DMA 704 Final Project Submission

1. Final Project: Trends Assessment - Sections 1, 2, and 3
DMA-704
Kristoff Bannies
Thomas Edison State University
June 27, 2021

2. Section 1
Over the past few years, retailers have increasingly made strides to enable consumers
with the ability to shop online, outside of the traditional brick-and-mortar experience. This
provided the benefits of expanded selection, convenience, and time savings for those who lead
busy lives. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 quickly forced people to approach everyday life
differently in a number of ways, including the way in which they purchase goods. Prior to the
pandemic, about 81% of consumers had never shopped online for groceries. However, during
the pandemic that behavior changed dramatically, with 79% of shoppers ordering online.
(Morgan, 2021). Aside from the fact that countries across the globe were placed on lockdown,
people were afraid to go out in public places in the same manner they used to, fearing they
might contract the virus.
With this shift in shopping behavior, retailers had to adapt in order to service their
customers and stay in business. The lockdowns forced some businesses to shut down or alter
in-store operations. Some retailers pivoted to an online ordering and delivery or curbside pick-
up model, allowing consumers to get their essentials with some peace of mind. In addition to
resourcing the necessary labor to run these operations, retailers had to pay more attention to
the online marketplace. There needed to be assurance that consumers could easily find what
they needed and make seamless transactions.
Online shopping was not a new phenomenon at the onset of the pandemic. However, it
rapidly became a popular method of choice. According to a Global Trends report from Mintel,
“eCommerce and online transactions have the potential to become, and remain, the norm”
(Lieberman et al., 2021). This implies that businesses will need to invest in ecommerce if they
desire to maintain a share hold in their respective segments.
Section 2
The rise of ecommerce, particularly stemming from the pandemic, has required that
consumers and businesses engage differently in the marketplace. For firms to attract buyers in

3. the online/digital media space, they have to be methodical and focus investments accordingly.
With stay-at-home orders in place, its less prudent to invest in billboards or transit
advertisement. When left with little to do outside of the home, consumers are more likely to be
captured while streaming videos on YouTube.com or scrolling on social media platforms. So,
businesses that have not been forced to shut down must amplify their presence in those
channels.
One of the prime industries impacted by this shift in purchase behavior is that of retail,
particularly within the grocery segment. Consumers increasingly relied on services like online
grocery pick-up or at-home delivery via Instacart or Shipt. The Business Insider’s Online
Grocery Report states that “previously, some consumers resisted the shopping method because
they wanted to pick out their groceries themselves and avoid extra fees, but the pandemic has
forced many to change their priorities” (Keyes, 2021). At this time, shoppers were in need of a
solution to get the products they knew and trusted in the simplest and quickest way possible.
Retailers such as H-E-B and Walmart were already primed for this alternative, but other retailers
had to adapt, enable ecommerce capabilities and, in some cases, outsource delivery services.
Without investing in these areas, a retailer ran a larger risk of going out of business. As an
essential business, retailers showed up for their customers the best way they could, given the
unprecedented moment of trepidation. Though there was no playbook on how to manage or
prepare for the pandemic, the grocery retailers that weren’t quite as prepared to meet the
challenges now have a few peers to look to for learning best practices.
Brands also had to reprioritize the way they engage with consumers, increasing spend in
mobile ads, retailer search, and landing page tactics (Davis & Toney, 2021). Food
manufacturers are used to investing in vehicles that will drive a purchase at-shelf or in the
perimeter of a grocery store. Shopping from the digital shelf is a unique experience and requires
another approach to get in the basket. The desire for conversion remains the same, but the path
to purchase is different. Aside from investing directly with grocery retailers, generating “first-

4. time” offers through Instacart lend visibility to consumers desiring an at-home delivery. The
importance of investing and tracking digital banners, keywords, and retailer search quickly
became a higher priority for all stakeholders in this space. Like retailers, brands also knew
consumers were pantry-loading and needed to access goods easily. Increased investment
seems to have worked. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, retailer search revenue across
multiple brands was up +101.3% vs. the year before (Davis & Toney, 2021).
Best Buy, a popular consumer electronics retailer, took strides early on in adapting to the
new climate. While its in-store shopping and at-home delivery operations were put to a halt, the
company was able to lean further into its online ordering and contactless, curbside pick-up
services. According to an article from the Wall Street Journal, “Best Buy has experienced a
more marked shift to online buying during the pandemic than retailers that sell groceries or other
products that shoppers still tend to want to touch and feel” (Nassauer, 2021). The company was
able to meet the consumption demand by enabling employees to be more flexible and able to
assist across roles, as needed. Additionally, Best Buy maintained its easy-to-navigate
homepage, online digital advertising (i.e., e-mail, online video), and cash-back referral links on
webpages like Rakuten to drive traffic and conversions.
Now a year after the start of the pandemic, the company is putting plans in place to
maintain its growth and make some of its once-temporary adaptations more permanent. On a
conference call to lay out the future workforce plan, Corrie Barry, Best Buy’s CEO said,
“customer shopping behavior will be permanently changed in a way that’s even more digital
and, of course, puts the customers entirely in control to shop how they want” (Repko, 2021). In
effort to be a leading retailer in this space, the company plans to re-train employees for digital
roles and repurpose a portion of the store space as more of a warehouse hub. As consumers
continue to want convenience and shop from home, this is the logical next step to being ahead
of the curve rather than a delayed adopter. Should the behavior shift again, Best Buy seems to
be poised to successfully respond and adapt as necessary.

