Shopping trends have drastically modified over the past few years. While most of us previously browsed retail stores on a Saturday to seek out great deals, we now turn to Instagram to seek out discounts offered by influencers.
And reasonably than watching TV ads to seek out out about latest products, nowadays, most of us stumble across ads in between YouTube videos.
Here, we’ll explore the shopping trends of 2023, as discovered in our State of Consumer Trends Survey, to make sure you’re capable of meet customers where and after they’d prefer to buy. Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
How Shopping Trends Changed in the Past 6 Months
The Top Shopping Trends of 2023
The Shopping Trends to Expect in 2023
How Shopping Trends Modified within the Past 6 Months
1. Consumers prefer flexibility over subscription models.
Lately, consumers have lots of flexibility in how they purchase products. They’ll make a one-time purchase or join a subscription service. They can even pay full-price or via installments because of popular platforms like Afterpay and Klarna.
Nonetheless, this flexibility is probably not crucial. While 32% of consumers have purchased a subscription over the past three months, a staggering 69% of consumers still prefer purchasing products each time the necessity arises.
On top of that, consumers prefer to buy products at full price. Only 21% of consumers prefer purchasing a product with installments.
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2. Baby Boomers are skeptical about shopping via social media, but they’re coming around.
In response to our report, a slim 6% of Baby Boomers feel comfortable making purchases directly on social media. What’s more, only 5% trust social media platforms with their bank card information.
In brief, Baby Boomers are skeptical about shopping via social media. Nonetheless, things could possibly be turning around.
24% of Baby Boomers have discovered a latest product on social media up to now 3 months — up 41% from May 2022. On top of that, 6% of boomers have bought a product on social media up to now three months, a 50% jump from May 2022.
While these stats are promising, it is vital to satisfy your consumers where they’re immediately. So, for those who’re audience skews older, you may get more traction with other channels like TV ads and search.
3. Millennials and Gen Z’ers may hinge their purchasing decisions on an organization’s stance on social issues.
Increasingly, consumers need to support firms that share their values. For instance, 66% of consumers want firms to cut back their environmental impact.
This is not only talk: corporate responsibility is influencing consumers’ purchasing decisions. Take a take a look at these stats:
- 39% of consumers usually tend to buy a product based on the brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, up 8% from May 2022.
- 61% of consumers imagine firms should donate a portion of their profits to charity, up 9% from May 2022. Plus, 46% of consumers usually tend to purchase from an organization that actively donates to charity.
- 75% of consumers imagine firms should try to enhance the well-being of their employees, up 4% from May 2022.
At the identical time, consumers are skeptical of firms that use social issues as a marketing ploy without actually taking meaningful motion. But when an organization takes a real stand, it could actually be an efficient approach to construct trust and credibility with consumers.
The Top Shopping Trends of 2023
1. Influencer recommendations matter greater than recommendations from family and friends.
Influencer marketing has proven an incredibly effective strategy for brands over the past few years — in actual fact, as of 2021, almost 60% of marketers said influencer marketing was probably the most effective marketing trend, ahead of web optimization, experiential marketing, and short-form video content.
And in 2022, 30% of consumers now report influencer recommendations are one of the vital vital aspects of their purchasing decisions, in comparison with 27% for recommendations from friends or family.
In some ways, this is sensible: Influencers are traditionally considered experts of their area of interest. If I follow a makeup influencer, it’s secure to assume she or he knows more about makeup than most of my friends.
For e-commerce businesses, that is powerful news: It means you now not have to depend on word-of-mouth alone. As an alternative, it’s clever to focus your efforts on influencer marketing, since influencers have demonstrated a level of influence over their audiences that surpasses even that of family and friends.
2. Gen Zers prefer to find latest products via social media — but they still wish to make purchases in-store.
Our State of Consumer Trends Survey found Gen Zers (ages 18-24) most frequently discover latest products on social media (71%), followed by YouTube ads (56%), ads on music streaming services (55%), and web searches (50%).
In case your e-commerce business is targeting Gen Zers, then, it is important you focus your efforts on social media reasonably than paid ads on the subject of attracting latest results in your products and educating those leads in your products.
Moreover, when asked which content formats Gen Zers prefer for learning a couple of product and its features on social media, roughly 50% said they’d wish to study a product through a story post. That is followed by short-form video (42%), after which a feed post (42%).
Nonetheless, 73% of individuals (and 55% of Gen Zers particularly) say they’d still prefer to buy a product in-store. That is a very important call-out: While you’ll be wanting to give attention to social media in your lead generation efforts, it’s still vital to have a powerful, effective in-store shopping option for individuals who would love to make the ultimate sale in person.
3. With regards to millennials and Gen X, retail stores and searching the web are two popular options for locating latest products.
Much like Gen Zers, the most well-liked method amongst millennial buyers for locating latest products is social media (51%).
Nonetheless, in a close second for millennials is searching the web (50%) — which suggests, for those who’re targeting a millennial demographic, you may want to think about leveraging paid ads and a powerful web optimization strategy for getting your products in front of your target market.
And in case your target market is Gen X (35-54 yr olds), retail stores are the most well-liked option for locating latest products, so you’ll be wanting to take a position time and resources in partnerships with brick-and-mortar retailers to make sure your products are at loads of physical locations.
Plus, just like millennials, 39% of Gen X buyers also search the web for brand spanking new products, so web optimization is one other good option here.
4. Millennials and Gen Xers prefer to find latest products on social media through ads or sponsored content — while Gen Zers prefer discovering latest products on social media through short-form videos.
Depending in your goal demographic, you’ll be wanting to differ the form of content you create for social media on the subject of attracting latest audiences to your products.
For example, for those who’re aiming to draw Gen Zers, you’ll be wanting to think about short-form video like TikTok or Instagram Reels, since 41% report short-form video as their preferred medium for locating latest products.
In the event you’re as a substitute looking to succeed in millennials or Gen Xers, you’ll be wanting to take into consideration leveraging ads or sponsored content, since 44% mark that option as their favorite.
5. Mobile phones are the most well-liked device for online shopping.
When shopping online, roughly 75% of consumers prefer using their mobile devices, in comparison with 15% that prefer desktop and 6% that prefer tablet.
This implies as an e-commerce business it’s important your website is mobile-optimized, and you may have mobile-responsive product pages.
If I’m scrolling an organization’s products and I find it’s too difficult or cumbersome on my phone, I typically ditch the web site – and do not return. So it is important you make sure you’re following mobile best practices (including large text, plenty of white space, responsive templates, and mobile-friendly calls-to-action).
6. Price matters most to on the subject of making a purchasing decision — but other aspects might surprise you.
Across the board, price is a significant factor on the subject of purchasing decisions. 78% of Gen Z, 74% of millennials, 74% of Gen X, and 73% of Boomers report price as one of the vital vital aspects on the subject of deciding whether or not they will buy a product.
The standard of a product is vital, as well, with 65% of Gen Z, 78% of millennials, 82% of Gen X, and 72% of Boomers marking it as one other top factor on the subject of purchasing decisions.
But beyond having a cheap and high-quality product, there are a couple of other distinguishing aspects you’ll be wanting to remember when marketing your brand.
For example, 57% of Gen Zers will consider purchasing a product if a percentage of the proceeds from the acquisition shall be donated to charity. And 55% of millennials prefer buying a product that has strong reviews. 62% of Gen Xers appreciate whether a brand has an energetic community around it, and 55% of Boomers search for a product’s features and functionality when considering a purchase order.
7. Short-form video offers huge promoting opportunities.
Short-form video is the most well-liked video length on social media. Because of this, TikTok — and other short-form video platforms — have gotten viable promoting channels. In truth, 36% of consumers need to study products through short-form videos like TikToks or Reels.
On top of that, 52% of U.S TikTok users say the advertisements they see on the platform are fun and fascinating — that are two ingredients for effective ads.
The Shopping Trends to Expect in 2023
Listed here are a couple of trends you may proceed to see:
- Mobile usage for shopping will proceed to dominate the e-commerce industry. In 2018, it encompassed 63.5% of total e-commerce sales, and in 2020, that number jumped to 70.4% (Source). As mentioned above, we found roughly 75% of consumers preferring their mobile devices in 2022, which suggests mobile sales will proceed to dominate the e-commerce landscape.
- The Influencer industry will proceed to grow and remain one of the vital popular avenues for brands trying to connect with their audiences. Influencer marketing has grown rapidly over the past few years — from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $9.7 billion in 2020, and $13.8 billion in 2021. Nowadays, Gen Zers and millennials aren’t trying to celebrities for inspiration on the subject of purchasing services or products, and they don’t seem to be turning to friends, either — they’re trying to these influencers.
- We’ll see an increase in individuals who use the metaverse or buy virtual currency. HubSpot’s Consumer Trends Survey found over half of those that have ever used the metaverse or bought virtual currency/items have done so inside the past three months — including 56% who’ve visited the metaverse, 56% who’ve bought cryptocurrency, and 75% who’ve bought NFTs for the primary time.
When creating an efficient e-commerce strategy, it is important you’re taking the time to grasp how shoppers need to shop today — and into the longer term. Shopping behaviors change over time. The more your enterprise can meet the evolving needs of your consumers, the more likely you might be to proceed to succeed well into the longer term.
