A lot has changed in the community space this year.
We’ve seen real momentum in retail and eCommerce. Retail execs are increasingly putting community building at the core of their strategy.
This is just one example but, at TokyWoky, we met with 4 times as many retailers as we did last year. Two years ago, about 15% of these meetings were attended by C-level leadership. In 2019, that number was closer to 75%.
Based on these conversations, here are 7 predictions for community in retail in the new decade:
In 2019, brands started seriously rethinking their dependence on Facebook & Instagram.
Faced with declining reach and increased ad spend, many brand marketers are looking for safer channels to engage their best customers and turning to community platforms they can own.
This will happen because:
- Community-building is becoming key in differentiating from Amazon.
- Successful communities will involve many different teams (CRM, Marketing, Customer Service, Ecommerce, Social, Technical, In-store…)
Decision makers moving away from vanity metrics like follower counts and number of likes will improve community ROI tracking.
Success will be measured based on actual customer contributions and its impact on sales, customer service cost, customer retention...
Winners will be those who:
- Provide the best expertise and community building method (it’s all about iteration)
- Build the model that adapts best to different community types and business objectives (if there's one thing I've learned in the past 5 years, it's that community isn't "one size fits all")
- Integrate with other solutions the best (CRM, reviews, socials…)
What do you think of these predictions?
Agree or disagree, I'd love to know at quentin@tokywoky.com
- Quentin