While shoppers have always cared about convenience, today’s shoppers are even more concerned with the flexibility, access, and speed of their shopping experience. The act of shopping has become embedded into other activities such as scrolling through social media apps, gaming, or going for a walk. 

Synchrony helps merchants create faster credit application experiences by making it easy for people to apply for credit directly from mobile devices with direct-to-device technology. We’re also building and working with partners to streamline online identity verification and speed the checkout process with partners like Prove and Skipify. Additionally, we’re working on new projects to enable browser extensions for our credit cards when customers are shopping on partner websites. 

Along with embedded finance, digital wallets present a major opportunity for retailers. The total value of digital commerce transactions globally is predicted to exceed $20 trillion by 2027. At Synchrony, we saw accounts provisioned for digital wallet use in 2022 increase 75% compared to the last year, contributing to 85% mobile wallet sales growth. 

2.  “Just for Me” by 2030

Synchrony’s Future of Shopping Report, found that more than 80% of shoppers will expect experiences curated just for them and by 2030. Additionally, 67% believed a world where multiple brands created joint offers would enhance their experiences across channels. At this point, there are a multitude of solutions available to support personalization, but retailers need to have the right technology stack and data strategy employed to provide the most value for merchants and consumers. 

We deepen our consumer understanding by collecting real time signals through the customer journey to provide implicit preferences influencing how we engage with them, all while keeping data safe.  We’ve invested in AI-enabled technologies and expertise to deliver advanced analytics that create insights into not only where the consumer is today but anticipating their needs to be relevant across every touchpoint.  

To achieve effective and sustainable personalization, we’ve also invested in technology and partnerships that keep customer data privacy and trust at the center of our practices while enabling us to understand customer needs and wants including preferred communication channels and frequency as well as topics of interest. This allows us to foster meaningful consumer relationships while creating value. 

This personalization theme rings true for choice and flexibility in payments as well. Not one size fits all when it comes to financing for each consumer. We continue to work with our partners to expand financing options for their customers through a suite of options from co-brand cards to private label credit cards to buy now, pay later installment loans. 

3.  Gen Z: Social Shoppers

It was exciting to listen in on sessions featuring industry leaders talking about social media shopping and where they see VR and AR platforms headed for retail.

We know Gen Z is shopping on social. Our Generational Insights study found that 47% of Gen Z shoppers have made a purchase on Instagram. But, shopper confidence to actually click that “buy now” button continues to be a concern for retailers. Social platforms and AR are alleviating some of the uncertainties that come with clothing shopping. Carolina Arguelles Navas, Global Head of AR Business Strategy at Snap Inc. said they have helped brands create AR versions of shoppers with a wide range of body types by using item photography and photos from consumer reviews. Snap Inc. helped one retailer reduce returns by 25% by enabling AR outfit try on. 

We also know video content creation is growing exponentially and Gen Z looks to these platforms for product reviews and recommendations. That’s why we’re working on things like enabling financing within livestream videos. Our Innovation teams also continue to explore blockchain and metaverse experiences to reimagine loyalty and payments. 

With more than 460 thousand merchant provider locations and 71 million active customers, Synchrony is positioned at the forefront of addressing innovations to meet the needs of changing consumer preferences. It was great to be with so many of our partners and retail industry leaders in Vegas this week and I look forward to working with our partners to continue to create curated, convenient experiences for consumers. 

Synchrony is a leader in launching new capabilities and solutions for businesses to help drive sales, loyalty and reach new customers with more financing options. Contact us to request more information or to find out how we can do more for your business.