By Adam Goodrich
Blog IV in a series illustrating how marketing informs stories. This blog uses the following article to form a perspective, In Retail, Haves And Have-Nots Follow The Same Path by Sarah Mahoney.
In the article, In Retail, Haves And Have-Nots Follow The Same Path published by MediaPost we consider the marketing plays retailers will be running in 2021. Regardless of whether 2020 was a boom or bust, the playbooks are relatively similar. We’ll see strengthened supply chains, improved ‘curbside’ pickup, and keeping costs competitive. Organizations have varying strategies to manage these tactics, and after a year of never knowing what could happen next it remains survival of the fittest.
The Key Digital Marketing Strategy – Differentiation
Differentiating means retailers will be targeting several market segments with a different offering for each. The strategy helps the business to diversify with less risk. Although it costs more, the results could mean growing their market share as well as the overall market for the retailers product mix.
“Covid has accelerated the shift to digital shopping by roughly five years.”
IBM’s 2020 U.S. Retail Index report. Included in the article How AR Is Redefining Retail in the Pandemic, by Helen Papagiannis, published by www.HBR.org
Augmented Reality & More
Offering a similar shopping experience in varying forms is taking new shapes this year. Through apps and websites consumers are trying on make up, jewelry, and jackets, and placing virtual furniture in their homes. Retailers are in a battle for market share and the weapon of choice is the online shopping experience. Augmented reality has provided consumers a next-best-thing option to in-store shopping. Another way retailers will be engaging their targets is through a gamified social experience. It wont be long before my kids will be asking for my credit card to dress their Roblox avatars in brand name skins.
“Virtual try-on experiences are an excellent use case for AR in retail: allowing consumers to preview products to scale digitally in their own homes, on their own bodies, and then instantly purchasing the corresponding physical product.”
www.HBR.org, How AR Is Redefining Retail in the Pandemic, by Helen Papagiannis
Conclusion
Consumers expectations are set and the bar is high. Continuity and creativity across digital marketing channels is a new requirement. Competing in a landscape where low prices are easy to find requires incorporating the latest tech and trends. Marketers have thrown down the gauntlet for 2021 and consumers will likely benefit from this year’s key digital marketing strategy.