Trend forecasters predict how consumer attitudes and expectations are changing, and how companies can prepare to drive business throughout the year.
From self-care in consumer experiences to metaverse adoption, trend forecasters predict five key trends that will shape the business landscape in 2022.
Because it is important:
- The metaverse (immersive and virtual experiences) is gaining consumer appeal. In turn, brands are finding ways to combine IRL and URL experiences, such as selling digital merchandise, such as Nike NFT sneakers, alongside physical products.
- Generation Z is growing rapidly and boasts an estimated spending power of $150 billion, requiring businesses to keep up with a digitally native demographic cohort that tends to avoid traditional marketing messages.
- Marketers can lean into the post-pandemic consumer mindset by meeting the growing demand for self-care as well as local goods and services from small and medium-sized businesses.
In today’s unpredictable business landscape, it would be nice to have a crystal ball. The next best thing, however, may be the insight of trend forecasters dedicated to predicting the future of commerce and culture as we know it.
At the start of a new year, CO spoke to three of the industry’s most prominent futurists to gain insight into the five key trends that will drive business in 2022. Key calls include embracing the metaverse; adjusting the expectations of a growing generation of consumers; invest in physical customer experiences; and the growing role of self-care and localism in consumer experiences.
Embrace the metaverse
Few trending topics have gained as much traction heading into 2022 as the “metaverse”: a fancy word for social connection networks that increasingly merge physical and digital realities. This rapid push of these immersive, virtual experiences into the mainstream has many businesses wondering how and when to participate. The key, forecasters say, is finding accessible ways to combine online and offline spaces.
Petah Marian, futurist and founder of the global strategic foresight consultancy, Future narrativebelieves that companies of all sizes should pay attention to developments in this area.
“As brands accelerate their efforts in the metaverse, 2022 will see brands begin to increasingly link their IRL (in real life) and metaverse businesses, with virtual products sold alongside physical goods, and experiences of buy in the metaverse.
With the acquisition of the virtual goods company by Nike RTFKTwhich makes NFT (non-fungible token) collectible sneakers and brands that hire metaverse directors, for example, “hope IRL retailers will start blurring the lines between the physical and digital worlds,” he said.
Alex Hawkins, senior pop culture and media editor at trend intelligence agency Stylus said that “The brands that succeed in the future immersive web will be the ones that seamlessly combine IRL and URL, and allow people to truly mix and match their reality.”
Prepare for the buyer of the near future to gain their enormous purchasing power
Although many members of this demographic cohort have not yet entered the workforce, Generation Z is aging rapidly to have more purchasing power. According to eMarketerthe digital native generation has already accumulated a collective purchasing power estimated at around $150 billion.
Meeting their high expectations will be the key to success in the future, says Kathy Sheehan, senior vice president of the trend forecasting agency. cassandra. They are super-smart consumers who see through the algorithm and can be resistant to traditional advertising and marketing.
“For Gen Z, there is increasing awareness and clarity that there is a machinery behind everything they consume,” Sheehan says. “Showing a wisdom born of being a digital native, today’s young people recognize that they are being served content, their attention is being monetized, and they are not necessarily liking the result.”
Create winning “third spaces” that provoke amazement and admiration
“After a couple of years of languor, people will look for moments of amazement and admiration,” says Marian. Additionally, “As retailers try to attract customers back to physical commerce, they will redouble their efforts to create safe experiences that allow people to connect with each other.”
Marian refers to Camp, a toy retailer that is building its network of experiential stores across the United States. Events and experiences, such as yoga and music classes, or children’s parties, have become a source of income for the business.
Beyond retail, Stylus creative director Tessa Mansfield wrote in the company’s annual Look Ahead report, “we will see increased innovation around how retail, co-working, leisure and hospitality They can be better connected. “This will drive a new era for third-party retail spaces that will revalidate brands’ physical environments.”
Emily Gordon-Smith, director of consumer products at Stylus, highlights the importance of physical location in creating deeper, longer-lasting relationships with customers.
“Brands need to immerse consumers in physical environments that allow them to make informed purchasing decisions, as well as learn new skills, such as repairing and reusing existing products,” he adds.
As retailers look to attract customers back to physical retail, they will double down on creating COVID-safe experiences that allow people to connect with each other.
Petah Marian, futurist and founder of Future Narrative
Provide a dose of comfort to pandemic-weary customers
“People are increasingly viewing the experiences of the last two years through a trauma-focused lens,” said Future Narrative’s Marian.
As a result, they are looking to the businesses around them to provide comfort during this transitional and often stressful time. This can mean that even if a business is not directly related to wellness and self-care, there is room for a brand to support its customers beyond the transactional.
This year, people will focus on tools to help them navigate the current uncertainty born of the pandemic and heal from trauma.
Some examples: Author Sam Conniff has released The Uncertainty Experts, a three-part interactive documentary that helps people become increasingly comfortable with uncertainty; the new application of the running shoe brand asics uses facial scanning technology and self-reported data to understand how different sports impact the way we think and feel; and Barbie has given voice to the meditations in the application HeadspaceMarian pointed out.
Sustainability adds another important dimension to the conversation. “We see even more urgency around survival issues, specifically the climate crisis,” Sheehan said of Cassandra. “Brands will need to move aggressively to become climate activists as they innovate and create solutions to their own brand emissions as they address the urgency of the emergency.”
Keep it local
The last two years have been tough for many small businesses. But a growing consumer interest in buying local products offers an opportunity for small and medium-sized businesses to leverage closer connections with their audience to drive sales.
One of the key pivots in spending habits since COVID-19 is a shift towards shopping local and away from shopping centres, with 75% of consumers planning to shop more locally over the next year according to a study by digital trading platform Brightpearl.
“We have seen localism – the consumer shift towards greater community and grassroots involvement – grow over the past two years,” Mansfield wrote, indicating that he expects the trend to continue across all industries through 2022.
“In product design and production, smart brands will update the relevance of traditional luxury indicators,” he added. “By collaborating with local artisans, we will see them establish luxury associations with a desire for sustainability and an aversion to cookie-cutter design to keep up with modern consumer attitudes.”