What are the future trends?

We have to take care of the evolution of the customers’ needs because they define what they will expect in the future.

                 

Future customers’ trends and behavior

According to the Institute for Global Futures, the future trends will be higher expectations of service, the search for the best deal and the availability of the products.

Global future trends in customer behavior

• The future customers will be value conscious: value for money will be the essential key of the purchase.   
• E-commerce: with internet, the customers are highly informed. They will further the online purchase than to go in the store. E-commerce allows the customer to instantaneously compare prices, services and quality of products and services. Thus, it increases their bargaining power and demands.
• The customers will develop and acquire global tastes, global requirements and global standards of quality. Even if today many persons promote the local products, the growing of internet will allow them to find many products or services around the world.
• Total satisfaction: the customers will want a total purchase experience including “before sales service”, the product or the service and the after sales service.
• The customers of the future will want to be delighted and not only satisfied. They want their expressed but also their unexpressed wishes satisfied by the manufacturers and service providers.
• The customers will be more and more fastidious and perfectionist. They will do research on advice, quality or testimony concerning products or services to make their purchase decision. It defines also the loyalty of the customers.
• The customers will expect high and wide variety and assortment of products, services and options.
• Short product life: the customers will expect a high reliability during the short life of the product than long term durability. The customers will not want to keep a product many years but will prefer change and have new products and services to come out in continuous streams.
• The future customers will not want to waste their time and will demand short ordering times and real time satisfaction. It will have an impact on the delivery deadlines.
• The customers will judge not only the quality of the product and service but also the quality of the management and the facilities that produce these. They will want to know more about the factories and be sure process standards are met.
• Environment conscious: the customers will prefer green products. They will only buy from socially responsible companies using processes which are environmentally friendly.

          

Concerning the department stores…

The department stores are used to attract customers by offering a pleasing ambience, attentive service and a wide variety of merchandise under one roof (cash and carry).

In the future, the retailers have to develop customer loyalty through increasing the personalization of their offerings (customer relationship management). They will have to use more and more technology and information systems to improve customer service but also to collect and analyze information to identify their best customers and their purchase behavior.

Using new technology can help a department store to create a more intimate shopping experience for the customers.

Concerning the new technologies, I found an interesting example of the Personal Digital Assistance (PDA) in the book Retailing in the 21^st Century: Current and Future trends.

                “It’s Tuesday morning, Judy Jamison is eating breakfast and flipping through a catalog from her local department store chain. She sees some attractive dresses and decides to buy a new dress […]. She goes to the department store’s Web site to look at more dresses and then decides to go on the store after work. Shortly after Judy walks into the store, a chip on her credit card signals her presence and her status as a frequent shopper to a PDA held by the store sales associate responsible for preferred clients. Information about items that Judy might be interested in, including the items she viewed on the Web site earlier in the day, is downloaded from the store server to Judy’s and the sales associate’s PDAs.”

Due to the PDA, the department store can have information concerning the customers, their former purchases and their behavior. Moreover, it can allow suggesting other products or services to the customers according to what they are looking for and their personality.

Moreover, the retailers need to connect with users on multiple channels and touch points (website, mobile apps, physical store etc…).

Sources:

http://globalfuturist.com/future-trends/customer-futures/customer-futures.html

http://www.rtdonline.com/BMA/CSM/3.html

Book: “Retailing in the 21^st Century: Current and Future Trends” by Manfred Krafft, Murali K. Mantrala, page 91 to 99.

http://www.vendhq.com/retail-trends-and-predictions


Emma Britto