Consumers in developing markets are clamoring for new ways to pay, according to research from our 10 Years of 10 Trends report. These consumers were twice as likely as those in developed markets to say they would purchase goods in unique ways—like scanning billboard codes, clicking through Facebook or Twitter, or pressing a button on their remote to instantly buy a product they liked on TV. And developing markets lead the way in the adoption of non-cash payments, per Capgemini’s World Payments Report.
This enthusiasm for new ways to buy could come from a more jubilant approach to consumption and less attachment to the status quo. Also, predictably, Millennials in most markets we surveyed were the generation most open to purchasing in novel ways.
As mobile devices and infinite connectivity help make everything shoppable, the traditional funnel-shaped shopping experience is becoming a continuous loop of marketing and merchandising—informing, inspiring and helping guide shoppers so they can buy as the need or impulse arises. The aim is to make the process as fast and frictionless as possible. As WSL Strategic Retail president Candace Corlett told us, “Anything that makes it easier to pay wins.”