What The Future

Shopping

What the Future: Shopping explores the forces that are changing how Americans spend and save, and how that will reverberate across industries.

14 May 2024

Foresight

Social shifts, new technologies and changing values are revolutionizing the ways people shop. How will the brands, independent retailers, and superstores that sell to them earn their business?

In What the Future: Shopping, experts on shifting consumer culture, resale and dupe culture, payments, store architecture and everything in between talk shop about how spending and saving will evolve in a revamped retail landscape. With exclusive interviews, polling and insights on shopping frequency and preferred channels, purchase triggers, concerns and challenges, attitudes about “buying American” and consumer worries — plus a close look at AI, ecommerce and influencer marketing — this issue is a one-stop shop.

Whether you work in financial services, consumer goods, technology, marketing, or another industry altogether, this issue of What the Future is an essential look at what the future has in store.

This edition also includes free access to the exclusive What the Future: Shopping survey data tables, which offers an exclusive look at people’s views and attitudes on shopping across several topics. See the link below to access the full survey results.

For full results, please refer to the annotated questionnaire or the Ipsos What the Future: Shopping Survey data tables

Letter from the Editor

How shopping will be omnichannel, omnipresent and omniscient

Matt Carmichael, What the Future editor, head of the Ipsos Trends & Foresight Lab

Shifts

Shifts: Automation, financial inequality and social commerce

Trevor Sudano Principal, Ipsos Strategy3

Interviews & Features

Why all the world’s (going to be) a store Angel Bellon, VP, head of cultural intelligence at Publicis Groupe’s The Community
How an immersive shopping simulator leads to richer insights Brand insights from Ipsos’ Brendan Light
How stores are becoming gateways to experiences Helen Herrick, principal, MBH Associates
How retailers can create seamless shopper experiences Brand insights from Ipsos’ Eda Cetinok
How a blog can build a niche into a marketplace Taylor Welden, creative director, Carryology
Why brand growth begins with knowing shoppers’ deep motivations Brand insights from Ipsos’ Virginia Armas
How thrifting’s influencer boom is reshaping the way we shop Virginia Chamlee, vintage expert, author of “Big Thrift Energy”
How to tap into influencers’ creativity while keeping your brand center stage Brand insights from Ipsos’ Rachel Rodgers
Ways digital payment options will keep Americans spending Lynne Marek, editor, Payments Dive
Shoppers want AI as a shopping tool, not a salesperson Brand insights from Ipsos’ Zach Sanders
Future Jobs to Be Done Brand insights from Ipsos’ Sophie Washington