Khoros, an award-winning leader in digital-first customer engagement software and services, today released its latest whitepaper, Navigating the Rise of Digital Commerce. The whitepaper explores the consumer trends that have reshaped the commerce landscape and reveals the opportunities and blind spots marketing executives should be preparing for as we look forward to 2022.
Since the onset of the pandemic, brands have prioritized digital channels for everything from customer support to commerce. In fact, the rise of digital commerce has accelerated in almost every consumer facing industry: kiosks are the new waiters; mobile apps the new foyer. Businesses saw digital channels generate profit like never before. The question for chief marketing officers (CMOs) today is which of these changes are here to stay.
Leveraging insights from more than 1,300 consumers and marketing leaders around the world, this whitepaper provides marketing executives with foresight into consumer preferences, both in 2022 and beyond, to inform key decision making and future-proof marketing investments.
Key findings from the report include:
- The purchase journey will become increasingly hybrid. 67% of consumers believe the best shopping experiences in the future will incorporate both humans and digital channels.
- Marketers need to preserve human connection over digitized interactions. 57% of consumers want the option to talk to someone before buying a product or service, but that doesn’t mean they are going to ignore the convenience of e-commerce.
- Social commerce is here to stay, but conversational commerce is the next frontier. While conversational commerce is a powerful strategy in achieving this balance of digitization and human touch, only 12% of marketers consider this to be a very high priority in their commerce strategy today.
- Digital-forward consumers are painting the picture for the future of commerce. This segment expects a simpler, more convenient, and hyper-personalized purchase journey—and they are willing to share more of their personal data to get it.
“Commerce strategies over the last two years have largely been placed in reactive mode as marketers have had to adapt to the quickly shifting digital landscape,” said Katherine Calvert, CMO at Khoros. “Moving forward, CMOs should be looking to the new doors that have been opened by the rise in digital commerce to proactively address the new needs of consumers. The future of commerce will be more connected, more convenient, and more personalized than ever before. Brands that invest in the toolkit to serve these needs now will be able to remain relevant and capitalize on this wave of digital growth.”
To download the full whitepaper, visit khoros.com/resources/rise-of-digital-commerce. To learn more about Khoros and its digital-first customer engagement software and services, visit khoros.com.
Research Methodology
Khoros commissioned Illuminas, an independent market research consultancy focused on generating insights for the tech industry, to conduct a two-pronged research study to assess what consumer behavior and marketing strategies would look like in a post-pandemic world.
1200 consumers in the US and EMEA (UK, France, and Germany) completed a 20-minute online survey, and the survey was localized and translated into local languages outside the US. The consumer sample was sourced from third-party online panels and represented a natural mix of demographics across key variables such as age, gender, and ethnicity.
104 marketers in the US completed a 10-minute online survey, and the sample was sourced from the Ad Age subscriber base. The sample is comprised of marketing professionals in leadership positions, but a small subset of the sample self-described themselves as marketing managers (14%) or individual contributors (2%).
Khoros was not revealed as the sponsor of the research, and the data collection periods took place between August and September 2021.
About Khoros
Over 2,000 global brands, including one-third of the Fortune 100 companies, leverage the power of Khoros’ award-winning customer engagement platform to create customers for life. Our innovative enterprise solutions, including over 20 patented technologies, ensure success across digital customer service, messaging, chat, online brand communities, and social media management. Combined with our industry-leading services, Khoros enables brands to connect with customers throughout their entire digital journey.
Khoros powers more than 500 million daily digital interactions and leverages AI to turn these interactions into insights and action. Recognized nationally and locally as one of the Best Places to Work, Khoros has 11 offices globally and Vista Equity Partners is its lead investor. For more information, visit khoros.com.
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