Consumers have rapidly developed a familiarity – even ease – with a broad range of technologies during the pandemic, ranging from the simple ability to make many of their purchases online to more sophisticated linkages among brands, media platforms and retailers to create a seamless product acquisition experience.

10 years of growth in months
“We have seen 10 years of ecommerce growth in several months with 25% of people now willing to buy, for example, groceries on line,” says  Corbin de Rubertis, Head of Innovation at Meredith Corp., which has linked its content to products that can be purchased at Walmart and Kroger.

“We have been trying to do something like this for six years and have been met with some roadblocks. But people are willing purchase online now because they trust it and depend on it during the pandemic. And retailers have becoming more savvy about integrating [customer] data that they pretty closely guarded in the past.”

Examples of retail relationships with media platforms include:

• Meredith recently launched at Walmart a platform that links key words within online articles, video and photographs from its 40 food and lifestyle brands (Allrecipes, EatingWell, Better Homes and Gardens and others) to products available at the retailer, including items from its long-running Better Homes & Gardens DTR, says de Rubertis. In print magazines, the link is made through QR codes.In food, Meredith’s platform lets consumers take photos of the ingredients they have and it then creates recipes and meal suggestions. It then develops a shopping list for missing ingredients that’s sent to a local Walmart for store pickup or delivery. Meredith launched a similar program with Kroger’s various chains (Harris Teeter, Fred Meyer, Ralphs and others) in July. It wants to expand the service to home centers, health and beauty and other categories, says de Rubertis.

• Streaming video platforms, as they increase their original and exclusive content, also can showcase retail relationships. Sales at the 93-store Container Store increased more than 17% in September, boosted by prominent brand placement on “The Home Edit” Netflix series that features home organizing gurus Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin. Membership in Container Stores’ Pop loyalty program also increased 39% following the series launch on Sept. 9. Shearer and Teplin first launched a product line at Container Store in 2019. Container Store also is readying a co-branded collection of about 100 sustainably-sourced products for January with home organization expert Marie Kondo, who hosts Netflix’s “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo”
  The retailer has been “chasing inventory” for products showcased on the “The Home Edit”, which “exposes the customer to the rest of our stores,” Container Store CEO Melissa Reiff said in releasing financial results earlier this fall.
  Sometimes customers are opting for products that are similar to those featured on the show or “they wait patiently until we get back product that we may be temporarily out of stock on,” Reiff said.

• Alfilo, which represents several museums for licensing in China, hosts daily livestreaming events in China for the various museums it represents for licensing, with programs that can run 2-4 hours and include upwards of 20-30 licensed products that viewers can directly order from the site, says CEO Yizan He.