detergent or a kitchen cleaning spray, “good enough” isn’t enough for consumers in these instances. They want to find what best suits their individual needs. So, rather than focusing solely on the narrow opportunity to capture existing intent, brands must think about how they generate fresh demand. This moves e-commerce from a bottom funnel activity to a full funnel one, with different roles to play across it. Part of this means providing more immersive experiences, as behaviours that were previously only possible in-store (such as trying on a new lipstick) become a reality virtually. Experiences like these mean that people won’t just find what they’re looking for, but can discover what they didn’t know they needed too. Digital advertising also provides the opportunity to condense the marketing funnel into a single ad, providing the “digital shelves” for customers to find what they didn’t know they wanted — which, when combined with creating those more immersive brand experiences, moves online commerce away from simply “buying” toward more enjoyable “shopping”. We believe this will see the future of online buying move from e-commerce to discovery commerce.
Rather than focusing solely on the narrow opportunity to capture existing intent, brands must think about how they generate fresh demand. Discovery commerce across the funnel The emergence of discovery commerce means brands must provide consumers with new, more connected ways of finding, experiencing and purchasing the products that are right for them across the marketing funnel. Although customer journeys are increasingly nonlinear, the traditional funnel provides a framework for thinking about how to respond to these changing buying behaviours, and how to ensure that your business is driving online sales, among the widest possible audience, at every available touchpoint.
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What’s changing? — 14/22