Forrester isn’t beating around the bush in its most recent assessment of the B2C environment. According to its latest report, “If you’re in a consumer-facing business…you’re entering the most frenzied phase of innovation you’ve ever experienced, and consumers won’t let you rest anytime soon.”

The new report, Vast, Fast, and Relentless: Consumer Buying Enters a New Era, looks at the state of the customer-empowered commerce landscape — and what’s to come for B2C businesses who are ambitious enough to keep up.

Once timid in the face of online buying, consumers are now more willing than ever to test new brands and products. They are unrelenting in their use of personal devices when shopping, savvy when researching products and motivated to find the best buying experiences. Most importantly, they no longer need to choose between price, convenience and emotional experiences — they can opt for brands with modern delivery models that provide all three.  

Where does that leave your brand? The choice is yours.

Four Forces Shaping B2C Buying

Forrester indicates the future of B2C buying will not involve a shift from traditional to digital, nor will self-service be fully abandoned for delivery. Instead, the future includes a world laser-focused on consumer motivations and the four forces shaping consumer buying habits:

1. Price and Convenience

Marketplaces are now known for their convenience, accessibility and skill in finding the best prices. It’s this ability to aggregate myriad options that will lead to the displacement of long-held household names, just as travel websites led to the demise of travel agents.

2. Consumer Experimentation

Today’s consumers expect and reward experimentation. Brands that woo consumers with innovation are investing more in R&D (product and experience development) than acquisition to enable the products themselves to drive growth. Consumers’ personal experiences with the products (i.e., ease of use, effectiveness and emotional impact) are what influence their decision to continue or abandon use. 

3. Values-Based Buying

Corporate ethics span a range of topics, from data privacy and transparency to sustainability and human rights. Forrester believes companies that haven’t yet established and communicated values are already laggards — and the need to do so will only become more crucial. 

4. Evolving Business Models

The time has come for companies with traditional commerce practices to stop fighting the new landscape and adapt. They must showcase their relevance to customers and evaluate multiple concurrent business models that prioritize:

• Alternative revenue streams. Shake up the value chain. Sell to other buyers, remarket existing products or rethink assets completely. 
• New touchpoints. Omnichannel touchpoints have evolved greatly over the pandemic. Taking advantage of these new touchpoints means adapting to consumers’ changing preferences. 
• New channels. Firms must begin to engage customers with emerging technologies like augmented or virtual reality, messaging, assistants, voice and shoppable video. 
• New partnerships. The way forward is together for modern brands and retailers. Just look to partnerships and “shops within shops” like Kohl’s-Amazon, Kohl’s-Sephora or Target-Disney. 

The forces shaping B2C buying may seem overwhelming to some, but the biggest imperative is a long-term strategy that allows you to stay nimble in the face of ever-changing consumer demands. Rithum is well-versed in the changing e-commerce landscape. We help brands increase their relevance and revenue by expanding to more channels, optimizing their existing strategies and reaching more buyers with effective marketing. 

Download the full Forrester report, Vast, Fast, and Relentless: Consumer Buying Enters a New Era, for more survey findings, insightful charts and advice for thriving in the modern era. 

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Online food and drink sales have skyrocketed in the last few years and are poised for even more growth ahead, according to Forrester’s new report: The State of the US Online Grocery Shopper.

However, compared to other sectors of e-commerce, consumers have a somewhat different mindset about online grocery purchases. They’ve adapted to immense change, but deep-rooted habits remain entrenched, continuing to influence their outlook and affecting the ways in which they approach purchasing groceries online. And, overall, their expectations are high. 

How & Where Online Grocery Consumers Shop

Not every online grocery shopper approaches this routine task in the same way. In a survey of over 9,000 consumers in March 2021, Forrester found that 58% of US online adult mobile grocery researchers use mobile apps. A well-designed, easy-to-use app can generate opportunities for providers to collect first-party consumer data and create individualized experiences to foster loyalty. 

For many shoppers, however, long-established patterns of bargain-hunting mean the printed word still carries significant weight. Thirty percent of US online adult grocery consumers use printed weekly circulars to research their grocery purchases, 15% use printed coupons and 19% look for in-store ads or promotions. Measurable data linking correlative effects between digital and store sales can yield important information, especially for grocers with in-store and online shopping options.  

Competition for market share in this space is tight — in part, because consumers do not tend to frequent several online stores for grocery purchases. In a survey of over 4,700 US consumers conducted in August 2021, Forrester found that 47% of US online grocery shoppers usually shop with just one online grocery provider; 25% shop with two; 15% shop with three and just 13% shop with four or more online grocers.  

What Matters Most

Consumers are consistently highly aware of price, quality and convenience. Those three factors play heavily in consumer choice of both products and providers. Interestingly, though perhaps unsurprisingly, two-thirds of US adults prefer to choose brands they like when buying groceries online. However, just over a third of US online shoppers indicate they plan to stay with their current online grocery provider due to a good experience, indicating there is room for movement within this arena.  

What Could Influence Future Consumer Behavior 

Adding to growing evidence of the impact of supply chain woes on consumers, predictable availability of goods may be eclipsing preference for convenient delivery options. Many consumers indicated a willingness to wait to obtain goods if they knew those goods would be available. Furthermore, consumer expectations for same-day delivery dropped precipitously from 2019 to 2020. 

Consumer interest in product quality and nutrition are also expected to guide choices in online grocery purchases in the coming months and years. Forrester found that 60% of online US adults say they make a conscious effort to eat healthy foods. Clear and transparent communication about nutrition, ingredients, organic options and other elements will be critical to helping consumers select the options that work best for their lifestyles and nutritional needs. 

Want to know more about the perspectives of the online grocery consumer? Download Forrester’s latest report, The State of the Online Grocery Shopper.

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