9 Online consumer trends for 2019 - The year of standardization

Technological developments form our society. If you look at any bus stop, living room or waiting room, you can see that the smartphone has replaced the weather talk. But the opposite happens: our culture and history influence technology. For example, an aging population prefers automation and a concept such as privacy has a completely different meaning in a people's republic with a one-party system. The online consumer trends in 2019 are about how we find a new standard in our relationship with technology.

People are inventors and discoverers by nature. What we discover and create has an impact on us and influences what we subsequently do. This cadence is going faster and faster, causing generations to drift apart in terms of experience. For example, while young people spend more time on their smartphones, older people look more traditional linear TV. Keeping up with technology is also becoming more difficult. We are eternal newbies becoming continuously lagging behind. But also instant experts because all possible knowledge is consumable. That empowerment has its drawbacks - the anti-vaccination movement is reviving preventable diseases as a result - but of course also benefits. We can acquire new skills faster than ever, according to 46% of research respondents Ericsson. The Social Cultural Planning Office also endorses the importance of digital skills in society The social state of the Netherlands 2017: they take the place of having a good income or a good education. It is increasingly about what you can do with it, and with that digital skills become an important determinant for the living situation and happiness in life. Because: the experienced control over life is by far the most important resource for happiness, according to the SCP.

Thanks to our digital skills, we learn to cope better with change, which is coming faster and faster. So that we can eventually find a new standard as the super connected, digital person.

1. E-commerce with China

Dutch people shop more abroad, and especially in China. Bought in 2018 five million Dutch people for € 880 million worth of products and services online abroad. Compared to 2017, this is a growth in cross-border Dutch shopping of 32% and in terms of turnover of 15%. With 31%, China accounts for the lion's share of sales, and if you only look at products, this is even 47%. Now it is mainly about cheap electronic products that are sold through platforms such as Wish and Ali Express. But much more is happening.

42% of e-commerce sales worldwide take place in China, well beyond America's market share of 24%. Since 2015, Alibaba.com has been targeting all US retailers together (including Amazon, Walmart and eBay) in sales figures. Dutch brands made Alibaba department stores Tmall and Tmall Global of Alibaba in the March 2017 - March 2018 financial year around 1.25 billion euros in sales. It now concerns more than a hundred Dutch retailers and brands. Incidentally, Alibaba's focus is not on Europe, says Roland Palmer of Alibaba Benelux opposite Retail trends. "We are quite big in the Netherlands without doing anything," says Palmer. However, it was recently announced that AliExpress, part of Alibaba, will offer customers in the Netherlands for to be paid afterwards. Because customers can try at home before they pay, customers will order more per order and get products out of the shopping basket less quickly.

2. Climate

Do you know that Monty Python sketch in which every dish on the menu contains spam? Eggs and spam, eggs, bacons and spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans and spam. That is why unsolicited e-mail is now called spam. However, the spam of 2019 is less tasty: plastic. We find it everywhere:

• This washed-up pregnant sperm whale had too 22 kilos of plastic in her belly;
• In every 100 grams of mussels contained 70 particles microplastic according to researchers from the University of Hull and Brunel University London;
• 90% of the table sea salt contains according to new investigation microplastic.

So Yes. Ours too stool contains microplastic in the meantime, and we just don't know what effect our health will have. Among other things because we have been receiving microplastic for some time through our clothing, carpet and paint, for example. Yet this should disturb an average parent, doctor, journalist or politician. And fortunately there is also some counter-movement:

• Ban on disposable plastic in the EU as of 2021. And even the consideration to completely ban microplastic.
• First plastic-free supermarket in Amsterdam (in imitation of Birmingham)
• The Ocean Cleanup, led by Dutchman Boyan Slat is now working on it cleaning up plastic in the Pacific Ocean.
• You can go to Indonesia later pay for your bus ticket with plastic bottles.

