April Pick of the Latest Consumer Trends
Trends are opportunities. Spotting early adoption gives you the foresight to differentiate by leading early rather than following later.
1 YOLO.
There’s a behavioral pivot to living in the moment.
Consumers don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so they aren’t wasting any more time.
Money isn’t the only valuable asset for them. Time, health, and small pleasures have become equally important. Price tags are still relevant, but they’re grabbing the emotional benefit to justify impulse or big-ticket purchase decisions. They’re allowing themselves to live a little.
Productivity, personal growth, and joy are the new reasons to buy. Smart splurges and affordable luxuries let consumers reasonably indulge in unwinding or coping with the world. And alternative payment methods incentivise shoppers to take the plunge on more expensive items.
So What?
There’s an opportunity to target specific or special occasions. To use data to spot patterns in web activity that infer shopping motivations and trigger tailored promotions. To create campaigns that play on spontaneity, such as pop-up shops, flash sales, limited-time offers, or exclusive drops to entice shoppers to buy on that whim.
Alternative payment methods are crucial to help ease financial burdens. The buy now, pay later model is increasingly popular in spreading the cost of big-ticket items over time. Loyalty programmes could allow cashback options and responsible and fair loan or credit options to make your products accessible to a broader audience.
2 Returns:
What we used to think of as the final part of the customer purchase/use journey has become critical to both consumers and brands.
So What?
80 percent of shoppers are now reading the brand’s return policy before they buy. Over 40 percent will sack the brand and shop elsewhere if the returns policy isn’t attractive. What is appealing to the consumer? Free returns, fast refunds, an easy process, and a long window in which to make the return. Some 30 percent of shopped products are returned. It’s hitting retailers’ margins and turning off customers as ‘bracketing’ (buying more knowing they will return some) becomes the norm. Charging a fee for a return may save short-term money, but long term you’ll lose customers.
3 Dirty Weekends:
There has been a big shift towards more wholesome, winsome breaks. It’s part of a broader lifestyle movement, whether in interiors, gardening, or food, where everyone is seeking a connection - to the land, to themselves, and to each other. The pandemic has played a big part because people felt isolated and reliant on screen time. So has the climate catastrophe, creating this yearning for breaks that take us into the natural world precisely because it feels so threatened.
Luxury hotels such as Heckfield Place (Hampshire, UK) have a pond for wild swimming rather than a swimming pool, as the hotel spa isn’t resonating so much.
Behind the trend is a wealth of scientific evidence that links time in nature to better mental well-being. Doctors are even turning to ‘green social prescribing’ to help treat depression and anxiety. In addition, using the healing power of nature to attract more consumers, some brands are partnering with others to host retreats, some free for burnt-out hospital nurses or long Covid victims.
This nostalgic set-up — getting mucky, losing track of time playing outdoors, putting away phones — seems to loosen formalities and encourage an almost childlike candour. Guests share secrets with strangers before plunging into a stream clean enough to drink from and so cold it whips their breath away.
They stroll back through the forest barefoot, laughing as the path becomes a rain-churned quagmire, sinking ankle-deep in squelching mud, discovering sensations they haven’t felt in decades. Wellness is undoubtedly an overused word, but behind the buzzword is a yearning most of us can identify with - for a sense of calm and connection.