Martech, influencer trust, online spend: 5 interesting stats to start your week

Less than a quarter of CMOs have ‘effective’ relationship with CIO

Only 23% of companies have ‘very effective’ working relationships between their CMO and chief information officer, according to a new report by the CMO Council and KPMG.

The report suggests the ability to unearth actionable data insights and improve the customer experience through marketing technology (martech) has “never been greater”, nor more fundamental to meeting both CMO and CIO objectives.

Some 60% of those CMOs in ‘very effective’ relationships with the CIO’s IT team had a multi-year strategic plan for martech, compared to 29% of CMOs in ‘effective’ relationships.

Meanwhile, 48% of CMOs in ‘very effective’ relationships with IT have an equal partnership, compared to 21% of CMOs in ‘effective’ relationships.

The report is based on a survey conducted over the spring of this year with over 200 marketing leaders across 12 industries. In-depth interviews were also conducted with executives at PayPal, Comcast, GE Healthcare, Salesforce (Tableau), Fidelity Investments, Autodesk and Ebay.

Source: CMO Council/KPMG 

Influencers face stricter rules amid declining consumer trust

Just 16% of UK consumers trust sponsored posts on social media, according to a new survey by Bazaarvoice, compared to the 83% who trust recommendations, reviews and content which are not paid for.

At the same time, two in five consumers feel that increased regulations on influencer marketing have made no difference to how much they trust influencers, while four in five (80%) of consumers globally want to see stricter rules around disclosing editing or filters used on published content. That figure rises to 85% in the UK.

A third of UK consumers (32%) want to see influencers who don’t comply with advertising laws banned from social platforms permanently, and one in five want to see influencers banned from monetising their social media presence going forward.

In fact, over half of consumers (56%) now prefer to follow the everyday social media user rather than influencers in order to find authentic and genuine content. While more than a third of UK consumers follow celebrity influencers, there is a significantly lower level of trust associated.

Source: Bazaarvoice

UK online spending hits record high of £10bn in July

UK consumers spent a record £10bn online in July – the highest monthly spend in 2021 so far and the most spent in July ever.

According to Adobe’s Digital Economy Index, which analyses billions of online transactions, this brings the UK’s year-to-date online spending to £64.9bn, up 18% year-on-year and 56% compared with the same period in 2019.

Online inflation for July was also up 2.8% year-on-year, as surging demand clashed with continued pressure on supply chains. At a category level, the biggest increases were in books (5.5%), apparel (3.8%), groceries (3%), jewellery (2.7%), and home and garden (1.7%). 

Source: Adobe Digital Economy Index

Consumer confidence holds up, but focus shifts towards saving

Against a backdrop of rising house prices and cooling headline inflation figures, overall consumer confidence remained relatively stable at -8 in August, down from -7 last month, according to the latest GfK Consumer Confidence Index.

By comparison, in August 2020 the overall index was at -27.

Compared to last month, two of the five measures used to calculate the overall index were up, two were down and one remains the same. The key difference in sentiment compared to last month is the sharp increase in the motivation to save, up five points to +25.

The five-point rise in the savings index this month balances out a five-point fall in the major purchase index, suggesting that consumers are now saving for the future rather than spending in the short term.

Taking the sub-measure on ‘general economy over the next 12 months’, in August 2020 this figure was down at -42, whereas this month the figure is much healthier at -6.

The measure of intentions to make major purchases was down at -25 last August, however this month the figure is a healthier -3.

Source: GfK Consumer Confidence Index

Grocery shopping habits begin to skew back towards in-store

British consumers have been steadily returning to pre-pandemic shopping habits, with shoppers now making more trips to stores as restrictions are relaxed.

Data from Kantar shows grocery sales fell 4% in the 12 weeks to 8 August compared to the same period last year. In the last four weeks sales have declined more slowly by 0.5% as consumers made an additional 108,000 trips to store, with average basket sizes 10% smaller.

However, Covid-19 is still having an impact on people’s spending, as grocery sales remain 9.9% higher in the latest 12 weeks than in 2019.

Just over 20% of households bought groceries online in the latest 12 weeks, its lowest level since October last year. But consumers who discovered the convenience of online ordering seem to be sticking with it, ordering more regularly and spending on average more than two-thirds of their grocery budget online.

Those unsure about online ordering have moved back to stores. The shift away from online has contributed to Ocado’s first decline on record with sales falling 0.7%, after “rapid expansion” under lockdown.

However, Kantar states there is “still a positive outlook” for Ocado, which retains 1.8% of total grocery sales compared to last year, with sales up 44.4% compared to 2019.

In the same period, 87% of all payments made at major grocers were made using card as the pandemic accelerated the shift away from cash.

Source: Kantar