Data for difficult days: online purchases increase, and so does a propensity to engage with brands

It’s a fact that the lockdown imposed to combat the spread of Covid-19 has caused a significant drop in sales of Fashion and Luxury products. Nonetheless, it has given an important and predictable boost to online purchases, which have increased by 20%. This is supported by sales reports and also by the Salesforce Q1 Shopping Index report, which collects and analyzes the data of over one billion consumers worldwide.

We had already reported this emerging trend, and the data collected by Certilogo worldwide confirms it: between January and April 2020 authentications of products purchased online grew from 70% to 81%.

The effect of the growth of online purchases on consumers: the need for authentication has increased.

Fashion marketers are preparing to manage new consumer habits created by the Pandemic that are likely to be maintained when the emergency is over. Today, even consumers traditionally uninterested in online shopping are exploring the advantages of digital channels. It is reasonable to assume that many of them, once they have overcome the historical barriers to remote shopping, will choose to continue relying on e-commerce.

Remote shopping naturally makes consumers more sensitive to the need to verify the authenticity of the products they receive at home, and offers brands a valuable opportunity to transform the unboxing experience into a distinctive and memorable moment.

Ongoing research conducted on users of the Certilogo service shows two important shifts that have occurred over the past 4 months:

• Of over 7,200 respondents, the percentage of users who interact with a connected product with the specific purpose of verifying authenticity grew from 70% to 75% in the period January-April 2020
• The level of satisfaction of our users also continues to grow: at this point, 9 in 10 users are fully satisfied with the experience

Is authentication the main consumer need, or is it just the beginning of a new journey?

Although it is true that 75% of the interviewees say that they interact with the product to check authenticity, it is equally true that once the authentication is complete, 1 in 2 users express a desire to stay connected to the brand and to receive product information, commercial offers and additional content.

If, on the one hand, online selling deprives the consumer of direct and personal contact with the product before purchase as well as denying the in-store experience, on the other hand it makes the moment of unboxing extremely relevant and potentially "magical". It’s a fantastic opportunity for the brand to establish a direct relationship with consumers and make them feel valued.

Precisely because it makes the brand experience less personal and more de-contextualized, the act of purchasing online enhances the need for engagement and the desire to get in touch with the brand when the product arrives at home.

How important is it to consumers to stay in touch with the brand after authentication?

Very important, especially to brand-lovers.

About 4 in 10 users who have authenticated say that the product they’ve checked is from their favorite brand. 

Another 4 in 10 say that they have purchased products from that same brand multiple times. 

What better opportunity to solidify the relationship with a loyal customer and to enchant an occasional customer than during unboxing?

In every respect, a connected product is a means for the consumer to experience a valuable personal interaction with the brand, which, now more than ever, meets a core emotional need.

Today, leveraging this opportunity to build a relationship with your customers, while at the same time achieving supply chain management, brand protection, sales and marketing objectives, is much easier than it seems. 

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Read also - Data for difficult days :

• ​​​​​​Insights from our users - China returns
• The Spring / Summer 2020 collections: Surprising South Korea
• The market of fakes in the time of Coronavirus