So Holly you're telling me that the things that I used to eat when I was a kid
is coming back?!
This might sound a bit weird. Um, a bit interesting.
It's one of my favorite trends.
Imagine it's three years into the future.
Gen Z's are slowly coming to the workforce and becoming a top consumer,
meaning they have more money to spend and are looking for the right products to
satisfy their needs. But what exactly are they looking for?
What products and industries are booming? What are they wearing?
What are they eating? Well, if you're thinking of starting a business,
these are really important questions to consider and lucky for you we have those
answers.
We teamed up with our friends at future laboratory to find out what the top
business trends in the next two to three years will be.
Keep watching to find out what products gen Z will want most in the wellness,
fashion, and food niches,
and how you can get ahead of the competition and start your very own business
within these niches. But before we get into the details,
let's play a little game comment below what you think some of these trends will
be. If you get all three major trends, right? You might get a little surprise,
but you have to watch to the end to find out what that surprise is.
Okay. So back to our friends, at Future Laboratory,
if you don't know who they are, they're a consultancy firm based out of London,
UK to help businesses plan for the future by sharing insights and studies on
what they predict will be the biggest product trends I spoke to Holly Friend.
She knows a thing or two about upcoming trends.
And let me tell you that last one had me shook.
Hey Holly, how are you?
I'm good. Thanks.
Um, so my question for you, Holly is we're two years in the future.
Hopefully pass the pandemic. Everything is great.
What trends are you seeing in two years time,
if I wanted to start a business now that I can like lean into a trend from
two years from now.
So if we start thinking about the trends we're going to see in about two years'
time, uh,
one trend that I've been keeping a particularly close eye on is called positive
downtime.
Consumers are backlashing against what is the cult of busy-ness the fact that
in the past, we were so busy. You wanted to do so much.
You want it to be your best selves all the time.
And actually now we're realizing that it's okay to be doing nothing and it's
okay to step back and reset your priorities,
and really think about what in the world matters most to you.
And the pandemic has really accelerated this trend and lots of these mindset
shifts that we've seen are going to be quite inbuilt and ingrained into
consumers over the next couple of years.
And this will drive this trend called positive downtime,
which essentially means giving people the time they need to decelerate.
So putting that time into your day, creating products,
creating services that enable you to slow down and actually
reconnect with yourself.
Positive downtime as a trend makes a lot of sense.
As consumers try to stay away from the busy-ness of life and slow down,
they will want products that help them do that.
So what brands are doing this right? I asked Holly.
So we're seeing lots of brands. Actually.
He was starting to enter this positive downtime markets, um,
and they using that products to target Gen Z, ,
and allow them to basically reclaim self-care practices.
So self-care is something that's, you know,
been talked about for the last few years.
It's become a bit of a buzzword it's kind of lost its meaning.
But what we're seeing is that these new brands, um,
are actually kind of drilling down into the real meaning of self care and
creating products that allow consumers to reclaim some of these daily rituals.
So one of my favorites is Chill House.
So this was a wellness company based in New York who used to have a physical
spa, but of course, during the pandemic, they had to rethink their priorities.
They had to shut down their spa and focus on the in-home wellness
instead. So they launched this range of face and body oils,
which have product names, like have a chill day and have a chill night.
And it's all about chilling. It's sort of about taking time for yourself.
These were all launched with the mission to minimize routine and
maximize rituals. So it's all about, you know, changing the marketing of this.
It's not about your beauty routine. It's not about a 12 step routine.
It's about a ritual that you do to make you feel good rather than to make you
look good.
Young people are reframing at-home guilty pleasures as tools to switch off from
the chaos of the outside world.
It's no coincidence then that self care is now an industry estimated by Harvard
business review to be worth $11 billion in the U S.
So what kind of businesses will be able to cash in on this trend?
Chill house is a great example, but self care,
isn't the only way to have positive downtime activities that help calm and sooth
the mind are also great business ideas launch with an aim to help the world slow
down Whiled creates products to make the minutes melt away.
It's collection of design led puzzles is purposely designed to be challenging,
encouraging players,
to celebrate their achievements by framing the finished puzzle as a piece of
artwork. So if you're thinking of starting a business within the wellness niche,
think of products that will capitalize on the positive downtime trend.
Some ideas can be products associated with relaxing, like candles,
lounge wear, and spa treatments, hobbies,
and activities like puzzles and games or leaning into the activities you can do
at home,
like cooking and home improvement projects other than positive downtime.
What other trends are you seeing right now?
So it's been hard not to notice that cancel culture has really been affecting
retailers, especially big retailers.
