Ah yes, the dreaded January blue’s are well and truly underway. As we all return to the workplace and wait for our inboxes to load up with emails, we here at Global Reviews, felt it would be a nice idea to give our predictions for Digital Trends in 2022. Nothing too hard for our brains to comprehend, but just enough to get you brainstorming on where your business could refocus or even begin on new projects.
We’re not saying we predict florals will be back in for Spring (ground-breaking), but after closing out another turbulent year, our elite team of client advisors have selected several areas they predict will have a big impact in digital. As per everything we do with our work, we use well researched data to predict these trends. Each CA (client advisor – the go-to name we give them), put in their two cents and we wanted to share them with you all. Enjoy!
1. Environmentally Conscious Decision Making
Karen, who is our Global Lead Client Advisor in Global Reviews, kicks off the top 5 list with something that has become more prevalent in all our newsfeeds: the environment and climate change.
“I’m seeing an increase in environmentally conscience decision making. The reasons to prefer brands are increasing due to their environmentally friendliness or green initiatives. It has come through in our energy studies we ran in Q3, but I predict it will crossover to other industries too. Lots of attention in the media will also continue to fuel this.”
Karen gives some examples of brands who use the environment as a way of promoting their pro-green initiatives.
2. Trust
Ash is a principle client advisor based in Melbourne. He anticipates that trust will become a big theme this year.
“Every single banking and super client I have are interested in how customers perceive brands as trustworthy, and what features of trust they can implement from a digital perspective to win them over.”
Trust is especially important when it comes to digital, there is an added sense of uncertainty as technology is constantly updating and reinventing itself.
3. CRO Testing
The third member of our Aussie CA team is Chris. Chris predicts A/B multivariate testing will become critical in understanding how different versions of the same website optimizes conversion online.
"It's not so much a trend but more of a catching up, especially in Australia. It's to do with personalization using multivariate tools like Optimizely, VWO and Google Suite. Think about changing the online experience for a customer based on what we know about them. Finally, through the CRO testing, giving them the best experience that enhances conversion."
As the saying goes, 'different strokes for different folks'. Testing is the only way to understand what consumers prefer.
4. The Omnichannel View
We pivot our view across the globe and go to Rebecca, our London-based CA. She predicts omnichannels will be an important area for businesses to focus on for the year ahead.
“We need to try and actually understand how people move from one device to another in the process of a buy journey. They might begin researching on their mobile but then move to their laptop to complete the buy. With the addition of chatbots, the route to purchase has multiple channels – research on mobile, buy on laptop and/or engage with chatbots.”
Remember: it's omni, not omi - that's a different strain altogether...
5. Security & Cleaning Dirty Data
To round up our top 5 predictions list, we go to Geri who is our CA based in Ireland. She gives her thoughts on the impact of security details in the online customer journey.
"OTP's (one time passwords) are making it harder for consumers to get a quote/buy without supplying personal details such as a phone number. Alongside that, GDP, cookies and providing personal details should really be considered more. Consumers do not want to provide their personal details to get a quote. There are issues around appropriateness of security level; should this information be provided during quote or the buy stage of the journey?”.
And there you have it! A nice conversation starter to get you through your first week back to work. What do you think will be trending in digital this year? Did we miss out on any others? If you ever want to come and chat to our CA's, please email us on hello@globalreviews.com. We love chatting about all things digital and competitive intelligence. We really do put the 'Global' in Global Reviews, as our team are all internationally located.
Now that you have the digital trends sorted, we move to the real nail-biter: the re-emergence of the ballet pump - yay or nay?
