Shop Till You Drop

The Tech Herald

Todd Hale, SVP Retail and Shopper Insights for Neilsen has made the following predictions of the 2015 retail landscape.

He bases these on the premise that the recession in the US has drastically affected the way consumers now behave. As he puts it, they have "pressed the reset button".

They are going out a lot less and becoming far more discerning and as a result retailers are going to have to be far more innovative to survive and prosper.

The ten predictions:

1. Mass supercenters and e-commerce will be the big winners.
2. Low and high-end grocery stores will grow share.
3. Pet stores and dollar stores will grow.
4. Retail consolidation: the big will get bigger.
5. Smart phones will be the primary enabler of shopper engagements.
6. Store formats will evolve: new formats, smaller stores, pop-up retailing to accelerate.
7. Anywhere in-store check outs to replace self check-out and open floor space.
8. In-store kiosks, digital media and holograms to interact with shoppers.
9. Demise of traditional consumer age and gender targets as technology enables seamless view across languages and ethnic/generational groups with links to purchase and usage behavior
10. Evolving U.S. demographics have major impacts

These observations should not be confined to the US market. Similar shopping trends are being noted worldwide and consumers are choosing to save more and spend less.

Note the digital innovation opportunities in the Neilsen predictions; more sophisticated targetting, use of digital media and the importance of smart phones to build engagement.

With all of the talk about smart phones it is easy to overlook the ongoing importance of SMS in the communication equation.

mBlox research shows that 38% of UK retailers have used SMS in a campaign and a further 36% are using a mobile site when reach consumers.

“As other mobile technologies seek consumer acceptance, the ubiquity of SMS makes it the ideal medium for retailers to enhance the consumer experience.” says chairman Andrew Bud.

Howard Wilcox of Juniper Research goes further. He believes that " SMS has a central – critcial – role to play not only in mobile marketing via mobile websites, but also advertising, promotions and coupons. "
In the years ahead retailers are going to have to be increasingly innovative with digital media if they are to survive.

Related articles

• Supermarket Websites Integrate Facebook to Personalize Shopping Experience (eon.businesswire.com)
• mBlox Survey Reveals Consumers Demand More Choice on How They Are Contacted by Businesses (eon.businesswire.com)
• mBlox survey shows US still lags behind the UK in adoption of mobile services (intomobile.com)
• Supermarket science: How they sell you (seattletimes.nwsource.com)