By Caroline Forsey

Shopping habits have drastically changed over the past few years.

For instance, while most of us previously browsed retail stores on a Saturday to find great deals, we now turn to Instagram to find discounts offered by influencers.

And rather than watching TV ads to find out about new products, nowadays, most of us stumble across ads in between YouTube videos.

Here, we’ll explore the shopping trends of 2022 to ensure you’re able to meet customers where and when they’d prefer to shop. Plus, we’ll uncover the shopping differences between generations. Let’s dive in.

The Top Shopping Trends of 2022

1. Influencer recommendations matter more than recommendations from friends and family.

Influencer marketing has proven an incredibly effective strategy for brands over the past few years — in fact, as of 2021, almost 60% of marketers said influencer marketing was the most effective marketing trend, ahead of SEO, experiential marketing, and short-form video content.

And in 2022, 30% of consumers now report influencer recommendations are one of the most important factors in their purchasing decisions, compared to 27% for recommendations from friends or family.

In many ways, this makes sense: Influencers are traditionally considered experts in their niche. If I follow a makeup influencer, it’s safe to assume he or she knows more about makeup than most of my friends.

For e-commerce businesses, this is powerful news: It means you no longer need to rely on word-of-mouth alone. Instead, it’s wise to focus your efforts on influencer marketing, since influencers have demonstrated a level of influence over their audiences that surpasses even that of friends and family.

2. Gen Zers prefer to discover new products via social media — but they still like to make purchases in-store.

Our State of Consumer Trends Survey found Gen Zers (ages 18-24) most often discover new products on social media (71%), followed by YouTube ads (56%), ads on music streaming services (55%), and internet searches (50%).

If your e-commerce business is targeting Gen Zers, then, it’s vital you focus your efforts on social media rather than paid ads when it comes to attracting new leads to your products and educating those leads on your products.

Additionally, when asked which content formats Gen Zers prefer for learning about a product and its features on social media, roughly 50% said they’d like to learn about a product through a story post. This is followed by short-form video (42%), and then a feed post (42%).

However, 73% of people (and 55% of Gen Zers in particular) say they’d still prefer to purchase a product in-store. This is an important call-out: While you’ll want to focus on social media for your lead generation efforts, it’s still vital to have a strong, effective in-store shopping option for those who would like to make the final sale in person.

3. When it comes to millennials and Gen X, retail stores and searching the internet are two popular options for discovering new …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

      

Author: Aaron