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Once dismissed as retail relics, physical storefronts are making a surprising comeback – this time, powered by digital-first brands. From pop-ups to permanent flagships, online-native companies are opening brick-and-mortar locations not out of necessity but by design.

Amazon Style offers shoppers curated fashion based on browsing history. Warby Parker’s clean, minimalist stores blend seamlessly into upscale neighborhoods, offering eye exams alongside Instagrammable interiors. In Bangkok, Pomelo Fashion invites customers to try on app-selected items in sleek fitting rooms before completing purchases from their phones.

It’s a reversal that reflects more than a retail pivot. While digital advertising remains cheaper in terms of pure reach, online CPMs average between $3 and $10, compared to $22 or more for traditional media, customer acquisition online is becoming less efficient. As competition intensifies and privacy changes limit ad targeting, many direct-to-consumer brands are seeing digital acquisition costs climb, sometimes exceeding average order values. In this landscape, storefronts are emerging as strategic complements: part showroom, part service center, part brand theater. For these brands, it’s not just about footfall. It’s about reducing digital dependency and building loyalty through real-world engagement.

Why Physical Retail Now

For years, e-commerce promised a frictionless future – one-click checkouts, fast shipping, and endless inventory. But as digital storefronts multiplied, so did the challenges: skyrocketing customer acquisition costs, rising return rates, and a sea of sameness. Today, even the most digitally fluent brands are discovering that a website alone can’t deliver emotional connection or tactile trust.

Physical stores are filling the gap. A well‑designed storefront gives customers something the digital shelf can’t: the ability to touch, try, and experience. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, e‑commerce accounted for 15.3 % of total U.S. retail sales in 2023—a share that continues to rise quarter by quarter. While physical stores still drive the bulk of retail activity, the steady growth of online shopping, especially during major events like Black Friday, signals a lasting shift in consumer behavior.

Still, not all categories follow the same trajectory. Furniture and home‑furnishing purchases increasingly migrate online; nearly 31 % of home furnishing sales occurred digitally in 2023. Consumer electronics remains split, with value and convenience driving online growth, but big‑ticket purchases often favor in‑store confidence. And goods like plants, outdoor supplies, garden products, and decorative home items, where touch, size, and immediacy matter, have stubbornly resisted complete digital takeover. Big‑box outlets continue to dominate these segments, with traditional furniture and outdoor‑living stores capturing the lion’s share of consumer spending.

In other words, the price tag and physicality of the item strongly influence where consumers choose to shop. You can order a lamp or phone online, but the comfort of a store still wins when it comes to the feel of a sofa, the freshness of a plant, or the scale of a patio set.

But these new retail spaces aren’t built for volume. They’re designed for impact. Brands are leaning into high-touch service, curated displays, and neighborhood-specific assortments. Instead of acting as isolated outposts, these stores function as real-world extensions of the brand – driving online traffic, deepening engagement, and turning one-time buyers into repeat customers.

The playbook is shifting: Stores aren’t just about sales – they’re about staying top of mind in a distracted, digital-first world.

Pomelo Fashion’s Omnichannel Evolution

Founded in 2013 by David Jou and Casey Liang, Pomelo Fashion has emerged as a leading omnichannel fashion brand in Southeast Asia. Initially operating solely online, the company has expanded its presence with physical stores in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Central to Pomelo’s strategy is its “Tap.Try.Buy” service, which allows customers to order items online, try them on at a designated store, and pay only for what they choose to keep. This approach enhances the shopping experience by integrating the convenience of online browsing with the assurance of in-store fitting.

In May 2025, LeadIQ reported that Pomelo Fashion achieved $750 million in annual revenue, marking a substantial leap from the $38 million recorded in 2022

Pomelo’s expansion efforts have included entering new markets, such as Cambodia, where it partnered with Zando Group to establish a retail presence. Additionally, the company has focused on enhancing supply chain efficiency by implementing unified inventory systems and streamlining return processes.

By seamlessly blending online and offline experiences, Pomelo Fashion continues to adapt to the evolving retail landscape, aiming to meet the diverse preferences of its customer base.

Why online brands are opening stores

For digital-first companies, opening a physical store isn’t about replicating traditional retail – it’s about amplifying what already works. With online customer acquisition costs climbing and attention spans shrinking, many brands view stores as a channel for deeper engagement rather than just sales.

Stores offer what websites can’t: human connection, hands-on product trials, and immediate service. They create environments where discovery feels organic and tactile, and shoppers can linger, ask questions, and build trust. That trust often carries over into digital behavior. According to Warby Parker’s most recent earnings report, customers who engage with online and retail touchpoints tend to have higher lifetime value.

For brands like Pomelo, stores also provide critical feedback loops. Each in-person interaction offers insights into fit, preferences, and regional trends – data that helps refine everything from product design to inventory allocation. Physical locations are no longer separate from e-commerce platforms – they’re extensions of them, working in sync to personalize the experience and drive loyalty.

The result is a more resilient retail model, one that spans screens and sidewalks.

The evolving role of the website

While physical spaces gain momentum, the brand website remains the nerve center of the modern retail ecosystem. But its role is shifting – from being the sole point of sale to becoming a connective platform that bridges discovery, transaction, and service.

Today’s websites aren’t just digital catalogs. They power appointments for in-store try-ons, host loyalty programs, manage returns, and sync with physical inventory in real-time. At Pomelo, the app and website are critical to the “Tap.Try.Buy” model, allowing customers to browse, reserve, and purchase without friction. Warby Parker’s platform does the same, letting users schedule eye exams, browse local store stock, or complete an in-store purchase online.

For brands blending offline and online, the website is no longer the endpoint – it’s the interface. It carries the brand’s identity, handles the logistics, and learns from each customer interaction. As stores become more experiential, the website does the heavy lifting behind the scenes, ensuring a seamless handoff between channels.

The digital shelf might not be enough on its own anymore – but it’s more important than ever in making the entire system work.

What shopping will look like in 2050

If you walk into a store in 2050, you might not walk out with a bag. Instead, your personalized selections – curated by AI, informed by biometric data, and filtered through your sustainability preferences – could arrive at your door within hours, if not minutes.

Retail futurists envision spaces that act less like inventory warehouses and more like interactive brand labs. Physical stores may shrink in size but grow in sophistication, equipped with augmented reality mirrors, smart shelves, and real-time language translation for global shoppers. If consumers opt-in, facial recognition could trigger dynamic pricing based on loyalty status or previous purchases.

