Revolutionizing Retail: Navigating 2025 with Scott Benedict's Insights

Unlock the secrets of tomorrow's retail landscape with insights from Scott Benedict. Discover how the consumer behavior revolution of 2024 is reshaping the marketplace in 2025. Whether it's the mobile commerce surge or the integration of digital wallets, we guarantee you'll learn what it takes to stay ahead. As mobile devices become the go-to shopping tool, retailers are under pressure to fortify their tech infrastructure to prevent any hiccups in the customer journey. Dive deep into how omni-channel strategies, social commerce, and the latest AI innovations can make or break your retail game plan in this rapidly changing environment.

Scott Benedict joins us to explore the trends that are revolutionizing retail, offering valuable advice on leveraging these changes for strategic planning. From the pivotal role of social media in influencing purchase decisions to the ways artificial intelligence is personalizing shopping experiences, this episode covers it all. Listen in as Benedict shares how brands are betting big on their digital presence and adapting to evolving payment methods. Don't miss out on these essential tips to enhance your retail strategy and meet consumer expectations in the year ahead.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello everyone. You know one of the great things about this time of the year is that those of us in retail get to stop and take stock and gain the necessary learning from this past year 2024, revealed a number of significant shifts in consumer behavior and expectations and really offer some valuable insights for retailers and consumer brands alike for 2025. Just some of the highlights that I've seen in a number of studies has been the continuing dominance of mobile commerce has been the continuing dominance of mobile commerce. Commerce and purchases whether that's research or an actual finished purchase that take place on a smartphone or a tablet. And according to digital testing firm Applause more than 72% of US consumers prefer to use smartphones or tablets to do their holiday shopping, and that really underscored a trend towards using mobile devices to make shopping decisions. Consumers also, even though they're using more technology, have a very low tolerance for technical issues, and that really continues to place an emphasis on the investments that retailers make in their technical infrastructure to make sure that shoppers have a pleasant experience with that retailer, no matter whether it's in a physical store, on a website or on a mobile device. Another trend that was seen is that more than 52% of consumers adopted new payment methods during the holiday season. Digital wallets become increasingly more useful and more integrated with mobile devices, and a regular analysis of payment methods shows that evolving trends in what payment types consumers are using really accelerates during the holiday season.

Speaker 1: 2:07

Omni-channel execution how well consumers were able to buy online or pick up in-store use curbside pickup or local delivery are all wonderful benefits for retailers, but more than 48% of consumers surveyed indicated they would abandon a retail brand if they had a bad shopping experience. So while it's an opportunity for growth, it also is a double-edged sword and retailers are expected to do well. Social influence, and specifically social commerce making a buying decision while on a social media platform has really continued to grow in its influence, and retailers are placing investments and bets on their social media presence that are just about as important as their core digital shopping platforms, their website and their mobile apps. That trend continues. And lastly, the leverage of artificial intelligence how AI and other tools digital tools are making the shopping experience better. More than 37% of consumers indicated that AI played some role in their holiday shopping. Some role in their holiday shopping, whether that was through search or through personalized product recommendations or the use of chatbots for customer service and potentially, for returns. Bottom line is that this is a time of year for retailers and consumer brands to take stock and to really gain the learnings that they have gotten through the holiday season and use those and incorporate those into their planning for 2025. That's my thoughts today.

Speaker 1: 3:51

I'm Scott Benedict.