Don’t play catch up with commerce trends: create your own

Benoit Soucaret at Merkle Experience & Commerce explains that, to understand what the future of commerce will look like, we need to look at what’s happening today

 

From social commerce to live streaming, the Metaverse and Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs), the world of commerce is transforming at lightning speed. Social commerce has replaced window shopping, summing up what younger consumers, in particular, are looking for; authentic, human content creators who share what they love in inventive, fun ways with fans tapping into constantly refreshed, relevant content.

 

Stepping into the next iteration, major brands such as Walmart, Nike, Adidas, and Zara have led the charge by launching digitally in the Metaverse. Over the next 12 months, many brands will find themselves trying to play catch up, scrambling to replicate the efforts of today’s forerunners rather than redefine commerce for themselves.

 

Most brands want to be leaders, not followers. However, to plot a path to future-forward commerce we have to start with understanding where we are right now.

 

Reimagine without the rules

Today’s commerce experience is homogeneous and unremarkable. Everything looks and behaves the same — often in the name of efficiency, with Amazon leading the way in efficient but often uninspiring commerce.  Brands cannot and should not want to compete with Amazon on efficiency. Differentiation is grounded in the ability to be unique, different, and truly surprise their consumers.

 

An over-focus on optimisation has resulted in the death of brand-specific differentiation and creativity and ignores the need for personalisation and customer journey mapping. Whether online or in-store, there is much more that can be done to provide a great experience by making it fun, playful, unique, and exciting.

 

The real future

The future of commerce is about being real, part of the community, and most importantly, acting in real-time. For example, if a brand sees that they are being talked about on social media platforms, they must get in there and be part of the conversation right away.

 

It’s all about people coming together to talk about the things they want to buy, and then linking it to entertainment and live shopping. TikTok has already started by partnering with brands such as Walmart and American Eagle, to create live shopping experiences that engage the community in a very entertaining way - more about having fun than pushing products.

 

Similarly, Nike recently launched its Nike By You shoe customisation lens to drive increased engagement with the Nike app and generate membership sign-ups. Following its success in the US, Nike has expanded its lens to other parts of the world.

 

VR commerce and the Metaverse

Right now, Metaverse shopping is more of a customer engagement and brand-awareness strategy, and less of a profit-making venture. But its future lies in attracting revenue and building community.

 

Will the Metaverse prove capable of offering unique and multi-sensory experiences? It remains to be seen. Whatever the Metaverse becomes, the important thing is that it is sparking much needed conversation about what the future of digital experiences could be. 

 

However, it does have the potential to provide community shopping, bringing virtual shopping to already-popular virtual worlds. For instance, Forever 21 partnered with social gaming platform Roblox to allow consumers to set up their own stores in ‘Shop City’. PacSun offers virtual clothing items for sale in the Roblox Avatar Marketplace, and Gap Inc. collaborated with digital artist Frank Ape to create NFT versions of Gap clothing called Gap Threads sold on Tezos.

 

Online 3D experiences will also mean more wearable devices, and we could see smart eyeglasses to form part of our daily life to interact and shop. Hand-held controllers will persist too, but in a small number of use cases. In some cases, the future of interface design is already here.

 

For instance, people like voice interfaces because they allow for speed and efficiency. And, while technologies like VR have been primarily associated with gaming, expect to see more of these to provide immersive and entertaining experiences, the same way AR is becoming the new normal in today’s commerce world.

 

Comfort is the enemy of progress

Platforms such as TikTok have shown us that we should stop caring so much about trends and best practices. What matters most is based on personal data, and this means owning the customer/shopper relationship and building this through great, memorable experiences and creativity.

 

But the future is also about solving problems for consumers and being innovative. Comfort is the enemy of progress.

 

Creativity and consumer insight are at the core of it all. Everything is centred on community, authentically leveraging the creator community, and bringing like-minded people together.

 

People are looking for more meaningful relationships with others is what will define the future of shopping. It’s all about creating your tribe, engaging authentically and being a lynchpin of your community — on whichever platform that community comes together.

 

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Benoit Soucaret is CXO at Merkle Experience & Commerce, UK

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com