16 Biggest Consumer Trends for 2024 and Beyond (2024)

Keeping up with consumer trends is crucial for effective marketing and advertising. However, if you aren’t up on the latest trends, it can be hard to get started.

Recent industry and consumer data have given us valuable insight into what to expect from consumers in 2024. From that data, we’ve gathered 16 consumer trends for 2024 that you should keep an eye on and use to round out your 2024 marketing strategy.

Check out these major consumer behavior trends for 2025 to inform your 2025 marketing strategies:

Need help perfecting your marketing strategy so you can match consumer behavior trends for 2024? WebFX has a dedicated team of digital marketing strategists who are ready to help you take on the new year.

Give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online to get started!

1. Customer feedback matters

What good is asking for feedback from customers if you’re not going to do anything with it? One of the biggest consumer trends for 2025 is listening to customers and implementing feedback when and where it’s needed.

Collecting feedback can be as simple as sending an email:

Customers want to know that they’re being listened to — they are the heartbeat of your business, after all. One study showed that 63% of consumers thought businesses needed to do a better job listening to customer and client feedback.

Start by making sure you’re responding to your customers when they reach out to you about their experience with your website, product, services, or anything else related to your business.

Customers want to be heard, so the least you can do is acknowledge them. If they reach out to tell you how much they loved working or shopping with you, thank them for their support and encourage them to continue being a customer of your brand. If they have an issue with your brand, ask them how you can help to make the situation for them and future customers.

2. Branding and personality are crucial

Customers want to know the businesses and brands they’re buying from have real people behind them. Genuinely connecting with your audience will help to cultivate and nurture leads that become repeat, loyal customers.

Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through in the content you put out for your brand, whether it’s social media posts, emails, website content, or any other customer-facing material.

It’s possible to remain professional while having a little fun with your written content. When you can, try to use more casual language to show your humanity.

Customers want to know that your service professionals are empathetic and understanding, especially for brands offering services rather than products. This sentiment goes for customer interactions before and after sales. A survey showed that 36% of consumers said they were unhappy with the lack of empathy they felt during customer service interactions.

Remember that it’s okay to loosen up a bit. Show your customers that you are, in fact, human and that you care about them. A little humanity and personality go a long way with your customers and could very well be the factor that keeps them coming back!

3. 24/7 support is a must

Overall, the biggest consumer insight for 2025 is to offer quality shopping experiences. You can give quality shopping experiences to online users by offering 24/7 support and customer service.

You can offer support in various ways, including chatbots, email, and even content for common questions:

A survey revealed that out of 1000 respondents, 93% of them said they would be much more patient about shipping delays for a product if the company they ordered from was associated with great customer service. Additionally, 45% of them said they would wait two weeks for their delivery if they received outstanding customer service.

Of course, we don’t expect you to have a human customer service team ready to help 24/7 (that would be exhausting). But there are ways you can offer support to your website users when someone isn’t there to help.

Chatbots can also help assist customers (and your business) by:

• Providing consistent customer service, 24/7
• Answering FAQs
• Saving you money
• Gathering customer feedback
• Providing multilingual support, assisting all customers

4. Omnichannel shopping opportunities keep growing

Consumers want more opportunities for omnichannel shopping. When making a purchase, consumers utilize in-store, social, and online resources to inform their buying decision.

Think about it: how many times have you purchased something online with more confidence because you knew you could return it at an in-store location or vice versa? Consumers want easy access to their purchases, so our job is to set up as many purchase points as possible.

Social media shopping has impacted the omnichannel experience greatly. Before, you had two options — ecommerce and in-store. Now, users can shop through TikTok, Instagram, and even Facebook.

Look into the social sites you already use to stay on top of this trend for 2024.

5. Consumers have more purchasing power

The next 2024 marketing trend has to do with consumers’ power over their purchases. Unlike past years, consumers now have more say in what and when they purchase something. They aren’t as easily influenced, and they have plenty of options for any need.

If you want to close more sales, you need to appeal to that individual power. Show customers what you have to offer them and be patient and consistent. Highlight what makes your product a quality item and be upfront about the perks and benefits.

6. Health and wellness are important buying points

More and more people are leaning into health and wellness focused purchases. This trend influences all sectors, not just those explicitly related to health. Food and beverage, pet care, makeup, and skincare — everyone wants to shop for their wellbeing nowadays.

The push for health products comes from a rise in chronic health conditions and a global emphasis on preventive healthcare. To keep in line with trends, companies like La Roche-Posay are using health-based resources to promote their products:

Even if it seems unnecessary, highlighting any health benefits or perks to your products can make a big difference to consumers. For example, if your clothing company uses hypoallergenic materials (like 100% cotton), you could highlight how your clothes work for sensitive skin.

Don’t make them consider how your product could help their overall wellness — tell them.

7. Personalization is expected

We’re all familiar with personalized ads as we browse and scroll. Your company might not consider these ads as the most effective way to reach people. But did you know that 75% of consumers expect personalization to make navigation easier both in-store and online?

Personalization helps to:

• Suggest only relevant products and services to customer
• Prevent companies from wasting money on ineffective ads
• Encourage brand and product exposure across the web

Knowing that consumers want and expect personalization, you can start leaning into data collecting strategies and customer segmentation — the latter we’ll talk about later.

