In Experience Strategy Trends Report 2024, Stone Mantel reached out to an audience of more than 3,200 consumers and 200 CX professionals in 2021-2023 to ask what customers expect brands to do and how they can engage customers more and increase their loyalty to their brands.

Before the pandemic, 54% of consumers preferred shopping online. But after the pandemic, it was already 68% of consumers who say they prefer to make purchases online. 25% say they now buy online but pick up their orders in a store. Only 20% of respondents say they have temporarily changed their habits, and 16% say they buy less online and more in-store.

“People have many instantaneous options, but what no one has more of is time. The power of measuring Time Well Spent, compared to a metric like NPS that statically evaluates loyalty, is that you can focus on solution improvement, which leads to more valuable experiences,” Dave Norton, founder of Stone Mantel, says.

Main trends mentioned in the report:

• The growth of online communities around brands is becoming even more important, as users crave interaction with like-minded people and a sense of belonging.
• AR and VR technologies serve as tools to enhance the shopping experience by offering a shopping experience by offering a near-physical shopping experience.
• Consumers will increasingly rely on AI to generate recommendations for complex decisions, such as selecting healthcare plans, investments, or travel arrangements.