These two short lists of course only paint a meager picture. Given the implementation of the climate agreement in the Netherlands and the criticism that the bill is not deposited with the polluting companies, this will certainly keep us busy for some time. Most important figures are: many Dutch people want to do something for the climate, but it should not cost too much according to DVJ Insights, 39% of consumers want an eco-watch to measure their CO2 impact according to Ericsson.

And the starting trend that women decide not to take children anymore due to climate change. In short, like Loesje once beautifully worded: Climate change - after all that time we were also a bit tired of the weather.

3. Virtual assistant

The adoption of smart speakers is going fast in the Netherlands. Since the Amazon Echo in 2017 and Google Home became available at the end of 2018, 5% of the Dutch households a smart speaker in the house and 4% expects to use it soon. The acceptance of voice as a channel is growing faster: in June 2018 reported SIDN only 3% of internet users in the Netherlands (5% of young people) prefer voice search. Now report Kantar that half of Dutch households are familiar with voice-controlled services via the smartphone and that this is also used in 29% of households.

According to Ericsson 50% of consumers would like the boring aspects of consumption - replenishing stocks, keeping utility bills and paying, arranging repairs and guarantees - to be automatically controlled by a virtual assistant. 70% of the respondents expect this to become the new standard within three years. In addition, 66% expects smart speakers to participate in family discussions and to understand our moods. In terms of revenue, voice search now generates € 2 billion in US retail revenue six million Americans argue place a purchase every month through the smart speaker.

4. Get rid of the physical

The rise of virtual assistants is a consequence of the large digitization trend. Everything that can be done digitally will also go digitally. Exactly according to the experience economy Millennials in particular attach more value to experiences than to things. According to a poll of the AD for example, we would rather go on vacation than renovate the house. In 2019, this will take on interesting forms, in particular worldwide:

• Cannabis. In 2018, the US market for legal cannabis was already $ 10.4 billion, and Canada also participates. Parties such as the manufacturer of Marlboro and Lucky Strike and Coca Cola (but looks However from) consider one investment in cannabis. The question is: why does the Netherlands not participate? The expertise and talent is there and will be now exported, on the one hand, remained fairly stable ask and on the other hand by current legislation.
• Esports. Almost as a term 70% of internet users in the US and UK. In the Netherlands, esports are growing twice as fast as in the EU, according to research by PayPal and Superdata. And while the market for Esports accounted for just $ 9.4 million in 2017, an estimate of nearly $ was 11.5 million and for 2019 $ was 14.5 million, in 2018 over 1.3 million Dutch people regularly watched live streams of games. Of the 18 to 35-year-olds, the millennials, 23% looks at least once a month, reports Multiscope early 2018. At the end of October of 2018, it even became the first Dutch hub for Esports launched.
• Dehydrating. The Swiss investment bank UBS Expects food delivery online to grow enormously from $ 35 billion now to $ 365 billion in 2030. The growth comes from millennials who no longer use their kitchen, lower prices and the emergence of 'dark kitchens' : cheap kitchens that produce for platforms. As a result, restaurants and fast food chains such as Macdonalds will also need fewer kitchens.

5. Privacy by value

The AVG put privacy on the agenda of many companies and that made it a "thing" for the public. The e-privacy regulation (ePV) - postponed previously and now for discussion June 7, 2019 - will go a few steps further. If only because the AVG is a general law and the EPP is a special law that always takes precedence. But apart from the cookie wall and the commercial use of data, the question is what the consumers think of all this fuss. The privacy monitor 2018 part I by the DDMA message: Dutchman is concerned about privacy, but does not act accordingly.

