0:01 Great stuff. That was awesome. Thank you so much. Extremely great conversation there. And I think we can all agree at this point that shoppable social presents an immense opportunity for brands. 0:12 So far, we've discussed how brands show up, but what about the shoppers? You know, what drives their decision? What do they expect from brands in today's evolving commerce landscape? 0:21 Well, funny you should ask. Luckily, we've got fresh global research and some deep insights that are gonna answer exactly those questions. Here to walk us through the twenty twenty five shopper preference report and what brands can learn from it is Bazaarvoice's chief marketing officer once again, Zareena Stanford. 0:39 Thank you, Ed. Thank you, Emma. I was in the process of starting to buy something from Melinda, but that's the next stop. Next stop. 0:48 I like you to think about this as a panel with shoppers with us. So what I'm actually going to be showcasing, and in fact, it will be released later on today. 0:58 So, when we get to the QR code, be ready to go download it right now, at the in a minute in a little bit. First and foremost, I do wanted to give a caveat is that this is the shopper preference report where we actually measure specifically what the shopper's preferences are. 1:17 Right? This is all about their preference. You may also know an accompanying, research work that we do, which we debuted about three or four months ago, is the shopper experience index. 1:29 The difference between those two, just to really quickly capture on that, this one is specifically to capture their preference. This is what they are telling us what they prefer. 1:38 So imagine you have eight thousand shoppers around the world, and these are the country the seven ones the seven countries that we do. We really wanted to hone in on understanding what kind of content that they trust and what are the channels they prefer to go to, as well as really assessing how they decipher whether it's peer shoppers' content versus creator content, as well as in this particular study, because of the current economic climate, we actually also asked again the questions about store brands and private labels. 2:10 But ultimately, importantly, and I love what Melinda and Dave and and, team were just talking about, is really all about the experience. So what are they looking for? 2:20 Now contrasting to this, the shopper experience index is about what they actually did and how they behave. So the two combining together will give you the total reality. 2:31 And let's now hear just as a highlight some of the what they are saying to us, and these are the metrics in here. First and foremost, there are a lot more in the study itself. 2:41 These are the three highlights that I decided to pull up in here in the short few minutes that we have spent time together. First and foremost, again, as I mentioned, value absolutely matters. 2:52 By the way, value doesn't mean only the price. Value is what they really perceive. Second is that in the an entire notion about building trust with our consumers and consumer wanting to be able to trust each other as well as trusting the brands, it doesn't happen or builds in only one point of the buyer's journey. 3:10 It really is across, and we'll take a little bit of snapshots on that as well. Lastly, I wanted to highlight this entire shopping experience. 3:18 More and more, the demand of interactiveness, this experiential we are talking about. So rather than going just on the highlights, let me just give you some data points. 3:27 And, again, you are welcome to download the study, and it will give you a lot more specifics on that. First and foremost, we always do as much as we can, dive into longitudinal, comparing last year, previous years, whatever. 3:41 We will also look at in terms of categories, what kinds of behavior or what kind of preferences if they differ depending on the categories, different age groups, as well as different markets. 3:52 So that's kind of all the angles that I'm pulling in a little bit to share with you. First and foremost, store brands are absolutely absolutely coming forward, and they're becoming even more and more of a preference. 4:04 You can see it right here. In this year's report, which was actually done in January of this year, so it's only about two months ago, and the field work was done across the seven countries that I mentioned. 4:16 You can clearly see that it is absolutely on the rise. So if you have store brands or if you're part of it and if you actually compete in that space, this is some good data for you to look at. 4:26 What are your shoppers looking to do? Interesting. Second thing I wanted to highlight is that so what makes that want to have and look at and do more and more of this store brand products? 4:39 I'm gonna spend a little bit of time on this one. Yes. There's no doubt prices does in fact come in to across. In fact, you can see on the different age groups and the different colors, they're pretty much unanimous, pretty much coming across the board. 4:54 Second, though, it has to be all about your products. Great products always will differ and always will deliver on that results. 5:02 Higher higher quality. Second, third on the list is that what are other shoppers saying about them? They look for that information, and they're also looking equally from recommendations of friends and communities as well as families. 5:17 Big, big, big part. Now for those of you who are in the commerce or in the actual marketing space and the merchandising base, you may wanna take a look at the last two areas, money back guarantee, absolutely, and being able to be a part of this whole sustainability rush as well as how your package and your packaging is being done. 5:37 This is really what they're telling us that what they prefer and what they're seeing. The other elements that I just thought was really, really interesting is that if we look across the generations, for those of you who remembers our study from last year, the divide of the ages and the and the generation was a little bit sharper than this year. 5:56 You can see across regardless of all the way from eighteen to fifty five plus, very much high into the forty plus, areas. 