Sustainability will likely shape store formats, too. Modular, low-waste layouts, carbon-neutral delivery options, and locally sourced assortments could become table stakes. Data from online and in-store behavior will sync seamlessly, creating a “phygital” loop where discovery, trial, and purchase span both worlds.

But some things won’t change. Shoppers will still crave connection, story, and the confidence that comes from seeing and touching a product before committing. The brands that win in 2050 may look futuristic – but at their core, they’ll understand something timeless: trust is built person-to-person, even when powered by pixels.

Retail’s Quiet Reinvention

What began as a tactical move to lower return rates or offer fitting rooms has turned into something more fundamental: a rethinking of what retail means. Digital-first brands aren’t just entering physical spaces; they’re redesigning them on their terms.

These aren’t legacy department stores or big-box chains. They’re focused, frictionless, and hyper-intentional. Every square foot has a purpose, whether to host an eye exam, facilitate same-day pickup, or serve as a live feedback loop for product development.

The quiet reinvention underway isn’t about going back – it’s about moving forward with the tools, data, and expectations of a new era. The lines between online and offline are no longer blurred. They’re gone entirely.

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The consumer journey used to begin with intent. A need arose, a search began, and brands vied for attention on the results page. That digital arena, structured around keywords, ads, and SEO, rewarded whoever best spoke the search engine’s language. That model is losing ground.

AI is altering not only what consumers see but also how they seek. Search is giving way to suggestion. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google’s SGE, and TikTok’s algorithmic feed replace active intent with passive input. Type less. Scroll more. The funnel is fading.

In this new model, over half of consumers prefer product suggestions from generative AI rather than search engines. Nearly seven in ten say they’re ready to act on them. What once required comparison and evaluation is increasingly instant and unexamined.

The implications for brands are structural. Visibility is no longer won on a search results page. The new battleground lies inside opaque recommendation systems, where influence depends on what the algorithm surfaces, not what the consumer seeks.

When Search Becomes Suggestion

Once, the journey began at the search bar. Now, it starts within the logic of a machine. More and more choices—from headphones to holidays—emerge not from exploration but from a feed or prompt. Curated results appear from systems trained on data the consumer never sees.

This isn’t hypothetical. In the past year, 58 percent of global consumers have begun using generative AI for product recommendations, according to Capgemini. In the UK, 37 percent of under-40s now use AI for more than half of their searches. In the US, it’s 32 percent. The expectation isn’t to browse. It’s to receive, instantly and with zero friction.

Even when consumers still use search engines, their behavior has shifted. Google’s Search Generative Experience now places AI-generated summaries above all other results.

According to Adobe, in 75 percent of cases, these overviews end the search then and there. Users find what they need without ever visiting a brand’s site. Visibility, once a matter of rankings and backlinks, is now defined by what the machine considers relevant.

For brands, this changes the calculus. Winning a keyword no longer guarantees visibility. If your product is not named in the AI’s shortlist, you do not exist. Recipe platforms have already felt the impact. In late 2024, traffic fell sharply as AI began answering holiday cooking questions outright. Only brands that were directly cited, such as Allrecipes, maintained strong engagement.

The Vanishing Middle

The old journey had a rhythm. Awareness led to research, research to comparison, and comparison to choice. Each step allowed brands to step in, whether through ads, testimonials, or product pages. That middle ground is disappearing.

Instead of reading dozens of reviews, consumers now ask AI assistants which model to buy. They trust the tools to compare specs and recommend what fits. A global survey from Attest in early 2025 found that 47 percent of consumers use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Claude to research products before purchasing. In Canada and the UK, the number rises to over half. These are no longer fringe behaviors. They are becoming the norm.

The reason is simple. AI makes the process feel efficient. It can process reviews in seconds, highlight differences, and suggest what someone like you might want. Research by Bain & Company shows that in China, where e-commerce evolves rapidly, 58 percent of consumers already trust AI product recommendations, and 65 percent are comfortable using it to make decisions. On platforms like Taobao, users can now ask what’s trending, what fits their style, or what is on sale, all through generative AI chat.

Consumers are not just skipping steps. They are outsourcing them. And many prefer it. Capgemini reports that 68 percent of global consumers are now willing to act on AI-generated product recommendations. This includes both first-time purchases and routine replacements. What was once a journey is now a prompt.

For brands, this compression brings a new kind of challenge. The window to influence is smaller. If AI chooses the shortlist, brands must win earlier. At the same time, the impact of inclusion is greater. Being one of three suggestions matters more than ranking seventeenth on a search page. Presence in the recommendation layer is now critical.

How Trust in AI Splits Across Borders

While AI is changing how people shop worldwide, not everyone is moving at the same speed or with the same trust. The gaps span age, location, and gender, showing where AI influence is strongest and where hesitation remains.

In Southeast Asia, adoption is surging. A regional study by SleekFlow found that 88 percent of shoppers across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore rely on AI recommendations to guide purchases. Ninety-two percent use AI-powered platforms for personalized suggestions. These markets are mobile-first and integrated across platforms, making them more receptive to automation that simplifies shopping.

By contrast, consumer sentiment in the US remains cautious. According to the Retail Media Breakfast Club, 55 percent of American shoppers do not trust AI shopping chatbots or automated product suggestions. Among those who encounter these tools, fewer than half choose to engage. The skepticism often stems from perceived bias, previous poor experiences, and a preference for human reassurance in more complex decisions.

Age plays a defining role. Research from Attest shows that 60 percent of shoppers under 50 are willing to use AI assistants or chatbots on brand websites, compared to only 43 percent of those aged 50 and older. Younger consumers tend to see AI as infrastructure—a tool rather than a threat. They also expect higher levels of personalization. Capgemini reports that two-thirds of Gen Z and millennials want AI-powered product suggestions tailored to their behavior and preferences.

A measurable gender divide has also emerged. A recent multi-country survey by Attest found that 52 percent of men are comfortable with AI-generated product recommendations, compared to just 43 percent of women. The reasons vary, but often include differences in trust toward technology and the desire to retain control over purchasing decisions.

