What is the Monday Morning Coffee with Spaycial? Every Monday morning, our editorial team brings you the top need-to-know news from its weekly readings, on retail and payment data, to read in less than 5 minutes. Here's a Special 2022 retail & shopping trends for the first edition of the year.
What's on the menu this week?
1. Hybrid retail becomes the norm
Regardless of the uncertainty, the pandemic has continued to accelerate trends seen across the retail industry. Mixing online and physical shopping is now a common thing. As quoted by Forbes, “in 2022 we should expect most shopping journeys to start online, but that doesn't mean they should always finish there. In many cases an online shopping journey's best and most convenient destination is a physical store down the road” - Nick Brackenbury, CEO and co-founder of NearSt.
Time for retailers to gain a more sophisticated understanding of the shopping journey and to embrace an omnichannel strategy "via in-store shopping appointments to elevate the consumer experience, accessing a customer’s online sales history to offer in-store discounts."
48% of shoppers now prefer hybrid-shopping, compared to 39% last year
(BCG research)
2. Omnichannel strategies based on data
Let's dig deeper on the omnichannel aspect of retail strategies. What does a retailer should do, according to August Free Press' trends? On one hand, collect data and metrics via IoT and sensors across different channels, on the other, develop a holistic view of its shoppers (Two things we, Spaycial, are meant to do for retailers, based on the most relevant shopping data of all, payment data!)
3. Micro-communities that lead to interactivity
In Power Retail we read that in 2022, retailers should start building ‘micro-communities’ around their products to offer consumers a more genuine and meaningful experience in-store and online. “This will foster a collaborative relationship between brands and shoppers. So instead of spying on consumers through cookies, brands can simply ask shoppers for feedback and offer them recommendations based on their likes and dislikes.” Once again, payment data comes quite handy to help retailers achieve this.
4. Physical stores remain a critical force for retail shopping
Here's trend n°4, read in Forbes again. A trend we deeply agree with as 78% of the average spend is still made offline, compared to 72% a year before, according to our own data (november 2021).
In 2022, stores will incorporate more technology within the shopping journey. The simple and seamless shopping experience we offer will fit right into it. "Mobile phones will integrate with in-store shopping for price and stock checking, as well as for checking out seamlessly", the article outlines.