Salesforce Report: Rising Shopper Expectations Put Pressure on Brands and Retailers to Redefine Customer Engagement Strategies

Shopping Journeys Are More Complex, and Shoppers Are Less Forgiving

A new report from leading customer relationship manager (CRM) platform provider Salesforce sheds light on how COVID-19 permanently upended shopping for consumers and brands alike, raising shopper expectations in significant ways, while dramatically increasing the stakes for brands and retailers that wish to stay in business. Surveying 1,600 global shoppers and more than 1,000 retail executives, the Fourth Edition of the Connected Shoppers Report by Salesforce also identifies four significant trends shaping the current consumer shopping experience to provide retailers with the insights they need.

“The pandemic accelerated changes in the ways shoppers interact in the digital and physical worlds,” said the Salesforce report. “Retailers and brands reacted quickly as shoppers embraced new channels and options. Now, retailers and brands are moving from scrappy to scale as they adapt to continued shifts and heightened shopper expectations.”

With more options than ever before, shoppers continue to define the rules of engagement in the digital channels of their choice. Between 2019 and 2021, brand websites and their apps, retailer websites and their apps, and online marketplaces each reported growth of nearly 40% in their share of transactions.

But despite the growing complexity of the shopping journey, shoppers expect brands to meet them on their terms and in the places where they regularly engage. Mobile wallets, email, and social media are the top digital destinations today for shoppers to make a purchase, while social media and self-service channels like chatbots, chat, and instant messaging are the most popular ways to engage customer service. Among consumers, millennials and Gen Zers are most likely to shop “at the edge”—outside of a brand or retailer’s physical and digital space.

Even so, shoppers are less forgiving or patient: 80% of consumers will abandon a retailer after three bad experiences, according to the Salesforce report.

In this increasingly complex and competitive space, brands and retailers are finding ways to drive customer lifetime value. Shoppers seek incentives like loyalty or rewards programs, exclusive shopping experiences, early access to products, and sustainability.

Sellers are also evolving their CX strategies, including hiring more data scientists to untangle data, adopting unified engagement platforms to operationalize customer data, and replacing legacy point-of-sale (POS) technology with a cloud solution. “To scale efficiently and effectively, brands and retailers need the foundation that gives them access, agility, and intelligence to meet shoppers where they are, redefine the store as a critical touchpoint, and drive loyalty through personalized engagement,” the report concludes. “Many are upgrading their technology, increasing access to data, and investing in new channels for browsing, buying, and service to keep pace with—and stay ahead of—change.”

Author Information

Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.

At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.

SHARE:

Latest Insights:

HP’s EliteBook AI PC Lineup, Co-Engineered With Intel, Delivers Quantifiable Productivity Gains Through Application-Level Tuning and Local AI Performance
Olivier Blanchard, Research Director at Futurum shares insights on how Intel and HP’s AI PCs deliver productivity gains through local AI workloads, with up to 223% faster app performance and privacy-first compute for enterprise users.
Lenovo Expands Its Hybrid AI Advantage Portfolio With New Services, Hardware, and Integrated Platforms Targeting Scalable Enterprise AI Deployment
Nick Patience, VP and AI Practice Lead at Futurum shares insights on Lenovo’s Hybrid AI Advantage expansion, helping enterprises scale AI through new infrastructure, vertical-specific solutions, and employee enablement services.
Zoho Expands Deep-Tech Capabilities with New Campus, Robotics Acquisition, and Startup Studio in Kerala
Keith Kirkpatrick, Research Director at Futurum, shares insights on Zoho’s R&D expansion in Kerala, including its robotics acquisition, startup studio partnership, and rural innovation strategy to build deep-tech capabilities in India.

Latest Research:

In our latest Market Brief, From Data Chaos to AI Clarity: Activating AI Through High-Quality Enterprise Data, published in partnership with IBM, Futurum explores the core challenges enterprises face in deploying AI and presents a blueprint for overcoming them through smarter data strategies and tools.
In our latest market study, Scaling Smarter: How Google Cloud Marketplace Is Reshaping Partner Sales and GTM Strategy, Futurum uncovers the strategies and results from top-performing ISVs and channel partners leveraging the Google Cloud Marketplace as a transformational sales platform.
In our latest market brief, Unlocking the Future of Hybrid Cloud with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, developed in partnership with Red Hat, The Futurum Group outlines the evolving virtualization landscape, the economic and operational drivers behind infrastructure modernization, and the technical innovations powering OpenShift’s hybrid cloud strategy.

Book a Demo

Thank you, we received your request, a member of our team will be in contact with you.