As more of the consumer journey is shaped by algorithms, these differences become more significant. Brands using AI in customer-facing roles, such as chatbots, smart recommendations, or predictive tools, must calibrate the experience. This may involve offering human support options, explaining how suggestions are generated, or allowing customers to set their own preferences.

AI may be guiding the journey, but consumers still decide whether to follow it.

Rethinking Visibility

The scramble to adapt is well underway. As the consumer journey shifts from search to suggestion, brands are confronting a simple truth: if they are not recommended, they are not seen.

This shift has prompted a quiet pivot. Marketing teams that once focused on SEO and paid search are now trying to understand the internal logic of generative AI. A new term is gaining traction: AI Optimization, or AIO. It refers to becoming discoverable not through indexed pages, but through the language models that shape how consumers discover information.

The mechanics of AI optimization are still evolving. Unlike search engines, generative tools do not explain how they rank or retrieve results. But early patterns are emerging. Content written by brands often performs better than affiliate-style reviews. Clear metadata and direct answers increase the chances of being cited. Brands that lead in category-specific Q&A content are more likely to appear in AI-generated responses. The tactics resemble SEO in structure, but not in strategy.

The urgency is real. In late 2024, when generative AI summaries began appearing at the top of search results, retailers and publishers saw immediate declines in organic traffic. Recipe websites were among the first to feel the impact. Pages that once ranked highly for terms like “how long to roast a turkey” were bypassed by AI-generated summaries offering the answer directly. According to Retail TouchPoints, only sites cited within the summaries retained or gained traffic during the holiday surge.

This marks a shift in where and how attention is directed. Investment is following the trend. Capgemini’s latest consumer trends report shows that seven in ten consumer product and retail brands now see generative AI as transformative. The shift extends beyond content and search, reaching across ecommerce, brand-owned channels, and customer service platforms. Rather than simply attracting clicks through advertising, these brands are now focused on teaching algorithms to recommend them first.

This new strategy begins upstream. Influence must be established before the consumer even knows what to search for.

When Precision Becomes Overreach

Personalization has always been the promise. AI made it scalable. Yet as recommendations become more precise, the line between relevance and intrusion starts to blur.

Retailers are already tailoring storefronts, emails, and product bundles in real time using algorithms that learn from shopper behavior. According to SleekFlow, 86 percent of Indonesian shoppers and 80 percent of Malaysians are more likely to buy when recommendations feel personalized. These are not marginal lifts. For many brands, it can be the difference between cart abandonment and conversion.

Yet enthusiasm has limits. In the US and Europe, many consumers remain uneasy about how much insight AI systems have into their preferences. The same personalization that increases engagement can raise concern when it feels overly intrusive. An ad that references recent browsing may feel helpful. One that appears to tap into emotional insecurities can feel invasive. This is especially true in sensitive categories such as health, beauty, and finance.

The challenge for brands is not just technical but perceptual. When consumers do not understand why a suggestion appears, trust begins to erode. Some companies are responding by rethinking opaque recommendation systems. Others are adding cues such as “Because you bought X” or “Similar customers preferred” to explain suggestions without revealing the full algorithm.

At its best, personalization mimics human intuition. But when it becomes too precise, it reminds people they are being watched. The opportunity lies in keeping suggestions helpful without making them feel inevitable. Brands that succeed may not be the ones with the most data, but those with the most restraint.

Why-millennials-demand-work-life-balance

Where Did All the Traffic Come From?

The numbers still arrive in dashboards: sessions, bounce rates, time on page. But what drives them is shifting. AI-generated traffic behaves differently. It is erratic, difficult to attribute, and increasingly where the momentum is.

During the 2024 holiday season, US retailers reported a sharp surge in visits originating from generative AI tools. Adobe Analytics reported that traffic from AI assistants to retail sites rose more than 1,300 percent year over year, with Cyber Monday alone spiking nearly 1,950 percent. By early 2025, volumes had normalized but remained 1,200 percent higher than six months prior. These were not background processes. They were real consumers arriving through prompts, voice queries, and curated answer boxes.

Most arrived without a breadcrumb trail. They skipped homepages, ignored menu structures, and bypassed campaign entry points. Often, the AI had already filtered their options. The user clicked through with purpose, but no context. They had been handed a short list and were already deep into decision mode.

The design assumptions behind most ecommerce sites are ill-suited to this pattern. Recommendation engines still default to broad segmentation. Onsite personalization depends heavily on past behavior. But AI-driven visits come from somewhere else entirely. The visitor may never have seen an ad. They may not have been retargeted. They are acting on a suggestion from a model trained on billions of pages, but not necessarily one the brand paid to influence.

When the Shelf Is Chosen for You

Consumers have always edited the market down to a handful of options. AI just gets there first. Instead of reviewing dozens of choices, people are increasingly presented with three or four. In many cases, that shortlist is generated automatically. The product that appears first is not always the best or cheapest. It is the one the model selects, based on inputs the consumer never sees.

This has created a new visibility economy. Brands are no longer just competing for attention. They are competing for inclusion. One generative AI platform recommends a particular vacuum cleaner because its specs were easier to parse. Another suggests a niche beauty brand because it had more verified customer reviews. These are not paid placements. They are algorithmic guesses at relevance, made instantly and often without explanation.

The result is a narrowing of the funnel before the consumer ever enters it. In B2B markets, this is already measurable. A 2025 G2 report found that nearly one in ten business buyers now skip the traditional shortlist process entirely, moving forward with a single vendor surfaced by AI. In these cases, the machine performs triage on behalf of the buyer. The rest of the market never gets a look.

The implications are not subtle. Being second no longer means being part of the decision. It means being invisible.

From Funnel to Feedback Loop

The consumer journey is no longer a funnel. It is a feedback loop, shaped less by desire than by data. When AI becomes the first point of contact and the final nudge to purchase, brands lose the space in between. They no longer guide decisions. They wait to be selected.

This is not just a change in channels. It is a change in power. Brands built their digital strategies around discoverability, assuming the consumer would come looking. That assumption is obsolete. AI is now the gatekeeper, the recommender, the editor of choices. And unlike search engines, it does not reward effort. It rewards fit.

The question is not how to rank. It is how to be picked. That means understanding how generative systems evaluate relevance, context, and authority. It means building content for a model, not a human. It means accepting that visibility is no longer earned through awareness but conferred through inclusion.

Most brands are still trying to optimize the journey. The smartest ones are rebuilding for a world where the journey is optimized by someone else.

