All About Consumer Trends: Your Pressing Summit Questions, Answered

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There was no shortage of questions for Suzy Founder & CEO Matt Britton after his State of the Consumer 2021 keynote. From the future of entertainment to the future of retail, attendees were clamoring to learn more about the trends he’s seeing and understand how to put his predictions into practice. We’ve compiled all of Matt’s thoughts here on the blog for anyone who missed the AMA session.

How did you come up with the trends you outlined in your keynote address?

I personally don’t believe people get value from just sharing stats. Stats don’t give you insights and don't give you something to act on. The way that we view insights at Suzy is a combination of first-party data and third-party data, with first-party data coming from our own platform. 

We use the Suzy platform on an ongoing basis to track and benchmark how consumers are thinking and feeling. We’ll run research, and based upon what we’re learning and uncovering, I will then dig deeper and work with our team to uncover third-party research, headlines, trends, and bring those together. And that combination is how we’re able to paint a picture of the future for our clients. It’s not always right. Sometimes we’re wrong. But when we do this, we really put our clients and our audience in a position to succeed. 

You said that speed, safety, and connection will be the three most important consumer pillars for 2021. How should brands interpret that prediction, particularly speed? 

Speed is really about convenience. It’s about allowing consumers to get what they want and when they want it. If you think about traditional retail, for example, consumers traditionally have not been able to get what they want when they want it. They’ve had to go to a store, wait in line, and then figure out what they’re shopping for is not there. Speed means getting what you want and when you want it. It’s saving time, saving money, and making your consumers’ lives easier.

You mentioned that consumers love serendipity. But do you think people understand the value and power of serendipity in their lives? 

I think the word on its own might not carry value, but if you use storytelling and contextualize it the right way, it certainly will.

If you had a conversation with a consumer who got married because they met somebody at a bar and you told them, ‘If you showed up 20 minutes later, you would have a whole different family, and maybe be living somewhere differently,’ then they would understand the value of serendipity. 

You also talked in your presentation about how people will miss in-person shopping more than their families this holiday season. Why do you think that is? 

I think it’s nostalgia. It’s tradition. And I think people equate shopping with the holiday spirit, and that’s what they’ll miss more than anything else and what they’re referring to, in my opinion.

How do you predict consumer behavior will shift ahead of upcoming, major consumer moments, like the holiday season?

I think a lot about Amazon. Disclaimer: I am an investor in Amazon. I don’t think there’s any way that Amazon loses this holiday season. I think if the pandemic rages on, people will not go to stores. But since some consumers have record-high savings, they’re going to buy more at Amazon. If another stimulus package comes at any point, people are going to buy more. If there’s civil unrest, people will be more likely to stay home … and still, buy from Amazon. As we grow from 27% e-commerce penetration to a much higher level moving forward, companies like Amazon and their global competitors like Alibaba, JD.com or Shopify, are all going to do incredibly well moving forward. 

But with the rise of Amazon, more money is going to larger players. What do you think is going to happen with the small businesses and the mom and pop shops across America? 

They’re going to need to reinvent themselves. I think there’s room for a bakery that makes incredible cupcakes that there’s a cult following for, or a local business that makes vegan ice cream. I don’t necessarily think there’s as much room for a hardware store that makes money selling hammers, nails, and duct tape, because I think consumers would likely just get that from Amazon. 

So, you really need to differentiate the experience in ways that Amazon can’t, in order for it to make sense for you to win in retail. It’s no longer just about the product or service that you sell. It’s about the experience you’re giving the consumers. 

Can you talk about food delivery trends such as Uber, DoorDash, and ghost kitchens, and how that will affect the trend of people cooking at home more?

For companies like [delivery services] to survive moving forward, they’re going to need to rethink their business model. And one way is to go into the food delivery space. If you look at the three types of places people eat -- at home, eating at restaurants, and ordering in -- obviously right now, restaurants have gotten killed and many more people are cooking at home and ordering in. 

When restaurants start to open up again, I don’t think fewer people will be cooking from home. I just think fewer people will be ordering in. If there’s going to be pressure in any category, it’s going to be the order-in category. I think the cooking category, because it does save consumers money, and it is sort of a family connective-oriented activity, is here to stay.

You mentioned you’ve seen the increase in BOPUS, buy online, purchase in-store. And there’s also been a rise in in-home delivery. In your opinion, do you think BOPUS is the future, or do you think home delivery is going to be the future?

Both are. You’re going to see rises in both those categories and less of a rise in people buying things in-store. I think traditional retailers are going to struggle. BOPUS saves time because consumers know they’re not spending time wandering the aisles. And that’s a safety element as well. I think if you look at the three-tiered, concentric circles -- speed, safety, connection -- it does deliver upon that, they both do.

But a lot of people when they go shopping are making impulse purchases. You don’t have those moments in the aisles when you just pick something up. What’s going to happen to impulse purchasing as we move away from in-person store shopping?

I think it puts a lot of pressure on that category. We talked about it during the Halloween webinar. California recently pushed through legislation saying stores cannot have certain types of candy bars at the checkout aisle. That’s where those impulse purchases are. 

