Want an insight into retail customer behaviour and retail marketing trends for 2024? Read on to find out.
The start of every new year feels like a fresh beginning. We look back on the past year and celebrate our victories, and we look to the future as a time of boundless opportunities.
In marketing, we assess what we learned from our efforts and feed it into our marketing plans for the coming year.
Yet, while self-reflection is great, it’s also important to look outside of ourselves. Your retail marketing strategies become that much stronger when you research the sector in which you operate, as well as trends in customer behaviour.
The good news is, we’ve taken the legwork out of it for you. We’ve done a deep dive into the key marketing trends for 2024, to provide an insight into retail customer behaviour and retail marketing trends. Here’s what we’ve learned.
Offline retail is still strong
A couple of years ago when we were all stuck at home and ordering everything online, it looked to many as though offline retail was done for good.
Yet three years later and bricks and mortar stores are going strong – so much so, that consultancy firm Forrester has predicted offline retail will account for 72 per cent of the total retail market by 2028.
It turns out that following COVID lockdowns, people are craving human contact and are turning to retail stores to get it.
Stepping up in-store retail marketing efforts, such as window displays, in-store promotions and suggestive selling, will really pack a punch.
Online isn’t dead in the water either. According to the National Retail Federation, e-commerce levels peaked in April 2020, making up almost 19 per cent of retail sales. They have since dropped to 15 per cent, but that’s still higher than pre-pandemic levels.
This suggests that retail marketing strategies should include a strong digital and physical retail presence.
Online sales will stabilise
While online may not have killed it’s traditional nemesis, offline, it is interesting to see online sales stabilising, and to see why it’s happening.
There’s been a shift in what people are buying online. Essential categories like grocery, health and personal care are growth areas, whereas those which were initially online leaders, such as appliances, homewares and hardware, are now declining.
What this means for retail marketing is that targeted campaigns will yield the best results. Analytics will tell you what items or categories are growing in popularity, and these could form the basis of your annual retail marketing calendar and inform where you should focus your marketing efforts.
Social commerce will gain traction
We’ve seen growth in social commerce and all indicators tell us that it will go from strength to strength.
Social media shopping is the combination of e-commerce and social media. Instead of social media marketing driving traffic to your online stores, your online store is hosted on the social media platform, removing one step from the process and making it quicker to move through the buying process.
It’s no wonder social commerce is delivering such great results. Social media shopping allows you to target consumers, engage with them, and then sell to them all in the one place. It puts your shop in the middle of the world’s biggest social precinct: social media.
In fact, online data specialists Statista predicted the global revenue of social commerce to surpass six trillion US dollars by the end of 2023, paving the way for continued growth into 2024. Explore social shopping and see whether it could work for your brand.
Demand continues for deals and promos
People love being offered special deals and discounts, and retail businesses are discovering that they don’t just get sales across the line, they foster trust and deep engagement with customers.
Data shows that deals and discounts are going to remain essential in retail marketing in 2024, especially when it comes to digital marketing.
That’s mainly because digital offers so many opportunities, including the ability to email customers with abandoned shopping carts, and identifying and rewarding repeat customers. It also allows retailers to identify which products are generating interest but less sales, yet might result in sales if customers were given a little nudge.
In 2024, retail marketing should include a mix of deals and promotions to target cost-savvy customers, especially on the back of a year dominated by high interest rates and inflation.
Increased AI adoption
Artificial intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s minds this year. AI can replace functions normally performed by humans with machine learning – and we’re seeing it play an increasingly important role in retail marketing.
AI shopping assistants are a big part of online retail. Visit any major online store and a virtual assistant pops up and asks if they can help you in any way – and they’re there no matter where you are and what time of the day or night you are shopping.
What we’re seeing now is AI being taken to the next level, with companies offering real-time curated product recommendations based on their browsing and buying histories. AI analytics can support your marketing strategies and campaigns by providing automated insights about the buying habits of your online customers and predicting future outcomes.
AI is also going to be used in other areas like inventory management, merchandising and other backend processes.
Speak to the marketing experts
Retail is a highly competitive field, and achieving success in retail marketing means always staying ahead of the game.
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne, and we know all the trends that will set your retail business ahead of the competition.
To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.