bracing for an age of autonomous buying

The Internet of Things is maturing. Ecommerce is growing.

Subscription Services are expanding. This is the recipe for the

next great shopper marketing disruption: Autonomous Buying.

How we shop. Where we buy. What we buy.

It’s all about to change.

We’re racing towards the world’s biggest landgrab for

the world’s most coveted retail location of all—our

shoppers’ homes.

IS YOUR BRAND READY FOR AUTONOMOUS BUYING?

TOTAL NUMBER OF WIRELESS-CONNECTED DEVICES

2 0 1 4

16bAppliancesProduct PackagingUnknownU S E C A S E S : • Inventory control• Shopping list management• Auto-replenishment • Ecommerce

2 0 2 0

40b

BRACING FOR AN AGE OF AUTONOMOUS BUYING

How the Internet of Things is poised to disrupt the relationships between Shoppers, Brands & Retailers.

Home UtilitiesPersonal ElectronicsWearablesU S E C A S E S : • Remote control • Personalized settings• Data reporting

HOME SHOPPING. NETWORKED. Autonomous Buying will introduce marketers to a whole new

kind of shopper—the home. With little human input, a series of networked machines will soon make

many of our buying decisions based on one simple principle: “if this… then that…”

THE HUMAN LAYERConsumers will program customized

retailer/product/fi nancial

preferences into a centralized

home intelligence hub.

THE SENSOR LAYERConnected appliances, products

and fi xtures will plug into the home

intelligence hub. “Stock-levels”

will be anticipated here and

communicated to the hub.

THE HOME LAYERA centralized home intelligence

hub will aggregate the home’s

product needs. Automated buying

will be initiated from here.

THE RETAIL LAYERPreferred retailers will fulfi ll

orders placed by the home

with greater effi ciency.

THE DELIVERY LAYERRetailers and brands will fi nd

innovative ways to turn delivery

into marketing.

AUTONOMOUS BUYING WILL CHANGE MARKETING AS WE KNOW IT.

THINK ABOUT IT THIS WAY…

Autonomous Buying will require

shoppers to weigh the convenience

of auto-replenishment with the cost

of upgrading appliances and

privacy concerns.

SELLING TRUST AND EXPERIENCE FIRSTAutonomous Buying will require

customers to link payment methods

directly to retailers. Customers must

trust that we’ll not only protect their

sensitive financial, health and personal

data, but also that we’ll keep our

prices (on the automated purchases)

fair and competitive. In-store

experiences will be more important

than ever as customers will spend

more time shopping the categories

and places they enjoy most.

UNDERSTANDING SELECTIVE AUTOPILOTING

As shoppers, we’ll soon use our

personal interests, desired buying

experiences and evolving privacy

beliefs to self-segment our future

purchases into two macro-categories:

Emotion-less and Emotion-led

products. While this hierarchy does

exist today, Autonomous Buying will

require us to make more thoughtful

decisions about which products we

will actively or passively consider.

The resulting benefit will be a greater

focus on the moments and routines

we truly enjoy—in-store and beyond.

Autonomous Buying will bring massive change to our existing

behaviors, beliefs and practices as marketers. Its impact

could very well eclipse that of ecommerce for many brands

and retailers. The implications will be many. We’re just

scratching the surface.

CAPITALIZING ON CHANGE MOMENTS OF TRUTH In a world of Autonomous Buying,

the new marketing battleground

for “commodity” products will shift

from Point of Purchase to Point of

Preference. Once that preference is

set, there will be limited opportunities

to engage and persuade shoppers to

choose our brands. Change Moments

within the lives of shoppers will

become the next big moments of truth.


Autonomous Buying will require

retailers to re-evaluate brick and

mortar and ecommerce strategies,

and ultimately decide if they’ll create

their own Autonomous Buying platform

or plug into an existing platform.


Autonomous Buying will ignite an era of

unprecedented innovation from brands in

every category—we’ll see new development

in everything from packaging to subscription

service models to brand-specific hardware

and software solutions.

S H O P P E R S R E T A I L E R S B R A N D S

See how we’re imagining the future of Autonomous Buying: themarsagency.com/habitat

HOW THE MARS AGENCY CAN HELP ...

Our Integrated Planning and Retail

Marketing Group teams can start helping

you evolve your shopper segmentation

and commerce strategies.


Our Partnership and Digital &

Innovation teams can start helping you

build hardware/software partnerships

and integrated marketing solutions.


Our Digital & Innovation and Retail

Marketing Group teams can start

helping you connect buying

experiences and shoppers.

Will likely be driven by fixed and variable

pre-programmed preferences—brand, price,

frequency, seasonality, etc.

• Low differentiation, low risk

& price categories

Will likely be driven by personal interests,

thought-requirements, new need-states, etc.

• High differentiation, high risk

& experiential categories

EMOTION-LESS BUYING

TH E C O M M E R C E M O D E L O F TO M O R R OW

A U T O N O M O U S

WE’RE PREPARING FORAUTONOMOUS BUYINGHere are a few questions we should all be thinking about:

• How will Autonomous Buying live within our existing commerce ecosystem?

• What strategic partnerships can be made to drive mutual growth?

• Who should drive projects? Shopper agencies? Digital agencies?

• What will be the new success metrics of Autonomous Buying?

B R I C K & M O R T A R , E C O M M E R C E

Ken Barnett, Global CEO | [email protected] Rivenburgh, COO | [email protected]

Ethan Goodman Vice President Digital & [email protected](248) 936-2670

EMOTION-LED BUYING