Now that the last of the snow is disappearing, and that distraction is finally melting away, its time to look ahead at what 2009 has to offer us. 

I can’t say that there are any hugely positive signs in the general economic outlook and with unemployment at its highest for 12 years, the increase in this sector will inevitably filter through to consumer spending. Adding to the woes are the recent epic weather conditions, which means February so far is not too cheerful, so whatever gains we had in January are slipping through retailers fingers. This coupled with the weakness of our sterling currency is really making for some very dull reading…

The knee jerk reaction to all this doom news seems to be : Expect an abrupt halt in consumer spending, with credit becoming harder to obtain and consumers being forced to live within their means.  While its clear that less will be spent overall, as there’s less available to spend, what are interesting to watch are the trends developing within consumer spending.

Initial trends emerging are:

• At home, is preferred to going out, at least within certain demographics, the home will become more of a centre for entertaining and watching movies. Also in uncertain times the security of a home becomes more important, so people are more likely to paint or decorate as they’ll be spending more time at home than usual.
• While shoppers are increasingly price conscious, they are more prepared to shop around on price and deals, convenience is becoming a luxury in itself.
• The supermarkets are reporting consumers “trading down” eg a “finest” shopper might move down to an own brand range, but not necessarily jump ship to Aldi…
• Treats and luxuries are still on the shopping list, but they’re of a lower value than in previous years.

So, what do these emerging trends mean for retailers?

Truthfully, there’s no glaringly simple right answer, the experts extol us to continue advertising in a recession, while managing costs, issues of branding and not panicing ! Which is easy for them to say !

So I’m advocating a more measured approach that’s more viable for a small business:

Concentrate on niche marketing,

Fabulous customer service

Highlight the VALUE in our products,

oh, that and having a word with him upstairs for some weather that doesn’t involve snowboots and balaclavas…

Tags: Recession trends emerging for 2009

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Emerging trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.