5. The automobile industry has also seen an increased shift in online shopping, as about
30% of new car sales were made online. Alan Haig, an automotive retail consultant and
president of Haig Partners, believes that ecommerce will make up a good portion of auto sales
in the next decade and “anything that enhances the customer experience is a win” (Korn, 2021).
Carvana, for example, is a used car company that allows consumers to browse vehicle
inventory and arrange for a contactless delivery. The firm was founded in 2012 and has been
largely dependent on online transactions. However, the pandemic aided in its year-over-year
revenue growth of +41%. This is also driven by some marketing choices that the firm made. In
effort to set itself apart from other used car sources and drive awareness, Carvana invested
more in high-funnel marketing tactics that included TV, OTT and digital activations (Weismann,
2021).
Restaurants that haven’t closed during the pandemic likely had to reduce dine-in
services, creating an initial hit to cashflows. However, the existence of food delivery apps like
UberEats, GrubHub, Postmates, and DoorDash made it possible to maintain and expand a
customer base. In addition to mobile browser and social media ads, these delivery services offer
in-app discounts based on order size and trial-driving incentives for first-time users. Between
April & September 2020, the four companies amassed $5.5 billion in revenue, double prior year
actuals (Sumagaysay, 2020). Uber was specifically challenged to drive growth as the rideshare
division saw a decline in clients driven by people quarantining at home. However, the
company’s ability to pivot its fleet of drivers to the food delivery service, positioned it well to help
offset those losses. Uber also leveraged its rideshare app to reach and convert new consumers
by providing a link to the UberEats platform with incentives to try the food delivery service.
It’s evident that activity within the online/digital marketplace has increased in a
meaningful way and businesses would be remiss to assume things will go back to “normal.” As
brands look to maintain and improve connectivity with consumers in the online forum, Mintel’s
Consumer Trends report says, “brands should consider how to deploy innovative tech to deliver

6. elements of their brand, products and services in ways that add discernible experiential value
that can’t be obtained through a static product page” (Lieberman et al., 2021). This furthers the
point that investment will need to be repurposed in this space to increase reach and enhance
the customer’s online experience while driving conversion and a sustainable ROI.
Section 3
In effort to further my research and understanding of retailer search as it relates to the
trend of ecommerce (i.e., online grocery pick-up/delivery), I met with an expert in the discipline.
Lizzy Urtso is a Product Manager dedicated to overseeing retailer search activations across
many brands at McCormick & Company. Upon seeing her deliver a presentation as part of the
company’s Marketing Excellence team, I reached out to request some time for a conversational
interview and she obliged.
At the beginning of our discussion, I asked Lizzy to explain a little bit about the concept
of retailer search and explain why marketers should look to invest in this particular tactic. She
said, “We are seeing more of our consumers get what they need at the click of a button instead
of shopping in the traditional brick-and-mortar stores.” Investing in retailer search gives us the
opportunity to show up at the digital shelf and increase our chance of driving conversions or
getting in the “basket,” so to speak.
Because annual marketing budgets don’t generally expand from one year to the next,
prioritization choices need to be made. When asked where funds should be reprioritized to
cover needs for retailer search, she pointed to the trade accrual. In the CPG trade, there is a
trade budget that accrues funds as product is sold and shipped to retailers. These accruals are
used to fund in-store promotional activations such as ads and displays. “It’s estimated that the
dollars spent on retailer search are three times more effective than trade spend and we’re
advising our customer business managers to reinvest inefficient trade here,” Urtso said. So, it
stands to reason that making this pivot will drive an improved ROI for the organization.

