Retail Business Trends – Digital transformation, omnichannel, mobile communications, social analytics… new trends, technologies, and opportunities are emerging almost out of nowhere and suddenly determine our everyday life and influence our purchasing behavior.

We would like to show you exactly what these trends and investment opportunities mean and their concealed potentials for retail trade.

To implement an omnichannel strategy, many companies are faced with investments in the areas of optimization and renewal of their inventory management systems as well as POS hardware and/or software. There is the requirement to exchange information with a central system in real time, especially at the checkout. Shop assistants on the floor require information about the available stock in the warehouse or in other stores. Information about, for example, the availability of sizes or colors is also important and can be crucial to wrap up the sales.

Investments in CRM and analytics solutions are also expedient and profitable. The increasing personalization of customer relationships, mostly through communication with the customer smartphone, requires new approaches. Loyalty programs for customer retention such as loyalty or discount cards are already standard these days. There are also trends with regard to approaching the customer on the sales floor. If the customer is registered, the store staff can provide targeted advice and make recommendations or special offers. The purchased products can either be taken directly with you or shipped to the customer’s home. All these new strategies to increase customer loyalty require flexible systems that interact and exchange data.

Many customers, especially younger ones, are constantly online and communicate regularly and continuously via social media. The modern retailer can take advantage of this trends. Moods and opinions about products and companies are observed and evaluated by means of special tracking tools. Collecting information in this way allows influencers to be identified and moods to be analyzed. What’s more, negative posts, in particular, can be filtered and companies have the opportunity to respond directly and apply targeted problem management.

Parallel to the primarily technological trends, other trends in people’s purchasing behavior can be identified. So-called “values of the future customer” play a decisive role here. Buyers and decision-makers of tomorrow attach great importance to experience, health, sustainability and meaningful consumption, smart shopping, and relationships.

This target group is permanently busy, meaning they are constantly online, under pressure and on the move. They have a tight schedule and like to make deliberate use of their limited time. In terms of purchasing behavior, this means that certain values are given a higher priority again. Sustainability. Younger buyers pay attention to how and where the products are manufactured. What raw materials are used, what are the production conditions, what are the company’s environmental projects and so on? They are quite willing to pay a slightly higher price for the feeling of buying something that makes a positive difference.

It is important that they can identify with the product, the service, and the company. Only then will they share their experience and become indirect brand ambassadors. This behavior speaks clearly for sustainable consumption and reveals the values which are highly important to this target group.

If you would like to find out how you can implement these trends in your company, please contact us. We would be pleased to present the solutions and trends to you in a personal meeting.

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