19 - Establish Key Buyer Trends

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Establishing key buyer trends can help you build strategy. To know what your consumers want can put you a step ahead of your competitors. To establish, conduct research and analyse your existing customer base to identify key demographics and interests of people who are already engaging with your brand.

Look into existing customer data, and also use secondary research readily available online to keep up to date with buyers' interests and trends. Reading industry-specific trade magazines such as Retail Week, Campaign, The Drum, Econsultancy, blogs and forums can also be a fantastic source of information.

Deloitte is a great resource for annual retail trends. Using a number of resources together can often uncover hidden trends your competitors might have missed!

Top tip - Bring it all together to inform your strategy

Apply your existing customers demographics and interests to the matching trend et voilà! For example, if you're targeting an under 25's category you might be interested in Snapchat's new Spectacles and how your brand can leverage the launch.

That's all for today. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks from our free advent calendar.