2020 Recap

Without a doubt, 2020 was a year of transformation for shopper marketing and commerce. In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, the world went digital: Consumers adapted new shopping habits, brands shifted their marketing strategies and retailers began to invest in optimizing their online shopping experiences.

Suddenly, services that were slow to take off in 2019 became one of the preferred shopping methods for consumers. According to eMarketer, click and collect jumped from 18% in February to 22%, curbside pick up rose dramatically and digital commerce giants like Instagram, Facebook and Amazon began to offer integrated digital shopping experiences to consumers.

What's Hot for 2021

So, what does this all mean for 2021?

A new revolution of modern retail concepts is expected to emerge in 2021. New flagships, store-of-the-future concepts, small-footprint D2C locations, click-and-collect hubs, and dark stores are expected to take over the brick-and-mortar landscape next year. Plus, categories where we expect to see tremendous growth will be shoppable video solutions and new and innovative click-and-collect methods.

Social commerce will also become more popular when it comes to product discovery, and Artificial Intelligence will play a big role in the future of eCommerce such as AR, search and personalized shopping experiences.

The Resurgence of Contextual Targeting

When it comes to digital advertising, contextual targeting has been a tremendous comeback in 2020. With new consumer data privacy regulations on the rise, it is important that brands pivot from heavy behaviorally targeting strategies into contextual.

Contextual targeting delivers and aligns a brand's message with relevant content among an intended target audience without the use of cookies. GumGum's cookieless contextual targeting technology, Verity, for instance, focuses on broad categorization and scans for tone instead of relying on keyword searching. Verity sets itself apart from other contextual analysis tools because it combines natural language processing with computer vision technology to execute a multi-layered reading process.

Get Ahead of the Pack

With the new wave of digital, the world is your oyster! If you want to stand out from the crowd you need to apply different retail marketing strategies and have a dual online/offline experience across multiple channels. Below are a few strategies to keep in mind.

• Develop a consistent and streamlined omni-channel marketing strategy
• Create easy shopping experiences, making it easy for the consumer to shop your products
• Define your brand identity and leverage content to connect with your customers
• Curate content for your customers' 1st time milestones
• Take advantage of social media and develop a powerful D2C strategy
• Reclaim ownership of your data and stay up to date with consumer data privacy regulations
• Deliver your message across different channels, you can now find consumers in multiple channels and multiple devices
• Offer personalized shopping experiences

The future of advertising will change as cookies go extinct, technology evolves and new data privacy regulations emerge. For brands to be successful in this new world, they must reimagine user experiences and seriously consider the advantages of data ownership. This, coupled with an omni-channel marketing strategy will be the key to succeed and connect with consumers.

Written by Annabel Cermeno

Edited by Tahoora Ismail [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tahoora-ismail-b32036190/]

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