2023 Predictions: Q1 Trends on Amazon & Beyond
Congratulations! You survived the holiday retail season—with reason to celebrate—we hope! Now that Holiday ‘22 is in the rearview, it’s never too early to start learning from your performance, surfacing the right insights from your data, and looking ahead to what’s next. Four key consumer trends are expected to dominate Q1. Here’s what to expect:
Voicebot predicts the voice commerce market to increase by 320% over 2022—from $4.6 billion to $19.4 billion. Given the exponential rise in voice assistant adoption, Amazon released Alexa Voice Shopping, which allows shoppers to browse for items, add to carts, and track orders. What does this mean for sellers as they plan for 2023? Serious SEO. Time to optimize your site for voice search, which will also help increase traffic and generate new leads.
The focus on ethical and sustainable consumption will continue to play an important role in shaping consumers’ buying intent. The Worldwide Fund for Nature saw Google searches for sustainable goods increase globally by 70% since 2016. Across the U.S. alone, searches related to sustainability grew by 450% between 2016 and 2018. In a recent survey conducted by Accenture, 83% of consumers felt it was “extremely important” for brands to develop products that are meant to be reused or recycled and more than half said they would be willing to pay more, (up and above 10%) for sustainable alternatives to conventional products. It’s clear that brands who have a strong sustainability story to tell—and can support it with products that create positive environmental impact, will be well positioned for success in 2023 and beyond.
The pandemic saw an unprecedented decline in brand loyalty. McKinsey reported that 75% of consumers tried new shopping behaviors, mostly due to convenience and price. 39% of those surveyed abandoned their favorites entirely, having discovered new brands that better represented their values. Earning back the loyalty of attrited customers requires strategy, time, and focus. Start by taking a fresh look at your target audience and sub-segments. Who are they? What moves them? What influences their buying decisions? What are they seeking, both in terms of product and the intangibles that give a brand life and personality? What are their life goals? How do they search? How do they shop? The more details you gather not only about where your customers live or their annual HH, but also who they are and what they want most, the easier it becomes to refine your brand identity in alignment with your respective values, which is, needless to say, the next step to winning back trust and credibility among your audience.
Throughout the pandemic, social commerce has seen tremendous growth. According to Accenture, it generated global sales of nearly $560 billion in 2021; by 2025 that number is expected to reach $1.2 trillion. Datareportal revealed that as of 2022, over half the world’s population, or ~58.4%, have become active users of social media, spending an average of almost 2.5 hours on social channels. For many of these users, social media is the entry point for all of their online engagement—communication, news, entertainment—and shopping. In order to capture meaningful social commerce sales, it’s essential to develop a robust, differentiated, channel-specific strategy, an investment that often sees remarkable returns
As we head into 2023, the trends we’re seeing are strong indicators that consumers are increasingly seeking connection, social validation of their purchases, and evidence of serious efforts toward sustainability from the brands they shop. Spend some time this month considering how your brand fits into this consumer landscape, and adapt your look, feel, and POV to align with consumer sentiment as best you can, choosing which elements to amplify based on the product you sell and your own brand identity. Stay connected to your customers as much as they want tobeconnected, and you’re already ahead of the game.