Lockdown changed how we shopped.

Firstly, our shopping shifted online. And that habit stuck.

Secondly, we used to shop online as if we were in a physical store: browse, try, buy. But, in Lockdown we couldn’t go out, so we’d browse, buy, try, then keep or return. And that habit has stuck, too.

We’ve turned the retail journey upside-down. The decision-to-purchase has moved later – after we click ‘buy’. And the so-called ‘after-sales services’ (returns, support-desks, etc) have moved earlier – before we click ‘buy’. Today, customer experience starts before you’re even a customer.

In the online world one of the most valuable commodities for any business is ‘cookies’ – little packets of data about visitors. But changes in the data privacy landscape were ending brand access to ‘third party cookies’, and critical audience data was disappearing.

Pre-Lockdown, e-tailer sites were already well-established as the shopper’s go-to. As shoppers moved more-and-more online, brand-owners were seceding the ownership of more-and-more of their customer relationships to third-party e-tailer cookies.

Samsung saw the writing on the wall. So, they flipped the threat into a once-in-a-generation opportunity.

They’d sell their brand directly, own the customer-data, and retake control of their customer relationships.