5 Consumer Behavior Trends to Expect in 2025

It's Q4 which means… we are all thinking about 2025. Understanding what drives consumer loyalty and behavior is crucial for any business looking to succeed in today's landscape. Here is a brief snapshot on consumer trends we are noticing for 2025:

First: What’s the Current State of Consumer Experience?

Over the past few years, consumer behavior has shifted significantly, prompting businesses to rethink their strategies. You probably don't need us to remind you that times are tough. Despite tighter consumer budgets and reduced discretionary and luxury spending, there's still hope. In fact, consumers are willing to exhibit loyalty if they receive positive experiences, while bad experiences will most often result in reduced spending. This applies to both 'nice-to-have brands' and 'need-to-have industries' alike: delivering a positive consumer experience is critical.

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Consumer Trends to Watch in 2025

Based on responses from 23,730 consumers across 23 countries, a Consumer Trends Report from Qualtrics XM highlights five key trends that will define the global consumer marketplace in 2025.

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Trend 1: Heightened Expectations Fueling Decline in Loyalty

Here is the reality: a tough economy makes consumer loyalty harder to earn, while poor experiences in today’s competitive landscape make customers harder to keep. Consumers' expectations have never been higher, and poor experiences are increasingly leading to reduced spending and loyalty. In today’s competitive landscape, even moving from a one or two-star experience to a three-star one can increase the likelihood of repeat purchases by 68% and improve recommendation rates by 97%. Focus and invest on delivering a quality product or service.

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Trend 2: The Importance of your Marketing Foundation

How are you doing on the marketing fundamentals? Communication, service delivery, and ensuring that the information you’re providing consumers is accurate? This stuff really matters. This all boils down to one simple word: trust. Consumers want to buy from brands that deliver on their promise. How do you build consumer trust? Through effective communication, reliable & quality service delivery, and providing a great experience. Trust correlates with a consumer's likelihood to repurchase and recommend your products/services.

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Trend 3: Decline in Feedback

How do you know if you are giving your customers the experience they expect? The answer is tough, as consumers are not filling out surveys as much and do not voice their complaints as often as they used to (only 16% will use social media to air their grievances, and only 22% will write something on a third-party review site (both metrics down from 2021). Businesses need to hone in on their listening skills to extract these insights. Luckily with today's technological advancements, listening tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated and useful. Invest in listening and go the extra mile to ask questions. Your customers are the most qualified people to tell you how you are doing.

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Trend 4: AI Skepticism

It seems like you can't go 5 minutes without hearing how a brand's products or services are powered by AI. While businesses are all about the hype, it can be a turn off to consumers. There’s a growing worry that AI-powered tools will come between consumers and the ability to speak to a real human being. Brands looking to implement AI will need to ensure it supplements, rather than replaces, human interactions to maintain consumer trust.

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Trend 5: Privacy and Personalization

This one can be a delicate balance. On one hand, consumers have a preference for personal experiences that are designed just for them. On the other, many consumers don't trust companies to be responsible when using the type of data required to make that possible. While 64% prefer tailored experiences, more than half express worries about how their data is used. Again, this goes back to trust – consumers are more comfortable sharing data with brands they inherently trust, compared to brands they don't.

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Conclusion

In summary, while spending naturally reduces when the budget is tight, businesses can accrue loyal customers by building the one thing that matters most: trust. And building trust comes from brands delivering on the basics: do what you say you are going to do.

Reference: 2025 Global Consumer Trends Report

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