Wait, so Holly,
are you telling me this is going to be a trend in the next decade?
Yeah, it really is.
Oh my God.
What will you be doing in five years? It's hard to answer that question. I mean,
it's hard for me to even make plans for next week,
but as we near the end of 2021,
thinking five to 10 years ahead may be a good idea.
Especially if you're thinking of starting a business, think about it.
You'll jump on trends before anyone else does and start making sales as a
result. So what will the consumer of the future want?
We teamed up with Future Laboratory, a consultancy firm based out of London, UK,
to help us answer these questions, they help businesses plan for the future,
by sharing insights and studies on what they predict will be the biggest product
trends. I spoke with Holly Friend, Future Laboratories, resident,
Gen Z expert.
She knows what they'll be buying in 10 years and what you should sell to really
cash in on these trends.
Keep watching to find out what the top business trends in wellness, fashion,
and food and drink will be in five to 10 years.
[Inaudible].
Holly, imagine we're almost a decade into the future other than like
flying cars, which is such a lame thing for me to say. But other than that,
what do you predict will be a massive e-commerce trends.
Something small business owners need to think about when they're planning,
you know, five to 10 years ahead, which again, sounds scary,
but not that far off is the Renaissance of the countryside that we've seen
predominately over the last year and what this will mean in these years ahead.
Um, so you guys at home,
might have noticed that so many people kind of left cities,
escaped these metropolises and went to rural areas where they felt
safer. They had more access to green space.
It offered this better lifestyle where they could cook. They had a garden,
they could have paps,
but what this will mean over the coming decade is that Gen Z, having seen this,
having seen this kind of countryside influx will grow up recognizing the
importance of nature more than perhaps any other generation before them.
And as a result,
we're going to see an influx of new businesses that are tapping into
this, um, new appreciation for the countryside and creating products for outdoor
activities. So whether that's hiking, camping, rock climbing,
cycling, you name it,
there's so many aspects to this trend we're calling outdoor empowerment
and essentially new business owners have the opportunity to lower those barriers
to entry and make nature accessible to everyone.
For Gen Z's,
who don't have access to outdoors due to high costs associated with outdoor
equipment paired with geographical restrictions,
brands that lower these barriers for entry will find a whole consumer base
searching for them.
One brand I just wanted to point out,
I actually interviewed the founder recently and she was super insightful,
her name is Jade, Akintola.
Her brand is called ITA leisure and she only just launched it a couple of months
ago. So it's super new. It's super Gen Z focused, and it's basically, um,
a new brand for the next generation of leisure seekers.
So the people who have really discovered leisure during the pandemic,
and she's aiming to break down these kinds of barriers I talked about.
She wants young people, especially young people from, uh,
black indigenous and people of color backgrounds to be able to access these
products as easily as everyone else can.
So if you want to start a business and are looking for a niche,
the camping market in particular is an area in which young entrepreneurs will
find success in coming years. In 2020,
the camping scene was notably different from previous years. First timers,
particularly those in our twenties and thirties dominated the market.
This led premium brands,
to spot opportunity to tap into the camping market with creative collaborations,
North Face and Gucci merged function with fashion with an outdoor clothing range
that was a sellout success alongside unveiling,
a gamified Pokemon Go tie in. Speaking of Pokemon go,
this next trend will have all you gamers really excited.
So in terms of more trends coming up in the next decade,
it really wouldn't be a Gen Z trends conversation
if we didn't talk about gaming, because gaming is huge for Gen Z, you know,
they've been gaming more than ever over the last year because they'd been stuck
at home. They'd been learning at home,
they've been in their bedrooms and able to see their friends.
So instead they're seeing their friends in these gaming environments, you know,
they're meeting up with them in the metaverse. So whether that's roadblocks,
Fortnite, Minecraft, all of these metaverse spaces,
which is essentially a series of kind of interconnected digital worlds in which
you can create property, you can create characters, create land,
and share this land with your friends.
That's creating new opportunities for commerce too,
because if they're spending more time in these spaces, you know,
it's only a matter of time until small businesses follow them into these spaces
and to create opportunities for them to maybe, you know,
kit themselves out in a new outfit or try a new beauty product.
For businesses direct to avatar could become the new direct to consumer.