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Protein has slipped out of the gym and into everyday life. It’s no longer the domain of weightlifters or meal-prep obsessives, but something far more ordinary and far more widespread. In Britain, it now turns up in desk drawers, schoolbags, glove compartments, and corner shop fridges. It’s being stirred, shaken, squeezed, and snackified. And, crucially, it’s not being consumed for muscle. It’s for focus. For balance. For the small but satisfying sense of doing something right.

Sales of protein bars, powders, and drinks have climbed 24.2% in the past year, pushing the UK’s sports nutrition market to £1.1 billion. But the term “sports” is misleading. For many, protein isn’t about performance at all. It’s about practicality. Commuters pick up ready-to-drink shakes between trains. Office workers reach for a bar between Zoom calls. Parents hand protein yoghurts to teenagers because they feel vaguely healthier than crisps. Protein, today, is about keeping things ticking over.

That quiet normalisation is most obvious on the high street. Where once there was a dusty corner of the supermarket for “active lifestyles”, now there are prominent displays of high-protein snacks, cereals, bakery items, and even desserts. It’s a word that works across the nutritional spectrum, something that can sit beside indulgence as easily as it can beside restraint.

And British shoppers aren’t short on options. Shelves are filled with chocolate-coated, dairy-free, oat-based, and whey-packed bars, flavored with everything from peanut butter to salted caramel. The variety says as much about branding as it does about diet. Protein has become shorthand for modern food values: a desire for function, as well as taste, convenience, and, increasingly, identity.

Protein is no longer just a supplement. For many, it reflects small, everyday choices that align with broader intentions—eating well, staying alert, and maintaining balance. In a culture increasingly shaped by wellbeing, high-protein foods offer a quiet reassurance that you’re doing something good for yourself.

What’s Driving the Protein Push

What’s driving protein’s rise isn’t hype, but how effortlessly it fits into everyday routines. Unlike other health trends that require restriction or reinvention, protein works quietly in the background, adding structure, energy, and reassurance. From Gen Z to pensioners, each generation is finding its own reasons to embrace it.

Millennials and Gen Z are leading the shift, but they’re not chasing muscle gains. Recent research revealed that over 60% of UK adults under 35 say they consume high-protein foods to feel energised and manage stress, rather than for fitness. On platforms like TikTok, #highproteinmealprep has surpassed 700 million views, with fridge tours and influencer routines turning protein bars and powders into everyday essentials. These are not supplements. They are lifestyle markers, shared as much for accountability as for aesthetics.

Yet the interest is not confined to the under-40s. In a recent survey, 45% of UK consumers over 55 said they were increasing protein intake to support healthy ageing. This group is not buying protein for trend’s sake, but for muscle preservation and mobility. The shift reflects a broader awareness that protein is not just for the gym. It is a foundation for long-term wellbeing.

One motivation stands out across age groups and lifestyles: functionality. Unlike diets that cut, cleanse, or punish, high-protein choices add something. They help people feel fuller, stay sharper, snack less, and simplify mealtimes. This reflects Britain’s broader wellness economy, where the emphasis is on feeling well rather than performing wellness.

This also helps explain why consumers prefer familiar formats. Bars, shakes, yoghurts, and puddings continue to dominate, not because they are new, but because they are practical. Most shoppers are not looking for lab-designed alternatives. They want recognisable foods that fit their habits and offer clear functional benefits.

The result is not a fleeting trend, but a gradual evolution in how people approach food. Protein is not a disruptor. It is an enabler. It offers small, practical wins that add up over time. In a culture where wellness is no longer niche, that promise holds lasting appeal.

The Brand Strategy Behind the Boom

As the appetite for protein grows, so too has the way it is marketed. In supermarkets and corner shops alike, protein is no longer confined to the health aisle. It appears on endcaps, in meal deals, and even in vending machines. It has been repositioned not as a supplement, but as a shortcut to modern living.

Marketing once focused on performance: leaner, stronger, faster. Now it leans toward everyday credibility. Products no longer ask consumers to train harder. They position themselves as tools to help people keep going. UFIT’s ready-to-drink shakes, for instance, are priced at £1.79 for a grab-and-go bottle, aimed at shoppers who have never set foot in a supplement store. Grenade, one of the UK’s bestselling protein bar brands, leads with indulgence rather than nutrition. Flavors like white chocolate cookie, fudge brownie, and peanut butter make the experience feel more like a treat than a transaction.

Even traditionally masculine brands like Jack Link’s have adapted. The US-born jerky maker now invests in UK campaigns across esports, festivals, and social media. This is no longer protein for the gym. It is protein for gaming, raving, and late-night snacking. The shift is strategic. In Britain, protein has become a lifestyle.

Much of this success comes down to the flexibility of the format. Bars and shakes don’t require a new habit. They fit easily into existing ones. That’s also why brands have doubled down on packaging that communicates quickly, using bold labels like “20g PROTEIN,” simplified ingredient lists, and soft color palettes borrowed from the wellness world.

And the storytelling doesn’t stop at the shelf. Influencer partnerships, especially with micro-influencers who reflect everyday routines, have helped protein products blend seamlessly into social feeds. Not as a flex, but as a cue. In a world where the line between food and self-image continues to blur, that visibility matters.

In the UK, brands aren’t selling protein as performance. They’re selling it as permission. Permission to snack, to simplify, to opt into health without opting out of pleasure. It is this careful balance between function and familiarity that has propelled protein from niche to necessity.

Image credit: Huel

Huel’s success tells a story far bigger than meal replacement. Founded in the UK in 2015, the brand launched with a promise of nutritional completeness and convenience, offering vegan shakes and powders for those too busy to cook but unwilling to compromise on health. It quickly moved from niche to norm, propelled by savvy digital marketing and a cult-like community of professionals, students, and time-pressed urbanites.

What makes Huel notable is how it positioned protein as a practical staple instead of a specialist tool. Its expansion from online-only sales to supermarket shelves brought ready-to-drink shakes and bars into the hands of everyday shoppers. By 2024, Huel’s global footprint had reached 25,650 stores, its UK retail presence strengthened, and its annual sales hit £214 million, an increase of 16 percent year-on-year. The brand’s profitability also grew sharply, with pre-tax profit nearly tripling in the same period.

