During The Information’s Women in Tech, Media and Finance Summit on October 7th, The Information hosted a masterclass on “The Rise of E-commerce and Shoppable Media” with Rachel Tipograph, Founder & CEO, MikMak and Susan Goldsmith, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP.
According to the discussion, the key to understanding current consumer behavior is to identify the blending of digital and retail shopping channels as well as shopping and entertainment experiences. Shopping has become more intertwined with media consumption as products are discovered and researched on social media, in brick-and-mortar locations and the metaverse. Platforms and retailers are moving towards providing immersive, experiential shopping experiences that are personalized based on basket-level data. However, data security remains a top concern.
Tipograph uses the example of liquor sales pre, during and post Covid-19 lockdown to illustrate the lasting shift from retail to e-commerce. “Pre-pandemic less than 1% of their revenue was coming from ecommerce. Fast forward to today, it's anywhere between 25-75% of their total revenue.” Today online sales numbers are somewhere between the 2019 and 2020 levels, which many believe will hold true as the world re-opens and accelerate with time.
Goldsmith takes the trends of online shopping and social media a step further with expressed excitement around AR/VR and shopping experiences in the context of video games. “From music to products to other social experiences, I think gaming is a very interesting platform to watch in terms of what buying behavior will be like as entertainment and retail continue to merge.” These trends are also enticing due to the potential scale and reach of shared experiences in a virtual environment that may translate to collective buying.
Brand safety remains a concern for shoppable media as consumers begin to more closely assess the trust they have in the policies and positions of the companies they invest in. While programmatic dollars are still funneling into the platforms at breakneck speed, more tailored and authentic brand integrations are being more carefully thought-out and executed against key target audiences.
The The Rise of E-commerce and Shoppable Media masterclass was held in partnership with Deloitte. To find out more about key trends in ecommerce and shoppable media, check out the recently released Deloitte Digital Media Trends Pulse Survey.
