Prior to Covid-19, most consumers had developed a pattern of behaviours where certain items were regularly purchased online for delivery, whereas others were purchased in-store and brought home by the consumer himself. That all changed in the blink of an eye. Stores were ordered closed. But people didn’t stop needing things. So, everything from coffee filters to shoes to tools from the hardware store, which consumers used to drive to a store to buy, were now ordered online and delivered to the front door, or picked up at curb side.
While implications of this change in buying behaviour are huge for retailers and DTC brands they are also extraordinarily important for email marketing and email marketers. Consumers aren’t going to necessarily go back to the same mix of shopping online and offline. Habits have been broken, and new ones established. So, more brands and more retailers have come to rely on email as a primary way to sell, to service, and to stay connected with their customers.