This is a news flash to the wider retail world: Physical retail is not dead! 2020 and 2021 were bland years for consumers, so 2022 is really about experience, and capturing the engagement and excitement of customers. There are a lot of retailers who have left the UK high street in the past year, but there are also a lot of new ones who are investing heavily in the store experience. So the global retail stage is set for those who are creating new, experiential ways of shopping for customers, as they are the ones to be watching and partnering with!
Trends to watch out for
Conscious consumerism is, and will be, a big trend for the coming years, especially as the USA now faces a future without stimulus cheques. People are really thinking about when and how they spend their money, and are generally in one of two different camps. Some have money saved from the pandemic, who have not been spending as much and are now open to ‘splashing their cash’, keeping focus on socialising with friends and purchases for their own wellbeing. Others have been watching the pennies, showing a big shift in purchase habits and popular brands. But despite a world of trouble last year, consumer spending was ultimately up on 2020. The biggest opportunity for brands to harness the ‘conscious consumer’ is to think about the experience that they’re providing to the customer, not just about the product. What other value are they adding to their lives, to their experience, and can this be enhanced by collaborating with other brands with a similar audience?
How people and brands are using digital has really changed over the past 2 years. Shoppers have been completely overwhelmed with how much information there is on digital, but their attention span is dwindling, so they are spending even less time on social media; scrolling more quickly, so the opportunities here are more centred around how you can provide a deeper connection and experience, digitally, to your customers. Stronger customer service opportunities and more in-depth events for smaller groups of people are big opportunities for brands to harness in the coming year.
Having said this, Viral Shopping is growing, with the rise of relatively new platform TikTok (which recently hit over 1billion monthly active users). Influencers on platforms like this are redefining the digital shopping journey, with UGC creating a #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt phenomenon that nobody could foresee. Shoppers who congregate in spaces like this don’t want to be told what to buy; they are looking for inspiration, chasing wider trends and discovering one-offs that spark joy. These shoppers are 1.7x more likely to shop on TikTok than any other digital platform in 2022, and have the shortest attention spans of all – so the journey to the shopping basket and to completed purchase need to be slicker and easier than ever before.
Where to look next?
So, where will physical retail go next? Physical retail is really moving back to ‘old school style’ for 2022, and retailers will have to invest more than ever before into a ‘luxury’ customer service experience. If people are going back into stores to purchase, they’re looking for human interaction, and something they can’t get online, as well as to be able to touch and feel products. Retailers need to focus on providing an added level of experience, and allowing customers to learn about the products, and brands, in a different way to how they can online. A lot of physical spaces have integrated technology, but this doesn’t necessarily replace that human element that people seek out when shopping in a physical store.
Personal shopping is a huge opportunity for retailers to tap into, and any retailer that can afford to invest in independent advisors and experts on the shop floor to advise across a range of brands, are the ones who will ultimately carve out more market share for themselves. Currently having independent experts is not something that many retailers invest in, however ultimately these are what the customer really wants, and where the popularity of ‘genuinfluencers’ online has come from.
If we look to digital platforms, live shopping is an offshoot of this ‘personal service’ opportunity for brands, as the human experience is brought to customers online. Big brands like M&S are now putting this in place, to engage shoppers at home, and ensure less garments/products are returned to stores due to misunderstood online photography, or fighting issues etc.
So there are big, and ranging opportunities in physical (and digital!) retail for 2022 – having those experts in store, whether this might become part of the day to day shopping experience, or creating events with experts for a selection of ‘best customers’ or potentially collaborations for events and partnerships with different brands and people with different databases, where they can bring new audiences into stores for different events. Luxury is being re-defined, and customers and creators alike are paving the way for new viewpoints into the retail world.
