Connected Products Deep Dive: Consumers Who Are Unaware of Connected Products

Consumer interactions with connected products are on the rise as brands and retailers look to this new two-way communication channel as a way to engage prospects and customers.  Research from FarSight Research & Advisory shows that there is still a substantial portion of EU and US consumers that are fundamentally unaware that they can engage with connected products to access product information and related services.  To help apparel and footwear brands and retailers better understand this opportunity to engage with their products’ consumers, we took a deeper look at consumers who reported being unaware they could interact with connected products in the EU and US markets.

Part 1: The European Luxury Apparel & Footwear Market

29% of European luxury apparel and footwear buyers1 were unaware that they could interact with connected products as part of their shopping experience (referred to in this blog as the “unaware consumers”).  When presented with product information options they could access while shopping to help make their purchase decisions, 99% of unaware consumers said they would be interested in one or more content types to inform their purchase decisions, with an average of 3.2 content types, indicating that lack of engagement was due to awareness, not interest.

These unaware consumers were marked by valuing certain content preferences much less than those that were aware they could scan connected luxury apparel and footwear products.  Compared to those who were aware they could scan a connected product, unaware consumers were 49% less likely to want Product Sustainability content, 42% less likely to want Item Styling Tips content, and 31% less likely to want Product Authentication content.  The only content type that was substantially more interesting for unaware consumers compared to the aware audience was Care Instructions at 25% higher.

From a demographic perspective, unaware consumers were more likely to be older and/or female (see table below).  Of key note, luxury apparel and footwear buyers:

·       Age 45+ were more than twice as likely to say they were not aware they could scan a connected product compared to those aged 18 to 29.

·       Who identified as Female were 18% more likely than the average to not be aware they could scan connected products.

Note: Indices in red indicate a difference of 20% or more from the average that represents under-engagement. Indices in green indicate an over-engagement by 20% more more relative to the average

With many luxury brands and products being female-focused, those brands will need to make a concerted effort to find content that is compelling to female consumers and invest in behavior changing communications.  As is often the case with new technological innovations, older audiences are less aware of, and less likely to use, recent innovative technologies.  And while this is the case for connected products, they also represent a large and affluent audience that most luxury goods brands and retailers cannot afford to ignore.  Luckily for the brands and retailers, these under-engaged consumer audience segments report being willing to engage, leaving the burden on brands and retailers to build awareness and provide compelling content to consumers.

Part 2: The U.S. Apparel & Footwear Market

The overall U.S. apparel and footwear buyer audience showed fundamentally different awareness levels in the United States.  23% of U.S. adult apparel and footwear buyers were unaware they could interact with connected apparel and footwear products (“unaware consumers”).  After being provided with examples of the types of product information they could access while shopping, 99% of unaware consumers reported wanting to have access to at least one of the proposed content types and wanted an average of 3.2 content types. Interestingly, unaware consumers wanted 11% more content types than those who reported being aware they could scan connected products (average of 2.9 different content types).  A key difference for the U.S. audience, compared to the EU audience, was that older consumers were more likely to report being “somewhat” aware rather than being unaware, indicating a higher baseline understanding of connected products.

When presented with content options to inform their purchase decision making process, unaware consumers had distinctly different preferences from those that reported already being aware they could scan connected products.  Unaware consumers were 51% more likely to want Product Details, 45% more likely to want Product Review, and 22% more likely to want Care Instructions versus consumers who reported being aware they could scan apparel and footwear products.  Conversely, unaware consumers were 23% less likely to want information on Product Sustainability, 22% less likely to want information on Product Transparency, and 17% less likely to be interested in Virtual Fitting content.

Unaware consumers were more likely to be female and/or age 30+, with income not being a strong indicator of awareness.  Unaware consumers:

·       Age groups 30+ 33% to 56% more likely to say they were not aware they could scan a connected product compared to those aged 18 to 29, although the unaware rates were relatively low overall.

·       Who identified as Female were 18% more likely than the average to not be aware they could scan connected products.

·       Interestingly, the lowest and highest income brackets reported having the lowest levels of unaware consumers at 19% and 21% respectively.  Overall, income did appear to play a role with lower income households with the highest level of those reporting being aware (a “yes” response in the research) compared to being somewhat aware, but the research did not investigate the reason for this.

Note: Indices in red indicate a difference of 20% or more from the average that represents under-engagement. Indices in green indicate an over-engagement by 20% more more relative to the average

More than 75% of most U.S. demographic segments included in this research were aware, or somewhat aware, of their ability to scan connected products to learn more while making their shopping purchase decisions providing brands and retailers with a solid foundation to drive higher consumer engagement.  Similar to the European Luxury Apparel and Footwear research, brands whose U.S. shoppers are predominantly female or older will need to find the best content and communication mix to educate and motivate these crucial yet less aware audiences.

Our Take

Despite the different focuses and audiences of these research studies, both provided insights that brands and retailers will need to address to optimize their Digital ID and connected products programs.  First, non-engagement is being heavily influenced by a limited awareness of connected products and the value they provide to consumers.  Second, audiences most commonly associated with apparel and footwear purchasing (i.e. females) are the least likely to be aware, so to maximize engagement special attention should be paid to motivating this audience (but not to the exclusion of other audiences).  Finally, content preferences vary so brands will need to determine what the right content mix is for their brand and customer base.

To download our latest research:  On-Demand Brand: European Luxury Apparel & Footwear, Building Engaging & Profitable Digital ID & Connected Products Programs, click here.

To search all FarSight research, including a free download of the U.S. research referenced in this blog, click here.

To learn more about Digital ID and connected products check out FarSight’s blog here.

Footnotes:

1: The research report entitled: On-Demand Brand: European Luxury Apparel & Footwear, Building Engaging & Profitable Digital ID & Connected Products Program was based on middle class and affluent adults aged 18 to 70 in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and was not intended to be representative of the overall population.