Shopper Marketing Trends for 2023

While I do not have a crystal ball that tells us exactly what 2023 has in store for us, shopper marketers, I do like to look ahead to the most important trends and developments to catch a glimpse of what’s to come and will keep us shopper marketers busy. Whichever way you look at it, the ‘digital genie’ is out of the bottle and may help retail get settled into the new ‘normal’.

Edward Nieuwland | ISMI

Brick-and-mortar shops will become ‘experience stores’ instead of fulfilling the role that shops traditionally fulfil Offering unique and memorable shopping experiences that combine elements of both the digital and the physical world is the central challenge in this store design shift. Experiential retail is the solution in a number of retail sectors.

Personalisation shines in all parts of the shopper journey

On-demand personalisation increasingly expands to all facets of our B2S domain. This is further refined as new technologies give shoppers greater control. Successful brand manufacturers and retailers use technology only as a means, and never as an end in its own right.

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Millennials and Gen Zers tend to be guided by their personal values in their shopping

Gen Zers in particular will keep putting pressure on brands and retailers to take action on issues they feel strongly about. Brands and retailers that take a clear stand on issues such as climate change, race and gender equality, and affordable education are the ones reaping the most praise.

Investment in Shopper Experience Management Platforms (SEMP) is up

At this point in time, the challenge is not (!) to crack the e-commerce channel, but rather to ensure that shoppers can switch seamlessly between brick-and-mortar shops and online and personal channels and back again, with the least possible effort.

Brand manufacturers and retailers are rethinking their employee empowerment approach

Over the past few years, discussions around employee empowerment in retail were focused mainly on enabling employees to better serve customers. Over the 2023-2025 period, however, it will become an approach that seeks to strike a balance between maximising the existing workforce and creating healthier and more positive work environments. Successful retailers help streamline otherwise dull, manual tasks, making their employees’ work more engaging and creative.

03 | McKinsey groups these shoppers into four main categories, as shown below:

Meet Me Where I Am Know My Tastes Offer Something Just for Me Check in with Me

Do not forget about BORIS and the order orchestration it requires BORIS, BOPIS and BOPAC are the Huey, Dewey, and Louie of 2023. However, a logistics nightmare looms, which can only be averted through stock management by retailers.

Shoppable media are the fastest growing advertising category Forbes recently reported that roughly two thirds of shoppers use social media for their purchases. Consumers are turning into ‘prosumers’ when they use your products to promote their own brands and channels. Marketplaces also continue to grow.

Third-party cookies on the way down, ethical data sourcing on the rise Google has announced that it will stop supporting third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. In practice, this means that there will be fewer opportunities to track and log shoppers’ online actions and behaviour. Most shopper marketers are developing their own platforms for customer data and are prioritising first-hand data. So, first-party data is the future. Conversational marketing is an intensive but good solution.

Autonomous shopping is here to stay in the retail landscape

Initially implemented as a security measure (as a means, not an end...?), it has now become more of a hygiene factor.

Shoppers increasingly look for alternatives to the pay-in-full model Subscription-based models continue to gain ground, with shoppers interested mainly in a personalised end-to-end experience that offers convenience and unique benefits. Owing to extreme price increases, shoppers will continue to be drawn to ‘bargains’ in 2023.

Effective use of real-time data across all available channels

The democratisation of information is leading to all units of an organisation getting equal access to the same data. A data infrastructure for a more consistent and holistic picture is the solution.

Further shopper fragmentation

Shoppers are using more and more different channels to shop, driven strongly by the hunt for bargains as they grapple with today’s inflation. Reaching your shoppers will become increasingly challenging. n