Huel hasn’t leaned on performance or indulgence. Instead, it has championed efficiency, routine, and nutritional balance, values that resonate with modern British consumers, especially millennials and Gen Z. In doing so, it helped redefine what protein means in everyday life.

How the UK Compares Globally

Britain’s protein habit may feel local, but it is playing out on a global stage. Around the world, consumers are rethinking when and why they reach for protein. Yet the UK stands apart not in volume, but in tone. While other countries frame protein around performance, Britain treats it more like a life skill. It is about balance, ease, and everyday upkeep.

In the United States, the trend has gone maximalist. Protein shows up in ice cream, pancake mix, breakfast cereal, and even candy. Proffee, a mash-up of protein and iced coffee, started as a TikTok trend and quickly moved into cafés and ready-to-drink ranges. Sixty-three percent of Americans actively look for protein in snacks. The line between indulgence and function is all but gone.

In Southeast Asia, the shift looks different. Economic growth has made animal protein more accessible, driving up demand. At the same time, younger consumers in countries like Thailand and Singapore are drawn to plant-based alternatives, which they associate with health, sustainability, and modernity. In Thailand, sixty-seven percent of consumers say they plan to reduce meat consumption. The motivation is not ethical but personal. People want to feel better and live longer.

In Japan, protein trends are shaped by age. An older population is fuelling demand for products that support strength and mobility but are easy to consume. Protein jellies, soft snacks, and drinkable supplements are now common, pitched as daily maintenance rather than athletic fuel.

China is experiencing a boom in online protein sales, up sixty-eight percent yearly in 2023. A mix of fitness aspirations and beauty messaging drives the growth. Protein powders are popular with women and have been promoted as tools for weight management and skin health. Livestream shopping and influencer campaigns sell a lifestyle as much as a product.

In India, the conversation is still emerging. A large percentage of the population remains protein deficient, but a growing middle class is engaging with protein as a marker of wellbeing. Dairy brands like Amul have launched fortified lassi and ice cream, positioning protein as both nutritious and desirable.

Across these regions, protein is rising in relevance. But few markets have made it as ordinary as the UK. Here, it is not aspirational or remedial. It is part of the meal deal, the snack shelf, and the weekday routine. It does not announce itself. It just fits.

The Rise of a Rotational Approach to Protein

Protein may be having its moment, but British shoppers are not choosing sides. The surge in high-protein eating has not sparked a divide between meat and plants. Instead, people are mixing both, often within the same day, and sometimes the same meal.

Part of the shift is pragmatic. Meat remains central to most diets, but plant-based options have gained ground as a way to lighten meals without losing satisfaction. The UK leads Europe in plant-protein innovation, accounting for roughly 18 percent of all new product launches. Supermarket shelves now carry lentil-based pasta, oat-protein shakes, vegan protein bars, and meat-free versions of familiar British dishes.

This is not happening because the nation has gone vegetarian. Most consumers still identify as omnivores or flexitarians. What has changed is the desire for variety and balance. A plant-based lunch does not preclude roast chicken at dinner. It simply reflects a flexible approach to food, guided by mood, values, or convenience.

Protein branding speaks to this shift. On one shelf, whey-based shakes and jerky target muscle and recovery. A few paces away, pea-protein bars promise calm, clarity, and clean ingredients. Both are selling, often to the same household. In The Telegraph’s round-up of the year’s best protein bars, vegan and dairy-based options sit side by side, not as rivals but as parallel answers to different needs.

Taste, convenience, and credibility matter more than protein source. Shoppers want it to work, but they also want it to feel right—nutritionally, culturally, and ethically. The success of the category depends less on what it is made from and more on how well it fits into daily life.

In Britain, this is not about replacement. It is about rotation. And that, more than anything, explains why protein has found a place across such a wide swathe of the population.

What the Protein Economy Means for the Future

Protein may be having its moment, but British shoppers are not choosing sides. The rise of high-protein eating has not triggered a divide between meat and plants. Instead, people are blending both, often within the same day, and sometimes the same meal.

Part of this shift is practical. Meat remains a staple, but plant-based options have gained ground as a way to lighten meals without sacrificing taste. The UK leads Europe in plant-protein innovation, responsible for around 18 percent of all new launches. Supermarkets now stock lentil-based pasta, oat-protein shakes, vegan protein bars from brands like Huel and Tribe, and meat-free versions of familiar dishes.

This is not happening because the country has gone vegetarian. Most consumers still identify as omnivores or flexitarians. What has changed is the desire for variety and balance. A plant-based lunch does not mean skipping chicken at dinner. It simply reflects a flexible, responsive way of eating.

Protein branding follows suit. On one aisle, whey-based shakes and jerky from brands like UFIT and Jack Link’s are positioned for strength and recovery. Nearby, pea-protein bars and oat-based products promise calm, energy, and simplicity. Both types sell, often to the same person.

Taste, convenience, and credibility matter more than the source. Consumers want protein that works, but they also want it to align with their habits, values, and sense of self. Success in this category depends not on whether the protein is animal or plant, but on how well it fits into daily life.

In the UK, this is not about replacement. It is about rotation. And that, more than anything, explains why protein has broad appeal across generations, income brackets, and lifestyles.

Looking to understand the next wave of protein consumers?
At Kadence International, we help brands uncover what drives demand, from satiety to sustainability, and how to connect with evolving needs through the right formats, flavors, and messaging. Whether you’re refining recipes, developing new product lines, or targeting new segments, our research gives you the evidence to act confidently. Get in touch to see how we can support your next move.

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Consumer sentiment in the US took a sharp downturn in the first quarter of 2025, signaling growing anxiety about the economy as inflation fears and geopolitical tensions weigh heavily on households.

The University of Michigan’s consumer-sentiment index dropped to 50.8 in April, down from 57 in March, marking the lowest since June 2022. Inflation expectations surged to a 44-year high of 6.7%, deepening concerns about a potential recession. As fears of stagnant economic growth and rising costs persist, US households are not only deferring big-ticket purchases but are also shifting their spending habits. A 2024 survey by McKinsey found that 57% of consumers plan to postpone purchases of cars, electronics, and home appliances due to economic uncertainty. This behavior reflects a broader shift in consumer priorities, where many opt to save for security rather than indulge in discretionary purchases.

