Covid19 fast-tracked the digital adoption timelines for businesses from years to months: Report

Businesses across sectors turned to digital solutions to ensure continued user engagement

With the onset of the pandemic, businesses had a tough time navigating through the crisis of disrupted supply chains and the dip in consumer spending. However, this also led to 71% of the customers spending more time online than earlier, a report by WebEngage revealed. In fact, in July 2020, the average share of digital customer interactions was 58% globally, a marked increase from 36% in December 2019. This resulted in businesses adopting digital solutions to ensure continued user engagement.

The Customer Engagement Report analysed data from over 85 million active users to understand how users engaged during the pandemic. Considering the all-time high digital adoption rate for both consumers and businesses, the report further studied the digital-first strategy implemented by various sectors and the corresponding user engagement throughout the year. This report analysed business and consumer trends from 2020 across nine industries and seven channels.

As per the report, within the e-commerce industry, 90.65% of all communication messages were sent through mobile push and web push notifications and e-commerce was responsible for 17% of global retail trade, compared to 14% in 2019. In the EdTech industry, 35.75% of all communication messages constitute of emails and the use of email and on-site notification increased by 21% and 71%.

As for the healthcare industry, 89.10% of all communication messages were sent through mobile push and web push notifications and there was a 157% rise in SMS by the end of the year, 2020. 76.34% of all communication messages were sent through mobile push and web push notifications in the Media & Entertainment industry with a 5.9 times rise in in-app notifications from January-February-March to October-November-December, 2020. Within the travel and hospitality sector, 91.10% of all communication messages were sent through mobile push and web push notifications and there was a 91% decrease in user engagement and a 60% drop in on-site engagement.

For financial services, 80.64% of all communication messages were sent through mobile push and web push notifications with a 97% spike in adoption volumes for SMS in April-June 2020. According to Avlesh Singh, co-founder and CEO, WebEngage, the need of the hour is for companies to step up and provide humanised and personal experiences to their customers across multiple touchpoints. “Marketers must prioritise the intelligent utilisation of customer data in order to engage the new-age digital-first consumer effectively. This change is here to stay, and the trends will ring true all through 2021 and beyond, making it crucial for brands to step up their digital engagement,” he added further.

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