Are you still unsure about your product idea, or looking for inspiration on what should you create?
There are bigger business and consumer trends which directly impact the product trends. It is natural to follow these product trends in new product development, of course without forgetting the truly new and innovative product development focusing on ground-breaking new products.
Going early in on a trend can help you be the front-runner when others are still considering solutions. You can achieve a massive head start on your competition when going in early, and thus you should consider the following trends:
Consumer trends now
Trends are of course a fluid thing and therefore subject to change and thus this list is not definitive. However, you could use these examples to draw inspiration for your next great product!
Let’s take a look at few consumer trends shaping the product market:
1. Focusing on health
Consumers are taking a more active role in their decisions affecting their health and wellness. They are becoming more aware of different solutions and products supporting their new healthier focus in life.
This is shown especially in health-related technology products, as these products empower the consumer to take hold of their own day-to-day health.
As the health product market expands it opens up possibilities to create new revolutionary products, such as smart jewelry and even smarter smart watches.
2. Collective empowerment
Consumers are more willing to get their voices heard loud and clear, as they push towards equity, agency, and rights.
This is shown in the so-called green shift, the act of restructuring towards more climate and environmentally friendly solutions. One example of this is shifting away from privately-owned cars as transport and shifting towards a platform economy and ridesharing. This enables product creators to innovate new solutions to meet the consumers needs.
3. Virtual lives
The pandemic taught a lot about physical separation, as we couldn’t meet each other like in the times before. Not only has it effected personal relationships, but also professional relationships as well.
This has created a way of living virtually to connect with the people we were used to seeing often.
These new virtual lives we all have has increased the need to create products and solutions focused on keeping in touch, getting your work done and even for teaching purposes.
4. Artificial intelligence (AI) & Extended reality (XR)
Artificial intelligence will help companies to get more personal with the consumers. As AI gets more affordable and more accessible, there is a great chance to use it for things like search applications, dynamic content optimization and communications, such as chatbots and messaging apps.
Extended reality will be one of the big trends in tech. There is likely to be a landslide of products, applications and use cases to deliver more realistic immersive experiences.
While developing AI & XR solutions is extremely challenging, they are one of the most potential to gain edge from your competition.
5. Dealing with digital dilemmas
While all these technological advances have helped us to keep going and be close to our most important people, the concern about the negative impact of being so digitally available are putting consumers in a predicament.
So flipping the coin and looking at the other side, product creators can also take advantage of consumers being flooded by technology and focus in creating solutions which help take time off from technology.
Let’s take a look on what these trends might result into product-wise:
Trendy products:
Earlier we have talked about wearable product trends, and as you can see, they are still very viable with the aforementioned consumer trends.
We have listed three product trends that are relevant still today, and they are:
1. Smart rings
Smart rings are used in several functions, helping us feel more healthy and more safe. Great examples are personal health monitoring, fitness tracking, making contactless payments and as keys to unlock smart locks.
2. Smart glasses
After a quite a few iterations of the smart glasses they are starting to become mainstream. Big brands such as Rayban and Amazon have recently launched new updated versions of their products, and more is to come.
Smart glasses seamlessly combine your vision with the virtual world, with a lot of convenient use cases. Maybe it is the trend you jump aboard?
3. Smart clothing
Smart clothing, although it is far from the solidity of a ring or pair of smart glasses, is going even further in merging the physical and digital worlds.
These clothing items are made with advanced textiles that have been enhanced with technology to add functionality beyond the traditional usage.
Conclusion
As you can read there are larger consumer trends, which we have listed a few, that directly impact the product trends the consumers end up buying. There is of course a bit of a gap before these trends turn into actual products, but to minimize that it is a good idea to jump on one so you can get a head start!
Once you have your idea developed into a product, it might be a wise idea to look into patenting it. Learn more about patents here:
