Despite the fact that vaccines have been released, the pandemic isn’t over. In fact, 2021 is starting with some of the highest numbers we’ve seen in the United States since the virus made landfall in 2020. Any way you look at it, we will continue to spend at least part of this year indoors.
One year into stay at home, comfort brands have increased in relevance, offering an opportunity to continue forging genuine relationships with their consumers. Anything that a brand can do to lift up consumer spirits and make the pandemic more comfortable can have tremendous impact on immediate and long-term outcomes.
The evolution of essential items on the shopping list
Over the last year, consumers have discovered the things that they need to make the most out of staying at home and have developed out a routine and shopping list. If there’s one thing we’ve learned during COVID-19, it’s that consumers don’t want to be caught with an empty cupboard, especially with grocery, personal care, and home and hygiene products. In fact, 64 percent of shoppers say that they’ve created stockpiles of these items at home due to the pandemic. Brands offering any of these products should take care to ensure that these products are always in stock, and that inventory management is part of their eCommerce strategy.
Since then, products that are essential to emotional wellness have joined the shopping list. Consumers have been hit by the nostalgia-fueled purchasing bug and have opted to spend their money on things that bring back fond memories from yesteryear, like snacks from their childhood and video games they used to play as kids.
How does your brand make your audience feel comfort?
Because consumers are getting ready to hunker down for what’s shaping up to be a long winter, brands have a unique opportunity to market comfort. We might not like staying indoors and missing time with our loved ones, but we all want to make the most of our experience regardless.
To this end, brands should think about what they can do to make staying at home something that is comfortable and enjoyable. For example, LEGO prominently advertises indoor activities that are fun for kids on Pinterest. Hershey’s features recipes incorporating their product into baking projects with kids. Folgers’ campaign depicts video chats in the morning over coffee with parents whose morning routine is surrounded by kids. Similarly, the Food Network has a slew of recipes on Pinterest that encourage consumers to make some food with their kids. As anyone who’s been cooped up with little ones during the pandemic knows too well, anything that can help entertain kids is a welcomed activity.
Regardless of whether they have kids or not, consumers would appreciate your brand helping them think about how to make staying home an experience they enjoy rather than mandatory confinement. How can you make eating healthy fun? How can you make exercising at home fun?
What can your brand do to facilitate social intimacy?
Just because everyone is staying indoors doesn’t mean you can’t be inspirational and aspirational.
One way to do that is by coming up with ideas that can help generate social intimacy in a way that is socially distanced. For example, we’ve seen people adapt to socially distanced holidays, using services like Zoom to stay connected with the people they’d usually share dinner tables with. Your brand could mimic that dynamic by connecting members of your community with each other as they cook a meal at the same time or launch a friendly virtual exercising competition to see who makes the most progress.
Spend some time figuring out what you can do to spark joy in the hearts and minds of your audience. Maybe you can create contests or online communities in which people get to meet new people who share the same interests. Anything you can do to create excitement is worth testing and iterating on.
As you begin devising ways to reach consumers during lockdown, remember that your ability to succeed in eCommerce will depend on your ability to make your product relevant to the consumer. How can they use your products to connect with other people? Figure out how to forge those connections, and it may only be a matter of time before your products become essential—and your consumers start stockpiling them because they can’t live without them, pandemic or otherwise.
If you like eCommerce tips like this, sign up for our newsletter and never miss a beat.
