The past year in retail has brought so many changes, with new trends emerging as well as new technologies and ways to interact with consumers.
The changes in digital and consumers’ ‘busy lives’ has made it evermore challenging for brands to connect in a meaningful way with their followers, and future consumers on social media.
However, the brands that find innovative ways to navigate around these issues will be the ones to watch in the coming year.
Trends to watch and implement
Review
Something that I predict all retail brands will have to do multiple times this year is review their strategy. Capturing their customers’ attention requires changing things up, more focus on nurturing relationships, encouraging loyalty and engaging on a deeper level with shoppers is the place to start.
The challenge is how to do this in a way that is refreshing, and encourages people to shop – often tricky in this type of economic climate – but brainstorming cross-functionally and looking outside your product category can help develop creative ideas.
The D2C bubble may have burst somewhat, but what will that mean for retailers? People will be adapting their channel strategies this year, and brands expanding into new sales channels, retail partnerships are now looking more attractive, particularly those with a digital presence.
Review your distribution strategy! Keep up to date with what’s working, on which channel, and where your focus should be.
Physical vs digital shopping
Lots of high streets are empty, but we’re seeing a reinvention of how high streets are run. The mix, pre-pandemic, was crying out for a refresh (there’s a theme emerging here!)
Physical retail is crucial, and as shoppers crave personal interaction, so I predict that we’ll see a rise in experience-led pop-ups this year, as brands get creative with adding more experience to their offerings.
We’ll see the consolidation of more stores, but the redevelopment of the ones staying open, as retailers focus on making those shopping opportunities more of a destination.
Changes in thinking, spending and behaviour
How well do you know your customer? As so much has changed in the last 18 months, brands need to think about how their customers are segmented, and communicated with.
It’s likely this will need to be updated. Developing more tiers of segmentation and experience to loyal customers is an opportunity.
Customer journey
As well as reviewing your positioning within the market to ensure you are still relevant to consumer needs it’s important to focus on your marketing mix.
Where are your sales coming from now, vs. last year? What does your customer journey look like? How much time and budget are you spending on new customer acquisition compared to the ‘retention, loyalty and advocate’ end of the funnel?
This is the opportunity for a more profitable business for the year ahead.