The Rise and Continuing Evolution of the Digitally Native Vertical Brand…

4. Increased engagement on social media.

Finally, digitally native brands place a tremendous amount of weight on community building through one-to-one marketing. Through strong presences on today’s leading social platforms, v-commerce brands bring their customer service and content to the platforms on which their customer base is active.

Bain Consulting found that 67 percent of consumers claim to use a company’s social media channel for customer service and 72 percent expect a brand to respond within the hour. However, five out of six interactions go unanswered by the brand. When companies do engage and respond to customer service requests over social media, those customers spend 20 to 40 percent more money with the company than other customers do.

Digitally native brands attempt to stay highly engaged on social, but they go beyond the commerce transaction. They build digital experiences that customers can engage with and share their brand allegiance about. These experiences cater to millennial and Gen Z customers in particular, who make up the majority of digitally native brands’ customer bases.

Millennials are the first generation to be truly open not only to receiving ads, but also to engaging and sharing them. To optimize on this generational characteristic, digitally native brands do their best to reach out to these customers on social media and to encourage the creation of shareable content.  

Related: 10 Steps to Creating an Engaging Digital Experience