It’s time to look at digital beyond conversion and as a gateway to customer connection

While e-commerce has undoubtedly transformed the retail industry, the rise of digital's impact that we’re seeing, is extending far beyond mere transactions. It has become an integral part of the customer journey, serving as a source of information, discovery, inspiration, and loyalty. In fact, what we’re seeing is retailer platforms arguably reaching more consumers than most Australian news publishers¹.

We’re seeing record levels of digital traffic across our platforms with 23% growth in our Food (Grocery) and Everyday (including Everyday brands, healthylife and Milkrun) average weekly digital traffic (yoy) and 30% growth in weekly active app users². The engagement rates that we can see on our sites including woolworths.com.au truly underscore the effectiveness of digital in engaging customers and fostering meaningful interactions. With an average time on site of 23 minutes and a unique monthly audience of 11.4³m, the opportunity for brands to meaningfully connect with customers is second to none.
 

Search and app: the unsung heroes

The search function of our site is a marketers (and customers) dream. It’s smart and efficient. For marketers looking to engage with active, subcategory relevant customers at the point of purchase decision, there’s no more valuable real estate. Search is the primary way that customers find products on woolworths.com.au. In the Woolworths app. 40% of customers exclusively use search on woolworths.com.au while search drives an incredible 57% of add to carts⁵. With customers using online as a tool for discovery, there’s also a substantial percentage who rely on aisle and category browsing. If you’re like me, I know that I’m going to forget something, so aisle browsing is the last step in my online journey. This highlights the importance of optimising these sections for discoverability.
 

Go digital and go beyond your category

With digital at a customer's fingertips, brands have the opportunity to connect with the right customers across multiple platforms, bringing to life a brand experience. With first party data, there lies the opportunity to find relevant customers who aren’t currently shopping online and bringing them into a retailers ecosystem using your brand as the front door. This can be achieved with off-network retail media solutions via Meta and YouTube.

There’s huge untapped potential outside of a brands category, be it through off-network or into cross-category selling. In my opinion, one of the most untapped opportunities in digital retail marketing lies in cross-category selling.

I am excited by some of the most recent work we’ve done with clients in this space and the pleasing results that we’ve seen. Brands can grow their categories and share of categories through new customers both in and out of your immediate category. This also acts as a prompt and reminder for customers who just added tortillas to cart but blanked on the salsa. The strategic placement of complementary products in an adjacent subcategory enables brands to expand their reach and capture shoppers with relevant products.
 

The compelling advantage of digital

Our leaders in the group have coined the term ‘Ecomm is a thing, but digital is the thing’ and this will ring true for customers in 2024. While 88% of our Australian food sales originated from stores⁴, digital has become the cornerstone of engagement in the modern retail landscape. It's growing as an indispensable tool for customers looking for inspiration, discovery, boosting deals, comparing price and more and its canvas is key to getting brands closest to customers.

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