Consumer researchers are looking at megatrends to predict consumption

Megatrend is long-term shift in behaviour or attitude with global impact across multiple industries

Consumer researchers across the world are looking at megatrends to predict consumption behaviour. A megatrend is a long-term shift in behaviour or attitude with global impact across multiple industries. Euromonitor International’s report, Megatrend analysis: Putting the consumer at the heart of business identifies eight big megatrends through 2030

I. Middle-Class Retreat 

Middle classes are booming in Asia, but struggling in developed markets. This has led to the rise of discounters in grocery retailing. Consumers celebrate how little something costs, rather than how much

II. Experience More

Increased emphasis on experiences over possessions, retailers and restaurateurs are creating more intimate experiences with consumers and personalising their offering

III. Shifting Market Frontiers

As some areas of the globe become over-farmed, over-populated, or otherwise reach their maximum potential, others gain prominence for their unexploited potential. China is a case in point

IV. Premiumisation 

Premiumisation is about priorities and consumers spend more on the things that matter to them. High-end travel experiences, for instance, are funded by economising elsewhere, such as flying low-cost air carriers

V. Ethical Living

Increasing attention is paid to ethics and moral values, decisions are framed by concerns about the environment, sustainability, animal welfare, production and labour practices

VI. Shopping Reinvented

Consumers make purchases across many different platforms and merchants must be prepared to engage anytime and anywhere

VII. Healthy Living

A more holistic approach to wellness encompassing spiritual and mental well-being among consumers;businesses need to weave health into product and service concepts

VIII. Connected Consumers

Digital connections are underpinning shifts in how consumers live, work, shop and play, it is so intertwined into the daily lives of connected consumers that over half say they would be lost without it.

Source: Megatrend analysis: Putting the consumer at the heart of business, Euromonitor International