Retail and e-commerce – August 2024
E-commerce developments
The Monitor online platforms 2023 by CBS (in Dutch) looks at the demographics of online platforms, trends in sales and employment, and sales by companies through online platforms in the Netherlands.
According to a report (3.89 MB) by AlixPartners, expectations for free, fast shipments and convenient product returns steadily increased among online shoppers in 2024. This is pressuring companies to respond amid a murky e-commerce profit performance and an inability to curtail costs.
Customer shopping behaviour
A report (9.55 MB) by DHL provides insights into the behaviour of online shoppers worldwide. Results show a rising popularity of social commerce, with Asia leading the trend. Some 57% of online shoppers use their smartphone as their primary device for purchasing.
Euromonitor has published a report on how new business models, channel expansion and shopper expectations challenge the traditional retail business and transform the path to purchase in the process. You can download the report after filling in your details.
A paper by Tealium and Internet Retailing looks at the current challenges for the retail industry. In particular, the disconnects that can occur between consumer behaviour and retail’s selling response, especially when shoppers are browsing and buying across multiple channels. You can download the report after filling in your details.
Comeos has published a Belgian consumer survey (5.1 MB) in which they map the customer journey for different sectors, including regional differences and the role of the platforms.
Reusable packaging research
Linköping University has presented a paper (491 kB) for the 24th IAPRI World Packaging Conference 2024 entitled ‘Take out (the) packaging: Analysis of a Returnable Packaging Service’.
Thuiswinkel.org (in Dutch) has studied how the chain for reusable packaging can be organised and what conditions are needed to make reusable packaging attractive and scalable as an alternative to single-use packaging. The report (in Dutch, 1.8 MB) shows that a high return rate is possible with the right incentives.
The University of Vaasa and VTT have initiated an extensive research project to pioneer the development of reusable packaging systems in Finland. This initiative, aimed at accelerating packaging reuse, could potentially tap into an export market of 1.45 billion euro by 2035.
New product innovations
According to Mintel, only 35% of the global CPG launches in the first 5 months of 2024 are genuinely new products. This is the lowest proportion of innovation Mintel has recorded since it began tracking new products in 1996.
In a joint statement (753 kB), leading companies in the retail and consumer goods industries support the transition to QR codes with GS1 standards. The goal of this collaboration is that by the end of 2027 QR Codes with GS1 standards should be widely adopted.
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