All change: Retail trends
Ariane van Mancius, founder of Now New Next, identifies retail trends offering ideas and inspiration to take onboard
Working across several sectors, I have been interested to note how trends in one sector can impact ideas and provide inspiration for others. Here are five key trends in the retail sector that airlines can learn from.
Experience
Customers are not now only looking for low prices and good service, they want their shopping to be an experience. Whether online, in apps, or in bricks and mortar stores, the experience is key across all touchpoints of the customer's journey.
To create a positive experience, both on- and offline, it is important to put the customer first, identify points of friction along their customer journey, and then assist at these points. The biggest challenge here is mixing human and tech solutions. Technology offers excellent tools to boost the customer experience through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) but people still want an emotional and thus human element to the experience, so supporting tech with good employee training is important too.
Personalisation
With price pressure from discounters, market disruption from online players, and increased price transparency, retail differentiation is getting harder. Competitors can easily copy each other, and consumers can switch with one click.
As an answer to this, personalisation is moving up the retail agenda. Personalisation, once limited mainly to targeted offers, should now extend to the entire customer experience.
The use of (big) data and associated technologies is key to this. They can be used to offer a super relevant product, specific content for target markets, smart ads and special features developed for predicted needs. They all drive up customer loyalty, differentiate product and create a sustainable competitor advantage.
Digitalisation
Technology is a fast growing feature of the retail industry. Where once it was just used to
streamline processes, it is now becoming an integral part of the shopping experience. With companies like Amazon pioneering in this field, technology is now trickling through to nearly all retailers. The technologies go beyond having an app, digital shelf tickets or QR codes; now they include apps that automatically connect to the stores' wifi so they know who is in the store; and shelves that can detect which products are selected and add them to the customer's digital shopping cart. Even payment is changing. You can just walk out of the store and your digital shopping cart is paid for automatically by your credit card.
Digitalisation and emerging technologies are changing the way we shop. Numerous others are in development and it is just a matter of time before they make their way to other sectors including aviation.
Sustainability
The conversation about sustainability is growing every day. A large part of this conversation is aimed at (plastic) packaging and because of this retailers, and their suppliers, are focused on more sustainable options and using less packaging. Steps are being taken towards recycled materials, recycling and new materials. Some retailers, like Loop (in collaboration with Tesco/Carrefour) and Pieter Pot are even moving to a policy of only using reusable packaging. The move towards sustainability is driven by both consumer concerns and emerging regulations such as the EU Single Use Plastics (SUP) directive, or the possible ban in France of disposables in restaurants. These new rules are forcing retail and foodservice operators to change their packaging and disposables, and are only expected to increase, in retail and beyond in the coming years.
Plant-based
A trend towards plant-based alternatives started a few years ago with milks and has now grown into a full market ranging from plant-based cheeses to plant-based ribs and burgers.
It is no longer just small or new brands active in this market, multi-national dairy companies like Emmi and Danone have new brands or are extending into plantbased product ranges.
The biggest driver of this trend is not the rise of veganism but the rise of Flexitarian diets - substituting animal-based products for plantbased a few days a week. Once they discover plant-based products they like, they often try more in the category.
Beyond COViD-19
Not really a trend, but a factor too big to ignore when looking ahead, is the influence of COVID19. The virus has paused the world and given us all time to think and reflect before taking another step forward. An invisible event with a visible global impact. In a short period of time, this impactful change has spread its influence all over the world.
Confidence in hygiene has changed and it's a topic receiving much more attention now. Plastic seemed to be going out of favour but now it's back for safety and hygiene reasons. Individually wrapped items are back and reuse suddenly feels unsafe. When the first infections became known in the US, it took exactly one week before Starbucks banned its customers from bringing in a reusable cup. The explosive growth of home delivery has also stimulated the demand for plastic packaging, and then there is all the plastic PPE.
However, this trend is likely to be a temporary change and the objective of a circular economy will re-emerge in the longer term. The EU SUP directive is going ahead on July 3, 2021 with no delay, and the EU even wants to co-finance its COVID-19 recovery plan by imposing a tax on 'virgin plastics' that are currently cheaper than recycled material due to the low oil price.
Trends are bringing change, watch this space.
COVID-19 has given us time to think and reflect before taking another step forward