Retail always goes hand in hand with marketing; it can’t exist without it. In order to stay competitive and resonate with today’s consumers, retailers need to stay updated on what’s happening in the industry and follow and embrace the freshest marketing trends.
Digital Transformation in Retail
There has been a seismic shift in the retail environment. Retail giants have been investing in the business’s digital transformation, and its impact on business growth is hard to miss. But the world isn’t short of changes, and maintaining and improving competitiveness in global retail depends on how you are at implementing the most important shifts.
Shopper-First Retail
In a world of uncontrolled eCommerce, it’s a real challenge for retailers to isolate every shopper’s different traits and buying motivations. We’ve seen retailers experimenting with different ways to personalize their offerings to make this possible. And the most successful retailers are the ones who change their offering at the right time and in the right place.
Thanks to a well-thought-out combination of IT modernization, data unification, and supply chain optimization, retailer are able to redefine the customer’s end-to-end path, anticipate needs, adjust experiences, and grow. Shoppers-first retail primarily leverages the potential of digital technology to address business and customer problems in every aspect of the industry. The digital supply chain is the sole route to meeting the needs of today’s customers. Whether you want to be more productive, transparent, or efficient, learn about the essential considerations of a consumer-centric approach to the supply chain.
Omnichannelty
No, brick-and-mortar isn’t dead. Don’t let the rise of eCommerce fool you. Researchers say that nearly 40% of consumers shop at a regular store at least once a week. Though global retail digitalization might seem like an end of offline retail, shoppers still demand physical stores.
Omnichannel means retailers must juggle online and offline experiences seamlessly. Communicating with shoppers across all channels poses new opportunities and new challenges. Ratailers need to understand the implications they will face and create marketing strategies that will meet the evolving needs of customers shopping in-store, online, and on the go.
Unified platforms and cross-channel omnichannel communication can also help retailers offer the hyper-personalized shopping experience that customers are seeking. Hyper-personalization is a term that has been gaining traction in the market for years. Companies are aligning their online experiences with offline experiences to understand their customers better and deliver them the best product.
Relying on Data and Analysis
As global buyers continue to pay more attention to brands and are demanding higher quality products, retailers are now confronting a significant dilemma – to infuse a $30 trillion industry with new efficiencies, innovation, and a higher level of engagement, they have to uproot the way they work and develop brand-agnostic marketing strategies.
Retailers need to know how to market products to the right consumers. They lean heavily on data and analysis to build out strategies that drive sales and establish a loyal community of their brand’s fans. Many businesses now leverage ML technologies to help them with demand forecasting, and performance optimization, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and analyse performance among different channels.
Bridge to Younger Generation
Retailers should look to younger consumers, who are open to innovative new experiences. They must adjust their content strategies to appeal to younger generations of potential shoppers. To win them over, they should connect with them via their most favored social channel.
Tiktok, a fun, addictive video app, is becoming a force for retail marketing. Monetizing and telling stories are the two main ways retailers use the app. TikTok is crucial for retailers to keep in touch with consumers actively browsing their feeds.
Here is an overview of TikTok’s advertising potential based on Hootsuite’s data. Some brands have yet to adopt Tik-Tok as a standard way to communicate with their customers. If you don’t use Tik-Tok, you could risk losing out on closer customer relationships. Think about it: the tool allows tight engagement between the user and their friends; hence it boosts word of mouth marketing.
Audience Modeling Expects Breakthroughs
The reason for the future cessation of support for third-party cookies is that the simulation of the audience in 2022 will make some quantum leaps. Many more useful audience modeling options exist, including artificial intelligence solutions. Using digital signals such as consumer tracking panels, location at certain time of day, contextual information, and more, AI can help forecast audience and performance.
In the coming years, it’s vital to focus on using data at all stages of the journey, allowing marketers to reach people on a variety of platforms and devices to provide a genuinely thriving end-to-end path for customers and brands.
Transparency and Values-Based Branding
Today, 62% of shoppers are eager to buy from brands. What’s more, they prefer brands with ethical values and authenticity. Innovative retailers put capital behind the importance of offering something more than your competition. Utilizing cutting-edge strategies to get ahead of the pack, brands must focus on modern trends, especially sustainability-related ones.
Ideally, you should strive to build a company that chooses to do good, prioritizing positive social impact in all that you do. This is not a radical notion by any means. Yet, we’ve seen veritable armies of corporate social responsibility internet marketing teams and other altruistic marketing initiatives launched in the past few years. In addition, people tend to be more interested in ethical and humanitarian issues that the brand they buy from is addressing.
Final Word
Today’s retail marketing trends are pushing the boundaries of what we think is possible. But it is challenging to keep up with the changes or to see where the technology is headed next. In order to keep pace, you need to dedicate time, resources, and understand the future.
