Originally published: Greenbook, 25 October 2023
The role of market research is rapidly evolving. As an industry we need to be more open to to new data sources and methodologies. Staying adaptable and thinking ahead are critical.
Over the past three years, business has grappled with a multitude of challenges, from the relentless impact of COVID-19 to soaring inflation, sky-high interest rates, heightened job insecurity, and the looming spectre of a recession.
At the same time, there have been seismic shifts due to the pace of technological change. Arguably both the type and the scale of the transformation we are currently witnessing is unparalleled throughout human history.
Certainly, never before have consumers been subjected to such a whirlwind of change in such a brief time span. Such significant shifts in the global economic landscape used to occur at a slower pace, typically once every decade, as exemplified by the early 1990s recession, the boom and bust of the dot-com era in 2000, and the global financial crisis of 2008.
In Pureprofile’s joint e-commerce report with the IAB, we found that the values which underpinned the ethical lifestyles of recent years are being put aside in favour of financial caution in the current economic climate. This signals that many consumers are doing it very tough at the moment and shifting their priorities when it comes to online shopping.
