For business, 2020 has been a year of incredible highs in some sectors and deep lows in many others, and significant amounts of chaos and uncertainty all around. One category that has had a particularly tumultuous year was retail, and AdAge has put together several analysts’ predictions on what the industry can look forward to in 2021.
Livestreaming commerce represented a $60 billion category in 2019, with China accounting for the lion’s share of the spending and the U.S. only $1 billion. In 2020, the ecommerce trend expanded rapidly, and is expected to grow a larger presence outside of China in 2021. Analysts expect Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Amazon to all move into ecommerce via livestream.
Social media ecommerce is also expected to grow in the year ahead. AdAge notes Walmart’s presence on TikTok and Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops as indicators of the trend’s growing ubiquity, and GroupM’s ecommerce forecast highlighted its heightened role in retailers’ online strategies.
In-store, curbside and home delivery will continue to be part of retailers’ offerings, although there is an expectation that there will be more targeting of the services to different shopper segments and further refinements in the year to come.
Consumer packaged goods are moving into the direct-to-consumer space. It gives them more customer data, and while analysts don’t see the retail experience going away, it may lead to better reflections of consumer behavior in brands’ modeling.
Retailers are expected to continue to develop their own media networks. Retailers like CVS, Walgreens, Target and Home Depot are working directly with brands to use their platform, social media, etc., for targeting, campaign planning, reporting and more.
For more information on the trends AdAge has identified and analysts’ perspectives, click here.