7. When asked if there are any challenges with retailer search, Lizzy cited three. The first
being that not all key retailers have built their webpages with a feature that allows its shoppers
to purchase their groceries online. Even for some of those who have enabled online shopping,
there isn’t a way for marketers to influence how their brand show up in search results. Lizzy
shared that, “the hope is, in the near future, all retailers will have gotten on board as they see
competitors capitalizing on online orders. We maintain a retailer scorecard to track development
and capabilities and are prepared to invest when they are ready.”
The second challenge is ensuring that products are being correctly tied to the relevant
keywords consumers are searching with. For example, there is a barbecue sauce brand,
Stubb’s, that has a unique naming convention for “barbecue”: Bar-B-Q. Unless consumers are
familiar to the brand, they may not think to search with that syntax. So, any efforts to capture
consumers in search for a barbeque sauce would require investment in “barbecue,” “barbeque,”
and “BBQ.” There are many other examples where this attention to detail is warranted to ensure
that keyword bids will work as intended and yield the return on investment.
Somewhat related to the first challenge with retailers, is the means of tracking of
performance. When I asked Lizzy which tools she’s using to track performance she said, “While
I use Google often, I’m also working across about 16 different systems to track all of our
campaigns because they aren’t consistent across retailers.” This makes the task of analyzing
and optimizing keyword bids rather cumbersome. “We’re able to get the information we need,
but it just takes more time than we’d like,” Urtso said. Tracking the number of conversions tied
to SEO efforts will be crucial to informing marketers on the outcome of their budgetary choices
when the time comes to allocate funds in their annual plans.
Aside from the hurdles directly tied to employing retailer search is the fundamental need
the maintain a competitive edge. Lizzy advised that marketing teams should strategically invest
resources on bids and tracking those purchased by competitors. There are instances when
marketers may intentionally opt-out of spending on a brand or product because there is little to

8. gain from the spend. For example, French’s Mustard already holds the lion share in the Yellow
Mustard category compared to other branded competitors. Mustard consumers are generally
aware of the French’s brand and will purchase it so long as it’s available and they don’t prefer a
lower-cost private label alternative. Alternatively, in a highly brand-saturated segment like Hot
Sauce, there is a case for investing in keywords that will promote Frank’s RedHot Cayenne
Pepper Sauce and send it to the top of search queries. Depending on ROI curves and the level
of desire to displace competitors, marketers may continue to outbid competitors for that lead
position.
In my conversation with Lizzy, it became evident she believed the dependency on
retailer search was only going to increase. She said, “we’re seeing more consumers shop online
and as they get used to that convenience and process, I’d expect that to only become more
common.” While grocery shopping in-store may not necessarily be a thing of the past, it’s
paramount for marketers to have their brands show up and be top-of-mind wherever the
consumers are going to be. Retailer search isn’t the only method available to do that, but is a
critical one to consider to capture the attention of consumers and drive conversions.

9. References
Davis, S., & Toney, L. (2021, May 20). How Coronavirus (COVID-19) Is Impacting
Ecommerce [May 2021]. ROI Revolution.
https://www.roirevolution.com/blog/2021/05/coronavirus-and-ecommerce/.
Keyes, D. (2021, February 3). THE ONLINE GROCERY REPORT: Coronavirus is
accelerating US online grocery shopping adoption-here are the market stats,
trends and companies to know. Business Insider.
https://www.businessinsider.com/online-grocery-report-2020.
Korn, M. (2021, March 28). More consumers are shopping online for cars. Can
dealerships keep up? ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/consumers-
shopping-online-cars-dealerships/story?id=76650042.
Lieberman, G., Crabbe, M., & Moriarty, S. (2021). (publication). Global Consumer
Trends 2021 (pp. 37–37). London, UK: Mintel.
Morgan, B. (2021, February 18). 3 Lasting Changes To Grocery Shopping After Covid-
19. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/12/14/3-lasting-
changes-to-grocery-shopping-after-covid-19/?sh=22ee76d354e7.
Nassauer, S. (2021, February 25). Best Buy Steps Up Digital Overhaul as Slowdown
Looms. The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/best-buy-workers-
powered-through-covid-19-pandemic-then-they-lost-their-jobs-11614256495.
Repko, M. (2021, February 25). Best Buy is speeding changes to adapt to a post-
pandemic consumer: Smaller-and fewer-stores ahead. CNBC.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/best-buy-is-speeding-changes-to-adapt-to-a-
post-pandemic-consumer.html.
Sumagaysay, L. (2020, November 25). The pandemic has more than doubled food-
delivery apps' business. Now what? MarketWatch.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-pandemic-has-more-than-doubled-
americans-use-of-food-delivery-apps-but-that-doesnt-mean-the-companies-are-
making-money-11606340169.
Weissman, C. G. (2021, January 29). Carvana's Ryan Keeton on how the pandemic
changed used car sales. Modern Retail. https://www.modernretail.co/retailers/the-
purchase-cycle-is-very-considered-carvanas-ryan-keeton-on-how-the-pandemic-
changed-used-car-sales/.