There are days before the thanksgiving holiday and it gives strong signals of the coming of the shopping season. However, retailers have to face the challenges. The new attribute of consumer behavior. The spread of the pandemic has seriously disrupted the supply chain system in the past year. The continuing high case rate for Covid-19 has strongly impaired the economy as well. And nowadays, the world economy remains historically low and consumers have concerns about the inflation rate. The market demand is low due to the high unemployment rate and the negative expectation for the future. Frankly speaking, there is not too much good news.
In this article, we will explore together what happened in the consumer market and provide several suggestions for retailers.
Key discoveries of the consumer behavior
Holiday celebration
We haven’t seen the stop sign of the recession and chaos of the world. But people are willing to go out to meet their family members, friends, and loves ones in person. This pandemic has restricted people for about three years. It is a high bounce-back power to push people out of their own homes to make a celebration this holiday season.
Early Shopping
We found an interesting thing from the data and survey. The consumer plan their holiday shopping and put orders earlier than before. Instead of waiting for the black Friday sales, more than half of the consumers have ordered the holiday stuff before Oct. By this action, people are trying to offset the inflation and supply concern. People don’t want to behave short during the holiday season.
Customer loyalty
The cost of customer loyalty is becoming higher. Consumers are more willing to switch stores when there is a better deal. Some retailers have doubled the membership benefit, make price match guarantee policy, and widen the return windows to keep the consumers. There is no doubt, this is a high burden for retailers.
Personalized Interaction
consumers not only care about the product quality and price but also care about the interactions when they check the products. Personalized interactions become important for shopping decisions. Frustrating experiences affect the sales of items.
Of course, the impact of the pandemic shifting behaviors and that’s a good chance for new entries to catch the opportunity to expand their business and fight with the traditional stores.
In the next article, we will discuss the actions and solutions to the above discoveries.