8. Sustainability is on the rise

Alongside the emphasis on wellness is the pressure for sustainable practices and products.

With social media, we have more access to more information than ever. That access has led to a more educated, informed consumer who wants to see more emphasis on environmental benefits.

We can also see the demand based on how companies try to deceive consumers with “greenwashing” — the practice of playing up environmental benefits to encourage purchases. This practice ultimately hurts trust and negatively impacts the company’s brand.

Consumers want to buy sustainably, especially if it’s available. Highlight what makes your company or products more green, and evaluate places that you can make changes for the earth (and your buyers).

9. Convenience crushes quality

Even though consumers are becoming more informed and have more power, they still have standards. If they can choose between a B+ product that’s more convenient and an A+ product that’s a pain to find, they’ll go for convenience.

Convenience is a huge part of our lives, and shopping is no exception. With sites like Amazon giving users two-day shipping and affordable products, why would they go somewhere else? Especially if they have to wait longer and pay more!

The trick here is to strike the balance between convenience and quality. Some ways to do that are:

• Making sure your checkout process is easy
• Give customers multiple ways to pay
• Let customers create an account and save their address and payment information
• Highlight your return policy front and center

10. Influencers create the buying trends

Influencer marketing is popular for a reason — these creators play a big role in consumer trends. It’s true that influencers here to stay, and we can start looking to them for what consumers want across the board.

Even if they aren’t directly telling people to buy or do things, influencers create the rhetoric about what is in and out for a particular industry. Fashion YouTube videos, for example, note what trends people can expect each year:

You don’t have to work with an influencer to reap their benefits. Following popular creators in your industry can help you note trends as they happen. Also, you can get a sense for what buyers in your field like, and then create content that matches their interests.

11. Privacy and security matters when shopping

As more and more people become aware of how companies use their data, we’re seeing a greater push for privacy and security from users. This trend is especially true for consumers, who trust companies with sensitive data, like payment information and shipping addresses.

While you likely have a safe website already, telling consumers how you use their data and protect them is a plus. Transparency can serve you well with keeping them satisfied and interested in buying from your company.

12. More experiences, less material goods

People want to spend more money on experiences rather than goods. According to Mastercard’s Travel Industry Trends Report, spending on experiences increased 65% from 2019 to 2023. Between the pandemic and environmental issues, there is more want for experiences over goods.

However, that doesn’t mean people aren’t buying anything ever. Spending is still up on food, services, and goods related to travel and entertainment. Think of a concert — people want to buy the ticket, but then comes the hotel room, merch, food, parking, the list goes on.

So, if you can create an experience from your product, or find a way to capitalize on live events, that’s one way to tackle this trend.

13. Segmentation help everyone fit in

People want to feel like they belong. Segmenting your audience loudly and proudly can help encourage that sense of grouping and belonging.

Segmenting isn’t a new trend — marketing pros have been dividing their audiences into categories for years. But this idea that segmentation can help people find their niche is newer. You can group people who share interests, hobbies, and preferences.

Consider how your ads appeal to different groups and what you can do to market to those shared interests. For example, you could run a TikTok ad campaign to target Gen Z users who are into hiking and camping!

14. Holiday shopping happens earlier and earlier

While we all associate holiday shopping with Black Friday and weekend December nights, that’s not the case anymore. Since companies run deals earlier and Prime Day happens in October, there is less pressure for consumers to buy immediately. They know they’ll get a good deal later.

The best way to follow this trend is to offer deals and promotions in Q4 and give users plenty of time to find and shop the deal.

15. AI is helpful for companies, but consumers are skeptical

Many companies have already adapted AI into their daily workflow. Whether you are creating product descriptions or outlining complete campaigns, AI can help you achieve more and target consumers.

On the flip side, consumers are skeptical about the use of AI. In fact, 52% of Americans aremore concerned than excited about AI in daily life. Much of the concern comes for privacy and security, rather than finding new products or services with AI.

If you use AI in your backend, you need to double-down on the security, and make it known. Since public opinion of AI is negative overall, telling people what security measures you have can help ease their minds and prevent distrust.

Not everyone is sure of the impact of AI, so creating a positive experience could help consumers feel more secure with your company and AI moving forward.

16. Conversational search is more pressing

Finally, rounding out our list of consumer trends is the importance of conversational search. Over 1 billion voice searches happen every month, and those searches are usually more conversational than not.

For example, say someone asks their smart speaker what shoes they can wear hiking. That search will likely pull from articles who answer the question “what shoes should I wear on a hike.” If you aren’t targeting these topics along with your product information, you’re missing out on sales.

Consumers are even making purchases that start with these conversational searches. To make sure you are appearing in voice search results, you must appeal to the conversational search trends.

Give consumers what they want in 2025 with WebFX’s help

You’re not the only business looking to deliver everything consumers are asking for in 2025. To stand out in front of the crowd and make an impact, team up with WebFX’s digital marketing strategists.

Our team will develop and execute a revenue-driving digital marketing strategy that helps your business thrive in 2025. We account for all the trends listed above. Our team of 500 marketing experts to help us create a personalized plan for your company.

Want to learn more? Give us a call today at 888-601-5359 or contact us online to get started.i