Throughout 2019, which is now drawing to a close, the "consumer journey," better known as the customer journey, has become increasingly complex, while new forms of content consumption have emerged and more and more traditional industries have gone digital. All this has happened while concern and awareness about privacy and digital well-being have grown.
The renowned blogThink With Google has just published a report with observations on digital user habits, grouped into five major themes that it claims will all be trends throughout 2020. The data comes from its own interactions with users of Google's suite of services, specifically its search engine. The data is from the United States, but it is easily scalable globally. Let's take a look at these five blocks and some of the most relevant data.
1. An increasingly complex journey
As touchpoints and digital channels expand, thecustomer journey has become "increasingly chaotic," like a "chaotic treasure hunt," the company says in its research. The aim is to use channels as a high-levelfunnel, while customers alternate between the online and offline worlds. "For marketers, making sense of how to engage with their customers has never been so grueling," it adds.
It also warns those who view web searches as a low-performancefunnel, as users tend to place searches at the beginning of their "journey" with the idea of obtaining discounts, ideas, or inspiration. So much so that a large majority of customers (83%) search online before going to a store, and almost half (45%) actually buy online and then pick up in store. In addition, the use of video while in the store has skyrocketed to more than half of consumers (55%).
2. New channels emerge
Beyond podcasts and video, new technologies such as augmented reality and voice are emerging, contributing to the continued evolution of media. "The customer you're trying to engage with has never been so connected... but it can be difficult to know exactly when they're spending that time online." That's why, now more than ever,marketers need to know when and how to connect with consumers.
As a point of reference, image searches on mobile devices have increased by 60% in recent years, which is related to the fact that for half of consumers, images help them decide what to buy, or at least inspire them. As for video, the time spent watching shopping-related videos on YouTube has increased fivefold in two years, and the number of YouTube channels with more than 1 billion views has also increased by the same amount. Regarding new channels, active Google Assistant users have quadrupled in just one year, with interesting facts such as the 16 million queries made about recipes, of which 1 million occurred on a single day: Christmas Day.
3. Immediate satisfaction matters more than loyalty
In other words: "Being there to meet people's immediate needs is the new battleground for brands. The winners will be those who save people time and give them what they want as quickly as possible." It couldn't be any other way, considering that we live in amobile society and that three out of four smartphone users expect to get an immediate response while using their device. In fact, searches combined with expressions such as "the best" and "right now" have grown by 125% in two years. For example: "the best sales right now," "the best phone right now," or "the best SUV leases right now."
On the other hand, geolocation to take advantage of the potential of the local environment is gaining followers. Searches for stores open "nearby" have increased by 250% in two years, the same proportion as searches for "sales nearby," trends that also affect industries such as insurance, banking, and even repair shops.
4. Traditional industry goes digital
Whether we like it or not, whether it's easy or not. We've been warning about this for years, and the refrain hasn't changed: "the future will be digital, or it won't be." People are searching nine times more than two years ago for apps to shop online, with an extremely high loyalty rate: three out of four consumers stay with the first seller that offers them what they're looking for. In a sector we know so well in this company, such as the automotive industry, one piece of data supports what we have been saying in our studies on customer experience: the time spent watching videos on vehicle test drives is now 70% higher than two years ago. And, take note: searches for "electric cars" have also grown by 85% in two years.
5. Privacy and digital well-being
"In 2019, it has become clear that privacy, trust, and well-being go hand in hand with effective advertising. To be successful,marketers need to work on earning people's trust, raising industry standards, and providing more tools and data to help users manage their digital well-being." In this sense, the report could not be clearer. And its data on the subject corroborates this idea overwhelmingly.
For example, in the last year, there have been 2.5 billion visits to Google account pages with the sole purpose of viewing or adjusting how personalized ads are received, while "my activity" queries about the information stored in each Google account are now six times higher than in 2016. In addition, one in three users has taken steps to increase their digital wellbeing, which, in the opinion of four out of five (80%), has a positive impact on their overall sense of wellbeing.
Photo byRodion KutsaevonUnsplash