In addition, more consumers are actively reconsidering their brand choices. According to Ipsos, one in four Americans have boycotted a brand in the past year over political or ethical reasons, signaling a more value-driven approach to spending. This trend underscores a more selective approach, with households prioritizing purchases that align with personal values and long-term needs.

The Shift in Spending Behavior Globally

Globally, households are tightening their belts in response to growing financial uncertainty. Consumer confidence has dropped significantly in the US and Europe, as evidenced by rising savings rates. In the US, savings deposits increased by 5.4% in 2024, according to major US banks, while credit card usage declined. Meanwhile, Europe’s savings rate surged to 13.5% in Q4 2024, up from 10.7% in 2023, indicating that consumers are prioritizing savings over spending.

Retail sectors are feeling the impact of this shift. High-ticket purchases, such as luxury goods and cars, are down across key markets as consumers focus on essentials and future security. Reports from the European Central Bank show a marked decline in discretionary spending, echoing similar trends in the US.

While this cautious approach stems from immediate financial strain and long-term economic uncertainty, the shift is expected to shape the global economy in the coming months. Companies that can adapt – offering products aligned with consumer values, health, and sustainability – will be well-positioned to thrive in this evolving market.

Case Study: Frasers Group’s Strategic Store Closures Amid Economic Uncertainty

Image credit: X

Background:
Frasers Group, a major UK retailer owning brands like Sports Direct and House of Fraser, has faced challenges due to declining consumer confidence and increased operational costs. In response, the company has closed several stores, including its flagship, House of Fraser in Bath, which had been operating for over 200 years.

Actions Taken:
Frasers Group has been consolidating its physical retail presence, focusing on high-performing locations and expanding its online offerings. The company has also been investing in its luxury segment, with CEO Michael Murray expressing confidence in a rebound in demand for premium goods.

Outcome:
While facing short-term challenges, Frasers Group aims to strengthen its market position by streamlining operations and capitalizing on the anticipated recovery in luxury retail.

The Impact on Financial Institutions and Retailers

As consumer behavior shifts toward savings and caution, financial institutions and retailers feel the effects. Banks have reported an uptick in deposits, while credit card usage has decreased, signaling a change in how consumers manage their finances in uncertain times.

In the US, savings rates have steadily increased over recent years as consumers prioritize financial security. The Federal Reserve’s 2024 Financial Stability Report shows that household savings rates have remained elevated, with a marked preference for more liquid assets. This shift in consumer behavior is attributed to ongoing economic uncertainties and the rising cost of living. Meanwhile, credit card debt, though still growing, has been growing at a slower pace compared to the previous year, with the Federal Reserve noting in its 2024 Report on Household Debt and Credit that credit card balances increased by 6.4% in 2023, slower than previous years’ growth. This suggests consumers are becoming more cautious with discretionary spending, opting to save more and use credit less.

Retailers are adjusting to these changing dynamics. For many brands, especially those in luxury and non-essential goods markets, the slowdown in spending has forced a reevaluation of strategies. High-end brands, which have long relied on the discretionary spending of affluent consumers, are facing challenges as more shoppers scale back on big-ticket purchases.

On the other hand, retailers in the wellness, health, and essential goods sectors benefit from this shift. A January 2024 McKinsey & Company report highlights that 56% of Gen Z consumers in the US consider fitness and wellness a “very high priority,” reflecting a continued commitment to spending on health-related products and services. McKinsey estimates that the global wellness market, valued at over $1.8 trillion, continues to grow at 5-10% annually, with significant demand for wellness products in emerging markets.

For financial institutions, the challenge lies in balancing the growing demand for savings accounts and low-risk investments with the need to provide consumer credit options. As fewer people rely on credit cards, many banks are exploring alternative forms of credit, such as buy now, pay later (BNPL) services, which allow consumers to make purchases without accumulating high-interest debt. While BNPL services have gained popularity, there are concerns about their long-term sustainability and the potential for increased consumer debt.

Ultimately, the growing trend toward saving and cautious spending drives significant shifts in the financial services and retail sectors. Companies that can adapt to these changes – offering value, flexibility, and products aligned with consumers’ evolving needs – will be well-positioned to thrive in the coming months.

How Brands are Adapting Strategies in Response to Consumer Behavior Shifts

In response to the evolving consumer market, companies are implementing various strategies to align with changing preferences and economic conditions:

Enhanced Digital Engagement: Retailers use digital platforms to offer personalized shopping experiences. This includes leveraging data analytics to understand consumer behavior and tailoring marketing efforts accordingly.
Flexible Pricing and Promotions: Companies are introducing flexible pricing models and targeted promotions to address price sensitivity. This approach aims to maintain customer loyalty while accommodating budget-conscious consumers.
Product Innovation and Diversification: Brands diversify their offerings to meet consumers’ evolving demands. This includes introducing new product lines that align with current trends, such as wellness-focused or sustainable products.

The Road Ahead: Implications for Economic Growth

The trend toward saving and cautious spending presents a complex economic landscape. While rising savings rates provide financial security for households, the slowdown in consumer spending could stall short-term economic growth. In Q1 2024, real personal consumption expenditures (PCE) grew just 1.3%, down sharply from 3.4% in Q4 2023. This slowdown reflects persistent inflationary pressures.

As discretionary spending contracts, sectors dependent on non-essential purchases, such as luxury goods and travel, face significant challenges. Bain & Company reports that global luxury market growth slowed to 3% in 2024, a stark decline from double-digit growth in previous years.

However, wellness, health products, and essential goods continue to see strong demand, driven by consumer interest in well-being and sustainability.

As consumer caution impacts overall economic activity, particularly in markets reliant on consumption-driven growth, policymakers and brands must adapt. Encouraging spending on wellness and essential goods, while promoting savings, could help stabilize growth. Companies that strategically align with these consumer priorities—through innovation, targeted marketing, and flexible pricing – will be better positioned to thrive despite economic uncertainty.

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Every marketer knows the stat: eighty percent of new products fail. Or ninety. Or ninety-five. The number changes depending on the study, but the narrative doesn’t—the majority of new ideas don’t make it.

By anyone’s standards, those are brutal odds. For brands that want to innovate, compete, and stay relevant, it raises urgent questions: How do you beat the trend? How do you avoid pouring time and money into the next statistic?

One thing is clear: whatever you launch has to be right. The problem is, “right” isn’t something you get to decide.

