Five facts indicating dramatic post-pandemic consumer changes

One of the themes of this blog over the past few months has been that in marketing terms, the pandemic was a re-set. I choose this word carefully. It is not a change, an evolution, or an aberration. We are re-starting from a new base level of consumer changes in buying behavior and expectations.

There is NO WAY to look at historical trends and project what might be next. A new study from Facebook provides a glimpse of what I’m talking about.

The report, called Industry Perspective: The Evolving Customer Experience, features insights into how customers are shopping after the pandemic. One might believe that such a study by Facebook could be self-serving, but the research looks solid and I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

A few consumer changes highlighted in the report:

• A staggering 81 percent of consumers admit they have changed a shopping habit since the start of the pandemic.
• 92 percent say they will continue their new behavior in the long term.
• 66 percent of consumers say their mobile phone is their most favored shopping tool.

Another eye-opener: