It’s that time of year when terabytes of online text are written about emerging marketing and technology trends. In that spirit, here’s what we expect to be hot in 2016. Our description on each for why you should care will help you decide how much attention – and possibly budget – to devote to these emerging phenomena.
Social commerce
What is it?
Essentially a sub-set of e-commerce, social commerce enables brands to sell directly through their social media channels.
Where can I see this?
Twitter and Facebook have both implemented buy buttons, while Facebook has also introduced its immersive Canvas product ads and a shopping feed.
Why should I care?
52% of marketers feel that social commerce will be the top trend for 2016, said a recent survey by Greenlight – and it’s already here. Social is driving much bigger increases in retail traffic than any other online channel. If social commerce is closely monitored, targeted and refined, retailers will see the best returns, but they need to look carefully at the customer journey to understand who to target and when.
Clicks to bricks
What is it?
Online retailers moving to physical retail.
Where can I see this?
Amazon has successfully opened its first physical book shop at Seattle’s University Village and is planning to roll out many more across the US and globally.
Why should I care?
Fulfilment problems and increasing costs along with the overcrowding of the online retail market have started to make physical retail more attractive. The concerns
of shoppers about unfulfilled deliveries and the subsequent rise of click-and-collect as the fastest growing sector of e-commerce have also prompted retailers to consider more carefully whether they should go “physical”.
Moment marketing
What is it?
Moment marketing is a form of strategic planning, but on a far more granular level. It utilises behavioural data to enable brands to buy inventory, launch social/content campaigns or simply be in the right place at the exact moment the audience is reaching for a specific device or making their purchase decision.
Where can I see this?
When Johnson & Johnson monitored social media activity among mothers, it discovered new patterns that led to new forms of engagement. At 4.20am it started to see a lot of conversations around getting a baby to sleep through the night – something to which J&J could contribute.
Why should I care?
With the right information, moment marketing empowers retailers to reach their customers in a really personalised way that adds value to the relationship. Moment marketing feels as though it provides a very actionable, measurable and strategic way to utilise data to build long-term relationships and two-way conversations. The key, however, is how retailers gather, retain and analyse that data.
Hub and spoke approach
What is it?
Retailers using physical locations to act as fulfilment centres to increase the efficiency of delivery.
Where can I see this?
Argos has implemented a successful hub and spoke approach for many years. It has several large warehouses and 150 “hub” stores that replenish the hundreds of smaller stores across the country. This successful logistics approach enabled the brand to implement its same-day online delivery service and compete better with online retailers such as Amazon.
Why should I care?
It’s a cost-effective approach that allows retailers to be responsive to customer demands. It also enables retailers to employ an “endless aisle” approach with a wide product range strategy. Customers are becoming continuously demanding; they want to order and receive goods quickly, so it’s important for retailers to match these needs.
It’s not surprising then that many retailers are implementing this strategy, with many others considering it for 2016.
Cashless society
What is it?
Technologies such as contactless and Apple Pay mean that instant payments can take place just by touching a debit or credit card or a smartphone on a reader.
Where can I see this?
Witness the decline of cash in most major cities in the developed world. In London, you can take a bus or tube journey without using cash in any part of the process.
Why should I care?
The convenience and flexibility these technologies herald mean transactions can happen more quickly and easily and in any location that has data connectivity, which is attractive to retailers for obvious reasons. It’s inevitable that the use of cash will continue to decline and more of us will favour cashless transactions as the
century progresses. These technologies are also becoming more mainstream and secure, although security doubts still remain.
Jonathan Staines is planning director at BWP Group
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