Customer experience is now a top priority in most organizations. Walker Information reports that executives believe customer experience is now a more important brand differentiator than price or product while Accenture says more than three-quarters of CEOs intend to fundamentally change the way their companies engage and interact with customers.

Increasingly these interactions will be digital. Omnichannel businesses make it easy for customers to place orders from whatever device they prefer and arrange for pick-up or take delivery at the location of their choice. This channel diversification is driving broad investments in customer-facing technology across the business landscape. 

Digital habits that expanded during the pandemic in many cases are here to stay. Some of these behavior changes are subtle and don’t show up in retail sales figures. For example, a Google analysis of search trends in 2020 found that customers are doing more window shopping online, in part to reduce time spent in stores. The study also found that customers are considering who they buy from more carefully as evidenced by an increase in searches for nearby stores and dramatic growth in queries around sustainable and ethical businesses.