Retail & Ecommerce
While the overall economy has suffered from pandemic-necessitated behavioral changes, some industries have been hit harder than others. We estimate that US retail sales will decline by 10.5% this year, and even though the shift to ecommerce will accelerate digital sales to new heights, retailers will grow their US digital display ad spending by only a sluggish 2.3% this year.
The coronavirus pandemic is pushing consumers to buy essential products digitally, rapidly accelerating the development of the online grocery industry in the US.
Many consumers’ shopping behaviors have moved online in recent months, and that trend is likely to continue through the holiday shopping season.
Social distancing and stay-at-home measures have upended the shopping habits of US consumers across generations, including older cohorts.
As the pandemic caused widespread shutdowns, consumers who traditionally preferred brick-and-mortar retail shifted at least some of their spending to digital channels.
UK consumers’ shopping habits have undergone a change that is unlikely to be reversed. According to our latest forecast, nonecommerce retail sales will drop by 16.0% this year, followed by a recovery in 2021. However, sales will never reach pre-pandemic levels.
Ecommerce has been a bright spot among retail channels during the coronavirus, as consumers became reliant on digital transactions amid physical store closures and fear of infection.
eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Jasmine Enberg discuss the implications of Twitter's and Snapchat's Q2 earnings. They then talk about what types of social media content are most influential, Instagram's new "Shop" page and what the return of video app Zynn means.
eMarketer research analyst Daniel Keyes, principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Cindy Liu discuss the emergent category of "luxury fitness" created by Nike, Peloton, lululemon and Apple. They then talk about Walmart's Prime competitor, Prime Day in the Fall and Amazon's Dash Cart.
Steven Borrelli, CEO and founder of Cuts, speaks with eMarketer vice president of business development Marissa Coslov about the D2C brand’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, including doubling down on ecommerce and social media marketing.
Back-to-school shopping may look a little different this year because of the pandemic—but only slightly.
eMarketer principal analysts Andrew Lipsman and Nicole Perrin and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Cindy Liu discuss Amazon's impressive Q2. They then talk about Walmart delaying its loyalty program, closing stores on Thanksgiving, its new ad measurement tool and what to make of some corporate job cuts.
eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom discuss Google's checkered Q2 earnings. They then talk about how Google plans to take on Amazon's online shopping dominance, the antitrust investigation into Google, and what would happen if Google tracked people after they asked it not to.
The pandemic has been a learning curve for many marketers, including Elana Gold, who began her role as Del Monte’s newly appointed global CMO in the midst of it.
China’s retail sector has been on a steady path to recovery over the past few months. According to June data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in China, retail sales experienced a year-over-year drop of 1.8%, reaching $485.30 billion (RMB3.353 trillion). That was an increase of 1 percentage point over the prior month.
As consumers now spend much of their days at home, some have taken to wearing comfortable attire full-time. One in five US adults said they purchased clothing that is considered loungewear or leisurewear since the pandemic began, according to a June 2020 survey from CivicScience.
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.
With many retail stores temporarily closed during the pandemic, and more consumers turning online to buy goods, major social networks have taken steps to improve their ecommerce offerings.
