The post-COVID-19 consumer trends that will shape 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on consumer behaviors—pulling forward the shift to eCommerce by up to 5 years.[1] In response to physical restrictions and shelter-in-place orders, many consumers moved their browsing and buying experiences online—from IRL to URL—in all sorts of new and different ways.

Disruptor companies pivoted quickly, embodied resilience and drove innovation to deliver value for customers in a difficult time. While the pandemic’s impact isn’t over, a clearer picture has emerged of which consumer behaviors are here to stay in 2021 and beyond. Here, we’ll explore these changes, the impact to Disruptor companies and how they can plan and prepare to adapt this year and beyond. To learn more essential insights on the Disruptor landscape in 2021, read our recently-released 2021 State of Disruption Annual Report. 

Pandemic behaviors that are here to stay

6 important trends are expected to change permanently after the pandemic: The aggressive shift to eCommerce, multichannel commerce and older generations shopping online.

1- There’s been a massive shift to eCommerce: During the COVID-19 pandemic, 75% of consumers tried a new shopping behavior such as a new shopping method (40%), a different brand (36%), a different retailer/store/website (33%), a private label/store brand (25%) or a new digital shopping method (20%). When surveyed, a significant majority of these consumers—between 73% and 80%—intend to continue these behaviors.[2]

Disruptor tip: The shift toward eCommerce has bred curiosity and a desire to discover new products and services online. Rather than waiting for your next customer to search for you (you can’t search for a brand you’ve never heard of), surprise and delight your next customer by meeting them where they are before they search. We call this experience on Facebook and Instagram Discovery Commerce, and it starts with leveraging machine learning and broad targeting to expand your audience beyond who you might traditionally target. 24 months ago, the best growth marketers could hack their way to success with targeting distinct profiles, but today, the fastest growing Disruptors are leveraging broad targeting, with a simplified account structure and letting the machine learning do the hard work. 

2- Multi-channel commerce is finally here (only took a decade!): In the post-COVID-19 future, omni-channel shoppers will have an increased appetite for in-store shopping and will be comfortable browsing in one channel (IRL/URL) and completing a purchase in another. We’ve been talking about this “multi-channel experience” for over a decade, and it’s finally here. In fact, in a Facebook commissioned survey, 65% of consumers said buy-online-pick-up-in-store options have improved their overall shopping experience.[3]

Disruptor Tip: The companies that create the most seamless cross-channel shopping experience are those that have invested in unsexy areas, such as catalog & inventory unification across store, online, and mobile experience (note, this is very, very hard). Believe it or not most retailers still have completely different systems for inventory for their stores, versus their digital channels. Best Buy is a great example of a company that invested for years to unify their entire inventory stack in order to create a frictionless cross-channel shopping experience. When the pandemic hit, this gave them an incredible growth opportunity with consumers that wanted to shop online, but also wanted to pick up their purchases locally. 

3- Boomers are now shopping online, primarily on mobile: During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers across generations turned to digital experiences—especially on mobile—for their shopping needs. By March 2020, worldwide mobile usage was increasing faster than laptop usage. Of these consumers, a standout has been the Boomer generation, who’ve been a surprising eCommerce growth area. Nearly half (45%) are shopping online more as a result of the pandemic.[4] And 41% of Boomers in the U.S. say they’re now buying products online that they would have normally purchased in a store.[5]

Disruptor tip: While Disruptors often focus on younger, more tech-driven audiences, now might be a good time to think about expanding product offerings and creative to reach additional age groups. In the past, growth hacking teams were best positioned to find these new audiences by finding arbitrage opportunities in the ad auction. Today, we truly feel that the best growth DTC companies will be those that have strong creative teams who can iterate on different creative that speaks to distinct generations. With machine learning finding the right audience for each individual creative asset, net new audiences can more easily be unlocked through creative iterations and high frequency creative testing. 

Meeting new expectations from consumers

As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated some consumer behaviors, it has also shaped expectations around the experiences and values of the brands with which they choose to interact. 

