What lies ahead for retailers in 2015?

It’s been a busy year in the retail industry this year, we’ve seen Homebase announce 80 store closures, mannequin scandals and Black Friday sales boom, but as we start to wind down for Christmas and welcome another new year, we thought we’d take a look what retail trends we can expect to see next year.

Omni-channel Retailing

So we’ve had multichannel shopping in 2014, now it’s going to be all about Omni-channel retailing, which will see consumers being able to view an item on their tablet device, purchase it via their mobile phone, have it delivered to their home and then return it via the store. Let’s just hope retailers are prepared and can make the experience completely seamless.

Personal Experiences

Big data, personal data, whatever you want to call it, it’s going to be used to customise everything in 2015. Consumers can expect personalised experiences based on their location, the time and date, loyalty and past purchases.

The Mobile Wallet

2015 could be the year that sees consumers say goodbye to cash and credit cards in favour of the mobile wallet. Retailers will look to take steps to adopt the mobile wallet strategy by adopting payment solutions like Square Wallet, Google Wallet and PayPal.

Customer Knowledge

Consumers are becoming more and more informed about prices, retailers, products and so on and therefore in 2015, we will see more retailers fulfilling that demand and training staff to be experts in their field so that they’re armed with the knowledge that the customer wants.

Social Media

Without a doubt, social media is going to play a huge part in retail decision making in 2015. Although this year we’ve seen customers and retailers use social media to connect as a customer service channel, 2015 will see social media used for marketing, developing products and selling.

Loyalty

With retailers in constant competition to price match one another and win consumers, we’ll see a rise in loyalty programs and rewards from retailers in a bid to win and keep customers. Social media will play a part in this and will drive customers to sign up to reward programs online and in-store.

Speed

We’re always in a rush and sometimes you just want to get your shopping over and done with, so in 2015 we’ll see an increased need for speed. Retailers like Amazon are already taking steps to fulfil this need with talks about Prime Air, but other retailers will need to follow suit if they want to keep up.

Mobile

Do you remember our blog about beacon technology being implemented in stores? Well in 2015 the use of mobile technology in retailing will grow, consumers are increasingly using their mobile phones in-store so it will become a requirement for stores to implement WiFi and mobile-friendly technology.

Click-and-Collect

This year click and collect have boomed and in 2015 we’ll continue to see consumer buying online and picking up their goods in-store. It’s a great strategy for retailers to encourage shoppers into their store and it creates another touchpoint between the retailer and the consumer.

Store Layout

This year we have seen the decline in brick-and-mortar stores’ traffic, which will see retailers rethinking their store layout next year and making the most out of retail displays to encourage footfall.

So there you go, that’s what we predict might happen in 2015, keep checking into our blog to keep up to date with the latest retail and visual merchandising news. Have a great New Year and we’ll be back blogging for you in the New Year!