This document summarizes 11 shopper marketing trends that will shape 2018. Key trends include: 1) Traditional advertising is becoming less effective due to noise and people ignoring ads; 2) Voice assistants like Alexa will become common and further reduce product choices; 3) Retailers like Amazon are becoming major media companies; 4) Shoppers now control relationships with brands and have more information; 5) Shopping behavior is shifting from stores to products coming to consumers through various channels. Content will remain important to engage shoppers.

1. 11 Shopper Marketing Trends
that will shape 2018
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2. 11 Shopper Marketing Trends for
2018Retail Relevancy: Digital media is missing the mark for brand building and creating value for shoppers
1. Noise: Traditional advertising isn’t yet extinct, but there is simply too much noise out there, and people are sick of it.
2. Voice: This isn’t 2000, the cost of the last mile is going to zero, Alexa/Google Home
3. Retail as Media: Amazon will be the third largest digital media company in the US
Shopper Matchmaking: Shoppers are no longer ‘targets’
4. Shoppers in Charge: Consumers, not brands or retailers now own the relationship - The power now is in the hands of socially savvy
buyers who come to the table armed with as much—or even more—information than the brand has to offer.
5. The shopper’s path will be automated, especially for consumables
6. Social media platforms are essentially huge AI systems designed to keep users 'tuned in' by showing them things they want to see and
using data to improve the success of that goal each time a user engages.
A Store No More: Shopping behavior is changing from a world where consumers go to stores to get products (walking around and
finding what they need), to one where products come to consumers.
8. Simplicity is the key to customer experience
9. Payments: Payments are becoming channel facilitators - Alibaba
10. Shopping will become more passive
Content is STILL King. Dilly Dilly!
11. Fresh, relevant content will become the lifeblood of customer experience and the retail path-to-purchase
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3. Shopper Behavior
Change
• Change in shopping behavior is accelerating as we enter
2018 resulting in new channel growth, shifting marketplace
leadership and a realignment of brand/consumer
relationships.
• Where everything is headed is the source of constant
debate, but one thing is certain, greater change is on its
way.
The store shelf is now the front door
image source: Hip2Save.com
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4. Digital Is Missing the Mark for Brand Building
and Creating Value for Shoppers
Retail Relevancy
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5. 1. More Digital Noise than Ever!!
Much of digital media is simply noise (or non-existent bots and fraud). An
advertising doom-loop has been created by desperate marketers seeking
to get any message engagement. This is simply spam!
• Traditional media habits die hard: showing more content to
more people to get results has inverse results in digital. The
platforms simply respond by showing less people making
engagement lower.
• Net Net: if your content sucks, it’s going to be nearly
impossible to reach real people no matter how much you
pay.
Brands and retailers that win will use engaging content instead of more
spammy smart advertising that shoppers hate.
image source: #Spam, Mike Mozart, Flickr
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6. 2. Voice-Retail, Reducing The Shelf
If you thought ecommerce was disruptive, wait until voice-driven retail becomes commonplace. Voice-assistants
will eclipse 50% household penetration in 2018 bringing voice-based retail to the majority of shoppers.
Voice-retail dramatically lowers choice and further increases the need for
brand relevancy. Out of mind, out of the voice-retail shopping basket.
editors note: Speaking from experience, voice-retail will far outstrip even the wildest expectations for
retail IMHO. Once shopper’s experience the simplicity of this form of retail, they likely won’t turn back.
image source:‘South Park’ shouts out to Amazon’s Alexa and messes with viewers’ shopping lists and alarms. Geekwire
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7. 3. Retailers As Media Outlets
Retail and brand shopper dollars have always been significant sources of media, accounting for a
significant portion of advertising revenue. Digital is reallocating those investments to eliminate inefficient
intermediaries.
As shoppers now choose their media when
shopping, it creates a very different paradigm
where shopper dollars can be aligned more
closely with the shopper’s journey.
Amazon will generate $8bn in media spend in 2017 making it the third largest US digital media player behind Google and Facebook.
(and it’s less than half of Alibaba’s take)
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8. Brand equity is being destroyed by old interruption-based reach and
frequency marketing. Stop retargeting and start building relationships.
Shopper Matchmaking: Customers are not ‘targets’.
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9. 5. Shoppers in Charge!!
Shoppers have never had as much control and choice as they have
today. Pricing is transparent leaving those retails that choose to compete
on price at a margin-destroying disadvantage.
1. Simplicity is an order-winner
2. Price is no longer a
competitive advantage
3. Free shipping is table stakes,
so are returns
4. Push media is increasingly
ignored, shoppers find info
when THEY want
5. Loyalty is earned through
consistent ease-of-use
6. The digital path-to-purchase
is vulnerable, it can be
intercepted at any point
Chrome browser search for Fjallraven Jacket. Google is essentially a retailer providing selection and choice for shoppers with simple filtering.
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10. 6. The Shopper’s Path Is Increasingly
Automated
Personal replenishment will be the new normal for shopping within the next decade. Routine use products,
replacements and even considered purchases will automatically fulfilled through IoT.
Net Net: Relevancy will be key to brand survival
Once a shopper clicks
this button…
it’s over…
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11. 7. Shoppers Use AI Everyday. It’s Called Facebook.
Facebook has a simple mission, keep people looking at Facebook. This creates a tenuous relationship with advertising
because people don’t like ads or crappy content (sorry marketers). Facebook’s simple solution, change advertisers more
to reach people with content they don’t want. Win, win!
Buying followers has negative algorithm
responses as facebook shuts down viewability
due to lack of engagement.
So does boosting bad media.
Facebook Fraud - Veritassium
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12. Shopping is Less About Place
A Store No More
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13. 8. Simplicity
“Marketers no longer need to interrupt people, they can truly
engage them. Not merely to entertain, but to bring value and
meaningful experiences to their lives.”
- Friction
Great retail brands are doing one thing: making shopper’s lives more simple. No amount of reach and frequency are going to
change the fact that shopping is becoming mostly a passive activity thanks to technology. Make it easy and they will buy.
Add friction and they will buy elsewhere.
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14. 9. Payments Are Retail
Payments have always been a critical
part of retail. New forms of payment
and even money is becoming retail
itself.
Shoppers are transacting in all manner of formats with retailers, each other and with brands.
New retailers like Alibaba are making it easy to shop as they wish vs. limiting their choices.
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15. 10. Consumable Shopping Will Become More
Passive
Consumable shopping is happening
when, where and how shoppers want.
Automation and logistics are
transforming it from a routine task to an
afterthought.
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image source: econocom.com

