Cyclicality

Trend - Retailers across various industries, such as home and garden, crafts, and even electronics are launching with an emphases on DIY projects. By focusing on DIY, these retailers mainly provide base components rather than prebuilt items, often leading to significantly lower prices than competitors.

Insight - Many consumers prioritize saving money over saving time. When shopping for furniture, for example, consumers opt to buy more affordable DIY furniture rather than more expensive pre-built options. These priorities are now extending to other industries, with consumers in adjacent spaces opting for more engaging DIY solutions in search of both a hobby and a method of saving money. In order to appeal to these consumers in a broader sense, specialized retailers with a focus on DIY are opening.

Trend - Restaurants are offering Halloween-themed meals and items with unique appeal. These items often come at discounted prices to help parents and children, while they feature items with spooky-themed designs to enhance Halloween celebrations. These meals are designed to be positive experiences for fans.

Insight - In North America, Halloween is one of children's favorite holidays due to fun decorations, costumes, and free candy. However, Halloween has evolved to be more than simply a day-of trick-or-treating celebration, with many businesses offering celebratory items as early as a month before the day itself. Consumers who enjoy Halloween celebrations gravitate toward businesses that offer such items to engage with the holiday, build excitement, and save money for their families.

Trend - Beauty brands are enhancing traditional exfoliating scrubs with vitamin C, creating multifunctional products that both remove dead skin cells and provide brightening benefits. These hybrid formulations reflect growing consumer interest in products that combine physical exfoliation with active ingredients for enhanced skincare results.

Insight - Modern consumers are increasingly seeking efficiency in their skincare routines, driving demand for products that offer multiple benefits in a single step. This desire for multitasking products stems from both time constraints and a growing sophistication about active ingredients in skincare. As consumers become more educated about skincare ingredients and their benefits, they expect products to work harder and deliver multiple results, rather than serving a single function.

Trend - Brands are reformulating glucosamine—a compound traditionally used for joint health and osteoarthritis symptoms—into chewable gummy formats. These supplements combine therapeutic doses of glucosamine with other joint-supporting ingredients, offering an alternative to traditional pills while maintaining efficacy.

Insight - Modern consumers are increasingly resistant to traditional supplement formats like pills and capsules, leading them to seek out more enjoyable ways to maintain their health routines. This shift reflects a broader consumer desire to eliminate friction from their wellness practices, while still accessing the benefits of supplementation. As health maintenance becomes a daily priority for more demographics, the success of gummy formats indicates that consumers are more likely to maintain supplement routines when the experience is enjoyable rather than purely functional.

Trend - Brands in the portable power station industry are creating battery banks and charging solutions powered by solar energy. These are designed to be reliable and sustainable when compared to plug-in competitors, as they provide renewable energy solutions while fully disconnected from the grid.

Insight - As awareness of climate change and its impacts continues to rise, consumers are increasingly looking to brands to lead the way in sustainability. Recognizing that systemic changes are more effective than individual efforts alone, consumers are turning to companies that offer eco-friendly solutions. In the realm of portable power, this means seeking reliable, off-grid power sources that not only meet their energy needs but also align with their environmental values.

Trend - Brands in the CPG space are turning to chia seeds to create better-for-you alternatives to on-the-go breakfast offerings. Coming in the form of bars, bowls, and snackables, these packaged products offer healthy breakfast options for consumers with busy lives and limited time.

Insight - As individuals age, they typically take on more and more responsibilities ranging from advanced schooling to full-time employment and personal obligations, such as families and friends. This often leads to periods with very limited free time, leading to these consumers turning to time-saving options when possible, preferably without compromising on their lifestyle preferences. In order to appeal to such consumers, CPG brands are creating healthy on-the-go breakfast options with chia proteins.

Trend - Brands in the smart home and AI spaces are creating smart thermostats, often powered by advanced AI, designed to reduce energy consumption in the home. These thermostats automatically adjust heating or cooling to stay within a set temperature range while consuming the least energy possible.

Insight - One of the most promising effects stemming from the introduction of artificial intelligence in nearly every sector is increased efficiency. AI can be used to allocate resources more efficiently, such as reducing waste in the restaurant and CPG fields. This is one of the most desirable effects of AI for eco-conscious consumers, who are now looking to co-opt these tools for their own kitchens and homes. Brands are responding with smart home tools that reduce unnecessary wasted energy or resources.

Trend - Oral care products are increasingly drawing inspiration from iconic brands and well-known names across the fashion, pop culture, and consumer packaged goods industries. These products often include toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, and floss, all designed to resonate with modern fan bases.

Insight - Social media platforms have connected younger audiences around shared interests, allowing them to engage with products in ways that reflect their digital habits. In response, brands across various industries are opening themselves up to cross-industry collaborations, aiming to attract fans of established brands and convert them into loyal customers. Businesses that effectively tap into current social media trends and influences are better positioned to capture the attention of young shoppers.

Trend - Ear Acupressure, or Auriculotherapy, is the science behind stimulating pressure points in the ear to reduce pain, improve digestion and circulation, and more. Brands are releasing ear wearables that target these acupressure points for consumers suffering from acute to chronic pains.

Insight - Consumers suffering from gut pain, or other types of low-intensity looming pains, often deal with such situations in a variety of different ways, with some opting for immediate medical care from professionals, while others are drawn to more at-home remedies and DIY solutions when the condition is not too serious. In an effort to appeal to the latter, consumers who are more adverse to detailed medical care or surgery, brands are releasing wearable pain management solutions that use acupressure.

Trend - Toiletry companies are launching eco-friendly product lines with recycled and organic materials. Utilizing post-consumer recycled plastics, papers, and bamboo, these products further reduce the environmental footprint of single-use disposable papers, while only marginally increasing prices.

Insight - Environmentally-conscious consumers find pride in using products from brands that align with their personal values. These consumers are far more likely to purchase products with recyclable packaging, recycled materials, and without single-use plastics. These consumers believe in voting with their dollar toward products that make progress toward a genuine greener future. As a result, brands from typically unsustainable industries, such as toiletries, are now turning to recycled materials.