• To care: In front of 65% of the Dutch, online privacy is a major concern. According to research from the Dutch Data Protection Authority even makes 94% are concerned about the protection of his personal data. Specifically, these concerns are about abuse, access by unauthorized persons and that data falls into the wrong hands. People are particularly concerned about online stores (35%), tech companies (25%), governments (26%) and banks and insurers (25%). Part two of DDMA's privacy monitor reports that 50% of the Dutch do not feel comfortable with the idea that companies receive some data in exchange for free online products. Exactly what Facebook does, for example, according to Newcom's National Social Media Survey 2019 640,000 fewer users in 2019 than the year before. Why? People who no longer use Facebook: 40% does not trust Facebook and 16% gives the new privacy policy as the reason. Nevertheless, the use of Instagram and WhatsApp (including Facebook) will increase sharply in 2019.
• To trade: The privacy monitor 2018 part I reports that 78% of the Dutch knows "not much, not little" or "little" or "very little" about privacy rights. The right to data portability is known, for example, at 51%. Only 12% says it has ever used its privacy rights, so 88% never. Yet the Dutch are aware of the value of their privacy. Part II of the privacy monitor states that 53% of the Dutch is aware that they live in a data economy in which the sharing of personal information online is a part. 80% believes that the business community benefits more from the exchange and 57% is dissatisfied with what services they receive.

But in addition to users and advertisers, there are also providers: the companies that provide internet access. These are the makers of your phone or operating system, your browser or your internet provider. So introduced Apple this year ITP 2.1: Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.1. If you use Apple's browser Safari, first-party cookies are automatically blocked after seven days. Tracking users is thereby enormously limited worldwide, given that 30% Safari is used and 10% Firefox, which has announced a similar measure.

Gartner named digital ethics and privacy therefore one of the top ten strategic technological trends of 2019. The market researcher writes:

"People are increasingly concerned about how their personal information is used by public and private sector organizations, and resistance will only increase for organizations that do not proactively address these issues."

Ericsson reports the same in the report 10 hot consumer trends: More than 45% of European consumers think that apps collect data about them even if they don't use the app. 59% says that we need global principles for the protection of personal data.

6. Social media shopping

Physical shopping is an experience, but online with many webshops it is more the experience as if you walk into the warehouse. Grids with the same type of products, filters for boring product properties. The trend social media shopping combines social media with e-commerce in a low-threshold way that appeals to young people in particular. This is how you click from an Instagram post to the webshop with Instagram shoppable posts, instead of walking with difficulty with that one bio-link. This is also in TapTok, a popular Chinese app known previously Musical.ly, a media app for creating and sharing short videos with karaoke, challenges, dances and comedy. Chinese internet celebrities, so-called wanghong, use TikTok to sell Alibaba products (specifically: subsidiary TaoBao).

The adoption speed worldwide is unprecedentedly fast: in 2017 TikTok beat Snapchat in number of users and in 2018 it was the fourth most downloaded app worldwide, above Instagram and YouTube. TikTok is extremely popular among Generation Z. The Dutch Lisa and Lena, for example, already have 32.7 million fans.

7. Gadgets

Image source: Impossible Foods

A consumer trends article is really complete with one gadget list, especially when the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) has been again. Now there are of course countless smarthome solutionssmart tvs, smartwatches and smartphones, self-driving cars and devices for automatic Cook, to brew beer and fold clothes. I expect the following three innovations available this year to make a major impact:

• Google Stages. A streaming gaming platform that allows players to play at lightning speed from desktop, mobile, the Chrome browser, your TV and even a Chromecast. With this streaming service you can play the latest games without an expensive PlayStation, Xbox or gaming PC. The official Stages website is already in Dutch, so when launched the Netherlands will probably be included immediately.

• Impossible Burger V.2.0. Most consumers just like to eat meat, despite the animal suffering or the impact on the environment. The company Impossible Foods therefore developed a vegetable-based hamburger that really tastes like meat. (supplement: fake meat maker Beyond Meat expects to be able to raise around 1.2 billion dollars on the stock exchange)

• DS3. As the world's largest CPG companies, Procter & Gamble has a major impact on the environment. DS3 is a new product line of soap and cleaning products that do not contain water or require plastic packaging. Add water to activate. The question is: how interesting is it for the average citizen who has to choose mainly from his wallet?

