What's Next for CPG Shopper Marketing

Every industry changes and in order to stand out, advertisers and agencies must have a proactive response to the four trends in CPG shopper marketing.

While Walmart triples down its investments towards eCommerce, Amazon directs as much fervour towards the offline retail experience. In an effort to one-up the other, the actual shopper is left to watch these titans from the sidelines, barely able to keep up with every new innovation. The time taken between the need and fulfilment is shorter than ever in human history, removing the social element of shopping altogether. With big data, retailers are introducing smarter subscription services that align with a shoppers lifestyle, diet, and even life goals. In this personalised and curated marketplace, shoppers are truly having their expectations raised sky high. Despite all these innovations and promises, independent studies continue to show that over 90% of shoppers prefer the retail experience, and the UAE landscape surely rewards them for it, in the form of visual masterpieces with which a selfie guarantees hot social currency. So clearly, the human element and 'high' of in person one-upping released a great set of endorphins that the digital smiley of approval found online.

That said, there are three CPG shopper marketing trends that advertisers and their agencies need to be proactively responding to.

1. Think Forward

Sure, right now most milenials are predominantly experience driven and aren't earning the most of the pie. But they someday will be and are reportedly the most fickle group that values loyalty in themselves, and a purpose in the companies that they buy from. So grab their attention early on with programs and schemes that saves them the only commodity that they value: time.

2. Personalise Tech

Invest in an in-store experience that matches the needs and desires of the visitor. With digital displays hugging the walls around the shoppe, merged with beacons, and local based search marketing, this is possible. The only part left is testing tools like Factual or xAd that refine their messages and targeting with the data you provide and the pixels your campaigns have access to. It's not necessary to have access to customer first party data to get started, the execution is everything. Set goals, experiment, track, and analyse. Better start than Ponder.

3. Mobilise Payments

With more shoppers being time-strapped, prepare to invest in digital payment tools that require a smartphone swipe. Reward this behaviour early on, with lucky draws (availed with digital tickets, otherwise what is the point) and other trinkets that match the unique interests of your buyers. Don't alienate customers by just examining the early adopters. With their ease in your store, they will influence the rest to follow suit. And a milenial is always ready to share an incredible CPG shopper marketing experience or appreciate a new innovation.

Conclusion

As they say, go big or go home, so hybrid your services as often as possible. Note that human experiences cannot be replicated online or digitally in real time. Explore ways for the conversation to begin online, with the handoff offline. Think that digital should be the enabler of offline retail, not its grim reaper.