Top 5 Retail Trends & Priorities 2024

Building agility and resilience in a recovering market – 2024 is the year to create new
opportunities, stronger systems, and the ability to react fast to a market liable to change
Even with market improvement, for most retailers the difficult times are not yet over. The challenge for
2024 is to act to drive growth in volume, increase footfall, and expand market share, all while
improving the agility and resilience of one’s business.
1: Focus on automation
Streamlining processes through restructuring and automation will be a major shift in 2024. The year
ahead will see new efficiencies found in the realignment of core functions, and a proliferation of
automated systems which can adjust pricing, manage promotions, assist in media management,
ensure stock assortment and create brand new innovations to improve efficiency and speed.
2: Exploiting AI opportunities
The advancement of AI offers retailers new opportunities to strengthen, support and enhance
inefficient processes. AI driven analytics tools offer the security of planning activity far in advance, the
agility to work with suppliers quickly to meet sudden market demand, and the ability to respond
confidently to rival activity. Adopting the latest technology is the best way to be ahead of the curve.
3: Increased focus on loyalty schemes
A key focus of 2024 will be to build stronger loyalty schemes and foster a customer base which will
not stray. The powerful value of customer data, coupled with the proven retention benefits of such
schemes, will make loyalty programmes a strategic essential in 2024.
4: Improved data mining
Data is king. Retailers collect a huge amount of data, but to date this tends to have been inadequately
mined. Accessing the insights offered and unifying siloed sources into a single body of data
intelligence are therefore a vital part of any 2024 improvement plan. The more data is processed, the
more insights are discovered, and the more effective a retailer’s offers can be.
5: Targeted media spend
Retailers must ensure that every penny of promotional budget works hard. Greater command of their
data will see retailers finding new ways to maximise traditional media spend in 2024, providing brands
with the ability to advertise in the moment, reaching customers at the point of purchase.
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