Market Researcher Eyes Big Consumer Trends for 2013

Euromonitor International released a report on its top ten consumer trends for 2013. In a blog post about the report, Daphne Kasriel-Alexander, consumers editor at Euromonitor, wrote, “For 2013, we have chosen not to highlight trends such as thrift, urban consumers and the consumer love affair with mobile technology in standalone trends because they have become so ubiquitous—preferring to discuss them in the context of other key global consumer trends. Meanwhile, the lack of a dedicated trend about emerging market consumers underlines the fact that our world is no longer experienced as ‘The West and the rest’ and because consumer culture is everywhere. For instance, in our discussion of the local love trend, we will analyze the swelling pride in local culture and products which accompanies the diluted fascination with some global brand offerings.”

The following are the top consumer trends identified by Euromonitor for the coming year:

  1. Spending on convenience nudging into the quest for value—The recessionary consumer’s dislike of paying for convenience is softening. Consumers are tempted by bite-sized brand offerings aimed at emerging and now developed market shoppers and greater novelty and superior niche services. Consumer reviews also cut the risk of trying something new.
  2. Crowded house redux—Multigenerational and other combined living arrangements are leading to shifting consumption patterns as the ‘floating generation’ stay or return home to economize while peers and even separated couples are forced to cohabit.
  3. Downtime decoded—Digital life is making leisure harder to define, and even as digital detox periods are shared digitally, holidaymakers are “smoasting”—using social networking to boast about their holiday fun. Meanwhile health-conscious consumers are working hard to stay fit.
  4. Food: More than a life staple—Food is now celebrated, avoided, greener, healthier, grown in more urban spaces and hopefully safer.
  5. Gendered consumption RIP?—Gender-specific consumption and outlooks may be fading, apparent in everything from unisex tech preferences, to new gaming audiences and traditionally female behavior feted in business situations.
  6. Local love—Things local are capturing the consumer imagination as more prosocial consumers (those who care about others and society as a whole) reject “burbiness,” a term that reflects commercialism and the prevalence of chain stores, and global brands court local cultural relevance and tastes.
  7. Older and off to work and train—More tech-savvy, active and image-conscious older consumers need and want to work and spend comfortably for longer as more governments and firms are raising or abolishing retirement thresholds.
  8. Parenting lifestyles—Parents buying to suit themselves and tomorrow’s generation, including shopturnals, yummy mummies, parents befriending their teens online, stay-at-home dads, tiger mothers, idle parents, parent bloggers and gifts in lieu of time spent with kids.
  9. Shopping like it's the future—New tech-driven shopping culture reveals generational faultlines. Brands are focusing on interpreting consumer lifestyles to reach out to customers warming to innovation. Showrooming, gamification, Facebook’s piloted want button and in-store digital information offerings are all part of this trend.
  10. The roll call of consumer concerns—A catalogue of often-disparate concerns preoccupies swelling consumer segments. These include bigger peoples’ needs, long tail via the net, the quest for simplicity and the grasp of consumer data as an asset to brands. There are even havens for smokers.
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