Microsoft recently released the Search Trends in the time of Covid-19 report, this has been published in July 2020 and shared by Simon Jacobson, Microsoft UK Business Lead.
Below is the link to the full report which is 44 pages long. I am going to help to summarise the key findings from the report and focus on the key UK and US trends.
The full report can be found here - https://advertiseonbing-blob.azureedge.net/blob/bingads/media/insight/ebook/2020/07-july/search-in-time-of-covid19/microsoft-advertising-search-trends-in-the-time-of-covid19-july2020.pdf
The report focuses on how consumers have turned to search to explore, discover and purchase key necessities from March through to July. The report is broken down into three core phases.
1. RESPOND - navigating the now
2. RECOVER - planning the come back
3. REIMAGINE - shaping the new normal
The Microsoft research shows an 'increase in desktop usage' and 'strong search volume growth.'
Microsoft Sector Analysis shows -
Travel - key insight reveals the 'US and UK digital travel sales in 2020 will fall by 50% YOY. As there will be less time spent on leisure and business travel it will take until 2022 for sales to reach pre-pandemic levels. Microsoft report in late June there have been 'early signs of recovery across some travel subcategories.'
Source: eMarketer | travel Times of COVID-19 (link) Source: Microsoft Internal Data, Search volume trend, Jan 4th – Jul 11th 2020
Retail - the home, food, grocery, consumer electronics and grocery categories gained the most search volume post lockdown in the first edition of the report. Microsoft has reported a softening of this but witnessed high search volume levels which are higher than before the outbreak. Potential reasons could be people are avoiding public places still, a potential acceleration in online shopping adoption and potential signs of lasting consumer behaviour.
Source: eMarketer | travel Times of COVID-19 (link) Source: Microsoft Internal Data, Search volume trend, Jan 4th – Jul 11th 2020
Grocery Shoppers - The Microsoft report shows 40% of digital grocery shoppers never used online shopping pre-pandemic lockdown. Separate research surveys show 68% of new grocery eCommerce shoppers have the intention to continue to shop online in the future.
Amazon Prime data showed an increase in 20% to 32% of people purchasing home furniture and appliances from February to June.
Source: eMarketer | Mobile Shopping Gains Are Likely to Stick in the Future (link) Source: eMarketer | Digital Purchases during COVID-19 (link) Source: Microsoft Internal Data, Search volume trend, Jan 4th – Jul 11th 2020
Additional insight which can be found in the report include -
- A 12% increase in search volume for buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS) post lockdown, in the US
- The apparel online sector is forecasted to grow +8% in 2020, albeit, the industry could see a -20% decline
- In the automotive sector, whilst search volumes are bouncing back. The BCG automotive and macroeconomics team forecast sales will decrease by 14%-22% across China, US and European markets in 2020
- A UK micro trend is the increase in pet insurance searches after lockdown as people started to adopt pets
- There was an increase in demand for remote collaboration software. A Microsoft Teams study revealed there were 22% more short 30 minute meetings, 11% fewer long meetings (more than an hour) and a 72% increase in instant messages.
- Below is a graph of the education sector, immediately after lockdown was introduced there was a spike in the demand for online education resources as children needed to be remotely educated. Schools and Teachers shifted to remote education models. Microsoft reports there needs to be a deep transformation of education technology with a systematic shift from 'teaching to learning'. This can be achieved through artificial intelligence (AI), a range of new devices and tools that will help transform the teacher-student-parent relationship.
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