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Gone are the days of waiting in mile-long lines for the IT item of the year, or even groceries! After 2020, the world drastically changed and evolved how modern consumers shop. Studies show that consumers are shopping for EVERYTHING online. Essentials like household goods, over-the-counter medicine, and even cleaning products are up 35% in sales (McKinsey, 2020). Discretionary products such as makeup and fashion are up 15% (McKinsey, 2020). What do these analytics tell us as business owners and how do we evolve with consumers everchanging buying behavior?
Modern consumers are valuing their time and dollar now more than ever. This is the time to act so your business or service doesn’t become obsolete in the shuffle!
1. Be Online
When I say this, I don’t mean creating a social media account and expecting the work to be done there. It’s only just beginning! Being online means having your pulse on what is going on within your industry and target audience. Social media is an incredible tool to use for market research. With nearly 48% of the world online, your target audience is out there waiting for you to pick their brain (Dopson, 2022). What are they interested in? Who are they following? What are the larger trends we’re noticing in my industry? What is my target audience actually BUYING?
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2. Be Ready to Evolve
Now that we’re online, following our target audience, and monitoring industry trends, the real fun begins! Creating a consistent structure is crucial. However, it’s also important to utilize what the analytics are TELLING us so we can appropriately pivot our efforts. Be ready, willing, and able to shift and tailor your approach based on what you’re seeing in your analytics.
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For example, let’s say you’re a local boutique and are noticing a decrease with in-person sales, but have noticed your online sales are increasing. Your target audience is women aged (24-35). You typically invest your marketing dollars into magazine ads and local billboards. You have a bi-monthly content shoot for high-res imagery, but typically rely on cell phone for most product shots. As a boutique owner, you’re getting in new product shipments in weekly and struggle to show what product you have in stores with irregular content shoots.
Your efforts should align with the consumer trends you’re noticing. To make the most out of your marketing process, you need to prioritize high-end, elevated content and appropriately place your content where your consumer is. Women aged 24-35 are typically on Instagram and TikTok spending an average of 29 minutes daily on Instagram (Barnhart, 2022). With that knowledge, we know that focusing on creating Reels and TikToks will generate the most ROI for your business with appropriate hashtags, trending audio, and call-to-action caption. Creating a consistent structure that aligns with what your target audience and your business’ analytics is KEY to evolving with modern consumers.
Consumers are already telling you how they want to shop, we just have to be willing to listen and adapt!
3. Utilize Your Platform Resources
The beauty of consumer buying behavior evolving is that online platforms are watching and helping establish updates that allow us to grow with consumers changing needs. Each specific online platform and social media outlet is growing to offer more opportunities to monetize your content and help you hone in on your target audience.
How Modern Consumers Shop: Amazon
Amazon is an online retailer juggernaut offering everything from A to Z! Amazon is one of my favorite platforms at the moment because of its wide variety of opportunities to monetize and align with my business and my client’s businesses. From Amazon Lives, Amazon Storefronts, Amazon Inspire (coming December 2023!), and more in the works, Amazon is pioneering the shift to align with modern consumers buying behavior. Amazon generated 1 billion dollars in sales on Black Friday 2022 ALONE (EcomCrew, 2023).
AMAZON LIVES
Amazon Lives are similar to HSN or QVC streams. These live streams remain on your Amazon Storefront after the Live has concluded so followers and consumers are always able to reference back to your video. Amazon Live allows for product tagging and a comment section to ask and answer questions. I know what you’re thinking…But why does Amazon do this if HSN and QVC style streams on T.V. don’t convert how they used to? Well, 300 million items were sold during Prime Day Amazon Lives alone (Mileva, 2022) with an average order value of $50 or more. I’m no mathematician, but 300 million items sold at a value of $50 per order sounds like a good ROI to me!
If you’re scared to go live, do not worry! I was too until I did it myself. CLICK HERE for a good giggle with my very first Amazon Live.
