Consumer Trends

From RIS News/Cognizant. This 2012 Shopper Experience study offers new insights into customers and how retailers can reshape their strategies to provide personalized in-store experiences that will keep shoppers coming back.

From McGladrey LLP. By all indications, 2012 will be another year of lethargic growth, store closings and increased focus on everyday low prices by several major retailers, all which will have a significant impact on the entire retail landscape. Multichannel is key to survival for many.

From RSM McGladrey. Slower-than-historic post-recessionary growth and the persistent high levels of unemployment are key issues facing businesses today. More importantly, employment growth and rising income represent opportunities to drive market share and higher sales. The consumer is responding differently than in past cycles, placing more emphasis on value – from the purchase of more private brands when it comes to basic/commodity merchandise, to cross-shopping among distribution channels. Typical of most cycles, discretionary spending is beginning to gain momentum, outpacing overall retail sales. Consumers, aided by the Internet, are smarter and more demanding shoppers. Winners among retailers and vendors will be those that understand their consumers – what they want, when they want it and at what price they are willing to pay. Those that build and act on that understanding will be the companies that prosper in the new era of growth that is now developing.

From Deloitte. This report examines how these trends will most likely shape consumer spending patterns and the world of consumers more broadly. What will consumers in different geographic and demographic segments value? What will they need and want? Given what they have faced in recent years, how will their attitudes and behaviors continue to change in the coming decade? To set the stage for this discussion, the report begins with a broad look at how changes in the global economy are likely to affect consumer spending as we slowly emerge from recession. In so far as one can ever predict the future, it then looks at longer-term economic, demographic, and technological trends and some of the resulting changes in consumer attitudes and behaviors that are likely to take place over the next 10 years.