Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Shopping habits have drastically changed over the past few years.
For instance, while most of us previously browsed retail stores on a Saturday to find great deals, we now turn to Instagram to find discounts offered by influencers.
And rather than watching TV ads to find out about new products, nowadays, most of us stumble across ads in between YouTube videos.
Here, we’ll explore the shopping trends of 2022 to ensure you’re able to meet customers where and when they’d prefer to shop. Plus, we’ll uncover the shopping differences between generations. Let’s dive in. 

The Top Shopping Trends of 2022 
1. Influencer recommendations matter more than recommendations from friends and family.
Influencer marketing has proven an incredibly effective strategy for brands over the past few years — in fact, as of 2021, almost 60% of marketers said influencer marketing was the most effective marketing trend, ahead of SEO, experiential marketing, and short-form video content.
And in 2022, 30% of consumers now report influencer recommendations are one of the most important factors in their purchasing decisions, compared to 27% for recommendations from friends or family.
In many ways, this makes sense: Influencers are traditionally considered experts in their niche. If I follow a makeup influencer, it’s safe to assume he or she knows more about makeup than most of my friends.
For e-commerce businesses, this is powerful news: It means you no longer need to rely on word-of-mouth alone. Instead, it’s wise to focus your efforts on influencer marketing, since influencers have demonstrated a level of influence over their audiences that surpasses even that of friends and family.
2. Gen Zers prefer to discover new products via social media — but they still like to make purchases in-store.
Our State of Consumer Trends Survey found Gen Zers (ages 18-24) most often discover new products on social media (71%), followed by YouTube ads (56%), ads on music streaming services (55%), and internet searches (50%).
If your e-commerce business is targeting Gen Zers, then, it’s vital you focus your efforts on social media rather than paid ads when it comes to attracting new leads to your products and educating those leads on your products.
Additionally, when asked which content formats Gen Zers prefer for learning about a product and its features on social media, roughly 50% said they’d like to learn about a product through a story post. This is followed by short-form video (42%), and then a feed post (42%).
However, 73% of people (and 55% of Gen Zers in particular) say they’d still prefer to purchase a product in-store. This is an important call-out: While you’ll want to focus on social media for your lead generation efforts, it’s still vital to have a strong, effective in-store shopping option for those who would like to make the final sale in person.

3. When it comes to millennials and Gen X, retail stores and searching the internet are two popular options for discovering new products.
Similar to Gen Zers, the most popular method among millennial buyers for discovering new products is social media (51%).
However, in a close second for millennials is searching the internet (50%) — which means, if you’re targeting a millennial demographic, you might want to consider leveraging paid ads and a strong SEO strategy for getting your products in front of your target audience.
And if your target audience is Gen X (35-54 year olds), retail stores are the most popular option for discovering new products, so you’ll want to invest time and resources in partnerships with brick-and-mortar retailers to ensure your products are at plenty of physical locations.
Plus, similar to millennials, 39% of Gen X buyers also search the internet for new products, so SEO is another good option here.
4. Millennials and Gen Xers prefer to discover new products on social media through ads or sponsored content — while Gen Zers prefer discovering new products on social media through short-form videos.
Depending on your target demographic, you’ll want to vary the type of content you create for social media when it comes to attracting new audiences to your products.
For instance, if you’re aiming to attract Gen Zers, you’ll want to consider short-form video like TikTok or Instagram Reels, since 41% report short-form video as their preferred medium for discovering new products.
If you’re instead looking to reach millennials or Gen Xers, you’ll want to think about leveraging ads or sponsored content, since 44% mark that option as their favorite.
5. Mobile phones are the most popular device for online shopping.
When shopping online, roughly 75% of consumers prefer using their mobile devices, compared to 15% that prefer desktop and 6% that prefer tablet.
This means as an e-commerce business it’s critical your website is mobile-optimized, and you have mobile-responsive product pages.
If I’m scrolling a company’s products and I find it’s too difficult or cumbersome on my phone, I typically ditch the website – and don’t return. So it’s vital you ensure you’re following mobile best practices (including large text, lots of white space, responsive templates, and mobile-friendly calls-to-action).
6. Price matters most to when it comes to making a purchasing decision — but other factors might surprise you.
Across the board, price is a major factor when it comes to purchasing decisions. 78% of Gen Z, 74% of millennials, 74% of Gen X, and 73% of Boomers report price as one of the most important factors when it comes to deciding whether or not they’re going to buy a product.
The quality of a product is important, as well, with 65% of Gen Z, 78% of millennials, 82% of Gen X, and 72% of Boomers marking it as another top factor when it comes to purchasing decisions.
But beyond having a reasonably-priced and high-quality product, there are a few other distinguishing factors you’ll want to keep in mind when marketing your brand.
For instance, 57% of Gen Zers will consider purchasing a product if a percentage of the proceeds from the purchase will be donated to charity. And 55% of millennials prefer buying a product that has strong reviews. 62% of Gen Xers appreciate whether a brand has an active community around it, and 55% of Boomers look for a product’s features and functionality when considering a purchase.

