“77% of retailers want to increase the drive-to-store portion of their advertising investment”

Whether it’s marketing, data, digital or customer management, I see that the digital and societal changes in retail are allied to challenges of R.O.I. optimisation and business development. Our Retail Insights Barometer* confirms this. There are six emerging trends, out of 15 major trends. For the retail community they seem to be key elements for the next 12 months.

• E-commerce: the pandemic has marked a turning point for e-commerce, which has seen 10 years of growth in just 90 days.
  
  
• The physical store is not dead: 37% of retailers plan to open new stores in the next 12 months, against only 5% who want to close.  

• Drive to store: 77% of respondents want to increase the drive-to-store share of their advertising investment, in order to meet the challenges of unified commerce.
  
  
• Mobile display is the lever of choice for 56% of respondents, with proven effectiveness in terms of traffic generation and reach.
  
  
• The need for relocation accelerated convenience with Covid-19, but also to help local merchants. For 37% of respondents, local campaigns were reinforced during Covid. 29% of the polled even reinforced both local and national campaigns.

• The ecological transition: 50% of the survey consider the ecological impact of their adverts. 30% say they integrate this aspect into strategy. Young consumers also demand that brands take a stand on these issues. 37% of Generation Y stopped buying products offered by companies they considered as unethical.

Sandrine Prefaut

* The S4M Retail Insights barometer is based on a trend book, a qualitative study (10 interviews) and a quantitative study (50 retailers interviewed)