Consumer Products

Four Ways CP Firms Can Keep Up With the Ever-Changing Consumer

Earlier this year, the Digital Life Index, Publicis Sapient’s proprietary global research initiative, explored how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the way people view technology, their relationship with brands and how they plan to shop.

E-commerce has allowed shoppers to remain connected to the brands and products they love as physical stores remain shuttered or at limited capacity. However, the abundance of choice enabled by digital channels has widened the playing field when capturing and retaining ongoing brand loyalty.

Our research finds that at the onset of the pandemic, 55 percent of shoppers purchased from a new-to-them retailer and 74 percent purchased a product from a brand that they hadn’t bought from previously.

With more competition in a digital market, CP firms must work to stand out with experiences that delight new customers, along with a personalized touch to maintain loyalty from longtime shoppers.

At Publicis Sapient, we help leading CP firms identify and unlock the value from D2C business offerings. Our D2C teams focus on unlocking both the direct value that comes from creating new revenue streams while maximizing the potential of indirect value streams that stem from strong, scalable D2C strategies.

At the onset of the pandemic, social media became a powerful tool to keep people connected and explore new things. According to our research, YouTube is most popular channel people turn to learn more about topic or skills they’re interested in, followed by Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

In response, CP firms are exploring ways to integrate social commerce into their broader D2C offering, using social media to connect with shoppers through mediums they interact with most, while making purchasing simple.

Hear from our experts:

Kristen Groh, Consumer Product Industry Lead, North America and Kendra King, VP, CX and Innovation, consumer products, North America discuss how social shopping plays a role in overall D2C strategy.

During the onset of the pandemic, some CP firms experienced surges demand as consumers shifted spending to focus on essentials purchased either directly online or through third-party partners like marketplaces or grocers.

Lack of availability is one of the top factors for brand switching among pantry staple and household good categories

Stock-outs can be a source of dissatisfaction for consumers that demand convenience. While the ability to accurately predict demand isn’t always a perfect science (especially when the unexpected strikes), CP firms can use data to forecast more confidently and ensure the right inventory is at the right place at the right time.

Publicis Sapient’s Identity Applied Platform, powered by Epsilon PeopleCloud, gives CP firms direct access to world-class consumer data and predictive-intent signals that are not available anywhere else. We use our deep technological and marketing resources to scale the platform based on clients’ needs, identifying important patterns within industries and generating predictive and actionable models.

Increased access to data to make critical business decisions is at the core of CP firms’ digital transformation. To propel D2C and other e-commerce initiatives, CP firms must be able to have full visibility into the entire customer journey, with data used to inform all areas of the business.

Publicis Sapient’s CDP Quickstart accelerates CP firms’ digital business transformation. Our approach provides the cloud-native components to make it easier for companies to quickly build and implement an open source customer data platform (CDP), enabling data independence and customer centricity at the pace of rapid innovation.