The ROAST insights team have crunched the numbers and pulled out some key consumer trends across, Travel, Retail and Social Media.
Retail – Trading down, dressing up, and ‘The Lipstick Effect’
Consumer confidence is down, and shoppers will be looking to make savings wherever they can.
In groceries, many will be trading down, whether that’s moving the weekly shop to Aldi or Lidl, or switching from a favourite brand to an own-brand alternative. Only the strongest brands, think Marmite or Hellman’s, will be able to protect both their sales volume and their price premium.
In fashion, a perfect storm of cost-of-living and eco-awareness, spurred on by some great advertising such as Ebay’s Love Island partnership, is causing us to reach an inflection point in attitudes towards buying second-hand. Expect charity shops and reselling apps to grow in popularity, attracting a higher percentage of the young and stylish than before.
Affordable luxuries which allow people to feel great within their budget constraints tend to grow in popularity during a recession. Expect this phenomenon, known as The Lipstick Effect, to impact purchasing behaviour throughout the year. Could your brand provide solace through dark times?
Travel – The Sweet Escape
‘Revenge Travel’ is set to continue, with many Brits still making up for holidays they lost out on during COVID. Travel currently looks to be the only discretionary spending category likely to grow, or at least stay stable as we head into 2023. City breaks will prove more popular than last year as the fear of crowds fades away.
But what about the cost-of-living crisis? Well, expect the budget airlines to mop up more of the market than in the pre-COVID era as consumers focus on value, and sadly we expect sustainability to take a back seat (only 10% say they would reduce travel for environmental reasons).
Social Media – Meta is slipping, Twitter is spiralling
Facebook is still the dominant social network in the UK, especially amongst those aged forty or older, but Meta is losing its grip on the youth. Last year, TikTok overtook Snapchat in terms of the percentage of 16-24s using it every day. This year, we expect it to overtake Instagram.
TikTok will continue to grow, and its popularity with the young will bleed across age groups. We expect this behaviour to get a boost as multi-generational family units gather and spend time together over the festive period.
Twitter looks in trouble at the moment, but we think the reason Musk bought it, the fact that it is the ‘de facto townhall’ of global, or at least Western Society, will be enough to pull it out of its death spiral!
Interested in delving into further Consumer Insight Trends for 2023? Check out our ‘Consumer Trends for 2023’ Whitepaper below.
Consumer Trends for 2023
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