The Shopping Trends to Expect in 2023
As we move into 2023, here are a few trends you’ll continue to see: 

Mobile usage for shopping will continue to dominate the e-commerce industry. In 2018, it encompassed 63.5% of total e-commerce sales, and in 2020, that number jumped to 70.4% (Source). As mentioned above, we found roughly 75% of consumers preferring their mobile devices in 2022, which suggests mobile sales will continue to dominate the e-commerce landscape. 
TikTok and other short-form video platforms will become increasingly popular for advertisers. As TikTok continues to make changes to its advertising offerings (such as its new Branded Mission feature), we’ll see more advertisers join TikTok in 2023 — we’ll also see additional advertisers test out other platforms, such as Instagram Stories, since short-form video is becoming the most popular video length. 
The Influencer industry will continue to grow and remain one of the most popular avenues for brands looking to connect with their audiences. Influencer marketing has grown rapidly over the past few years — from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $9.7 billion in 2020, and $13.8 billion in 2021. Nowadays, Gen Zers and millennials aren’t looking to celebrities for inspiration when it comes to purchasing products or services, and they’re not turning to friends, either — they’re looking to these influencers. 
We’ll see a rise in people who use the metaverse or buy virtual currency. HubSpot Blog Research found over half of those who have ever used the metaverse or bought virtual currency/items have done so within the past three months — including 56% who’ve visited the metaverse, 56% who’ve bought cryptocurrency, and 75% who’ve bought NFTs for the first time. 

When creating an effective e-commerce strategy, it’s vital you take the time to understand how shoppers want to shop today — and into the future. Shopping behaviors change over time. The more your business can meet the evolving needs of your consumers, the more likely you are to continue to succeed well into the future.

Email is undoubtedly one of the most powerful opportunities for engaging with your leads and customers, and increasing sales. 
In fact, email generates $42 for every $1 spent, which is an astounding 4,200% ROI — making it an incredibly effective tool for generating revenue. 
But nowadays, our consumers are overloaded with emails and often suffer from email fatigue, leading them to delete or ignore most emails they receive. Worse still, that’s if they even receive your email in the first place.
Fortunately, the folks at TinyMCE, a rich-text editor often used to craft emails, put together this handy checklist with HubSpot to help you get past the toughest spam filters … and then engage your audiences once you’re through.
Take a look, or click here to see TinyMCE’s full, immersive page focused on bypassing email spam filters. 

A recent HubSpot Blog survey asked 1,067 global marketing professionals working in B2B and B2C companies about the top marketing trends they leverage, the strategies they use, and the challenges they face.
In this post, we’ll discuss the insight we gathered from director+ level marketers about their companies marketing strategies and what they will look like in 2022. Read on to learn:

Trends Marketing Leaders are Following
Marketing Strategies Marketing Leaders Use
Challenges Marketing Leaders Face

Trends Marketing Leaders are Following
1. The top trends marketing leaders follow are short-form video, experiential marketing, and influencer marketing.
2. The trends marketing leaders follow that have the highest ROI are influencer marketing, short-form video content, and permanent social media content.
3. The trends marketing leaders companies invest the most in are short-form video content, inbound marketing, and social responsibility.
4. Marketing leaders say they’ll increase their investments in content marketing, social media marketing, and influencer marketing.
5. Influencer marketing is the most effective trend that director+ marketers companies leverage.

Marketing Strategies Marketing Leaders Use
1. The primary marketing strategies director+ level marketers say their companies use are social media marketing, content marketing, and co-marketing.

2. The most popular media formats in director+ level marketers’ content strategies are videos, infographics, and blogs.
3. The top platforms director+ level marketers companies post video content on are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
4. 48% of director level+ marketers say their primary goal when running marketing campaigns in 2022 is increasing brand awareness, followed by increasing engagement and increasing revenue.

5. 41% of director+ level marketers companies leverage social media, making it the top leveraged channel with the highest ROI.
6. 51% of director+ level marketers say their marketing budgets will increase in 2022.

7. The top leveraged social media marketing strategies are short-form video, influencer marketing, and engaging with audiences in comment threads. Short-form video is the most effective and has the highest ROI.
8. 82% of director + level marketers use automation in their marketing role, and the strategies they leverage are chatbots, content automation, and task management.
9. YouTube is the most popular social media platform leveraged by director+ level marketers companies, followed by Instagram and Facebook.

10. 83% of director+ level marketers personally use content marketing in their roles, making it the top leveraged channel. Social media and email marketing are the second and third most used.

11. Director level + marketers day the top email marketing strategy their companies leverage is mobile-friendly emails.
12. Director+ level marketers say the marketing roles that will take top priority in 2022 are Content Marketing Manager, Content Strategist, and Creative Assistant.

Challenges Marketing Leaders Face
1. Director+ level marketers say the biggest challenges they face on social media are creating engaging content (26%), reaching target audiences (25%), and tying social activities to business outcomes (25%).

2. Director + level marketers say the biggest challenges they face with content marketing are improving SEO performance, creating content that receives high levels of online engagement, and creating content that generates leads.
3. Staying up-to-date on search engine algorithm updates and building domain authority are the top challenges director level + marketers face with SEO.
4. The five biggest challenges director + level marketers face in their roles are training their teams, measuring the ROI of marketing activities, getting sales-marketing alignment, and growing a global audience.

5. Director+ level marketers say the biggest email marketing challenges are measuring ROI, increasing engagement, and emails getting sent to spam.
6. Ensuring a good candidate experience, finding candidates with the right skillset, and attracting diverse candidates are the top challenges director+ level marketers face with hiring candidates.

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