Marketing & Advertising News from Consumer Perspectives, ET BrandEquity

We as consumers are evolving every day, and so is the retail ecosystem in this country. We're all used to reading reviews and buying products based on their ratings, and celebrity endorsements only influence product awareness, not users' purchase considerations. not. In this rapidly changing retail industry, knowing your consumers and staying on top of trends is of paramount importance for all marketers. The most important clues to this shift are hidden in the relative interactions across multiple retail touchpoints in a user's journey. With this background, let's discuss some of the key retail trends that will define retail today and tomorrow, with a focus on shoppers.

Shopping is no longer based on necessity.Retail stores are no longer destinations

Today’s consumers are “omnichannel” and interact with brands across platforms (online and in-store) for engagement. Formats such as 'buy online, choose in store' (BOPIS) and 'buy in store, deliver to home' are already becoming more popular than 'traditional buying', creating a more fluid shopping journey. It will evolve. In addition, retailers are increasingly deploying augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver tactical experiences online and enhanced in-store experiences to improve consumption. creating a more innovative shopping experience for consumers.

To succeed in omnichannel retail, brands must focus on a “single customer perspective,” in the sense that consumers are considered “channel agnostic.” Consumers can visit a showroom to try out a product and then order it online (showrooming), or vice versa. You can also spend hours researching products online and never make a decision (webrooming). Each of these actions generates valuable data for marketers, who must internalize and take advantage of the fact that consumers do the same, regardless of the channel they use to engage with a brand.

Consumers are willing to participate in the product journey

Today, modern shoppers are more educated, digitally savvy, and environmentally conscious. They want to know more about the products they use and their journeys, whether they are eco-friendly, vegan, or have an inspiring backstory. User-generated content (UGC) is increasingly finding utility in digital advertising and communications as consumers move from blind trust in brand names to higher levels of user immersion.

To engage customers, your brand story needs to be present at every touchpoint in the consumer journey, including browsing, researching, purchasing, and reading product descriptions. Because all of these touchpoints will ultimately lead consumers down the conversion funnel.

This effort is important for both brand loyalty and gathering rich consumer data to create impactful campaigns.

Customers are reinventing trends with technology

As consumers become wealthier, consumption patterns change in two ways. The first is to upgrade to a more expensive product within your current category, and the second is to add a new category to your life. This can be seen in the growing popularity of organic grains, cold-pressed oils, robot vacuums, and fabric conditioners.

This shift in retail trends is happening at an alarming speed. Today's heat will pass tomorrow. Therefore, only marketers who stay on top of these new consumer preferences are prepared to capitalize on product, communication, and positioning trends.

Consumers are looking for products that are “new,” “better,” and “suitable for them.”

The new consumer is demanding and an explorer at heart. She craves experiences and products that are tailored to her and are curated just for her. As AR/VR technology matures, opportunities are emerging to provide online in-store experiences and the ease of in-store checkout. Similarly, performing market basket analysis can help indicate subsequent categories in a user's purchasing journey. As marketers, we must constantly think of ideas to delight consumers by responding to their manifested and sometimes unrecognized needs.

But there's good news! In the coming years, consumers will spend more and more frequently. Therefore, understanding new customers, tailoring solutions to them, and retaining them in your brand ecosystem can reap long-term benefits.

Today, there are many technology solutions that address all the complexities of omnichannel retail. Meta and Google offer advanced multimedia measurement tools to evaluate the impact of each channel on your marketing goals.

Additionally, there are a number of plug-in tools to improve product selection and user engagement with digital advertising. For example, FeedX provides a robust infrastructure that supports feeds of all sizes for running product listing ads and can manage feeds of over 3 million SKUs. Other ecommerce-specific tools like BidSmart and Nucleus help clients improve their bidding strategies and get a comprehensive view of all key marketing KPIs.

Omnichannel retail is evolving faster than we can imagine. With the right choice of technology and marketing partners, retail brands can effectively ride this omnichannel wave. With a booming economy, rising discretionary spending and a surge in innovation in marketing, this is the perfect time for retail in India.