Customers made new buying judgments based on the state of the pandemic in 2021, causing quick change and disruption in the retail business. Retailers must now adapt to the pandemic’s rapid evolution and retail trends to develop a new marketing plan for the future. Next-generation marketing strategies will improve the customer experience in consumer-facing sectors in the upcoming year.
8 Retail Trends to watch in 2022
To meet client requests, every aspect of a retail firm should use modern marketing analytics software. Data-driven marketing will be key to an organization’s broader customer-centric approach, from manufacturers optimizing their output to sales employees understanding how to best engage with customers. Let’s take a deeper look at 8 most important retail trends that businesses should be aware of in 2022:-
1. Eliminating delayed gratification
Consumers today want their needs to be met as promptly as possible. It wasn’t long ago that consumers thought it was reasonable to expect their orders to arrive in a week or two. Consumers are expecting free overnight shipping from online shops a decade later. This, combined with the that more people are shopping from home than ever before, means that merchants must be ready to meet customer expectations.
Retailers must respond to these retail trends by developing processes that allow for as much flexibility in order fulfillment as feasible. This necessitates tracking buying cycles within your market and accurately estimating customer demand, as well as stocking up products accordingly.
2. Streamlining online and offline experiences for hyper-personalisation
For the better part of a decade, personalization has been a cornerstone in retail innovation. This tendency will continue in 2022, as merchants look at customer data more holistically. Instead of sending targeted ads and incentives based on a customer’s data, retailers will create simple, streamlined shopping processes based on people-based marketing insights. This is a big value-add for today’s time-pressed consumers. A personalized experience based on consumer insights can help to bridge the gap that would otherwise be supplied by a salesperson in-store at a time when many customers prefer to purchase only online.
To give the most relevant experiences to customers, retailers should leverage information about a customer’s likes, requirements, and values. As a result, when a consumer visits your online store, they should see personalized recommendations based on their most recent search and previous purchases, both online and offline. Because attribution approaches like media mix modeling and multi-touch attribution cannot successfully provide the detailed, cross-channel information needed to make informed decisions for future media planning, it’s vital that marketers determine how these efforts will be measured. Instead, they should explore utilizing marketing techniques to obtain a more thorough and unified marketing measurement.
3. Leverage Experiences – Artificial intelligence and machine learning are at the heart of this technology
Customers’ real-time wants will be used to develop customized recommendations using AI and machine learning. This enables them to make quicker and more informed decisions, helping with a better client experience.
Peapod, a supermarket delivery business, is an example of retail trends, as it uses a tool called “Order Genius” to provide individualized recommendations for online grocery consumers. It generates a smart grocery list that may get completed in a matter of seconds based on a customer’s previous purchases and buy cycles. As a result, Order Genius will recommend that a shopper who previously ordered bread reorder it weekly, whereas the same client should only repurchase deodorant once a month. Customers’ experiences are improved because of this tailored approach to food shopping.
4. Socially integrated visualised search
Have you ever noticed someone walking down the street wearing an outfit you liked and wondered where they got it? Retailers are responding to this circumstance by making their product offerings more visual search-friendly. Users may simply take a photo of an outfit – or download a photo of a comparable outfit – and search for articles of clothing within the image using visual search. Then, using a search engine like Google, customers will be presented with a list of things that meet their criteria, making it simple for them to make a purchase.
Retailers should be present on image-based platforms such as Instagram or Pinterest to prepare for the rise of visual search. Fashion firms, for example, should give updated images of their latest apparel regularly. Customers can then use an app like Google Lens to figure out exactly which component of the suit they want to buy from the snapshot.
5. Social media shopping for ecommerce
E-commerce shopping experiences have been added to many social media platforms. Instagram, for example, recently launched the Shop tab, which allows users to find and connect with brands, creators, and products. Many brands, on the other hand, are utilizing influencer marketing by collaborating with well-known content providers for sponsored partnerships and affiliate marketing. As these digital platforms continue to bring the shopping experience closer to customers, brands should think about how they can use them to acquire actionable knowledge about their target demographic and personalize their offerings even more.
6. Transparency and values-based branding
Approximately 71 percent of people prefer to buy from companies that share their personal values. Today’s consumers demand transparency from businesses, and they expect corporations to “walk the walk” now more than ever because of growing concerns about data privacy and recent political instability. Otherwise, they risk destroying their reputation, which could have long-term issues for brand equity and perception, even among loyal customers.
7. Smart home speakers and chatbots for shopping assistance
The smart speaker firm is quickly growing, with sales forecasts of $35.5 billion over the next five years. Customers can use these gadgets, such as the Amazon Echo or Google Home, to place orders without ever having to look at a screen. Furthermore, merchants are no more into face-to-face customer service in favour of using chatbots and virtual assistants to guide customers through their online buying experiences. Retailers will need to explore how they can improve their strategies to reach customers where they are as these retail trends continue to grow.
8. Retailers using omnichannel marketing
Omnichannel marketing is a great technique to turn one-time buyers into recurring consumers in the modern era of eCommerce sales. The combination of numerous channels to produce a consistent brand experience is known as omnichannel marketing.
Before opting to buy a product or service, a potential client engages with multiple touchpoints along the buyer’s journey. Therefore, it’s a good idea to reach out to consumers through multiple channels at various stages of the buying cycle. Digital advertising, websites, and social media, for example, are all ways to reach out to potential customers.
These retail trends will provide the consumer with a seamless purchase experience, rising the likelihood that he or she will become a return customer.
Getting ready for new retail trends
The year 2020 brought extraordinary upheaval to the retail industry, with the potential to revolutionize the way customers purchase ahead. If retailers wish to maintain a competitive edge in the retail trends sector in 2022, they must be prepared to consistently adjust to these developments and the consequent retail trends in the next year. Although having a great plan is critical to successfully executing these retail trends, it’s also critical to have good data intelligence, high data quality, and a centralized marketing measurement platform to store and analyze data. Retailers can stay competitive in a continuously changing retail landscape by using the right tools, knowledge, and processes.
