Recently, we read a post from Bob Phibbs, also known as the Retail Doctor, about his 7 retail industry trends for 2015. Bob actually mentions 22 trends in his full report, which you can downloadhere。

我们同意鲍勃的许多预测。像他一样，我们认为感恩节正成为另一个购物日。但是，对于其他趋势，我们有不同的观点。我们也感到惊讶的是，我们期望在2015年看到的一些趋势并未列入他的名单。

让我们从我们同意的趋势开始，但是看到比零售医生想象的更多的机会。

“布拉吉年”

Bob Phibbs says“鼓励酒店让旅行者在您不在这里谈论他们的旅行，但我吹嘘他们的社交网络。While the selfie involves taking a photo of one’s own self, the braggie involves uploading photos of travel perks and hotel accommodations within minutes of arrival so that friends and followers see what they’re missing out on – and what they might look forward to for their own future travels. (…) User-generated content is huge, and retail brands must stand ready to encourage and showcase such content. It is always better to have word of mouth talking in glowing terms at the start of an interaction, and not afterwards… based on potentially bad service.”

Our take is that mobile applications have enabled on-the-spot bragging for years, but enticing reviews from consumers has really only been done at the grassroots level. We agree with Bob Phibbs that 2015 is the year for large brands to start soliciting more feedback from consumers. For the travel industry, that might mean a prompt that appears on a boarding pass and requests feedback about the flight. For retailers and restaurants, there’s a great opportunity to reward customers who provide feedback, whether it’s with an upgrade, a free dessert or a discount on a future purchase. We think, however, there is a learning curve involved in soliciting feedback, particularly since consumers’ default can lean towards criticism instead of praise. The opportunity for brands to interact and use the ‘braggie’ to surprise and delight the customer in order to build loyalty can be particularly powerful, and that’s why we think it’s a trend that should be considered and adopted by retailers.

On the other hand, we have to disagree with Bob on this one:

“移动付款将挣扎”

The adoption of mobile payments technology has sped up with Apple Pay and CurrentC being two of the most prominent players in the news. Although we agree that mobile payment is still in its infancy in many ways, we believe mobile payments will begin to see accelerated growth in 2015 as more providers come on board. With the number of iPhone 6’s sold in the past few months, at the very least consumers will try it one time out of curiosity. The key to adoption will be that they find mobile payments convenient, and then we will see the rise of mobile payment, as customers continue paying with their devices.

我们还认为，2015年成为关键的三个趋势：

1. The Revenge of the Lower-End Consumer

康复确实是关于奢侈品零售商和富裕的购物者。但是，对于低收入消费者而言，薪水的任何收益都被通货膨胀，汽油价格上涨和医疗保健成本所吞噬。然而，汽油价格下跌将比其他任何群体都影响到低端消费者。2015年可能是低端消费者的复仇，他们将有多余的钱可以花。呼吁他们的零售商已经削减了多年的库存，现在需要增加其库存以满足需求。

2. Beacon Technology

低成本技术在许多方面仍处于起步阶段，刚刚开始由零售商进行测试。Loyaltyone去年写了一篇很棒的文章，介绍了信标如何成为下一步迈向客户个性化。If a retailer doesn’t develop a beacon technology strategy in 2015, they will simply be missing the boat. Beacons can be installed at little cost and provide great customer insights that can help increase loyalty and wallet share.

3. Fashion: The Next Big Thing

自上次大“必须拥有”时尚趋势以来已经过去了两年多。你还记得那是什么吗？让您带您回到2012年，当时彩色牛仔布是“ IT”项目。这是最后一次趋势对专业零售销售产生影响。Retailers are hungry for the next big thing and after a fashion lull this long, this should be the year where the next ‘it’ item that must be in every wardrobe arrives, and consumers hungry for that next must-have item will be ready to spend.

我们错过了一些趋势吗？关于我们呼唤或认为还有其他人的人不同意？在下面的评论部分中让我们知道。

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Rodney Davenport is Vice president, Corporate Affairs and Head of the Strategic Insights Group. Under his leadership, the team leverages qualitative and quantitative research and information to identify and understand the impact of economic, market, industry, regulatory, human capital and competitive activities on Alliance Data’s businesses and Company, enabling them to project key indicators and impact to the company.

汤姆·科文（Tom Colven）是联盟数据的高级战略见解分析师。在他的角色中，他确保为领导力和同事提供及时的行业，竞争对手以及与市场相关的情报和分析，以支持并与公司的业务决策和增长保持一致。