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The retail landscape is continuously evolving, and 2023 promises an emphasis on personalised shopping experiences that cater to individual customer needs and preferences. In this article, we’ll explore several emerging trends that are shaping the future of retail, including phygital experiences, return process incentives, mobile personalisation and more.
Phygital retail unites physical and digital shopping experiences to deliver instant, interactive, immersive and highly personalised shopping journeys. This innovative approach brings along numerous benefits for business, including enhancing Net Promoter Scores (NPS), fostering customer loyalty, driving conversions and attracting more customers.
Some of the ways in which phygital experiences are taking shape in the retail industry include smart dressing rooms that enable virtual sizing, allowing customers to experiment with different styles without having to physically try them on.
Another is how some retailers are collaborating with influences and leveraging live streaming events to engage audiences. This can yield conversion rates nearly 10 times higher than traditional e-commerce.
Return process incentives aim to maintain customer loyalty by offering personalised perks when they return a product. Retailers can achieve this by including discounts or coupons on return receipts, waiving return fees, providing free shipping on exchanges, or offering bonus cash back for store credit refunds instead of the original payment method.
These initiatives not only help with retaining customers, but also encourage them to continue shopping with the brand, turning a potentially negative experience into a positive one.
As mobile devices increasingly dominate the e-commerce landscape, personalisation now extends beyond the webpage to include email and mobile experiences. Mobile notifications, SMS, and in-app customer experiences are becoming a primary focus. However, many customers still report that mobile shopping apps lack personalisation.
With advancements in mobile personalisation technology, expect to see a rise in customised mobile shopping experience in 2023. Retailers will need to invest in refining their mobile strategies and leveraging user data to provide personalised content, product recommendations, and promotions tailored to individual preferences and behaviours.
Recent innovations in artificial intelligence have significantly enhanced automated ecommerce personalisation. Businesses can now rapidly collect and analyse extensive customer data, allowing tailor product recommendations and discounts accordingly.
As AI technology continues to advance, AI-driven personalisation will become more prevalent. Machine learning algorithms will enable retailers to better predict customer preferences, deliver personalised content, and optimise marketing strategies to provide a more engaging and relevant shopping experience.
Omnichannel personalisation involves providing customised user experiences across multiple channels and touch points, such as online and offline stores, mobile apps, social media, and email. By adopting an omnichannel approach, retailers can collect and analyse user data from various sources to create a comprehensive customer profile, leading to improved marketing efforts and conversion rates.
This unified approach to customer data ensures that retailers can deliver a seamless and personalised experience, regardless of how or where customers choose to shop. It also enables businesses to track and understand customer behaviour across channels, allowing them to optimise marketing strategies and make informed decisions about product offerings, promotions, and customer engagement.
As the retail industry moves towards more personalised experiences, privacy concerns are becoming increasingly relevant. Brands must navigate a cookieless future, as browsers like Apple, Firefox, and Brave already blocked third-party cookies. Google Chrome, which holds over 60% of the search engine market share, announced plans to delay third-party cookie blocking until late 2023.
Governments worldwide are also imposing stricter data privacy regulations, with Europe, the US, China, and Brazil issuing harsh penalties for data privacy violations. A recent survey revealed that 28% of consumers feel they have less control over their data than in previous years, highlighting growing concerns about data usage.
While personalization is crucial for retailers, it should not come at the cost of consumer privacy. Brands must strike a balance between personalization and privacy to maintain customer trust. As third-party cookies become less viable, businesses are turning to first- and zero-party data. The percentage of brands exclusively using first-party data for personalization has risen from 31% in 2021 to 37%.
Automation has played a crucial role in e-commerce success in recent years, and this trend will persist in 2023. By automating personalisation tasks like product recommendations and email campaigns, businesses can save time while still offering individualised experiences. Automation also enables businesses to scale their operations without incurring significant labour costs. As a result, automation is set to become an increasingly valuable tool for e-commerce businesses in 2023 and beyond.
The future of retail is undoubtedly geared toward personalisation, with an emphasis on merging physical and digital experiences, optimising return processes, enhancing mobile shopping, harnessing AI technology, unifying omnichannel customer journeys, and streamlining e-commerce processes through automation.
As retailers adapt to these emerging trends, they will be better positioned to meet customer demands and thrive in the competitive landscape of 2023 and beyond.
TaF.tc is a long-term partner of SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), serving as an appointed Continuous Education Training Centre (CET) for the textile and fashion industry. Essentially, this means helping individuals stay updated with the latest retail trends and innovations.
Sign up for our Curating a Personal Shopping Experience course where we teach participants how to create unique and tailored shopping experiences for each customer, taking into account their specific needs, preferences, and lifestyles.
Course content covers product and service knowledge, current fashion and lifestyle trends, customer profiling, relationship building through effective communication, and the use of digital tools for wardrobe management.
By the end of the course, participants will be equipped with the skills needed to create unforgettable and enjoyable shopping experiences for their customers, ensuring their retail businesses stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world of personalised retail.
Interested to find out more? Speak with our retail brand consultants today or do WhatsApp us or drop us a call at 6011 8066 and ask for our programme advisor to have all your questions answered.
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