But what this means is that small businesses and entrepreneurs actually have an
opportunity to kind of fill that gap that had been left by those big businesses
that might have been canceled or backlash or boycotted for
unethical and unsustainable practices.
And what this means is that independent retailers are building these new models
around social enterprise and cultural identity.
According to Shopkick 39% of us consumers are actively researching company's
values and practices to ensure they align with their own personal beliefs.
Whether the product in question is circular independently made,
or from a black founded brand,
we're seeing a future in which both sellers and customers will gravitate towards
platforms that are openly values led and purposeful.
As part of this consumers are more aware than ever of the impact of their
spending on local and smaller communities.
And as emerging age of value consciousness,
42% of consumers say they now pay more attention to the origin of products.
It's not about hiding those people. It's not about kind of
sugarcoating your supply chain.
It's about putting that out there and highlighting the artisans who make those
products, whether it's, you know, by name, having a profile,
having a video about them. And a really great example of this is Mader,
which is a small business and online store based in New Mexico, uh,
and Mader basically creates work, um,
by indigenous artists around America, Southwest, and during the pandemic,
they experimented with this profit sharing model to make sure that all of its
artisans got really fair payment and all the profits were split directly between
the brand and who actually created it with their very own hands.
So I think we're going to see a lot more of that,
like that empowerment of the real people behind the products.
So how do you lean into moral commerce? Well, first interpret the need.
What problem are you trying to solve?
It's here that you will define your brand sustainable practices.
Do you aspire to use eco-friendly fabrics give a percentage of each sale to a
worthy social cause support a sustainable innovation,
do as much research as you can about the type of product you want to put out
there into the world. And once you answer these questions,
find a manufacturer that also aligns with your values and be very transparent
about where each one of your products comes from. Tell stories of your artisans,
consumers want to feel connected to your brand and feel like they know you
really lean into this when marketing your product.
So other than the trends that we just discussed,
is there anything else that's on the horizon in the next two to three years that
you see being a big trend for entrepreneurs?
Um, so this might sound a bit weird, um, a bit interesting.
It's one of my favorite trends and it's essentially a food and drink trend, um,
about the blurring of the worlds between health, food and junk food. Um,
and the style Jack product categories are booming and they're going to continue
booming in the next couple of years as gen Z reached an age where they want to
kind of look back at that age when they were eating sweets for dinner,
um, they were snacking on cereal late at night,
and they want to recreate those behaviors in their day-to-day lives,
but without sacrificing their health,
because those products traditionally would have been full of sugar and
full of, um, you know, high calories fat,
all of these nostalgic food products have been kind of outed as bad for you,
which is obviously a massive shame and something we don't really want to think
about.
As Holly mentioned, Nostalgia is a huge trend that isn't going away,
and these next companies are doing a great job at combining that nostalgic
feeling with the health conscious recipe.
This leaves a really exciting opportunity for small business owners, um,
who are operating in food and drink because what they can do is they can market
these new food and drink products that are nostalgic, you know,
they're colorful, they're playful, they're retro, like for example,
schoolyard snacks, which is a really exciting new brand.
That's creating all these retro treats that, um,
imagine what you ate when you got back from school before dinner time,
these new nostalgic foods have to be functional and they have to consider things
like emotions and mood, which is something that Gen Z are hyper tuned into.
You know,
everyone talks about the fact that Gen Z are dealing with so much more stress
than any other generation before them.
And this is only naturally made them very anxious.
And therefore they're looking for these new, um,
food and drink options that actually have functional benefits to improve their
mood. And one great example of this,
if you're not sure what the hell this looks like is off limits cereal.
Um, and this is a new cereal brand, um,
but essentially all of their different products or the different flavors,
are catered for a different emotion. So if you're looking to be calmed,
you're looking to be reinvigorated.
There'll be a different cereal flavor for you.
In the U S alone.
The percentage of consumers want functional benefits when their food and drinks
has risen from 37% in September 2019 to 51% in
May,
2020 shows that brands like off limits and school yard snacks are on the right
track.
A good place to start when thinking of starting a business like this would be go
back to your own childhood.
What snacks did you enjoy what nostalgic treat will make you feel happy and
calm. I think for me, that would be Dunkaroos. Oh my God.
Is that a business idea? Okay. So positive downtime,
moral commerce and cuddle eats are the three trends. You'll see, boom.
In the next two to three years,
going back to the guessing game at the beginning of the video,
did anyone get all three of these trends, right? Oh, and the prize,
if you did well, not only are you a genius,
but if you start a business today using any of these insights,
you'll be on track to be very successful. So which trend did you like the most?
Let us know in the comments below.