AMAZON STOREFRONTS
Amazon Storefront is an online storefront that allows you to post content, tag products, generate captions, and create Idea Lists (similar to an old-school grocery list). What I love about Storefronts is that they’re easy to maneuver on desktop and mobile. Additionally, Amazon typically has higher commissions than the same retailer linked through a different monetization platform. Your target audience should be able to go to each of your social media platforms and online platforms and see a cohesive approach throughout it all. If you’re not already uploading your Reels and TikToks to your Amazon Storefront, you’re missing out on money that’s waiting for you. Those who upload content to their Amazon Storefront typically experience a 5-15% conversion increase (Pool, 2023).
AMAZON INSPIRE
This new feature is what I’m most excited about! Amazon is launching Amazon Inspire December 2023 which is an in-app shopping feed that’s personalized with shoppable content tailored to your interests and engagement. The flow follows a similar feed scroll like TikTok! What gets my business brain REALLY excited about this is that TikTok notoriously has the highest engagement rate of any online platform at 18% (Dopson, 2022). So think about what this could mean for your business if your consumer is able to directly shop the products you’re integrating into your content at an engagement rate of 18%? I don’t know about you, but I’ll be counting down the days on my calendar until I’m able to input all my content onto Amazon Inspire!
How Modern Consumers Shop: LTK
With over 200,000 LTK creators and over 18 million monthly shoppers, LTK is a monetization platform that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon (Influencer Marketing Hub, 2023). LTK partners with over 5,000 brands and retailers that YOU are able to make a commission off of. How has LTK adjusted to align with the trend of consumers shopping more and more online who deeply value their time?
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LTK COLLECTIONS
Similar to the Amazon Idea list, LTK has the option to create collections that compile LTK content into one spot for easy shopping. For example, during the holidays, many creators utilized the LTK Collection feature to compile all gift guide content in one spot for easy shopping: Gifts for Her, Gifts under $100, etc. Creators can generate collections to align with the season, big sales, gift guides, and more. The beauty of this collection feature is that it is pinned to the top of your LTK profile so consumers are able to quickly view and shop.
LTK CONTENT: VIDEO + IMAGERY
Additionally, LTK has the ability to monetize several different types of content. From video, imagery, and collages, the options are endless on the type of content you can monetize on LTK. As I always advise clients, your online outlets should mirror and echo each other. For example, if you’re not uploading your Reels and TikTok to LTK, I hate to tell you that you’re missing out on extra revenue! Not only does video content reach the most consumers, but is the most engaging form of content.
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How Modern Consumers Shop: Pinterest
Social media platforms are taking note of ways consumers are shopping and moving to integrate monetization opportunities internally. Eighty-three percent of Pinterest users say they have made a purchase from an item they have gotten off Pinterest (Alfred, 2022). From Pinterest’s perspective, they want to keep users on their app for as long as possible and knowing so many users are buying items they found on Pinterest, it only makes sense for them to establish a Creator Fund and shoppable pins. The Pinterest Creator Fund was established in 2021 as a way to provide sales goals and resources for creators to grow on Pinterest and their sales. The Creator Fund works in quarterly cycles through an application process as Pinterest is partnering with different brands and retailers every quarter. Another great way to align with modern consumer’s buyer behavior is through shoppable pins. According to Pinterest, engagement with shoppable pins increased by 20% in 2021! Meaning, consumers are looking for quick and easy ways to shop on the platforms they already spend time on.
How Modern Consumers Shop: Instagram
Instagram is no stranger to consistent change, whether that be the algorithm or even the direction of Instagram under META. They rolled out Instagram Subscriptions which is a way for creators to develop deeper connections with their most engaged followers and increase their recurring monthly income by offering subscribers access to exclusive content and benefits. Additionally, Instagram offers a Reel Bonus structure that creators are invited to join if they meet certain qualifications. Creators are able to receive a payout from Instagram based on:
- Reel Performance. The amount you earn per play may not always stay constant. For example, you may earn more per play as you’re getting started and less over time. In some cases, not all plays are counted toward a bonus payout.
- Number of Reels You Generate. For example, you may generate a certain amount of Reels to earn a bonus amount per reel.
- Theme of Your Reel. For example, you may generate content in response to a theme you receive to create a Reel for an upcoming holiday or special event.
