Online trends key at Consumer Goods Forum

October 5th, 2012

n June 2012, key members of the international food industry and retail community gathered at the Consumer Goods Forum in Istanbul to learn about the latest food trends. Rapid online developments stood out as the most prominent trend, and are expected to drastically change consumers’ shopping behaviour in the coming years. 

The future is online

The “online revolution” is steadily gaining ground in the world of retail. It is expected that in 2015,  five billion people will be online, thereby tremendously increasing the potential for online shopping. The UK already has a smartphone shop, which displays pictures of products for sale online. The items purchased are later delivered to customers’ homes.

Social media is expected to play an important role as well. This is especially true for “real time marketing”, where rapid growth is expected. Logging onto Foursquare, for instance, allows consumers to immediately receive special offers from the shop they are purchasing from at that time. This development will not only transform online shopping into a more personalised experience, but will also provide opportunities for the promotion of healthy products.

The report of the event can be downloaded here.