Retail and e-commerce – April 2024

30 April 2024

Packaging trends
Mondi has published a report about key e-commerce trends and consumer attitudes to packaging. The report looks at four key areas: consumer shopping behaviour, attitudes towards packaging and unboxing experiences, perceptions and behaviours towards recycling and reusing and future of e-commerce packaging in 2024 and beyond. You can download the report after filling in your details.
Research by PA Consulting on new trends in attitudes to packaging at quick-service restaurants in the UK and USA reveals a major gap between consumer intent and action around sustainable packaging. 78% of the consumers fail to choose products with reusable and refillable packaging, despite a similar number (80%) believing we must all play a part in reducing plastics.
According to the Reusable Packaging Association, the retail industry needs to not only carefully consider the initial costs of building their reuse system supply chain or partnering with 3rd party reuse system pooling companies, but also understand the impact on reaching the retailer’s Scope 3-level sustainability goals. You can download the report after filling in your details.

E-commerce market
The National Retail Federation forecasts that retail sales will increase in 2024 between 2.5% and 3.5% to between $5.23 trillion and $5.28 trillion in the USA.
According to research by Thuiswinkel.org (in Dutch), Dutch consumers spent €34.7 billion online in 2023, a growth of 3% compared to 2022. Notable is the online cross-border growth: cross-border spending increased by 13% and the number of purchases increased by 17%. You can download the report after filling in your details (in Dutch).
According to a DPG Media survey, 40% of the Dutch shop online as much as possible. You can download the report (in Dutch) after filling in your details.
Ecommerce Europe reports that Fevad has published its annual survey on the state of mind of French e-retailers in 2024. The results indicate that a smaller proportion of French e-commerce executives (33%) express greater optimism about the market’s future compared to their European counterparts (42%). However, they exhibit more confidence in their own financial performance.

The future of retail strategies
The PwC Retail Monitor 2024, a survey among retailers and consumers, describes the future of shopping based on four factors: experience, inventory, personnel, and innovation. You can download the report after filling in your details.
L.E.K. Consulting provides a specific perspective on using independent sellers to further enable digital commerce strategy. There is a range of digital routes to market for business-to-business (B2B) companies, and the specific channels, customers and products involved can have a significant impact on the value of a given go-to-market strategy.

EU transition pathway for the retail
The European Commission has published a transition pathway for a more resilient, digital and green retail ecosystem. It identifies challenges and opportunities and proposes actions to support its digital, green and skills transformation and improve its resilience.
 

NVC members receive this information with all the relevant links in the monthly NVC Members-only Update. If you have any questions, please contact us: info@nvc.nl, +31-(0)182-512411