Blog and Research Digest — Week 23, 2020
Every week, the Digishare team prepare a digest of the previous 7 days of online retail news. Along the way, we’ll pick the most interesting stories from the worlds of technology, social media, marketing and more, allowing you to see everything at a glance.
Retail News and Trends
Record online sales in pandemic lockdown not enough to save retail from record sales fall: ONS
https://internetretailing.net/industry/record-online-sales-in-pandemic-lockdown-not-enough-to-save-retail-from-record-sales-fall-ons-21430
“Some 30.7% of sales were completed online during the month, with online sales for individual categories growing as strongly as 38%”
Consumer financial concerns not subsiding
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/news/consumer-financial-concerns-not-subsiding/
“The COVID-19 pandemic has more than a quarter of U.S. consumers worried about making payments and nearly half, 43%, are delaying large purchases given the economic fallout from the coronavirus and related job losses.”
April retail sales worse than March thanks to COVID-19
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/news/april-retail-sales-worse-than-march-thanks-to-covid-19/
“March may have been a tough month for retailers, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, but April was much worse, according to data from the National Retail Federation.”
RetailX Coronavirus Consumer Confidence Tracker
https://internetretailing.net/covid-19/retailx-coronavirus-consumer-confidence-tracker—20th-may-21434
Almost 90% say they have stopped shopping in-store because of Covid-19 – and 44% say they’ll continue to buy as they do now
https://internetretailing.net/covid-19/almost-90-say-they-have-stopped-shopping-in-store-because-of-covid-19–and-44-say-theyll-continue-to-buy-as-they-do-now-21437
“Once the coronavirus issue is over, 44% say, as of May 20, they’ll continue to shop in the way that they do at the moment, while 49% say they’ll go back to shopping as they did previously.”
42% of consumers vow to shop more online even after shops reopen on 15 June
https://internetretailing.net/covid-19/42-of-consumers-vow-to-shop-more-online-even-after-shops-reopen-on-15-june-21454
“E-commerce platform ChannelAdvisor and research firm Dynata surveyed 1,033 UK consumers. The results found that while many were turning to the internet for essential items, 40% of shoppers were also purchasing luxury items such as fashion items or electronics, offering an optimistic lifeline for brands suffering from bricks and mortar closures.”
Amazon “ready to launch” super-fast UK grocery delivery service
https://internetretailing.net/industry/amazon-ready-to-launch-super-fast-uk-grocery-delivery-service-21456
“Called Ultra Fresh, the service is likely to be offered as an add-on to Prime membership and will see the standard Fresh delivery service offered as an inclusive benefit of Prime membership, reports The Grocer magazine.”
Amazon removes racist messages appearing in UK listings
https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2020/05/amazon-removes-racist-messages-appearing-in-uk-listings/
“Amazon has removed certain images after messages of racist abuse appeared on some listings on its UK website when users searched for Apple’s AirPods and other products.”
Facebook launches “Shops” across all its platforms in major challenge to Amazon
https://www.chargedretail.co.uk/2020/05/20/facebook-launches-shops-platform-in-major-challenge-to-amazon/
“‘Facebook Shops’ was launched in the UK and Ireland yesterday across Facebook and Instagram, with plans to launch the service across Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp in the near future.”
Opinion
What the pandemic reveals about e-commerce
https://www.retaildive.com/news/what-the-pandemic-reveals-about-e-commerce/576615/
“Last month, non-store sales, mostly conducted through e-commerce, rose 28%, a bright spot in a period when overall retail sales tracked by Retail Dive plummeted 16% year over year, or 17.8% as measured by the federal government.”
The long-term impact COVID-19 will have on attitudes toward e-commerce
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/blogs/the-long-term-impact-covid-19-will-have-on-attitudes-toward-e-commerce/
“Recent insights data analytics company, Nielsen show that 600,000 households tried online shopping for the first time in the first weeks of lockdown (leading to an additional 1.2 million orders placed over the last several weeks).”
Covid-19 is helping Walmart make up ground against Amazon
https://qz.com/1858747/covid-19-is-helping-walmart-make-up-ground-against-amazon/
“Digital sales of groceries have been central to Walmart’s growing online sales, and may be the one area of e-commerce where Walmart could have an advantage over Amazon.”
AI, AR & New Tech
Why retailers should embrace augmented reality in the wake of COVID-19
https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/articles/why-retailers-should-embrace-augmented-reality-in-the-wake-of-covid-19/
“It’s a challenging time for retail but technology can prove to be a lifeline and that’s the case when it comes to augmented reality.”
Search & SEO
Half of all ecommerce-related searches on Google never result in consumers clicking through to a retail or other website
https://internetretailing.net/marketing/half-of-all-ecommerce-related-searches-on-google-never-result-in-consumers-clicking-through-to-a-retail-or-other-website-21453
“In fact, the company says these findings tie-in with retailers who are not seeing the same volume of traffic from organic search as before.”
Marketing
Top three marketing trends for the COVID-19 era
https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2020/05/26/top-three-marketing-trends-for-the-covid-19-era/
“There are more mobile browsers than ever before, yet desktop conversion rates are almost double what they are on mobile platforms.”
7 Ways You Can Humanize Your Brand and Win Big
https://smallbiztrends.com/2020/05/humanize-your-brand.html
“Ten times out of ten, a customer is going to choose to interact with a person over a cold, corporate entity.”