Your customers do.

It doesn’t matter if your team loves the idea. It doesn’t matter how clever the name is or how polished the prototype looks. If your target audience doesn’t understand it, want it, or find value in it—it’s not going anywhere.

That’s why the smartest brands don’t leave it to chance. They ask the people who matter most—before it’s too late to change direction.

This is the value of concept testing—getting early, actionable feedback directly from your target market.

What is concept testing?

Concept testing is how brands evaluate and refine ideas before taking them to market. It’s a way to pressure-test new concepts—whether that’s an entirely new product, a rebrand, or a packaging refresh—before major investment.

The concept itself could be a never-before-seen innovation or simply a new twist on something familiar. Either way, it pays to ask the right questions early on:

Does the concept meet real consumer needs? Do people understand it? Does it resonate?
Is the price right? What are people willing to pay? Is the idea commercially viable?
How should it be positioned? Does it fit the brand? How does it stand out from competitors?
What needs to be improved? Are key features missing, confusing, or unnecessary?

Concept testing isn’t a single method. It’s a suite of research tools—from concept screening surveys to qualitative interviews—designed to uncover the strongest ideas and shape them into winning propositions. The approach depends on the challenge, the category, and the stage of development.

Why concept testing matters

Concept testing takes time, effort, and budget. But skipping it is far more expensive.

Launching without feedback risks wasting not only investment but reputation. Failed products don’t just disappear—they can damage brand equity and undermine trust. The cost isn’t always visible in quarterly reports, but it shows up in lost momentum, team morale, and market position.

Concept testing isn’t just risk mitigation—it’s market strategy made smarter.

The history of product innovation is filled with high-profile flops:

In 1985, Coca-Cola introduced New Coke after taste tests suggested it would outperform Pepsi. But consumers rejected the change, and the backlash became legendary.
Juicero, the $400 Wi-Fi-enabled juicer, raised $120 million only to fold when buyers realized they could squeeze the juice packets by hand.
ESPN’s mobile phone failed because the price point was wrong and the product didn’t align with consumer expectations.

Concept testing helps brands avoid these pitfalls. It identifies what works, what doesn’t, and why—long before a launch is on the line.

More than just risk mitigation, concept testing is a way to move forward with clarity and confidence.

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9 Use Cases for Concept Testing

1. Validate whether your idea will take off

Just because something feels like a good idea doesn’t mean it’s market-ready. Concept testing gives brands evidence—rather than gut instinct—on whether a new idea resonates with real consumers. It’s a chance to double down on the right concepts and walk away from the rest.

2. Cut through internal debate

Strong opinions can stall progress. Concept testing gives everyone—from product teams to stakeholders—objective data to work from. It brings clarity to creative discussions and helps unify decision-making around what the audience actually wants.

3. Compare competing concepts

Put multiple ideas in front of consumers and let them decide. Online concept testing lets you test head-to-head and identify clear winners before moving into development.

4. Prioritize the right features and benefits

Which features matter most? Which could be dropped without impact? Testing helps refine the value proposition by spotlighting what your audience really cares about.

5. Understand price sensitivity

A concept isn’t viable unless it can be sold profitably. Testing can uncover how much consumers are willing to pay and what pricing tier the concept fits.

6. Iterate before you launch

Concept testing isn’t just a greenlight mechanism. It’s a feedback loop. Test, tweak, retest—until the idea is tight.

7. Find your ideal audience

Early testing can reveal which segments respond best—whether that’s by age, income, lifestyle, or geography. That insight can shape both product development and marketing.

8. Fine-tune your messaging

The best idea still needs the right words. Use concept testing to explore different messages, formats, or taglines before you commit to a campaign.

9. Continue learning post-launch

Testing doesn’t stop at go-live. Keep tracking reactions to refine your offer, improve communication, or inform future versions.

Does concept testing really work?

Some brand leaders believe that true innovation comes from bold intuition—not research. There’s the often-quoted line about Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

But Ford wasn’t anti-feedback. He understood that innovation isn’t about asking people what they want—it’s about understanding what they value. That’s where concept testing proves its worth.

At Kadence, concept testing goes beyond asking respondents to pick a favorite. We design studies that uncover emotional triggers, hidden expectations, and real-world trade-offs—between product features, brand fit, and price.

It’s not about dumbing down ideas. It’s about making sure the best ones succeed.

The Kadence Approach to Concept Testing

Our approach blends both qualitative and quantitative methods, tailoring the study design to the market, objective, and stage of development. Below are a few examples of how concept testing delivers results:

Toiletries

A personal care brand wanted to create a new line of shower gels for teenagers. We began with an online concept screening survey to identify early-stage winners, then moved into co-creation sessions with the target audience. The result: a validated, compelling range of fragrance and packaging ideas ready for development.

Takeaway Coffee

To tap into the summer iced coffee market, a global beverage brand partnered with us to run a full concept development sprint. After an internal ideation workshop, we tested multiple drink concepts and price points using online quantitative methods. Follow-up focus groups fine-tuned the winning ideas. The brand launched with confidence, backed by clear consumer demand data.

Travel Advertising

For a national tourism board, we tested multiple ad concepts to see which creative route would drive the greatest increase in intent to visit. By establishing a baseline and tracking uplift across variations, we helped the client land on messaging and visuals that resonated most with high-value travelers.

Food (B2B)

A major food brand wanted to explore the viability of a direct-to-customer (D2C) model for its business buyers. Through in-depth interviews, we tested different fulfillment concepts and gathered feedback on brand perception, value, and pricing. Insights helped shape a more appealing offer with a clear route to market.

Research methods for concept testing

At Kadence, we use a range of concept testing methods—qualitative, quantitative, and hybrid—depending on the stage of development and the decisions a brand needs to make.

We don’t lead with methodology. We start by asking the right questions. What do you already know? Are you testing multiple concepts or refining one? Do you need high-level feedback or deep diagnostic insight? Should your focus be on emotional resonance, commercial potential, or both?

The answers shape our approach.

Online Surveys

Online concept testing is one of the most effective ways to gather structured feedback at scale. Surveys can reach thousands of carefully profiled respondents, producing data that can be analyzed, ranked, and compared across audiences. Our team builds surveys that simulate real-world decisions—allowing brands to test features, pricing, and positioning in controlled conditions. We then apply advanced statistical techniques to extract what matters most.

