Customer journeys, personalisation, online grocery: 5 killer stats to start your week

We arm marketers with all the numbers they need to know for the coming week.

1. The majority of businesses can’t orchestrate customer journeys at scale

Just 13% of businesses have the ability to orchestrate customer journeys at scale, while 63% of brands say they’re unable to take immediate action on available customer data.

Despite this, brands recognise the need to act quickly and focus on improving their knowledge of the customer, with 50% of those surveyed expecting to increase spend on ‘journey analytics’ and orchestration by more than 10% over the next year.

Currently brands’ priorities include improving customer data quality and gaining better insights from existing data (59%); focusing on customer journey research, design and measurement to drive engagement (48%); and improving their ability to act on customer intent in real-time (46%).

Some 61% of brands expect to increase customer loyalty and 53% expect increased overall revenues as important outcomes of these initiatives.

Source: Forrester & Thunderhead

2. Companies failing to align digital strategy with business strategy

More than a quarter (26%) of B2B and B2C senior marketing professionals, surveyed about their attitudes toward customer experience and personalisation, say their company has no digital strategy and simply uses digital channels to meet objectives.

Only 39% believe their digital marketing strategy is aligned to the business, marketing and operational objectives supported by the CEO, while another 40% think CMOs are responsible for creating the business case for martech investment, but in only 11% of organisations is the CMO responsible for sign-off.

Additionally, just 24% of those surveyed report a good grasp of external costs for data management,  segmentation and single customer view, plus 27% say personalisation is a low priority and 25% say getting a single customer view is a low priority.

Source: Sitecore/Econsultancy

3. The biggest online grocery markets to create a $227bn growth opportunity by 2023

The 10 biggest global online grocery markets are predicted to contribute to a combined growth of $227bn by 2023.

China is leading the way with a predicted growth of 31% over the next five years, taking online’s market share from 3.8% to 11.2%. The Chinese online grocery market is forecast to grow by the same amount over the next fives years as the entire combined market of all 10 countries in 2018.

The US is primed to experience similar growth, with its online market set to more than double from $23.9bn to $59.5bn, creating an additional $37bn opportunity for American retailers and manufacturers.

Meanwhile, in the UK, online will increase its market share from 6% to 7.9%, while Spain, Canada and Germany are also leading the way.

Source: IGD

4. Surge in on-demand services spearheaded by British youth

Children are increasingly watching content on-demand, with 34% of those aged between eight and 12 most often watching TV via an on-demand service, up from 20% in 2017. For teens, almost half (46%) most often watch TV on-demand, up from 38% last year, and among those aged 17 to 19 that figure is 67%, a rise of nine percentage points.

Netflix is the most used streaming-only service among teens, with 66% having access to the platform compared to 53% in 2017. Meanwhile, 38% of teenagers can now access Amazon Prime Video (up from 30% in 2017) and access to NowTV is 20%, up from 17% last year.

Only 6% of children have no access to an on-demand service, a decrease from 10% year on year.

Source: Mediacom

5. UK shoppers increasingly choosing to buy from overseas

British consumers are turning to overseas retailers for their fashion fix, with 15% making an online purchase from an overseas retailer at least once a week.

The driving force behind Brits’ decision to shop abroad is price, with 55% stating it is the most important factor when shopping online. However, there are still issues that deter Brits from purchasing from overseas retailers; these include extended delivery times (28%), lack of brand recognition (21%), import costs (20%) and paying in foreign currency (11%).

Men are more likely to shop with an overseas retailer, with 79% having made a purchase in the last year as opposed to only 66% of women.

UK businesses are also cashing in on international opportunities. 81% of British online business owners are offering overseas delivery options. 37% currently offer European delivery options and 44% worldwide delivery options.

Source: Whistl

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