LSN : News : Thought-starter: How are furniture brands servicing Generation Rent?

This campaign promotes wool in a synthetic future

Live and Breathe, The Woolmark Company

Sydney – The Woolmark Company has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the performance benefits of Australian Merino wool.

Entitled Live and Breathe, the campaign hopes to remind consumers that Merino wool’s natural qualities – including breathability and odour control – make it an ideal material for athleisure wear. Australia produces 90% of the world’s apparel wool, making it a powerful force in changing the way consumers buy wool products.

An accompanying ad was created for the global wool authority by TBWA\Sydney, and takes aim at our modern obsession with synthetics. Set in a speculative future, the protagonist navigates a world that has forgotten the benefits of natural textiles, where people wear artificial clothing created from the coats of synthetic sheep. Finally, the woman discovers a natural environment populated by real sheep, away from the dystopian cityscape.

To discover more natural materials that could overthrow our fixation with synthetics, read our round-up from H&M Foundation’s Global Change Award.

A resale site for influencers’ wardrobes

The Resolution Store

UK – The Resolution Store is an e-commerce store that makes use of social media influencers’ unwanted clothing.

The act of gifting clothing to influencers, often with the intention of gaining free advertisement, is generating huge amounts of waste. The Resolution Store aims to address this by providing an online space for consumers to browse a curated selection of influencers’ clothing. The store will release drops of 1,000 items every four weeks to ensure the stock remains fresh.

‘By working with a select group of contributors at a time we’re able to offer an edit more akin to a boutique rather than a mass resale site, which can be very intimidating for those who want to start shopping in a more responsible way,’ co-founder Alicia Waite told LS:N Global.

As Fashion Recommerce continues to gain status, we are likely to see more retailers entering the resale market and powering a circular economy.

Snapchat will now suggest Amazon products

US – The app has worked with Amazon to introduce a visual search feature that directs people to similar products on the e-commerce site.

To use the feature, users point their Snapchat camera at a product or barcode, and press and hold on the camera screen. When the item or barcode is recognised, Snapchat will offer a link to the product, or a similar product, available on Amazon.

Snapchat has been slowly shedding its image as a social media platform by expanding into other sectors and pioneering the next generation of Social Commerce. Earlier in 2018, the app was used by Nike to offer exclusive access to a limited-edition sneaker.

Snapchat visual search, Snap

Renault releases a fleet of autonomous delivery cars

EZ-PRO model by Renault

Germany – The Ez-Pro is a modular driverless vehicle that delivers parcels, but can also function as a retail space.

The vehicle is a development of Renault’s Ez-Go ride-sharing concept, which was announced in March this year. The Ez-Pro gives the automotive brand the opportunity to expand into retail by turning the pods into pop-up shops and food stalls.

When functioning as a delivery vehicle, both businesses and consumers can select a delivery time and location, where the Ez-Pro will be waiting to meet them. They can then access self-service lockers from the pods using a smartphone app. According to Renault, last-mile delivery – from a transport hub to its final destination – comprises 30% of traffic in cities. The Ez-Pro would ease this traffic by releasing fewer vehicles during rush hour and connecting to traffic light data.

In our macrotrend Subconscious Commerce we explore the rise of Mobility Commerce, and how driverless retail concepts such as the Ez-Pro and Toyota’s e-Palette could disrupt the notion of destination retail.

Stat: China feels optimistic about a digital future

China has been ranked first among a study that rates the countries that feel optimistic about the impact of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) on their lifestyles, according to the newly released Digital Society Index.

The study, created in partnership with Oxford Economics and Dentsu Aegis Network, found that 65% believe that AI will create job opportunities over the next decade. Furthermore, 68% believe that their education has been successful in providing them with the technology skills they need – the highest proportion out of the 10 countries surveyed.

The disparity between the Far East’s optimism and the West’s pessimism towards AI is a topic we address in our macrotrend Morality Recoded.

Thought-starter: How are furniture brands servicing Generation Rent?

With consumers both less willing and less able to establish permanent homes, furniture brands are having to develop products and services that don’t rely on life-long ownership, says foresight writer Peter Maxwell.

As we have shown, today’s younger demographics are often too transient or otherwise unlikely to accept historic definitions of family structures. Meanwhile, market forces mean that buying a home is increasingly an economic impossibility for those who might aspire to settle down, with 35-54 year olds almost twice as likely to be renting from a private landlord as they were a decade ago, according to research by the Department for Work and Pensions.

This shift is now giving rise to the concept of ‘furniture as a service’ – an opportunity for furniture brands to totally reformat the relationship they have with their customers. One brand taking a more progressive approach is Harth, a new platform that lets consumers rent furniture, home décor and art from a number of high-end designers and artists.

Mattress brand Casper has taken this concept of furniture as a service to its most extreme with the creation of The Dreamery, a place where exhausted Manhattanites can hire a sleep pod for up to 45 minutes.

Read the full microtrend here.