8. Control of companies

The largest Dutch company Shell makes a profit of 13 billion euros but has not paid taxes for years. Now talk politics about restrictions on tax breaks for multinationals. The one so fervently advocated by Rutte abolition of the dividend tax it ultimately did not make it. Ryanair must keep kites flying from Eindhoven working in Eindhoven. The EU explained Google in March imposed a fine of 1.49 billion euros for abuse of power and Apple paid his 14.3 billion fine in anticipation of a further European lawsuit. Just a few examples of how large companies are put back in their place. This is also an important one trend, considering how companies are growing in terms of size, turnover and impact on our daily lives. Example? Director Omar Najam added another soundtrack to this Amazon ad, turning the festive mood into a technological dystopia:

I replaced the Amazon you can feel it commercial music with the theme from Winter Soldier pic.twitter.com/rXMcDGoWcJ

- Omar Najam (@OmarNajam) November 24, 2018

A key argument for that growth of companies is that technology goes faster than legislation can keep up with. Uber is a classic example, and now the electric scooters change the street scene, if local legislation permits. It sounds great: rent an electric scooter for 30 minutes via an app. But an international social network via the internet also sounded great until we learned that Facebook does not take our privacy so accurately and we release so much data that our personality can be fully understood. As a consumer we can no longer blindly choose more convenience, there is always a downside.

The other way around can also break through. Now internet companies in Europe have to be within an hour terrorism propaganda take it offline if the competent authorities so instruct. If they systematically ignore this, it can cost 4% of their worldwide sales. Rightly so, you might think, but it does open the door for European censorship. Because who determines what terrorist propaganda is and who will become the competent authorities? There is no judge involved. And the result is that our messages on social media are deleted without any rebuttal.

9. New retail

Source: www.alibabagroup.com

The latest trend is another look at China, where Alibaba combines offline and online retail into one seamless experience sent from your smartphone. This allows you to order online, check in when you walk into the store, scan labels for product information in the store and you can pay. Or with face recognition. The Chinese supermarket China, part of Alibaba, is also a full-fill center at the same time. For your online orders, a store employee collects the products on your list. The fresh fish that you buy there can also be prepared on the spot by a cook, for on-site consumption or home delivery within 30 minutes. The target? Offering the very best shopping experience to consumers. The new standard.

First of all: in China e-commerce covers only 15% of the Chinese retail landscape. The rest is therefore still physical shopping. But as Roland Palmer of Alibaba Benelux told Retail Trends: “This is changing rapidly in the new world of consumer expectations. We therefore see our New Retail strategy as a driver for changing consumer behavior."

New Retail also comes to the Netherlands, in a Dutch form of course. So now you can with the ING app also pay with face recognition, work Geert Beenders and Jumbo a combined store concept that combines supermarket and hospitality IKEA and AH delivered fresh meals in collaboration with Thuisbezorgd.nl and opened Bonprix (in Hamburg) an experimental store in which the mobile plays a central role as an access card and remote control. And what happens when consumers gain these improved retail experiences? They get preference for changing the playing field.

2019 in a nutshell

For 2019, it is to be expected that economic downturn will come. The tax burden is increased, disposable income decreases and it is consumer confidence negative. There is dissatisfaction. The French noise from the Yellow Hesjes also took shape in the Netherlands, but has had little effect. FVD won the provincial elections as a new party, but is not yet found in many coalitions. We use Facebook less because of privacy scandals, but WhatsApp and Instagram (also from Facebook) use more. When I started with these online consumer trends I had the title in mind: 2019 the year of the counter-movement. Revolution! Right away call to renew the thirty-year internet of creator Tim Berners-Lee as the most important achievement. But since 2017, very little has happened to his Solid initiative that should decentralize the internet. The world turns too fast to change, it seems. We are going along with a new standard. More individual than ever. But as a digital empowered consumer. And that also makes you happy.