Fast-growing. Younger. Bigger households. Longer life expectancy. These are just a few of the unmatched qualities that define the U.S. Hispanic consumer segment. The path to substantial business growth begins with U.S. Hispanics, and if your brand is not currently strategizing how to reach this segment for growth, you are missing a growth opportunity.
We already know that Hispanics love to shop. In fact, Hispanics spent an estimated $388B in retail sales in 2019, which is 14% of total. $72B was spent online and 73% of those dollars came from Spanish speakers. We’ve long known that U.S. Hispanics are powerhouse retail consumers, but in 2020, we partnered with Media Predict to better understand specifically how U.S. Hispanics are engaging with DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands. Just this past week, I unveiled this research at the CommerceNext Marketing Summit Series, a conference catering to marketers from retail and direct-to-consumer brands.
Trends will always rise and fall, and the future will not always be clear for marketers, however when it comes to Hispanics, buying DTC brands and online is here to stay. Hispanics are 32% more likely than non-Hispanics to have purchased DTC brands online, and similarly they are 31% more likely than non-Hispanics to continue buying DTC brands in the future. Before COVID, Hispanics were shopping mostly within brick-and-mortar, but once the pandemic hit, they pivoted and began shopping online, even more so than non-Hispanic shoppers. What is most significant, though, is that post-COVID, Hispanics will be the ones to drive your online shopping growth – as they plan to grow their share of online shopping post-pandemic.
Now that you understand the huge opportunity that lies with the U.S. Hispanic consumer, how do you best reach these powerhouse DTC shoppers?
Advertising is critical to build brand trust. 62% of Hispanics find that DTC brands feel more legitimate if they see them advertised on television.
Language matters. 86% of Hispanics appreciate brands that advertise in Spanish; it shows they are looking to make an authentic connection. It’s important for brands reaching out to new demographics for the first time to do so authentically, in order to create a genuine connection. One way to achieve that is by advertising to them in-language and in-culture.
You do not need to have a Spanish-language site. Hispanics are comfortable buying in English and 63% are most likely to use an English-language site to make purchases.
One brand that has seen the benefits of this dynamic is HomeAdvisor. Janna Navarro, Sr. Director of Brand Media Strategy & Planning at HomeAdvisor joined me at CommerceNext to share her learnings in engaging U.S. Hispanics for the very first time.
Univision partnered with HomeAdvisor and quickly found out that Hispanics were eager to learn more about online home service brands, and that there was a huge opportunity to grow brand awareness. As a result, the brand engaged with Hispanics for the first time on Spanish-language television. After a short campaign on Univision, not only was there a lift in brand awareness, but the campaign also provided HomeAdvisor with a significant increase in search engagement. Per EDO Inc, an attribution and analytics company, Hispanics who watched the HomeAdvisor ad on Univision were 2.5x more likely to search for the brand online, and it would have taken three ads on an English-language TV to generate those same results.
There is an undeniable opportunity here for all brands and best of all, you do not have to be an expert in Hispanic marketing to get started. Univision is here to help size your opportunity with Hispanics and work with you on the best approach to reach them, just as we did with HomeAdvisor. Please visit Univision Brand Labs to kick-start your Hispanic marketing journey and for exponential growth.