That’s why you’re seeing a lot of companies in this space going direct-to-consumer. They’re trying to get subscription-based services. Companies in that category are going to have to reinvent themselves in terms of their distribution model. 

With all the delivery options available to consumers, do you think there’s going to be a tipping point where consumers are overwhelmed by choices?

We’re already starting to see it happen. NBC’s Peacock came out with a streaming service, HBO Max is out, there’s Hulu, there’s Amazon. Over time, it’s going to become a consolidated space, and the winners are going to be ones who can differentiate. 

In the case of streaming, Amazon can differentiate because they have an ecosystem. You get it for free as long as you have Amazon Prime. The companies that are going to immerse the consumers in value and convenience are going to stand out. 

What do you think will happen to events? 

Events are two different things, right? Event culture on the consumer side is critical to culture. It’s critical to society, it’s critical to youth. I think Coachella will be back, Burning Man will be back. The NFL will be packing stadiums again, this is what people live for. This is what they work for, to feel that community and the sense of connection with tens of thousands of people. Now, it may be a creep back, because people need to feel safe enough. But I think that’s here to stay. 

When you look at a business event, at its core it’s an investment -- in the cost, travel, having people out of the office -- and there’s a CFO somewhere approving that investment. You need to look at the ROI, why are you sending them there? And if it’s to generate leads or generate relationships, it can be done virtually. Now, listen, it’s not binary. You’re going to want to be in front of your customers. You’re going to want to create relationships, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be spending as much putting people on the road as you have in the past.

What’s your opinion on the future of movies, now that movie theaters in some areas are starting to reopen, but streaming has become a popular way to release new movies?

Movie theaters are going to end up being an extension of the streaming companies. I think a company like Hulu is going to buy AMC Theaters and use that to have a physical way for people to experience their product — in the same way that Apple opened up a retail store for people to touch and feel their product. 

But I don’t think that consumers are going to want to go back to theaters shoulder to shoulder, because when you look at time and safety, the equation’s not there. And the value of the viewing experience at home has become dramatic. 

Now, before the pandemic, there were companies like IPIC that were doing incredibly well creating a luxury experience for consumers. And I think if a company is going to win in the theater space, it’s going to be a company like that, that makes it an immersive experience that goes beyond watching the movie. But I do think the business model of movie theaters is very much in question coming out of this.

It’s interesting to consider that movie theaters may be purchased by streaming services, but could Amazon take over malls? What’s your opinion on the likelihood of that?

It’s more likely that Shopify would take over malls because Shopify works with tens of thousands of retailers and merchants. They’re a company that’s over a hundred billion dollars in market cap. There’s no reason why Shopify wouldn’t be able to buy General Growth Partners or another company that owns all these malls. And now all of a sudden offer the ability for online retailers to have a physical space in malls. 

Amazon looks for well-placed, well-lit warehouses in urban metropolitan areas where they can distribute stuff from and get to consumers more quickly. So I think that Amazon looks at more of a distribution strategy, versus building physical retail locations. They do have Amazon Go locations, which I find interesting, but it’s just not a big part of their business moving forward.

If malls as an experience go away, what do you think will replace that for consumers?

Entertainment. It’s about taking activities that people love doing and overlaying it with an experience that connects them with other people, drives that serendipity. I think a lot of malls are going to start to use their venues as a way to drive experience. And I think brands that sell stuff could do that as well. The Apple store is an experience, right? At the Apple stores, their success has always been just as much about the experience as it is offering consumers a place to buy an iPad.

I think every company needs to look at their stores, or the retail footprint, as a way to give consumers an experience to immerse them in your brand.

Can you tell us more about how some brands are utilizing the Suzy platform?

There are two sides to Suzy. There is Crowdtap, our owned consumer network of over a million U.S. consumers, that our clients tap into for feedback. 

What sits on top of the Crowdtap is Suzy. Suzy is accessed by over 250 enterprise customers to ask questions to any consumer, at any time, for instant feedback. It’s instant, on-demand market research. It puts companies directly in touch with the consumers that matter most to their business and allows them to aggregate all the consumer feedback to come up with insights or knowledge to make better, more informed decisions.

And how does Suzy Live, the product launched at the summit, differ from the Suzy platform?

Suzy Live is an extension of what we’ve been doing. It’s another way to extract insights and feedback from consumers. The only difference is instead of asking consumers to answer a question, you can ask a certain subsegment of consumers to jump on a video call. And talk to consumers and carry on in-depth interviews with individuals to go even deeper down the research funnel. And it’s a natural extension. Obviously, right now in-person focus groups are not allowed and available for most companies. And we think that might be a long-term trend in our industry, and something that we intend to take advantage of on behalf of our clients.

This conversation was edited for clarity and brevity. For more consumer predictions and trends, watch the State of the Consumer 2021 at Suzy.com. Additionally, to learn more about the future of the consumer in 2023, check out The Speed of Culture special episode featuring Suzy Founder & CEO Matt Britton.