The Evolution Of Retail In EMEA

Adobe CMO Infographic

The Evolution Of Retail In EMEA

The shopping experience continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Consumers' march to e-commerce has been a dominant retail theme over the past decade, but traditional brick-and-mortar visits still remain crucial to success. Blending the best of both these channels could be the key to delivering outstanding results.

By taking a customer-centric view of the entire journey, marketers can begin to create experiences that connect touch points between desktop, mobile, and in-store engagements. However, despite the sector leading others, attribution remains a big challenge.

What's clear is that, despite upheaval, the retail industry is in a period that holds tremendous opportunity. The brands that are brave enough to adopt new technologies may well fare best when embracing further disruption.

The retail landscape is transforming, with the rise of e-commerce blurring the lines between digital and physical retail:

Smartphone visits to retail sites were predicted to surpass desktop by the end of last year, but they accounted for just 20% of all online retail sales.¹

45%

of all offline sales will be web-influenced by 2020.²

84%

of consumers turn to their mobile devices to help them reach a buying decision in-store.³

2017 saw a year-on-year growth in mobile sales of 47% in the U.K.⁴

Smartphone traffic is increasing at an incredible pace. Visits to retail sites from mobile have more than doubled since 2015.⁵

Marketers are having to adapt to these demands to meet the challenges of this new environment:

44%

of retail executives recognise that improving the in-store experience is a strategic priority.⁶

64% of retailers are now using digital for most or all of their marketing efforts.⁷

62%

of retail marketers increased their mobile marketing budgets in 2017.⁸

However, the power of the store can't be forgotten: 77% of Gen Z shoppers prefer to purchase in-store.⁹

82%

of retailers that are personalising content say doing so helps their marketing efforts.¹⁰

A run-of-the-mill digital experience just doesn't cut it any longer. Brands are embracing customer-centric thinking to stand apart from their competitors:

CX was the top strategic priority for over half of organisations in 2017. Gartner predicts they'll continue to redirect investment towards CX innovation this year.^{11, 12}

34%

of retailers value CX as their most important differentiator.¹³

30% of brands reported that targeting and personalisation were top priorities in 2017, and they have the budgets behind them. 57% of retailers plan to increase the amount they are spending on personalisation.¹⁴

Technology is further enabling innovation...

of Millennials have used and would be likely to buy an item directly from a chatbot.¹⁵

VR and AR will further engage audiences. 28% of retailers consider this their most exciting prospect for 2020.¹⁶

45%

of under-20s are willing to try voice-activated ordering.¹⁷

However, to deliver memorable experiences, retail marketers must master the art and science of attribution:

71%

of retailers indicate that proving ROI on social and content is a top challenge.¹⁸

67%

of marketers indicate that attribution is "highly valuable and helps make smarter marketing and media decisions."¹⁹

The good news is that the industry is already taking big steps: Retail (78%) leads other sectors when it comes to combining marketing with analytics.²⁰