How to spot a product trend in 2024

In this highly interconnected world, people are easily influenced by the trends, particularly on social media. Do you remember when the entire world was flooded with hot pink color, aka the Barbie color, due to the rise in the Barbiecore trend? From actors to musicians and athletes, almost every influential person was dressed head-to-toe in a pink monochromatic look; the pink aesthetic took center stage. The craze was so impactful that after the release of set pictures from Greta Gerwig's Barbie film, there was a huge increase in the sales of fuchsia and neon clothes across retailers.

The power of social media trends is that they can become a collection, and D2C brands need to keep an eye on the trending styles on social media to jump on the trend and give what the people want. However, how does a business focus on spotting a trend and quickly revise their business strategy to stay relevant? This blog will delve into the details of why catching a trend is important and how businesses can spot a trend in 2024.

What is a product trend?

Image of different clothing and fashion products - a jacket, a bag and a pair of sunglasses. Used to represent the product trends of 2024.

A product trend is defined as an item or characteristic that gradually acquires extensive recognition and implementation. Product trends are indicators of the changing requirements and preferences of consumers in a given market.

Here are some features of product trends:

Evolving nature:

A product trend is a steady customer preference for certain product categories or qualities. Consumer preferences, technology, and culture shape product trends. Companies must actively watch market conditions and forecast product trends in 2024. Businesses may create consumer-resonating products by analyzing trendy products and adapting their strategy.

Consumer-centric:

Trending products depend upon customer tastes. Lifestyles and values shape customer tastes. Companies must determine their target demographic and match their product portfolios to customer needs to get market share and mindshare. Products that meet unmet customer needs are more popular.

Influence of technology:

Technology often creates new product trends. Artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and sustainable practices may improve product sales. Effectively leveraging new technologies provides companies with an advantage.

Cyclical and recurrent:

Certain product trends exhibit cyclical patterns, returning to a dormancy phase. Consumers' renewed nostalgia or admiration for timeless aesthetics could inspire a resurgence in retro design. Businesses can capitalize on the sentimentality element and develop trending products with lasting allure by recognizing these recurring cycles.

Globalization and cultural influences:

Modern globalization makes product trends span borders. Cultures shape worldwide fashion, design, and lifestyle choices. Taking a global perspective helps businesses reach diverse worldwide markets with their popular goods by spotting and capitalizing on cross-cultural trends.

How to spot a product trend?

image of a hand holding a miniature shopping cart with boxes inside the cart, used to represent the benefits of a product trend

Here are different ways that D2C brands can utilize to spot any emerging product trends:

Identify emerging product trends:

Brand owners should regularly read specific niche trade publications, industry reports, and blogs to spot emerging product trends. They should keep an eye on influential figures within their industry on social media platforms like Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated on emerging ideas and innovations. Reviewing monthly or quarterly market trend reports from analysts also provides valuable insights into upcoming trends within their target market. These various sources can help sellers identify early signs of trends that are starting to gain traction.

Leverage Google trends:

Google Trends is a useful free tool that sellers should utilize to track search queries and identify products or topics that are experiencing high search volumes or spikes in popularity. It analyzes search data globally, regionally, and locally to show what products or services people are searching for most often over a specific period. It can provide a good indication of emerging demand and interest for certain products within your target audience.

Analyze customer support tickets:

Sellers or entrepreneurs should check customer support requests, comments, and messages for typical questions. Looking at the concerns or product feature suggestions from users might reveal patterns and help businesses get a glimpse of emerging trends.

Explore online forums and social media:

Joining relevant online industry forums like those on Reddit, Facebook groups, or niche subreddits allows entrepreneurs to participate actively in ongoing discussions. This engagement helps them uncover interesting new products or ideas that are gaining popularity amongst their target customer communities on social platforms. They can also identify influencers within these networks to spot trends early on.

Monitor industry news and events:

Business owners can also set up Google Alerts or follow industry journals, reporters, and trade associations online to stay current on events and news. By studying this information, you can keep up with popular items & trends and detect industry trends and innovations.

Use trend discovery tools:

Specialized online tools like Trendspottr, Google Trends, and Exploding Topics can help uncover smaller, under-the-radar trends that may soon become popular. These trend analytics platforms analyze large datasets to surface topics that are experiencing sudden increases in online discussions, searches, or engagements. Brands should experiment with different tools to gain additional insights.

Conduct surveys:

Gathering direct feedback from their target customer base is invaluable for identifying trends. Social media sellers can create online surveys or host small focus groups to understand better customer preferences, pain points, and emerging needs that could point to new opportunities. This market research helps validate potential trends and shape future product strategies.

Analyze competitor products:

By auditing the websites and marketing of top competitors, sellers can identify categories or product features that are selling well. They should look for opportunities to differentiate their offerings or create something innovative that fills a gap. Competitive analysis is important for spotting trends and carving out new niches.

