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Back in person for the first time in two years, SXSW was a fitting stage for the panel, X-Ray Vision into Digital Experience Trends<\/a>, <\/strong>moderated by Jessica Scanlon, founder of Hot Dog Marketing<\/a>, one of the nation’s top branding and digital marketing agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WP Engine VP of Growth David Vogelpoh<\/a>l was joined by Meta Global Retail Product Marketing Manager Rachel Bucalo<\/a> and HubSpot Product Lead Sophia Perlman<\/a> for the discussion, which covered changes in the evolving digital landscape as we navigate a post-pandemic future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The scale of digital transformation that\u2019s taken place since 2020 has been sweeping, and as so many businesses have turned to digital channels to drive revenue and engagement, the panelists were asked about the trends they\u2019ve seen stick, and where they believed companies would continue to invest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn 2020, we saw tons of brick and mortar companies that had not yet adopted eCommerce models do so in a hurry,\u201d Vogelpohl said, \u201cand two years later, we see that they\u2019re still using them.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve also seen high order charges and a lack of customization options drive companies to transition those systems into homegrown systems with WooCommerce, so they can keep those eCommerce channels open but lessen the fees associated with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those trends played out over the recent holiday shopping season, with Cyber Weekend 2021 recording higher-than-ever online sales and WP Engine\u2019s WooCommerce customers<\/a> seeing a\u00a0 54% increase in average Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) over the same period.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n WordPress has played a key role<\/a> as a democratizer for digital experiences on the web, Vogelpohl added, noting that in addition to eCommerce, websites for events, crisis management, and online courses had all seen a major lift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Meta, the latest phase of digital transformation has also accelerated trends that were well underway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of these changes were already in motion pre-pandemic,\u201d Bucalo said, \u201cbut the pace we\u2019ve seen has been unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Livestreaming increased 200% on Meta\u2019s platform in 2020, she said, and coupled with the continued rise of social media, the blur between offline and online had only gotten stronger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe things you would expect from an in-store experience are now online,\u201d Bucalo said. \u201cOnline has become more experiential, with white-glove branding, ease of checkout, multiple payment options, and the demand for that seamless experience isn\u2019t going away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, 92% of respondents to a Meta survey said they planned on keeping the changes they\u2019d made to their digital habits after the pandemic had ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And although B2C channels may have been more immediately impacted by the pandemic, the digital transformation that\u2019s followed has also prompted an evolution in B2B channels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At HubSpot, Perlman said, the B2B buyer\u2019s journey is increasingly overlapping with the B2C journey, as B2B buyers search for innovation and ease of use over long, drawn-out evaluation processes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cB2B buyers are looking for the same ease of use they have when buying sneakers on Instagram,\u201d Perlman said. \u201cPeople used to expect that software would be complicated or clunky because it had to solve complicated problems. Now, customers want something that\u2019s as easy to use as an app on their phone.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ease of use and ease of implementation, she added, were the top criteria among 90% of SMB respondents in a recent HubSpot survey of technology buyers, with those criteria evident in the later stages of the buyer\u2019s journey as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on research conducted by Hubspot, 50% of respondents from mid and corporate-sized businesses said they would be interested in purchasing (services and software) online after talking to a business representative. In addition, 30 to 40% said they would purchase online without speaking to anyone at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a huge shift in the way people are conducting business,\u201d Perlman said, adding that HubSpot has brought payments into its CRM platform with the express goal of supporting everything from marketing to B2B eCommerce and making the entire process frictionless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Across both B2B and B2C marketing and sales, social media channels are taking on a growing, overlapping role as well, with social channels playing a larger role in decision-making processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Panelists discussed the ways businesses were looking to leverage social channels as a method of encouraging people to take that first step with their brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs people are embarking on more self-directed searches, they’re really looking towards their peers in social media to validate those purchases before they buy,\u201d Perlman said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cG2 recently reported that 86% of software buyers use peer review sites before buying, and we\u2019re seeing a huge shift towards LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc. to validate purchases for people’s businesses.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n At Meta, the evolving role of social channels is also increasingly intertwined with eCommerce, as a growing number of businesses use the platform for a wide array of activities including sales through Marketplace<\/a>, conversational, and livestreamed eCommerce<\/a>, and marketing activations in the metaverse<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As those trends continue, Meta is equipping its users with new tools that help clear the path for frictionless eCommerce across social channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPrior to the pandemic, $213 billion in U.S. eCommerce sales were lost to abandoned shopping journeys, and that was largely due to unnecessary barriers and delays, showing the importance of providing that frictionless experience,\u201d Bucalo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs we look to the future, we\u2019re also looking at how we support our retail businesses and our partners in reducing the number of clicks and creating more tools that make these experiences better for the customer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of those initiatives, Bucalo explained, was Meta\u2019s product tagging<\/a> feature, which allows users to click on a picture as they scroll through their feed and easily complete a purchase, instead of clicking a \u201clink in bio,\u201d navigating to a vendor\u2019s website, and having to search for the product all over again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you think of a virtual catalog, a do-it-yourself tutorial, or an influencer campaign, bridging all of those steps down to \u2018tap to shop,\u2019 suddenly makes it so much easier to find those products,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Taking that idea a step further, Bucalo said, was Shops,<\/a> which allows users to transact directly within social channels like Meta and Instagram, to further help retailers capture buyers who were otherwise likely to abandon their journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the future,\u201d said Bucalo \u201cWe\u2019ve seen estimates that show social commerce sales will triple by 2025, so it\u2019s here, we\u2019re ready, and we\u2019re helping our retailers get ready.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The above is just a snippet of the many topics covered during the session, and panelists fielded a wide array of additional questions focused on personalization and data collection, breaking down departmental silos, and the impact emerging digital trends will have on both brands and agencies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Click here<\/a> to find out more about the panel and additional SXSW programming<\/a> and visit WP Engine<\/a> to learn more about the best hosting solution for WordPress. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Acceleration of Digital Trends <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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An Increasingly Social Buyer\u2019s Journey <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Building the Digital Experiences of Tomorrow <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n