In order to receive credit for the payout, You must tag your reel for the program within 24 hours of creation. If you forget, you can go back and make that selection for up to 24 hours unless otherwise stated in your terms.
Even with Instagram’s ever-changing platform, 97% of marketers agree that Instagram is the most important platform for influencer marketing (and might I add, marketing at large!)
How Modern Consumers Shop: Facebook
As an established social media platform, Facebook continues to be a great option to reach older demographics. With direct links to shop in the post, the consumer shopping experience is more direct than say on Instagram or Pinterest. However, organic reach on Facebook has grown more difficult to break into as META has moved towards a pay-to-play model. With that being said, traditional businesses and brands still rely heavily on Facebook with 68% of business owners saying it is still a viable source for influencer marketing opportunities (Dopson, 2022).
As a tried and true social media platform, Facebook isn’t a platform we can write off just yet! With just under 3 billion users, there are still plenty of consumers on Facebook looking for easy shopping ability (DataReport, 2023).
The key to keeping your pulse on what consumer buyer behavior is evolving to is be online, be ready to evolve with your analytics, and utilize your online platform resources! These huge online conglomerates are investing large research budgets into how consumers are buying and how we shift to align with that. Be sure to join social media outlets newsletters for up to date information on what they’re working on and slating to roll out!
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As always, I hope these insights help you guide your business to the most success. I absolutely love diving deep into analytics and sharing my findings with you. For business insights and entrepreneur helpful tips, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to my newsletter for these updates straight to your inbox and see some of my favorite blogposts below.
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References
30+ influencer marketing statistics you should know (2023). Shopify. (2022, November 15). Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.shopify.com/blog/influencer-marketing-statistics
Alfred, L. (2022, October 12). How to make money on Pinterest: 9 ways to monetize your Pinterest account. HubSpot Blog. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/pinterest-generating-revenue
Amazon sees record-breaking Black Friday Weekend sales. EcomCrew. (2023, January 16). Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.ecomcrew.com/amazon-record-breaking-black-friday/#:~:text=The%20five%2Dday%20sales%20event,stock%20drops%20earlier%20this%20year
Amazon storefronts: All your questions answered. Webretailer.com. (2023, January 30). Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.webretailer.com/amazon/amazon-storefronts/
Amazon.com: Inspire. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.amazon.com/b?node=24672145011
Barnhart, B. (2023, February 14). Social media demographics to inform your Brand’s strategy in 2022. Sprout Social. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/#instagram-demographics
The brand Influencer Platform. LTK. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://company.shopltk.com/en/brands#:~:text=1%20million%2B%20brands%20and%205%2C000,influencer%20marketing%20programs%20at%20scale.
Charm, T., Coggins, B., Robinson, K., & Wilkie, J. (2020, August 4). The great consumer shift: Ten charts that show how US shopping behavior is changing. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-great-consumer-shift-ten-charts-that-show-how-us-shopping-behavior-is-changing
Eagle, D. (2023, March 6). LTK (formerly rewardstyle). Influencer Marketing Hub. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://influencermarketinghub.com/ltk-rewardstyle/
Martin, M. (2022, March 23). Instagram monetization: A complete guide for creators and Influencers. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-monetization/
McLachlan, S. (2022, December 2). Instagram demographics in 2022: Most important user stats for marketers. Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-demographics/
Mileva, G. (2022, November 21). Amazon Prime Day Statistics: Revenue, users, deals, and more to help prepare you for next year’s Prime Day event. Influencer Marketing Hub. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://influencermarketinghub.com/amazon-prime-day-stats/
Published by S. Dixon, & 14, F. (2023, February 14). Instagram: Age distribution of global audiences 2023. Statista. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/#:~:text=As%20of%20January%202023%2C%20almost,to%2044%20year%20age%20group.
Shifferaw, Z. (2022, November 17). A bigger, Better Creator Fund: Pinterest Business. Pinterest. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://business.pinterest.com/blog/creator-fund-expansion-2022/
All opinions are that of my own, All Images are owned and copyright property of Audrie Dollins. Some of the links are affiliate links where I earn a small commission should you make a purchase. Thank you for continuing to support me in my dream career.
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