Paced shift from in-person to Still businesses online cell phone database buying: 52% of Canadians, for example, are likelier to buy online, including essential goods with 10% more likely to expand their buying to groceries. Americans increased their food and beverage purchases by nearly 26% and even general merchandise stores increased by 6%. We are seeing that customers are more open to new technologies and ways of purchasing, such as self-checkout, contactless local delivery, local pickup, robotics, and virtual reality.
Gift cards
One way customers have been supporting brands is through the purchase of gift cards. Gift card purchases, which have steadily increased during this time, go a long way to help keep businesses afloat. At Shopify, we’ve seen more $13 million worth of gift cards sold from March 1 to April 20. The number of shops selling a gift card for the first time has reached an all-time high since the launch of gift cards on March 20, and this peak has been sustained above Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM-)levels since. Customers purchasing gift cards from their favorite brands let them put revenue back into the business and preserve the amount of the gift card for a future date for in-store or online purchases.
Plus Instagram recently announced
the addition of its new gift card, food order, and fundraiser tools for businesses to help generate income during the ongoing crisis.
Another way buyers are supporting brands
Through tipping. According to The Hustle, beauty salon marketing: secrets to attracting customers some service workers in Indianapolis built a “virtual tip jar” by compiling and circulating a spreadsheet of their Venmo to enable customers to tip servers, bartenders, and kitchen staff, to name a be numbers few. Tipping, like how we’ve long been doing it in restaurants and driving services, is a lot like the crowdfunding that happens on Kickstarter or a similar platform. Today, we’re seeing businesses offer an option for their customers to leave a tip through their online checkout.