16. Dilly Dilly!
Content is STILL King!
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17. 11. Fresh and Relevant Content is more Critical Than
Ever for Retail Relevancy!
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Organic content is THE driver of digital media. Content
populates the electronic pathways shoppers use to
discover, learn and engage products and services.
The need for new content is increasing exponentially
creating a demand for new content sourcing,
management and control models for shopper marketers.
New content creation community platforms like Photofy
will emerge to unlock personal influence at scale!

18. About the Author
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John is a career shopper marketer, entrepreneur and intraprenuer. He is the
CEO of Photofy, a content to commerce media company for brands and
retailers. He is helping to shape the future of marketing through great
consumer engagement across new media channels.
John has 20+ years of work in consumer packaged goods companies
including Hanes Brands, Newell Rubbermaid, PictureVision (Kodak Digital)
and Implus. He moved to the retail side in 2007 joining Walmart and built
one of the first ‘people as media’ platforms called Walmart Elevenmoms. He
is the founder of Collective Bias (Acquired by Inmar in 2016) and serves as
an advisor for GoodX and teaches as an adjunct professor at NC State
School of Textiles.
John and his wife Mary Shannon and daughter Mary Catherine live in
Raleigh, NC with their dog Cameron and cat Milky Way…
You can contact him at john@photofy.com or 919.810.5159
@Katadhin
LinkedIn