We all love shopping at SDWAN Central, but we’re even more fascinated by the technological innovations that will impact on the retail industry and potentially change the way we all shop this year “But we’ve always done it this way” – especially when it comes to adapting a current WAN to an SD-WAN solution., how can you be sure that your IT provider is skilled enough to offer the solution that is ultimately best suited to you?
There’s little we love more at SDWAN Solutions than a decent dose of retail therapy, but as a business that’s continually innovating new technology – even beating Silicon Valley based tech giants, such as Cisco, Google and Juniper, by launching the world’s first ever SDWAN Cloud – we consider it our duty to be in the know about what’s new in our customers’ businesses. This time it’s all about trends, insights and innovations in retail, and how technology will impact on the way we shop.
We’ve left no technological or retail stone unturned and badgered industry experts in both sectors for their trend predictions for 2019 and beyond. The result? A hefty Retail Trend Report with over 50 trends and insights in it, that not only informs our team on what our retail clients are facing as technology and shopping merge to even greater degrees, but will inform you too!
In this blog we merely list some of the big macro trends in retail, but you can download our full retail and shopping trend report here – SDWAN Solutions Knowledgebase
All Demographical Groups are ‘Socially Shopping’ – omnichannel and online shopping trends
It’s a given that Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z will be shopping online, but with an ever-growing Internet savvy silver surfer, the Baby Boomers are now well in on this trend too. What is changing however, is the way each demographic ‘socially shops’ via social media platforms.
Baby Boomers favour Facebook (25%) for social shopping, but only 11.8% of Generation Z do likewise on this platform, favouring Instagram and Snapchat.
Both Millennials and Gen Z like to feel they have ‘discovered’ products and services themselves, via Instagram and Snap chat, and a sense of uniqueness is required to covert them from the curious to the consumer. Once converted they then love to visually show off their cleverly researched purchases via these two favoured social media platforms.
But if it’s brand loyalty you’re after Gen X are most committed to certain favoured brands. Conversely, Gen Z are a sceptical bunch and trust brand promises little, but are the most accepting of behavioural marketing in that they cannot remember a time before such practices. Baby Boomers and Gen X find behavioural marketing intrusive, but are coming round year on year to it.
The moral to this generational tale? Get your approach and messages right for the relevant social media platforms and their corresponding audiences and you’ll see sales increase. Get it wrong and prepare to be ignored, or even seen as old hat.
Even Faster FMCG – Fast moving consumer goods and grocery shopping trends
Online grocery shopping has been around for years, but pick-up has been strangely slow. Maybe it’s the Amazon Pantry effect, maybe it’s maturing generations who buy everything online including groceries now they have their own homes and families, or perhaps it’s the advent of online grocery shopping in emerging markets that’s driving up the stats on this trend, but a global supermarket and grocery trend it certainly is.
Online grocery shopping for FMCG goods is growing at four times the rate of that in the real world, with predictions that by 2022 online grocery shopping will account for 10-12% of all FMCG sales.
The Rise of the Technological Store – in-store technology trends
With scannable data everywhere and infotainment a given, today’s consumers expect to be able to do offline what they do when shopping online – namely, click and get reviews and data about products.
As much as this is about checking product details, researching cheaper/better alternatives and investigating the ethics of brands and their products (get that wrong at your peril – see the below mega-trend) it’s also about shoppertainment – an immersive and merged real-world-to-digital-world experience. And experience is retail’s buzz word for 2019 and beyond – with Millennials and Gen Z favouring experience over buying tangible goods, it is this ‘experience’ trend that will ultimately drive them to get out their digital wallets and part with their bitcons.
Bear in mind that with Internet patience levels down from 8 to just 5 seconds, you’ll need an uber fast, super secure instore network to manage that level of online traffic, (SDWAN and us do all of these and save you time and money to boot!) Buffering of videos or info and any online payment or data security breaches and you’re toast. No FMCG pun intended!
Dump the Packaging – THE retail and consumer mega-trend for the future
Now, when we say dump the packaging we obviously don’t mean dump it, (which is what we’ve been doing for decades at the cost of the oceans and the planet) we mean don’t make the stuff in the first place!
Innovations in in-store technology and those willing to re-design stores that embrace and enable these, will, in turn, enable brands to reduce packaging but still provide relevant and legal information to the consumer. And the consumer will LOVE you for it and evangelise on your behalf.
From scannable codes and data to interactive screens and even (from this year) holographic technology, shoppers want information on your ethics, sustainability and CSR policies, as well as the usual data about your products in a sustainable form. Apply your ethics in writing on excessive plastic packaging and your credibility goes down the toilet.
Retail needs to find ways to reduce packaging overall, use as-provided-by-nature packaging such as banana leaf and bamboo alternatives or truly create not just step change, but leap change to genuinely biodegradable, non-planet damaging plastic alternatives. Furthermore, the retail industry is expected to reduce the amount of plastic pollutants like no other industry on Earth, and that’s a very tall order indeed. Good Luck, we know you can do it, and we’re here to tell you how an SDWAN Solutions bespoke SD-WAN will help your entire organisation.
This is merely a taster of our insights into changes and innovations within the retail sector this year. You can have our HUGE retail, shopping and consumer trends report FOR FREE just by downloading it right TRENDS here. Happy reading! Alternatively email us enquire@sdwansolutions.co.uk and we’ll send over a PDF.
Kelly Rogers
CMO, SDWAN Solutions
Kelly, heads up SDWAN Solutions Group Marketing and Social department and is a multi-award winning marketing, communications and innovation expert with over 20 years experience.
She has worked on projects for five global technology giants, four of the big six supermarkets, three of the UK’s leading retailers, the world’s largest licensed brand and one of the big three publishers, as well as many corporations, public sector agencies, government departments, charities and NFPs globally.
To date Kelly has scooped over 19 awards for her work and two of her campaigns have gone through UK Parliament as white papers.