After having faced one of the most challenging periods in its history, the retail sector is facing new challenges. Digital has continued to grow, further changing retailer business interactions and shopper lifestyles. Always attentive to all these changes and challenges, adyenfinancial technology platform Chosen by many of the world’s leading companies, it has identified the main trends that will mark the future of the sector in 2023.
In an advanced digitization process, where the physical and digital experience continually feed back, insecurity and the economic ups and downs of a society in constant transformation coexist. With the lesson learned that the business model will never be the same again and that retailers depend on the unified trade to be successful, they must now adapt to the new demands of consumers. So let’s see, what can we expect from the retail sector in 2023?
1. 2023 will be the year of phygital
2022 has made it clear that the phygital has come to stay. This trend can be defined as a hybrid purchase in which the customer is free to decide in which environment each step of the operation will be carried outwith the possibility of going to the store, seeing the product in person, buying it online and later receiving it at home on a certain date, as well as being able to make changes or returns in a physical store if necessary.
In Spain, the phygital has gained special relevance, since more than 6 out of 10 consumers admit to being more loyal to a brand that allows them to buy online and return in store -a figure that has also risen compared to 2021-. an establishment figital It is concerned with offering new payment methods, but it also has the necessary technology to improve the shopping experience: virtual reality, augmented reality or artificial intelligence, all to connect with consumers in a more personalized way. Not in vain, these opt for shops that do not have queues or that facilitate payment (46%) as well as for shops that remember their preferences and previous shopping behaviors to create a more personalized experience (41%). The objective is to generate a more complete and satisfactory shopping experience. A concept that will develop further over time due to its importance to consumers and their new consumption habits.
2. Unified commerce will continue to be king
Unified commerce is already a reality for many businesses. In Spain, 75% of companies already want the in-store and online experience to be unified. Thanks to the technologies that allow both experiences to be unified, it is possible to know the customer behind each payment and acquire more detailed knowledge about their behavior. Likewise, you can track all channels and regions and make specific business decisions.
Thanks to this acceleration in the adoption of technology, 49% of companies around the world indicate that today they are in a better position due to these investments, which has allowed them to improve their results. Therefore, the integration of all business management in the same technological platform is essential to be able to enjoy all the advantages derived from omnichannel so that data management is even easier. And consumers, in turn, appreciate it. The best way to satisfy a demanding and hyper-connected consumer is through a store model capable of combining both environments. This is reflected in numbers, since 75% of the businesses surveyed consider the unified online and physical experience relevant.
3. The mobile will be consolidated as the favorite purchasing device
Offering consumers the payment method of their choice is key to making the purchase process end without friction. When evaluating the device to make your purchases, specifically the Generation Zeta You are increasingly relying on doing it via your smartphone, in fact, 37% no longer use physical cards and trust your mobile device more when you use Apple Pay or Google Pay to pay.
Therefore, it is essential to facilitate an agile, direct and optimized experience. The integral process of payments, data and financial management in a single solution, such as Adyen, allows companies to grow in all channels and in any market, offering their customers a wide variety of payment methods.
4. A single platform to make all purchases
According to him Adyen Retail Report 2022now 52% of consumers make most of their purchases on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay or AliExpress, and 45% prefer to choose well-known stores like Amazon over smaller ones since they are more confident in their delivery capacity.
Companies must respond to the needs of consumers, since they want to buy more and more in digital channels and find everything they are looking for on a single platform that is capable of bringing together more sellers. Marketplaces like Amazon or Zalando will cause physical stores to be more irrelevant in the future (this is how 54% of Spanish consumers consider it).
On the contrary, the companies surveyed in sectors such as beauty, well-being and health and those that operate in furniture and decoration, to a greater extent than the rest, share the opinion that their customers still prefer physical stores.
5. Increased consumer safety awareness
Controlling fraud in online payments is as complex as it is ever-changing. One of the main problems for retailers lies in the final step of the payment process, while consumers are especially concerned about security when making their purchases.
Two years ago, security was positioned as one of the biggest concerns for Spaniards when buying online (9 out of 10 respondents) according to the 2021 Adyen Retail Report. Now, in the middle of 2023, with the increase in cyberattacks due to the advancement of teleworking and the increase in the use of home networks, fraud is growing due to the ease with which company information and data can be threatened. Thus, 6 out of 10 companies in Spain ensures that they hire third-party systems to protect their business. Among the most used measures are: those to deal with fraud (64%)customer behavior identification systems (63%) and identification of new types of fraud (56%).
Juan José Llorente, Country Manager of Adyen in Spain and PortugalAdd: “The importance of the shopping experience is growing and should be a priority for all businesses. To achieve this, it is vital to ensure the diversity of payment methods, go hand in hand with technology and know the customer. The present is governed by uncertainty but, thanks to the best ally, companies will be able to be prepared to face any setback that may arise throughout 2023. For this reason, from Adyen we offer a unique technology, with a high capacity for reaction. to constant global changes and great flexibility capable of adapting to new consumer habits”.