few weeks, online grocery stores and meal kits have seen a stream of orders coming in, not only from existing customers, but also new ones looking to avoid physical stores during the pandemic. Plant-based meal company Splendid Spoon is one of those receiving demand.

In less than two weeks' time, the coronavirus pandemic completely changed the ways in which millions of UK residents grocery shop and order food. On March 20, Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered cafes, bars and restaurants to close for eat-in customers; three days later, all residents except workers in essential jobs were told to stay home as much as possible, going out only for groceries, medical needs or solo exercise.

With the impact of the coronavirus still ricocheting throughout the economy, it can be difficult to envision retail one day returning to normal. And yet, somehow it will—and much of it will look virtually indistinguishable from the pre-crisis reality. But certain changes in consumer behavior will be lasting.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver and junior analyst Blake Droesch discuss whether people will have an appetite for the upcoming video streaming services, the future of online grocers, if the pandemic has eased the techlash, examples of companies building goodwill, whether it's OK to always wear pajamas when working from home, and more.

Meal kits are experiencing an uptick in popularity as more people practice social distancing and turn to alternatives to limit their grocery store shopping.

Amid the countless (mostly unpleasant) surprises brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, one development was entirely predictable: the surge in online ordering of groceries and other essential items.