The Biggest Trends in the Beverage Industry Right Now
By Michaela VoglSep 13
Online Trends
Published January 15th 2020
AI, CX, and Conscious Consumerism: The Biggest Trends at 2020’s NRF Show
The annual National Retail Federation (NRF) show was held in New York this week. The event is the biggest of its kind and provides an excellent opportunity to find out what the next year has in store for retail.
Of course we can’t all make it to the show itself, so we collected the top five NRF 2020 moments that got the biggest online reactions between 11-14 January, using Brandwatch Consumer Research.
Artificial intelligence to help meet consumer needs
With six thousand mentions on social media, AI was the most discussed theme online during NRF 2020.
We can expect AI to make shopping experiences smarter and more personalized for consumers in the coming years, as excellent experiences become more important for brands looking to differentiate themselves in the retail space.
“Adoption of AI-driven intelligent automation in the retail and consumer products industries is projected to leap from 40 percent of companies today to more than 80 percent in three years” – The coming AI revolution in retail and consumer products, IBM & NRF
This year, the hype was very much about making shopping easier for consumers, with artificial intelligence being used to anticipate consumer needs, upsell, and provide a better customer experience in physical spaces.
Experience will drive consumer behaviour
Who doesn’t love the VIP treatment?
With 3.6K mentions on social, creating memorable consumer experiences is set to continue, and personalization is key – ‘personalization’ had 1.4K mentions in the NRF conversation.
The near future of retail:
1. Personalized offerings #AI
2. Significant automation
3. No more checkout lines
4. Same day home delivery
5. Specialized stores
6. e-commerce at 50% (10% today)
7. 3D printed merchandise
8. Mixed reality (AR/VR) #NRF2020 pic.twitter.com/BveNK1CPPD— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) January 11, 2020
Augmented reality to go beyond gimmicks?
Speaking of CX, AR rose in the conversation as one way to create unique experiences for consumers – it was mentioned two thousand times.
Long gone are the days of a laggy, somewhat blurry experience.
From allowing users to virtually try on Rolexes, to what Nike previews in the below tweet, AR can blow consumers’ minds, even if they aren’t in store.
The shoe on this desk is not real, it is augmented reality (AR).
The unique capture method allows for photo-realistic 3D objects that react to environment lighting accurately. #NRF2020 pic.twitter.com/njYEGl80xT
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) January 11, 2020
Grab yourself a partner
SAP’s booth was so popular it made it into the most discussed topics online, with 3.1K mentions.
The enterprise software company specializes in managing business operations and customer relations, and this year it partnered with Microsoft to advocate for more technology driven business partnerships.
The future of retail embraces co-innovation.
Watch the SAP 🤝 @Microsoft partnership come to life at #NRF2020: https://t.co/227Eiea7Nt@SAP_Retail @SAPIndustries https://t.co/1tMcUtu1eO
— SAP (@SAP) January 14, 2020
Conscious consumerism to continue growing
It’s the trend on the tip of every B2B tongue and agenda, and it was a strong trend at NRF with 1.6K mentions on social… it’s conscious consumerism.
Research from DoSomething Strategic shows how important it has become to align your products with an ethical cause. For example, 76% of Gen Zers are said to have purchased (53%) or would consider purchasing (23%) from a brand/ a product to show support for the issues the brand supported.
Even more vital is the fact, 67% have stopped purchasing or would consider stopping purchasing (27%) from a company if it stood for something or behaved in a way that didn’t align with their values.
Likewise, (and you might already know this if you’ve read Brandwatch’s Consumer Trends report for 2020), 18 – 24 year olds are more likely than any other age group to choose ‘approach to sustainability’ when talking about reasons they’d choose to buy from a brand.
Do you bring your #values to work⁉️
Global #CMO @SAP, @aliciatillman, talks about Conscious Consumerism and why companies need to care.(Refreshing to have #B2B talking about this, isn’t it⁉️) 🔥 A+++ Read MORE ➡️ https://t.co/HCibScOuVc#innovation #NRF2020 #leadership pic.twitter.com/dtiYdD76mV
— Tamara McCleary (@TamaraMcCleary) January 12, 2020
Round-up
It looks like we can expect sustainability and conscious consumerism to grow steadily, as the generation that demands an ethical cause to buy into matures.
Meanwhile, AR, AI, and personalization will lead the way as it becomes more and more important to engage consumers with memorable experiences.
Finally, innovative brand partnerships like the one we see above between SAP and Microsoft could cause even more of a splash in retail in 2020 – it’s certainly a big talking point right now.
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