Looking forward to the hottest retail trends this coming 2019?
As the new year approaches, the time has come to come up with business strategies and trends to boost their business. Pretty soon, you will see different businesses come up with different gimmicks to try and allure more customers.
Soon enough, you will see businesses try out trends inspired by popular culture to some other digital trends to try and get you to buy their merchandise. The retail industry will burst with ideas to keep things interesting for you and their other clients.
Want to find out which trends will set the theme for retail in 2019? Read what’s below to get an idea of what we predict will be the hottest trends when the new year comes in.
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1. Virtual Reality will Retail’s New Reality
It has been 2 years since Oculus Rift broke the ground by introducing virtual reality to the world. Since that time, only video games have made excellent use of virtual reality. That will change as another player will take up to using virtual reality as the new year rolls around.
We expect that retail businesses will make use of VR to showcase their products in 2019. The days of putting their products on display for people to check out. Now, they will be able to save the space they would have used for displays for something else with the help of virtual reality.
Likely users of virtual reality will be those who sell furniture and appliances. Contractors and home designers may also be able to make use of this to sell their services. This way, their customers will be able to if their products will fit in their homes the way they pictured it.
The biggest problem furniture and appliance stores encountered are that people return what they bought. Most of the time, it’s because the product doesn’t fit in their homes. How virtual reality can help with this is through augmented reality.
Using augmented reality will allow their customers to create a virtual space with measurements close to how their actual living space is. This will allow them to be more accurate with their measurements, decreasing the chances of any products getting returned.
2. CBD will Dominate the Retail Markets
This year, many states legalized the use of medical and recreational cannabis. With this, it’s expected many stores will take advantage of its popularity to boost their sales. You can expect to see lots of retail outlets to sell cannabis-themed items.
For example, bakeries will try to incorporate cannabis into their products. They do this as an effort to those who seek the aid of recreational cannabis to have a good time. Since it’s in an edible form, they will feel their effects quicker than usual.
Design businesses will also take a crack at using cannabis to sell their goods. Most of the time, they will not use the actual product, only using its image for different labels. This is still enough to entice people to buy their products, though.
This also goes for stores who sell furniture. You’ll soon see a lot of marijuana-inspired furniture like lamps. Some will even fashion wooden furniture in the image of the CBD plant.
Natural products will be the biggest market for CBD, though. You can expect to see products like CBD oils hit the shelves soon after the start of the new year. Check out this page for more information on these products.
3. Artificial Intelligence will be the Future of Retail
With the technological advancements enabling artificial intelligence to have effective interactions with humans, we’re only a hop, skip, and a jump away from using A.I. to handle customer interaction. Using A.I. this way will remove any possibility of human error between customers and employees.
This also allows customers to gather the information they’re looking for. Most of the time, people hang up on customer service because it takes them too long to respond. This is due to customer service teams looking into their scripts or data to confirm the information they’re relaying is correct.
Using artificial intelligence removes this lag time. The only dead air happening will be the time it takes for it to go through its databanks. This often only takes around half a second to 2 full seconds.
The most popular way businesses use this right now is though chatbots. Business websites are where you’re likely to find them. Websites who use these bots experienced a boost in retention compared to when they didn’t have it.
Using artificial intelligence will also result in increased customer engagement. You may notice that trending retailers have positive reviews about their customer engagement. This is important because having amazing engagement will ensure that your business succeeds.
This is because nowadays, people are looking for personalized services. A.I. handling your customers will make sure they will have the best experience while shopping.
4. Businesses will Focus on Enhancing Your Experience with Them
Speaking of having the best experience, you may see a rise in gimmicky trends in 2019. This move isn’t only to get with the times but to make their business more memorable. This is because people use experiences than products to remember something by.
Think about it, anyone can buy your product again and again but not let people know about it. However, if people enjoy the time they spent in your retail store, they’re likely to share it on social media.
A good example of this being an effective trend is through restaurants. Iconic restaurants always have their customers tweet, post, or blog about their establishment. So, expect to see retails to have whacky and/or one of a kind gimmicks.
This gives their clients something that they can remember even if they don’t buy any of their products. Also, this enables other retails to specialize in only selling experiences.
Shops like Sephora do a great job with this. Their sampling services allow their clients to have a taste of their products. At the same time, they are able to enjoy the experience the shop gives.
Know About the Hottest Retail Trends to Hit Stores in 2019
These are what we predict to be 2019’s trends. Use our list to know what retail trends you should expect as the new year comes!
Speaking of trends, why don’t we take a look at the world of fashion? Here are some fall fashion trends women can enjoy. If they’re good enough for celebrities, they should be good enough for you!