Finding ways to deal with all the economic uncertainty in the first half of this year served a reminder that “retail success is not about predicting the future – it’s about being prepared for the future,” says Jamie Elden, Chief Revenue Officer at Listrak, which describes itself as a person-first marketing automation platform. In keeping with that thought, Elden’s firm has compiled the following three trends retailers should focus on in the second half of the year:
Price continues to be paramount. With 37% of shoppers planning to cut non-essential spending into summer and holiday, private label brands and secondhand options are seeing major momentum.
To deal with that reality, Listrak recommends retailers work to drive value-driven engagement by leveraging price-drop alerts via email, SMS and app pushes; automating campaigns for sale- and discount-engaged audiences; and highlighting clearance and “pre-loved” categories in email navigation.
Supply chain shifts will continue to drive uncertainty about on-hand stock levels. As imports from China dropped 65% year-over-year, and order cancellations are up 60% compared to 2020, disruptions are already impacting availability and will likely continue into the holiday season.
To offset such uncertainty, the company suggests auditing inventory triggers to align thresholds with today’s fulfillment speed; raising low-inventory thresholds to reflect faster sell-through; and extending recent windows for “back-in-stock” alerts due to longer restock timelines.
AI will be a go-to shopping tool. In 2025, 53% of consumers plan to use AI to support purchase decisions, and Listrak anticipates a growing shift from traditional search engines to AI assistants like ChatGPT during the holiday season.
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To make the most that trend, retailers should personalize popups based on traffic source to highlight AI-driven features for AI-referred users; and activate channel affinity to reach the customer in the channel they use most.
Click here for more from the Listrak study.
