Retail in 2023 – what can we expect?

With 2022 coming to an end, we wanted to have a look at what to expect from 2023 in retail. After the upheaval caused by Covid-19, retail has started to recover in 2022, but a lot of the trends that started during the pandemic have continued to develop this year and are expected to continue in the next year. Let’s have a look at some of the most relevant ones:

Ecommerce is here to stay

Ecommerce growth increased dramatically during the pandemic, and there is no going back to how things were before. While its growth has slowed a bit, it has not stopped, and research shows that customers in the retail industry are leading in digital adoption. What’s more, nearly 60% of internet users purchase something online every week. Retailers will need to keep investing in existing and new eCommerce options such as social shopping and even the Metaverse.

Changes to In-Store shopping

While the high street has been recovering over the last year, a lot of bricks-and-mortar retailers will need to consider a shift in their offering to continue to entice customers into their shops, rather than just buying online.

There is a big opportunity here to change things up: consider in-store shopping more of an experience and a service. Convert stores into showcase places where customers can try out products and get personalized advice that will make them more likely to buy, come back and recommend. Keep an eye out for our next blog, where we will dive a bit deeper into this.

Omnichannel: Seamless experience between online, mobile, in-store

The first two trends are tightly connected to this next one: customers are more and more expecting a seamless shopping experience between all channels they use. Whether it is online, mobile or in-shop, customers want to easily navigate the shopping process, be offered the same options, and be able to switch between their chosen channel easily. For retailers, this could mean investing in different shopping delivery methods, such as contactless payment, online or mobile checkout solutions, self-service or even apps for in-store use.

Social commerce is another channel that retail will expand in strongly over the next year: it is expected to make up 20% of global retail eCommerce sales in 2023. Especially GenZ customers, who are making up more and more of the consumer market, take most of their shopping inspiration from social media, and being able to offer them buying options right on their chosen channel that match online or in-store shopping is a huge opportunity.

The importance of brand values (and their implementation)

Global challenges over the last few years, including climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the energy and cost of living crisis have increased the wish of customers for brands that are fair, empathic and socially and environmentally conscious. According to research by Capgemini, 79% of shoppers are changing their buying preferences based on sustainability, with a third of shoppers willing to pay more for sustainable products and services. But brands will have to prove they actually want to do things better, and not just doing it to increase revenue. Transparency here will be key to show customers that their brands are trustworthy.

Done right, becoming a more socially and environmentally involved brand will not only be one of the strongest tools to build trust and loyalty with customers, ensuring retention and recommendations; it will also often benefit the business on operational aspects in the long run.

Personalization and localisation

Studies show that up to 80% of buyers are more likely to buy something if offered in a personalized way. But with more and more customers buying online as well as offline, it is something that customers not only want, but expect. So, whether it is locally branding your stores, offering customizable products, or tailored online, and in-store, offers: retailers should look into different options on how they can make the full customer journey feel more personal.

This can also be tied in with the previous point: rather than just investing in big-scale sustainability projects, it has also proven very successful for brands to support their local communities, showing that they really care about needs in their local area.

Marketing trends to consider

Marketing trends are difficult to predict, but here are a few topics that we think will be relevant in 2023:

• User-generated content, with it being perceived more trustworthy than brand content, will continue to play an important role, though we might see a change from the well-known macro-influencers to smaller, and more diverse influencers that can target new audiences, as for example older customers that are now also using social media.
• Representation and inclusivity are two topics that will certainly continue to be hot in the next year: consumers want to be able to identify with the brands they buy through similarities and feeling understood, rather than aspiring to a perfect, standardized persona.
• Collaborations between brands have proven highly successful in the past, so we are expecting to see more of this, especially between brands that normally would not be associated together, such as food-based collaborations.
• Rather than big sales events, small, limited-time pop-up events that target a specific audience and/or location could be a useful tool to entice customers to visit a brick-and-mortar-shop rather than shopping online. Online events that became popular during the pandemic can still be a good way to reach audiences that might not be able to come to any in-person events.
• Scent-based marketing is an exciting development we can look out for in 2023: from displays in store to packaging or other marketing materials, brands that can develop an association with a specific smell or perfume might differentiate and attract new sales.
• And of course, new technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality will continue to strongly influence marketing campaigns in the coming year.