The MARS Agency Shopper Trends 2017

1. SHOPPER
MARKETING
TRENDS

2. DISCOUNTERS EVOLVE TO MAIN SHOP LAND GRAB
RING FENCED MOBILE SHOPPER JOURNEYS
REAL TIME AMBITIONS FOR DELIVERY
SOCIAL SHOPPING TO COME OF AGE
FACE TO FACE RE-EMERGES AS A USP
SECOND GENERATION ETAILING
SURPRISING IN STORE BED FELLOWS
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SHOPPER
MARKETING
TRENDS

3. Value proposition retail operators across grocery,
homewares and fashion have undergone a speedy self-
styled revolution moving their basic, low-cost product
selling enterprise to offering shopper-demand lines
within retail experiences that are at least comparable
with long-standing High Street retailers.
Progressing with the volume model, these retailers are
continuously improving their propositions to gain an
optimised share of shoppers’ regular essential and
stock-up purchases, leaving the original players facing
increasing pressure on their everyday ranges, leading
to further strategic focus on daily-convenience and
special purchase opportunities.
The resulting effect in 2017 will see a significant jump
in mainstream shoppers broaden their trust and
commitment on a regular basis to retailers that they
previously considered as a value-basics provider.
DISCOUNTERS EVOLVE TO
MAIN SHOP LAND GRAB
1

4. As near-field payment transactions have become the
norm in recent years, 2016 finally saw the beginning of
mass adoption of NFC and wallet-led mobile payments
through the provision of solid, simple solutions from
trusted handset manufacturers, platforms and carriers.
Whilst the ongoing Internet of Things evolution will
increasingly drive payment mechanisms across all
appliances in consumers’ lives, it’s the fruition of the
human relationship with their phones that makes the
selling cycle opportunities around mobile handsets
unique.
Along with the fast paced adoption of mobile
payments in 2017, mobile payment platform owners,
dynamic POS retailers and innovative brands will
cooperate to share data to build new and excusive
mobile touchpoint activation strategies that will allow
shoppers access to more efficient and personal
shopper journey experiences.
RING FENCED MOBILE
SHOPPER JOURNEYS
2

5. Availability and access to required goods and services
has long been the pivotal factor in the decision process
in determining whether shoppers buy online versus
bricks and mortar stores. Immediacy has often come
before relative price sensitivity or brand and retailer
loyalty – in essence the very driving force of supply
and demand.
More recently a widening variety of sectors leveraging
the nimbleness of online trading, whether as their
principle window or a growing part of their go-to-
market mix, have heavily focused on defining
advancing distribution solutions equitable to
traditional point of buying scenarios.
Flourishing time-guaranteed and next-day supply chain
networks concentrating on more efficient and
increasingly sought same-day solutions will continue to
drive brand and retail growth opportunities and bring
about new shopper preferences and buying behaviours
in 2017.
REAL TIME AMBITIONS
FOR DELIVERY
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6. At the dawn of online brand presence, there was a
voyage of discovery to determine the role emerging
media could play along the shopper journey and
equally the purpose of the brand in a space that was
personal and only socially transactional at the time.
The social space opportunity model has incessantly
redefined itself and until relatively recently evolved to
be a hard advertising environment and hands-off reco’
space among guests within invited networks. Brands
were not alone in their inability to work it out.
Shoppers were not ready to purchase directly as the
platforms had not achieved the comfort factor to
change already instilled online buying behaviours.
2017 will see a surge of Shop Now activity across
personal, follower and brand social sites powered by
advancing image recognition and direct and click-
through transaction technology. Brands need to
reimagine their early shopper journey resources to
meet and capture the sales opportunity that will exist.
SOCIAL SHOPPING
TO COME OF AGE
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7. Brands and retailers in 2016 sustained their strategies
to offer live or instantaneous responsiveness to
shoppers’ need for information as they perused aisles
in both online and physical form in an effort to soften
and extend the quality of audiences’ en-route
purchasing experiences.
Online, there was a proliferation of newly introduced
live chat services; Call-centres rebalanced the press-#-
now trend in favour of more voice connectivity; Brands
and retailers in real-life environments have begun to
heavily reinvest in engaging experiences.
Whilst technology offers ever-improving audio and CGI
alternatives to person-to-person interaction, brands
who choose to further invest in real humans within
their live or over-the-net selling spaces in 2017 will
achieve exaggerated stand-out engagement and
preference from shoppers versus their competitive set.
FACE TO FACE
RE-EMERGES AS A USP
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8. As web retailing took hold, two distinct groups emerged:
Established compaies moved online as a source of
expansion and exploration. The second group were bold
emerging vendors that used the web as a low cost entry
point that simultaneously pigeon-holed them as online
retailers and came with guarded perceptions.
As a generation of learnings are adopted, the plus or only
online status has become redundant as shoppers openly
accept a trading space as long as it holds both relevancy
to the shopper mission as well as meeting the experience
expectation along the engagement journey.
In 2017 we will increasingly see powerful retail
propositions – born out of both existing and new
enterprises – launching within the online space,
mirroring large investment and communication budgets
previously aligned to physical stores. They will make a
statement on the cyber High Street through exclusives,
unprecedented immersive experiences driven by
interactive tech and new levels of after sales servicing.
SECOND GENERATION
ETAILING
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9. The pressure on retailers to optimise the return on their
physical estates continues unabated as sales channels
extend, strengthening competition evolves and margins
are further burdened through supply chain and other
environmental factors.
Whilst brand concessions are not a new concept, their
relevancy to the host retailer has been a considerable
factor in who becomes a sub-tenant and are often chosen
for the vertical alignment to the retailer’s proposition.
Challenging times seek innovative solutions and ones that
can offer unexpectedly convenient or exciting aspects to
the shopper experience.
In 2017 there will be a convention-busting utilisation of
space from brands and services that shoppers will be
surprised but not upset to experience ranging from health
and medical, utility and professional services as well as
the return of brands leveraging destination areas to
engage with their own audiences in unique ways.
SURPRISING IN STORE
BED FELLOWS
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10. CONNECT Darren Keen Greg Thorpe Sam Moqbel
CEO Europe Managing Director Managing Director, Events
dkeen@marslondon.co.uk gthorpe@marslondon.co.uk smoqbel@mars.events