July 28, 2022 
For many in the retail industry, 2021 has been a worse year than 2020. Given the daily changes in consumer spending and growing exhaustion from dealing with the pandemic’s effects, 2017 is another year most people will be glad to put behind them.
In 2022, much is still up in the air. Despite the unknowns, the pandemic has expedited retail industry changes, some of which are anticipated to remain highly relevant in 2022.
Conscious Consumers and The Environment
Retailers must change along with the consumer to keep their brands relevant in 2022 and beyond. Brands need to show off their values and goals.
Although it has influenced consumer behavior for a while, conscious consumerism is still a powerful force.
Our research indicates that 90% of consumers are more concerned than ever about sustainability.
Customers increasingly prefer eco-friendly products; thus, companies are urged to prioritize sustainability.
A growing understanding of the finite nature of virgin materials and the crucial role that the circular economy will play in minimizing the environmental impact of retail has spurred the resale market.
A study projects that by 2025, the global market for fashion resale will have tripled to $77 billion, with growth rates 11 times quicker than those of conventional clothing retail.
Reselling will increase significantly in 2022, not just in the fashion industry but also in other sectors like home goods and electronics, as several new platforms emerge to cash in on the trend. In 2022, clients will anticipate self-sustaining businesses.
Social Commerce and Live Streaming
In 2022, new platforms and industries will be added to the social commerce paradigm, which is tightly integrated commerce that meets customers where they are and doesn’t interrupt their experience.
Following a record-breaking year for online shopping in 2021, social buying—the e-commerce segment that is growing the fastest—will influence how and where we shop in 2022. It’s expected that “commerce and shoppable content” would be used to monetize “any platform with an audience.”
The future of shoppable content is live streaming, allowing viewers to buy a featured item in a live stream video.
As the line between entertainment and purchasing disappears, he considers technology an essential strategy for businesses to interact with customers rather than just a sales channel. The market for live streaming is anticipated to reach over USD 224 billion by 2028. Compared to the previous three months, installs for live selling applications grew by 40% between August and October 2021.
Hybrid Retail
In 2022, we might anticipate that most shopping excursions will start online, but that does not mean they will always end there. In many cases, a nearby physical store is the best and most convenient location for an online shopping experience.
Smaller businesses are increasingly creating “hybrid” retail layouts to complement their physical store.
In-store shopping appointments may be a part of an omnichannel strategy to enhance the consumer experience. In the modern retail landscape, in-store sales have developed into a channel that complements Instagram, TikTok, and online stores.
Compared to last year, 48 per cent of consumers now prefer hybrid shopping over only making purchases online.
Technology underpins hybrid retail, but for it to succeed, customers must ensure that the product they want is available locally.
In 2022, retailers must prioritize how to give customers a seamless, integrated, and stress-free experience when they go from the digital to the physical world and back again.
Loyalty
Companies will need to work more than ever to emotionally connect with customers and maintain loyalty because customer experience is more important than ever when consumer behavior changes quickly.
Customer loyalty will be the next frontier for growth as the cost of acquiring new customers rises.
Retailers will need to keep their existing customers as we get closer to 2022.
We observed a jump in local stock lookups, made possible by our technology, during the pandemic that increased to more than four times their pre-pandemic levels and stayed there, highlighting how important the trend toward buying hyper-local has become.
Research shows that consumer loyalty to regional and local providers increased dramatically throughout the outbreak.
Retailers will need to harness the power of the community to foster loyalty and look for additional ways to strengthen links with current customers as they attempt to weather the waves of change in the upcoming year.
Consumer Spending to Tighten In 2022
There was a lot of ambiguity and difficulty at the start of the new year. Increasing costs add to consumer worry. Retailers must anticipate and prepare for rising prices with clear consumer communications to earn their customers’ trust. Do you rank first on the list?
The retail sector faces a substantial challenge, despite the cautious optimism that rising consumer confidence and spending appetites signal.
When consumers spend more on entertainment, dining out, and vacation, businesses must always give customers a compelling reason to buy.
