60% of businesses have seen an increase in investment in digital products over lockdown

Over lockdown, businesses have shifted resources into digital product development to keep pace with a spike in demand for digital platforms, according to new data released by Pendo, the leading cloud platform which helps businesses drive digital product adoption.

Pendo’s platform has been tracking the usage and behaviours of users of 1500 digital platforms in the last 6 months, and has identified a huge increase in digital product engagement in a variety of key sectors. Overall, the usage of European-based SaaS platforms has increased by 50%, while the three sectors seeing the steepest peaks are:

• The education sector - e-learning usage rocketing by 184% at the peak of the lockdown in EMEA (167% globally)

• HR - an 89% peak across EMEA

• Collaboration technologies - 80% peak across EMEA 

Furthermore, the proprietary data shows that in-app activity (e.g. announcements, feature guides etc) has more than doubled (111% increase) during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to the same time last year. In addition, during the peak of the crisis, there was an uplift of 10%-15% each month in businesses using their digital platforms to communicate crucial information such as guides and notifications to their customers. Perhaps most tellingly of all, there was a 15% increase in behaviour analysis - showing that understanding the needs of their customers is becoming more of a priority. 

As a result, a survey undertaken on behalf of Pendo by Opimium shows that three quarters (74%) of businesses now believe that product engagement will be a primary growth driver in the immediate future, as the UK looks to drive out of the pandemic-induced recession. 

Heightened digital investment: This has resulted in increased investment in digital product development over the last few months, despite the impact the pandemic has had on the UK economy:

• 60% of technology businesses have seen an increase in investment in product research and development

  
  

Enhanced investment in the development of digital products is a trend that was already underway before the pandemic, but that has been sped up - as identified in Gartner’s latest report on digitalisation in businesses, with 91% of organisations engaged in some form of digital initiative, and senior business leaders making digitalization a company priority. 

Todd Olson, CEO and co-founder of Pendo, said:  

“For many companies, focus has shifted from revenue growth to customer retention, and they realize much of the customer journey happens inside their digital products. By investing in products and using platforms like Pendo, they can help customers be more successful, which in the long-run, will have positive consequences, not only for the UK economy, but also for the quality of digital products.”