• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 16, 2020

California resident Jan Mannino, 81, calls herself a “bit of an outlier,” but says she has “a good handle on what is important” to people in her age group and how they use online services.

Mannino doesn’t do a lot of online buying or browsing. There is hardly anything she needs aside from the essentials, and when she needed any of those items before the COVID-19 outbreak, she would get in her car and drive to the store.

“We need food and prescriptions first,” she wrote in an email to Search Marketing Daily. “Then household basics like toilet paper, soap, laundry detergent, Kleenex, paper towels, etc. If we have animals, food for them is important.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday called for all residents age 65 and older to stay home and practice social distancing. 

Many older people are not very computer-internet savvy and that could be a big problem when it comes to online ordering, Mannino admits. 

Still, the use of ecommerce for U.S. adults age 65 and older continues to rise. Of the 201 billion online buyers in the United States this year, eMarketer estimates 29 billion are in that demo. That is up 6% from 2019. The biggest recent jump was 13.5% in 2019, compared with the prior year.

eMarketer expects the percentage of U.S. consumers age 65 and older buying online -- not just browsing or searching -- to rise 4.3% in 2021 to 30.2 billion and 4.4% to $31.6 I billion in 2022.

“As comfortable as I am with the internet, there are many times I want to talk to a human on the phone,” she said. “As a general rule, the older we get, the more we require services and not things.”

When it comes to non-essentials, Mannino and others might not have a choice — at least in the immediate future. Retailers, direct-to-consumer brands, along with brands that sell through retailers, may only have online orders to rely on for the unforeseeable future.

Apple, Patagonia, Lululemon, Eileen Fischer, REI, among others, temporarily closed retail locations Monday. Walmart and grocery stores are limiting their hours of operation. Airlines have canceled thousands of flights. Major sports leagues have suspended play indefinitely, dealing a blow to venues and broadcasters. Hotels are closing, too. Las Vegas Wynn and Encore announced temporary closures on Sunday.

With an increasing number of physical stores closing, it will be more important for brands to stay connected with consumers through content and advertising, from search to display and video. 

Tom Kaneshige, chief content officer at the CMO council, said if marketers have not done their job -- if they haven’t gained consumer trust and if marketers have been flooding consumer inboxes with useless messages -- relationships could turn all bad. “Our studies show this is the case among nearly half of marketers,” he said. “Your messages now will only add to their confusion and cynicism at a time when they’re most vulnerable.”

In China, brands did not stop spending on advertising, from search to television, even during the height of the infectious COVID-19 spread, said Francis Bassolino, managing partner at Alaris in Shanghai, China. 

Dentsu Aegis Network revised its ad spend forecast for China, and now predicts 3.9% growth this year, revised down from the 5.6% the network predicted previously.