6:04 Everybody is shopping and looking as alternative shoppings in terms of store brands as well as discount stores. Next piece that I wanted to do is to give you a little bit of a highlight in terms of how does it fare across the different shoppers from the different countries. 6:22 It's really interesting in here is that Germany really leads shoppers favoring and preferring discount stores the most. However, if you look across, it's still in the thirties, forties, and even into the fifties. 6:35 So this is something for your for your placement, strategy and for what you're looking at in terms of how your products is going to be found. 6:43 I thought this is quite interesting as well too. Much higher than previous year as well. This is one of my favorite. Many of you, our brands and retailers, our customers and members of the communities, have wanted to see is that tell me a little bit more about categories. 6:58 This is a perfect example. In the top in looking at across the different categories, top categories falls into the food and beverages when they actually would consider store brand purchases. 7:11 This is a very, very important part. I had not seen that this profound, but you can really quickly follow in the sense of household cleaning, health and beauty, apparels, home improvement. 7:22 The one that is the really least is really into consumers electronics. I'd be actually interesting to see what you think, you as a shopper, do you follow these trends? 7:31 Do you follow these preferences that our shoppers are telling us as well? The second element that I wanted to talk about, remember, I was talking about in terms of trust. Right? 7:40 Trust is really important across all domains. Your websites, your PDP still leads in terms of the first place that they go look for prepurchase when it comes to research. 7:53 And the question is, what kind of content are they looking at, especially in the social space? So here I wanna show you a little bit more granular detail. 8:06 If you look across, for those of you that are very, very number centric, you will recognize that it actually adds up to be a hundred percent. 8:14 Interesting to look at is the fact that if you look at the order of the you know, what they really look for, customer reviews and the likes, But I wanted to ask you to look at your and and put your eyes through two deck two categories. 8:27 The one that is social media ads and the one that is actually brands official post, that's what I referred to earlier in our panel as being the two that are truly branded content. 8:39 They add up to twenty four percent. The remainder of what your shoppers are preferring to see and follow and, in fact, use it as an informed as well as inspiring content for them to decide are all following into the into the organic space. 8:56 Ratings and reviews as we always talk about, recommendations, professional product reviews, as well as user generated content and influencers and creators as well. 9:05 So this is something really important to go look at, right, and see. Now let's look at from this lens, I wanted to point punctuate one thing that we actually explicitly ask them for, which is in the slide in here that I'm, showing in here, if I can switch over. 9:22 There you go. This is when we ask them the question that when you're considering to for a purchase, right, whatever the product you may be looking for, and you happen as a pro as a shopper come across something negative or not quite as relatable, what do you normally do? 9:39 This is really, really interesting. And, again, we show the generational differences. Only slight differences truly. All the way for they first and foremost said that they would prefer to keep searching. 9:51 That means that your consideration for your product is still there. If they uncover and which is what I love about several to both of the panels, in fact, talked about the fact all three of us us have talked about the fact is that when you have negative content, it actually is a very, very good validation. 10:08 In fact, in a minute, we'll talk about balancing those. So they will continue to research until they feel that they are confident. So your consideration stays with them. 10:18 Second is that they will look for other reviewers, maybe other people who have different opinions, and so they do not discount you right away. This is really, really important. 10:28 And this is the third element is where the brand your site and amplifying your sites with organic content, with the whole entire content supply chain would be really, really important because they do go back to your watering hole. 10:40 They do go back to your website. They do go back to your PDPs. And, of course, it's always about the community. It's about it's always about how they share and what they're connected. 10:49 So trusted friends, social platforms, searching for more. I thought this is really, really, interesting. They will continue to search more because so that they know what they have to be considering, what they have to know before they do the purchase. 11:05 There are some occasions, though, that they would actually cancel. But I just thought that this will give you a little bit of a good taste in terms of what it is. Now today, we have been talking a little bit of influencers and content creators. 11:16 So I just thought that maybe we would, show you a little bit on what are the shoppers preferring to do and see, by the way, when it comes to creators' content and creators. 11:29 This is some, for all of you who actually activates creators, whether it's with us and and yourselves as well. I just thought it would be really important for you to see. 11:38 First and foremost, they are asking transparency from the actual creators. The shoppers want pure total transparency. 11:48 Mention it maybe as early as at the very beginning of the content or the video. Right? Bringing the fact that they are actually receiving the as a gift or really explaining the partnership that they have with the brand, I thought this is really, really important. 