4- Consumers are embracing digital experiences in new places: The pandemic has driven significant growth in digital experiences in places one might expect, such as restaurants and groceries. But it’s also driven growth in newer and fast-growing digital categories. For example, insurance claims for stay-home healthcare shot up during the pandemic, and Telehealth has been essential for continuing the work of healthcare providers. It’s only expected to grow as expectations from patients continue to evolve as more of the workforce chooses to work from home permanently. Another area of change has been the fitness industry. As gyms across the country closed, fitness tech has thrived, with 70% of people reporting that they’re working out more during the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]

Disruptor tip: The trends we see in fitness apps, Telehealth and other services prove that the activities we’ve traditionally done in person can be reimagined for a digital world (see Peloton, Tonal, Hims and Roman as examples that have done this well). As we look to what’s next, we believe consumers will soon expect to seamlessly message the brands with which they do business. This will be a huge shift in consumer behavior. Disruptor brands should be radically rethinking their consumer-facing experiences to offer innovations that improve convenience and deliver personalized interactions with their customers.

5- Brands have to deliver social value to be relevant: Today’s consumers expect brands to take a stand on important social issues. In a turbulent 2020, consumers rose to meet the moment. We saw an increase in discussions around advocacy, local government and racial inequality in the U.S. on Facebook in 2020.[7] Issues on the top of consumers’ minds included COVID-19 safety, racial injustice, climate change and equality. 

Disruptor tip: We believe this trend in increased social engagement will continue in 2021, and will be a key driver of brand loyalty & differentiation. Show up authentically by aligning your brand’s core values with key social issues and action. If you’re donating a percentage of your earnings to charity, include this information in your product page and checkout experience to validate that your customer’s purchase is contributing to positive changes. Even further, encourage your customers to engage with each other through the social issues you care about. Bombas is a great example of a company that does phenomenal work here. 

6- Consumers have increased their use of subscription eCommerce: From pet food, to beauty products, to meal-kit services, during the pandemic, consumers have used more subscription services to get what they need in a way that is safe and low friction. For example, 46% joined a beauty or apparel subscription service in Summer 2020.[8] As consumers interact with more subscription services, their expectations around these experiences will continue to rise, and they may expect subscription options from brands and sectors that previously haven’t offered them.

Disruptor tip: Subscriptions solve many challenges for consumers, ranging from convenience to discovering new products. If you offer a product that requires regular and predictable replenishment, offering a subscription with clear benefits (such as a small discount when subscribing) could be right for your business. Be sure to build a subscription management experience with features that make it easy to skip a delivery, make changes or cancel - and be sure to let your consumers know about this flexibility early in the process. 

What’s Next? 

The pace of change in consumer expectations continues to rise, and there is no guarantee about where it will go next. Thoughtfully assessing the landscape and looking at the big trends will help Disruptors gain an edge—from building new experiences, to strategic planning. While it’s been a year of fast pivoting, now is a great time to think about the longer-term trends that will shape the years ahead. Check out Facebook’s 2021 Disruptor Annual Report to learn more.  

[1] “COVID-19 pandemic accelerated shift to e-commerce by 5 years, new report says” by TechCrunch, August 2020

[2] “McKinsey & Company COVID-19 US Consumer Pulse Survey 6/15 – 6/20.

[3] Global Retail Re-emerge Study” by Ipsos (Facebook-commissioned online survey of 43,474 people ages 18+ across AU, BR, CA, DE, FR, IN, JP, MX, SK, TH, UK, US), Jul–Aug 2020

[4] “Industry Micro-Shifts Monthly Tracker” by Kantar Profiles (Facebook-commissioned online survey of general population respondents ages 18+ (N=6,340 cross 3 waves fielded 5/5/2-020-7/11/2020, USA).

[5] “How COVID-19 is impacting boomers’ shopping behavior” by National Retail Federation, June 2020.

[6] How 3 Months of Lock down Changed Our Approach to Working Out” by Feed. FM, June 2020

[7] Internal Facebook data, people ages 18+, US, Apr 2019–Sep 2020. All topics chosen grew from Sep 2019 through Sep 2020

[8] “Micro-Shifts Monthly Tracker” by Kantar Profiles (Facebook-commissioned online survey of 2,000+ gen. pop. respondents ages 18+ in the US), May 2020. People who engaged in a behavior in the past four weeks.