For example, in April, 2020,
over 27.7 million unique gamers attended a Fortnite hosted
digital concert with Travis Scott generating millions of dollars in merchandise
sales. The video game industry alone is expected to exceed $200 billion by
2023 within game Micro-transactions driving this growth and as
demand for avatars skins and collectible content grows within this space,
so too opportunities for commerce.
So how can you get started as a new business in the metaverse? Well,
it's important to first get familiar with the online gaming system you want to
sell on. What is the community like in the game? What kind of skins,
merchant collectibles are they looking for?
You can also expand your collection beyond just gaming platforms.
Norwegian retailer,
Carlings launch a digital collection of futuristic streetwear customers bought
the street wear online, and then it was e-fitted to their photos.
The goal was to counter the wear once and throwaway mentality of online
influencers.
And as influencer economy continues to grow so will their presence online.
Technology will allow them to digitally show off the latest fashion trends
without having to physically buy the clothes and discard them after not only is
it sustainable, but you can get super creative with the thrifts you show off.
What is one other trend other than gaming, other than the,
the outdoor empowerment trend.
Is there anything else that you see in the next decade that is going to be big?
Yeah. So one final trend I wanted to highlight. Um,
and again goes back to the food and drink sector. One of my favorites as always
and it's a trend for Diaspora Dishes.
This basically demonstrates how the racial and ethnic
diversity of Gen Z, I mean,
they're the most ethnically diverse generation yet and the generation below
them gen alpha are going to be even more.
So this is impacting the next iteration of food and drink.
We're going to see,
and we're going to be eating and drinking over the next decade.
As this generation grows older, one way,
they're going to reclaim this cultural identity and feel more connected to it
especially if that, you know, migrating over the world,
they're living in a different country, um, to their diaspora.
They're going to turn their heritage into food and particularly into food
brands and rebrand these dishes that maybe they feel an
emotional or historic connection to.
As Holly mentioned, as Gen Z grow older,
they will look to their cultural heritage for culinary inspiration,
pantry or packaging will give these new food entrepreneurs space to communicate
personal stories,
eco credentials and product authenticity while making world flavors feel more
accessible from instant noodles to Asian spirits.
And certain brands are already leaning into this trend in a big way...
One brand.
I just wanted to point out who I think you're doing this really really well are
Omsom. Omsom is a youth driven pantry brand
who were basically creating these, um, rip and pour sauces.
So kind of like the ones you see where it's like a hoisin sauce and oyster
sauce, but they're completely doing away with all of these, you know,
traditional supermarket sauces and they're creating their own versions that are
spicier more flavorful and actually authentic.
So they're working with loads of chefs from different countries, uh,
the founders themselves are Vietnamese, I believe.
And they're working with chefs across the Philippines, China, Korea,
to make sure that all of their sources of super authentic.
And food is such an important part about your culture and your heritage and
where you come from. So owning that and like really leaning into that.
I can see that being like a huge market for people.
One other thing I wanted to point out just while we're talking about
diaspora dishes is the opportunities and drinks as well,
because it's not just about food,
but actually Saki is having a bit of a moment and we expect
this to really balloon over the next decade,
especially cause we're seeing really exciting new brands like SoSo,
who've created a canned Saki. So again, going back to that seltzer trend,
thank you about canned, ready to drink low ABV beverages being super on
it with Gen Z. Soso are doing exactly this and if you check out that branding,
it's incredible. It's super fun. It's super young.
And they're taking Saki from being this quite traditional Japanese spirit and
turning it into something that's really desirable for the Gen Z generation.
According to peer research center,
nearly half 48% of American Gen Z are nonwhite with
notable growth coming from within the Asian American community. In fact,
the U S Asian population is projected to reach 46 million by
2060, nearly four times, our current total.
So as Gen Z grow older,
modernizing traditional recipes and dishes for a new generation will give them
an untapped market of potential buyers.
And the best thing about this trend is that diversity is at the heart of it.
There's endless options of different foods and different cultures that people
have never tried or even heard of.
So maybe taking a second look at grandma's old recipe book,
isn't a bad idea after all. So more camping,
more gaming and eating delicious foods from around the world is in our future.
I can get excited about that.
Let us know what trend you like the most in the comments below and be sure to
hit that subscribe button to never miss another video.
And if five to 10 years seems a little too far for you,
be sure to check our other videos where we uncover the major trends you will see
in the next few years.
[Inaudible].