As a discovery channel, "Search" remains in the lead among consumers but the landscape is expected to change significantly in the coming years.
A recent report out from Forrester suggests that retail brands will invest 55 percent more in online marketing and advertising by 2023, but less of their budget will be directed toward traditional search channels (e.g. Google).
The reason, of course, is that the digital shopping habits of consumers are changing. Today, they're more likely to go to Amazon (or directly to retailers' websites) to shop and toward search engines (like Google and Bing) to find answers to their questions.
That has not gone unnoticed by those managing ad spending on behalf of their clients.
The Forrester report suggested that agencies including Publicis, Omnicom and WPP plan to increase their ad spending with Amazon between 40 and 100 percent this year (2018); that makes sense as upwards of one-third of online retail spend in the U.S. today occurs via Amazon.
Another rather interesting highlight from the Forrester report was that mobile accounts for 56 percent of total digital ad spend, influencing 32 percent, or $1.1 trillion, of total retail sales in the U.S.
The report also confirms that consumer behavior continues to change, specifically the share of people willing to use voice assistant speakers to research products and services.
While only 8% use voice assist speakers to research products, according to Forrester, 54% said they were interested in using it for that reason; and the same goes for ordering product. Only 12% said they have ordered products, but 48% said they are interested in ordering products through voice assistants.