Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Stores that double as classrooms, sensory-rich environments and a rental versus a buy retail model. These are three of the five trends that shopping center developer Westfield believes will shape the future of retailing.

The trends are highlighted in a new report from Westfield, "How We Shop Now: What's Next?," for which the developer interviewed 13,000 shoppers across the United States and United Kingdom along with leading industry experts and trend-spotters.

The five key trends are:

Retailers may find themselves banished to the Island of the Misfit Toys if they do not improve their handling of returned holiday purchases.

According to new data from Kurt Salmon, it took an average of 13.3 days for retailers to credit returns to accounts during the 2015 holiday season. This marked an improvement from the prior year’s 16.8 days, but still far from customers’ expectation of about seven days.

For all their talk about the customer, most retailers have yet to evolve to a business model that is truly customer-centric.

That’s the conclusion of a new industry study by strategic consulting firm The O Alliance that was created in partnership with Revmetri.

As retail enters a technology-centric, omnichannel era, the good old fashioned coupon remains as important as ever.

According to a new study of 11,000 consumers from digital offers platform RetailMeNot Inc. and ad intelligence provider Placed Inc., more than three in five shoppers actively seek out coupons in preference to other types of promotions.

Consumer demand for more control over their shopping environment is driving growth in one particular technology category.

According to a new study from market research firm Technavio, “Global Self-service Kiosk Market 2016-2020,” the market size of the global self-service kiosk market is predicted to reach close to $18 billion in revenue by 2020. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% between 2016, when the market is expected to be roughly $14 billion, and 2020.

Retailers surely expect to move a lot of salty snacks and beer ahead of Super Bowl Weekend, but candles too?

That’s just one of the more interesting items a new survey reveals as the product categories most impacted by the big game. IRI released data detailing the sales lift of various food, beverage and consumer product categories in the run up to Super Bowl Sunday.

When it comes to e-commerce, the top driver is actually something the experience doesn’t offer.

According to two surveys of online shoppers in the U.S. and Canada conducted by Bizrate Insights, a division of Connexity, in December 2015 and January 2016, a leading 55% of respondents cited the lack of crowds, traffic and hunting for parking as a top reason to buy online. Another 46% said shopping online takes less time than shopping in stores, while 46% also mentioned free shipping.

Slowly but surely, consumers are becoming open to the idea of switching from leather wallets to an electronic version.

A lot of attention has been paid to purchase drivers, but what about factors that prevent consumers from buying your products?

A new study of 900 U.S. consumers conducted in November 2015 by international law firm Morrison & Foerster indicates that concerns about privacy are reducing the number of purchases customers make.

At least once in the last 12 months, more than one-third (35%) of respondents indicated that they had decided not to purchases products or services from a company because of privacy concerns.

Slowly but surely, consumers are becoming open to the idea of switching from leather wallets to an electronic version.

According to the new “Let’s Get Digital” consumer survey from Citi Retail Services, digital wallet usage has increased by 20% in the past two years. Thirty-five percent of consumers used digital wallets at the end of 2014, and that figure rose to 55% by the end of the year 2015.