Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, ecommerce demand and activity have been elevated – something that comes as no news to anyone working in the retail or digital marketing industries.

CBRE Group’s Global E-commerce Outlook Update report, published in June 2022, found that 20% of global retail sales were carried out online in 2021, compared with 9% in 2016 – representing an increase of 133% in five years, and an increase of 46% in the first two years of the pandemic alone. The report calculates that the value of the global ecommerce market totalled US $3.1 trillion in 2021, up from $1.3 trillion in 2016.

While not all of the astronomical spikes seen in 2020 and 2021 have been sustained, and a certain amount of shopping activity has gravitated back towards stores, there’s no denying that Covid-19’s impact on the retail landscape has been long-lasting.

But elevated online demand is only beneficial to retailers and brands if they can successfully capture and convert it – and position themselves as shoppers’ preferred option instead of their competitors. In the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, this presents an additional challenge as many FMCG brands do not own the relationship with their customers, and have historically invested primarily in top-of-the-funnel marketing and advertising to build their brand rather than lower-funnel activity aimed at conversions.

In the wake of Covid-19, this is changing significantly. In this article, I’ll look at three key areas in which FMCG brands are adapting their strategies to capture and convert online demand:

  • their presentation and presence on the digital shelf;
  • their online proposition and product offering;
  • and their availability and fulfilment processes.

 

For each, I’ll include examples of FMCG brands that have found success by adapting their strategies or innovating in this area.

Not yet an Econsultancy subscriber?

Subscribe today to access briefings, as well as all our reports, tools and templates.

Need help signing in?

EMEA/USA: +44 (0)20 7970 4322 | email: subs.support@econsultancy.com