Customer Journeys Are Longer Than Ever; Here’s What Brands Should Know
Consumer journeys are longer and more complex than ever. A huge portion of consumers who would have otherwise shopped in-store have made the switch over to digital channels and consumers who loved online shopping, to begin with, are even more invested now. This change in consumer behavior means that the survival of many brands relies heavily on making sure that digital experiences are not only delightful but also extremely relevant.
The Impact of New Consumer Behavior
Not only are consumers shopping more online, but consumer mindsets have changed as well.
Recent data shows that 50 percent of consumers have had a shift in their values due to the pandemic.
Accenture, Changing Consumer Motivations & Expectations
People are now looking inward and placing more meaning on their relationships and priorities. This change has led to a surge of consumers who stand more firm in their values and will go to extensive lengths to make aligned purchasing decisions. This includes ditching brands that don’t align with their values and paying more money for brands that do.
The complexity of the consumer journey can be quite intimidating to brands making a shift in their marketing strategy.
The average online journey can now range from 20 to 500 touchpoints.
Think With Google
This is due to the large variety of digital channels consumers come in contact with, which has led to a more competitive market for nearly every industry.
However, although the huge increase in consumer touchpoints can seem impossible to address at first, it can actually be a beneficial shift for many brands. The reason for this is that brands now have more opportunities to successfully build meaningful relationships with potential and existing customers. There are more opportunities than ever before to stand out from the competition and gain an extremely loyal customer base.
How Brands Can Accommodate Consumer Behavior Shifts
Digital transformation can feel overwhelming, but there are some key ways to accommodate the consumer behavior shift. One of the most important factors to consider is the importance of personalization. But this doesn’t mean that brands should focus on what has traditionally worked for personalization like broad segmentation or demographics. Instead, brands need to dig even deeper into each and every consumer they interact with.
- Understand Consumer Touchpoints
One of the first steps brands can take to align with new consumer habits is to understand what role different marketing channels play in the consumer journey. Websites, social media, email, apps, and other online platforms all provide different values to consumers. For example, consumers tend to turn to social media influencers or YouTube for product discovery whereas they might use websites for product details and more information.
- Use Data to Understand Consumers on a Deeper Level
To stand out from the competition and optimize conversions, consumers need to feel like brands care about them as individuals. So, refining the consumer experience starts with understanding consumers’ wants, needs, and preferences and where they are on their consumer journey. Thankfully, brands have more data available to them today than ever before. It’s important to set a foundation built on data science within your organization as various kinds of data can be captured at different touchpoints along the consumer journey.
- Leverage Artificial Intelligence to Personalize Every Consumer Experience
Leveraging data science is a significant hurdle for most brands, but artificial intelligence (AI) solutions can bridge the gap between non-technical teams and data-driven marketing. Humans are limited in the amount of data they can process and analyze. AI can rapidly scan large volumes of data and discover patterns that are overlooked by humans due to time and resource constraints. leading to missed opportunities. For example, AI can help analyze purchase trends and offer relevant recommendations based on individual consumer preferences, and also account for contextual factors like location.
About Breinify
Breinify helps brands personalize consumer experiences at every stage of their journey through the power of data and AI. By collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data, Breinify helps brands discover individual consumer needs at scale. From there, AI helps to personalize experiences based on real-time data. Learn how one of Breinify’s customers, an alcohol retailer, generated $125 million in new sales revenue while growing 51 percent year over year after learning to leverage online channels for its brand.