In a post-Covid landscape, changing consumer needs are driving retailers to rethink bricks-and-mortar stores to be more engaging, sensorial and memorable.

Our new Hyperphysical Stores macrotrend presentation explores how e-commerce is accelerating to offer multi-layered and sometimes confusing experiences for customers and brands, while bricks-and-mortar shops are becoming bastions of extraordinary, sensorial moments.

This presentation helps businesses tap into the Future Laboratory’s framework, The Four Es of Retail. Ranging from enriching to exclusive, these experiential markers will elevate the senses, cultivate community and expand the potential of physical store design.

As real-world uprisings rage on and our journey to the metaverse accelerates, global consumers are busy forming new types of alliance. Losing their sense of individualism, they are engaging in new forms of collective thinking, doing and consuming.

As our new macrotrend presentation reveals, brands will need to change from sellers to coordinators, blurring the boundaries between how we define a company, a community and a collective.

This presentation helps businesses tap into these community spaces, understand their massive potential and explore why we need to prepare for a neo-collectivist future.

A hybrid generation of Zalphas are entering brands’ consciousness. Wise beyond their years, these products of climate change are using their childhood – once a time of innocence – as a time for productivity.

Our new macrotrend presentation offers a first look at what – or who – comes next: a transitional generation of Zalphas who are at the forefront of this technology paradox. As they learn how to navigate a world that both is and isn’t comprised of pixels, they are not seeing the physical and digital worlds as silos, but as equally important realities that can be layered on top of one another.

In this presentation, we look at how this new generation will reshape policymaking, family structures and the very meaning of youth.

At a time of global upheaval, brands and consumers are uniting to build future-fit, resilient food systems that support changing social values, protect precious resources and secure supply chains.

This comes as a response to the commodification of food over the last century, with the cultural, social, environmental and political value of eating and drinking largely stripped away in pursuit of unbalanced business priorities such as profit and growth.

This presentation examines the reasons why we eat – and how we should eat – companies and consumers will merge pro-people and planet practices with bold solutions.

Self-care as we know it is changing. Between calls to reject the wellness industrial complex and close the gap between widening health inequalities, a shift is under way.

Covid-19 has taught us that we are all connected and that taking care of ourselves is a way to care for our family, friends and community. For this reason, self-care is taking on a new role on both an individual and a collective scale.

In this presentation, we look at the foundations of beauty, health and wellness that have been compromised by the pandemic as well as emerging trends and foresight.

Accelerating e-commerce and demands for expedited delivery are forcing a new retail framework that puts eco-conscious practices central to brands’ operations.

This comes amid global online growth for retail over the last 12 months. Yet, as shoppers shift their spending online, strain on supply chains and the effect of expedited shipping and returns are exacerbating retail’s environmental impact.

From global supply chains to augmented brands, find out how convenience and care for the environment are becoming ever-more intertwined.

Forget advertising campaigns and branded content. As the power dynamic shifts between brands and consumers, all eyes are on the inner workings of your business – and how seamlessly it can respond, recalibrate and adapt. Moving beyond reactionary thinking, this is a chance for brands to pilot a truly transformative future for business.

In this presentation, we examine how as the power dynamic shifts between brands and consumers, all eyes are on the inner workings of businesses, and how seamlessly they can respond and recalibrate. We also delve into the future of Chief Disaster Officers, Mortal Commerce and Dynamic Democracy.

The pandemic has sapped the energy of urban life. Revealing stark inequalities between global citizens, Covid-19 is exposing issues with urban safety, public services and access to green spaces in our cities. This demands new and urgent approaches to how our streets and spaces are used, alongside a reframing of who and what are the priorities of our future city. In the 2020s, we anticipate the rise of Equilibrium Cities.

As we move through The Transformative Twenties, data-first digital systems will enable people to shape and experience their cities remotely, possibly even in alternative realms.  This presentation explores trends such as Blended Cultural Realms, Salubrious Streets and Natural Foundations.

Facing a medley of expectations, consumers are realising that the self-actualising activities they have bought into are mentally and physically draining. We are now entering a period of reflection, selfishness and solitude in which intensified notions of achievement are proving counter-productive, and consumers are now pressing pause. 

From the celebration of Slacker Culture to the allure of the Homebody Economy, in this presentation we present key insights for brands in sectors such as wellness, leisure and the workplace. Discover why we must untangle guilt around free time, upend modern work rituals and champion the post-capitalist act of opting out.

Consumers are tiring of photogenic pop-ups, immersive events and mass tourism as a form of social currency. In the next decade the focus will shift to places, processes and practices that cultivate quiet, intimacy and introspection, with consumers seeking to balance their emotional, physical and spiritual states.

From Psychonautic Therapy to Neuromedia, we looks at the shifts redefining entertainment and leisure, as well as health and wellness. Find out how the concept of experience as a form medicine will drive a new age of self-discovery and enlightenment.

Brands are on the brink of a post-purpose era as consumers challenge hypocrisies in messaging, product and brand behaviour. At the same time, a generation of entrepreneurial activists are becoming workers, shareholders and boardroom members, reshaping brands in their image by promoting a culture of continual regeneration.

We present the Sacrificial Brands setting strict environmental business goals, alongside the rise of Problem Evolving strategies that utilise insights to enhance and advance business operations. And as technology progresses, learn how 5G will allow brands to serve and support the public more intuitively.