12:03 Most importantly, I thought this is where the where the longitudinal preference will come in is that they don't want them to the shoppers don't only want the creators to actually showcase and tell and disclose, if you will, but they also like to see that they are in fact loyal continuing users of those products. 12:23 Very, very important, to to this part. There are a few other data points that I wanted to show. There is no doubt again, this is a little bit of a view in terms of the of the generational elements of it. 12:34 No doubt that Gen z, fifty six percent, basically six out of ten of of them are actually the ones who are buying from a particular products based on recommendation of a creator. 12:46 Really, really important. And in fact, what was really interesting and this, if I recall correctly, really raised up quite a bit on the age group of thirty five to fifty four. 12:55 So creators are very effective as a part of your marketing and your commerce strategy, but you have got to make sure that they are transparent and that they are authentic. 13:07 This is a global view. We just thought that it would be really interesting is that are we here in the US a little bit more, you know, cent you creator centric or creator friendly? 13:19 In fact, if you look at the numbers, we are not that far apart from all the others. Right? Australia, Canada, UK, Germany. The only one that is and it really ties right back to the shopper experience index as well too is that France does scrutinize a little bit, and I think that's the right thing to do. 13:37 Categories. Health and beauty, no doubt, and by far is the category who has the longest experience that have been most effective partnering with these creators and influencers. 13:49 I think there's so much that we can all learn from. Right? You can see it from the actual realities. And one thing I'm about to highlight is the fact is that it has to be real. 13:59 They want to really truly see it if it is a creator, if it is influencer, how they actually use the product or what they do if it is to wear it, it's really interesting to see the digression in terms of the different categories as well. 14:15 Lastly, remember I mentioned about the fact that, you know, experience really, really will take to the final impact, especially interactiveness as well as connectedness and experiential as we talk about. 14:29 This is the number one takeaway from this particular, highlight in insights is that true authentic real life content plays an absolute absolute crucial role in terms of feeding the preference of these shoppers and influencing their behavior as you see in the shopper experience index as well. 14:48 Gonna give you a couple of clips in here. First and foremost, what are the things that when they look at this content that actually will make these individuals and shoppers follow? 15:01 Right? This is important and what they look for from their other fellow shoppers as well. Most importantly, again, is the product description. It's a real life photos and videos. 15:11 I wanted to really, really underscore the third one, which is the balanced feedback. This goes back to what I was talking about earlier in terms of positive. 15:19 They almost said to us in subsequent, as a part of this report is that when they are overly promising and overly positive, it actually creates doubts. 15:29 It creates that vulnerability that we were talking a little bit earlier on the authenticity panel as well too. So it's really important to have this balanced feedback. 15:38 Good, bad, indifferent, but it's always important to when you have a chance to do the following do the responses for the questions as well. 15:47 They want to interact with you. They wanted to have a chance to really hear directly from you what you see from a brand's perspective. So I just thought that this might give you a little bit of a good taste in terms of how the shoppers are telling us. 16:01 This is the last piece that I wanted to show to you. Fifty percent of the younger shoppers, the millennials as well as Gen Z, if you will, are truly actively seeking out, and they're curious about experiential shopping. 16:16 Experiential shopping includes a few things, and I'll just give you a couple of examples. Right? First and foremost, like, virtual trying of clothes or trying of whatever material that happens to be, as well as contactless purchase. 16:31 They want simplicity. They want seamlessness, and they want to be able to really see how am I going to have to relate to what I'm about to buy and what I'm buying it from for that matter. 16:44 So they will always seek out for this, and it's interesting to see, as I mentioned earlier, all the way even up to past the millennials. 16:52 Right? The the the late millennials, if you will. So with that, I do wanted to bring us hold come to here, and this is a QR code for you to download the full report today. 17:04 As well as I do also want to have the reminder, and I do believe that in the in the chat for for the, virtual, event, you will actually have a chance to be able to download both of them as well. 17:15 Key takeaways to come back to the very beginning. Value absolutely matters. And the fact is that creator and videos and influencers and other shoppers' content are very, very effective, but they truly have to be authentic. 17:32 And trust just isn't a nice to have. It is an earned element. And remember, it is going to be happening and building along the entire buyer's journey. 17:41 No doubt, as you heard from prior times, previous sessions as well, this continuous shoppable social shoppable and social commerce is gonna continue to mushroom to the trillions matters as we talk about in the as Doug talked about in the keynote. 17:56 The important part is make that to be an experience and make that to be something that your shoppers prefer and that your shoppers will actually behave for. 18:05 So So with that, thank you very much for the time, and thank you. I'll now hand back to Ed and Emma.