Attend trade shows and conferences:

Sellers should attend major industry trade shows, seminars, and conferences in their region when possible. These events serve as excellent forums for networking, learning about new products/services launching, and spotting trends. They can also help identify partnerships or promotional opportunities.

Monitor social media engagement:

Active social listening on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest provides real-time trending topics, hashtags, and debates on social media. By monitoring engagement metrics and discussions, sellers may see things or themes with sudden increases in online mentions, shares, or views as early indicators of trends.

Why is catching a trend important?

Image of a graph drawn on paper that has an upward trend, used to depict the importance of catching a product trend that's rising.

Online merchants and D2C brands must spot and capitalize on product trends. Early trend detection allows brands to create and roll out products that fit shifting consumer preferences and market expectations. Analyzing the new trends and incorporating them into the strategy provides several advantages, including:

Increased sales and web traffic:

Companies may capitalize on demand by delivering trendy items that are more popular. Conversion rates may rise due to online customer interest in these items. Social media sharing and search traffic also bring new users to the site. Tapping into trends may enhance revenue.

Virality on social media:

Trending items often get social media interest and involvement. Influencers share photographs, videos, and memes to boost online free exposure for viral items. Utilizing product trends may quickly spread demand and awareness via social media.

Brand agility and adaptability:

A company's agility in adapting to changing customer preferences is shown by its ability to add popular new products and accept emerging trends quickly. This approach positions the brand as flexible and mindful of market changes. This responsiveness can help get repeat visitors to your website, build trust among new customers and retain the loyalty of your existing customers.

Staying relevant and competitive:

The customer environment is always changing, so D2C brands must comprehend new trends to stay competitive. Selling trendy items helps a brand stay relevant as customer tastes change. It also lets them acquire market share before bigger rivals catch on.

Brand communication and engagement:

Brands may interact with consumers on social media, videos, and other platforms by following trends. Justifying stocking trendy items improves the brand's story and voice. Demonstrating brand knowledge of customer problems builds brand loyalty.

How to feature a trend on your website?

Online retailers must prioritize the noticeable display of trending products on their websites to increase sales and capitalize on emergent trends. The new Collections feature from SmartBiz by Amazon offers businesses a robust and intuitive method to showcase popular products in aesthetically pleasing categories on your website's homepage.

Here’s how utilizing the Collections function by Smartbiz by Amazon to emphasize trends on your website provides significant advantages:

Visual appeal

The Collections feature of SmartBiz by Amazon enables business owners to designate visually captivating images to collections, thereby enhancing their aesthetic appeal. Enhancing website traffic by showcasing fashionable products alongside visually appealing imagery can result in increased consumer engagement.

Grouping products

Collections consolidate comparable trending things into categories, such as "Viral Instagram Finds". It facilitates the identification of popular products for website visitors. You can now create as many collections as you want. These collections could be created for specific occasions or festivals (like Valentine's day gifting ideas), or to promote products on sale (like All under 299 store) or even to showcase niche products relevant to your business (like Handpainted Organza sarees).

Increased visibility

By prominently featuring collections on the homepage, the visibility of trending products is significantly increased. This increased visibility enables companies to access more prospective customers for their best-selling new products.

Ease of use

The utilization of the no-code website builder enables even inexperienced business owners to generate personalized collections effortlessly. The technical barrier to showcasing trends online is thereby reduced.

Staying ahead of competition

By adopting the Collections functionality, online retailers can establish their brand as fashionable. It enables them to maintain their relevance compared to larger rivals, who might be more sluggish in exploiting emergent trends.

Boost in sales

Increased traffic to visually appealing collections that showcase popular products is expected to result in a corresponding rise in sales for said items. The functionality offers businesses an efficient means of capitalizing on emerging and well-liked trends.

Collections has made my work so much easier and my customers are having a hassle-free shopping experience! It has improved the aesthetics as well as navigation of my website and is very useful both for my customers and for me!

Vaishali Karthik

Founder, Shop Taruni

Conclusion:

The capacity to identify, understand, and leverage emerging product trends is progressively critical for businesses of every scale in the contemporary, ever-changing world. Customers anticipate that brands will provide the most recent, most inventive, and sought-after products that correspond to their constantly shifting preferences.

In addition to continuous market research and consumer insights, businesses require an efficient platform to showcase and sell their trending collections to their customers.

SmartBiz by Amazon offers brands of all sizes a comprehensive solution in the form of a no-code website builder. On your SmartBiz website, you can easily use the Collections feature to group together and display your trending products right on your website's homepage. And all this, without any design or coding knowledge!

So, what are you waiting for! Create your website using SmartBiz today and start using the collections feature to showcase your trendiest products to your customers.

Product trends: How to spot and leverage product trends to grow your business?