Qualifying the Right Audience

Before diving into the core of the concept test, we recommend using screener questions to ensure you’re speaking to the right respondents. These filter out participants who don’t meet your criteria, like frequency of use, category involvement, or geography.

Demographic questions—such as age, income bracket, and profession—are typically placed at the end. They allow for segmentation analysis without overwhelming the participant up front. When used thoughtfully, this profiling ensures your results reflect your true target market.

Focus Groups

Focus groups deliver the kind of texture and nuance you can’t get from numbers alone. Whether online or in-person, they create a space where consumers engage with your concept, react in real time, and build on each other’s thoughts. We use these sessions to uncover gut reactions, decode emotional cues, and surface new angles that spark further refinement.

Depth Interviews

When individual perspective matters more than group dynamics, depth interviews offer space to go deeper. We speak one-on-one with target users to explore motivations, hesitations, and behavioral drivers—often revealing insights that shape messaging, design, or product positioning.

Ethnography

Sometimes, the richest insights come from observation rather than direct questioning. Ethnographic research puts us in the everyday environments of your target audience. Through diaries, photo journals, and in-context observation, we gain a clearer picture of the unmet needs and behaviors that influence purchasing decisions.

Online Communities

Online concept testing communities allow brands to capture evolving feedback over time. These short-term, private digital spaces encourage participants to interact with your concepts through posts, videos, and tasks. Unlike traditional surveys, communities evolve as the research progresses—ideal for iterative concept development or creative refinement.

By matching the right method to the right stage, we help brands maximize insight while staying conscious of timing, scale, and cost.

Comparing Concept Testing Methods

Method	Best For	Key Benefits
Online Surveys	Screening and prioritizing multiple concepts at scale	Fast turnaround, scalable, enables clear comparison across attributes like price and features
Focus Groups	Exploring emotional reactions and creative direction	Rich qualitative insight, visual feedback, discussion of messaging and positioning
Depth Interviews	Understanding motivations and reactions in detail	In-depth exploration of decision-making, barriers, and expectations
Ethnography	Observing how people interact with concepts in real life	High authenticity, uncovers unmet needs and real-world context
Online Communities	Iterative concept development and testing over time	Continuous feedback, co-creation, adaptable over several days or weeks

Choosing Between Monadic and Sequential Design

Two of the most common approaches in survey-based concept testing are monadic and sequential designs. In a monadic design, participants evaluate one concept in isolation, allowing for deep focus and reducing bias. This method delivers high-quality feedback but requires a larger sample size to compare concepts statistically.

A sequential design—where respondents review multiple concepts in one sitting—is faster and more cost-effective, especially in early screening stages. However, results can be influenced by order effects and fatigue, so it’s essential to randomize presentation order and monitor data quality carefully.

How Long Should a Concept Survey Be?

Length affects engagement. In our experience, surveys for concept testing perform best when kept under 25 minutes or 30 questions. Beyond that, respondent fatigue sets in, and data quality drops. Shorter, focused surveys tend to yield clearer insights—and make it more likely participants give considered feedback.

Making Sense of the Data

In survey-based concept testing, many responses are captured using Likert scales—asking how likely someone is to buy, how appealing a concept is, or how innovative it feels, rated on a 5- or 7-point scale.

One of the most actionable ways to interpret this data is by using Top 2 Box scoring: calculating the percentage of respondents who selected the top two positive responses (e.g., “very likely” or “likely”). This allows for fast comparison across multiple concepts and reveals which ideas stand out from the crowd.

Whether you’re running a product concept survey, testing pricing scenarios, or evaluating new messaging, these metrics can reveal what matters most to your audience.

The Role of design

At Kadence, we bring creativity to every stage of concept testing, combining research expertise with in-house design capabilities to help brands move from idea to impact.

Often, the early concepts we receive are rough. They might start as a few words on a Post-it note or a collage of reference images. That’s where our design team steps in. We transform early-stage ideas into tangible stimuli that consumers can engage with—whether that’s a mock-up of an ad, a service visualisation, a website prototype, or test copy for a landing page.

We’re also exploring the use of augmented reality (AR) to elevate product concept testing. Using AR, we can generate digital 3D prototypes that participants can view through their smartphones in real environments. This approach enhances engagement and delivers more authentic feedback—especially when compared to static visuals—while remaining highly efficient and scalable.

Beyond visual execution, our work is shaped by the principles of design thinking, a framework that ensures ideas are developed with consumer needs at the center.

The five stages of design thinking include:

Empathise: Understand your audience’s real-world context, needs, and pain points.
Define: Frame the core problem or opportunity you want to solve with precision.
Ideate: Brainstorm solutions based on what the research has revealed so far.
Prototype: Build a working version—whether physical, digital, or visual—for feedback.
Test: Put your concept in front of your audience, gather reactions, and refine as needed.

Many of our clients reach us during the ideation or prototype phase, but concept testing can also inform earlier and later stages. Our design-led, research-backed approach is part of what makes concept testing with Kadence more actionable and more commercially relevant.

10 Top tips for successful concept testing

Set clear objectives
Start with a focused brief. What exactly do you want to learn—and how will you act on the findings? Whether you’re choosing between concepts or refining a single idea, clarity up front keeps the research sharp and the results meaningful.
Don’t fall too in love with your ideas
Concept testing isn’t about validating hunches. It’s about letting the customer response guide decisions. Stay open. If a promising product concept flops in testing, let it go. Great ideas are rarely one-offs—and the right research helps you spot what’s worth pursuing.
Find the right people
Your target audience matters more than volume. We’ve tested concepts with teenage gamers, healthcare professionals, rural farmers, and C-suite decision-makers. Whether you need broad reach or a niche segment, finding the right participants is half the battle.
Bring it to life
Early-stage ideas often need help becoming real for consumers. That’s why our in-house team turns sketches, mockups, and rough copy into visuals that spark real feedback. The stronger the stimulus, the sharper the insight.
Iterate quickly and often
Few concepts are perfect the first time. That’s why iterative testing—refining, retesting, refining again—gets better results. We use agile design and research cycles to sharpen ideas quickly, often in just days.
Stay flexible
Concept testing is not a fixed recipe. Sometimes you need a quick screen. Other times, deep qualitative work. Let your goals and the audience shape the approach—not the other way around.
Listen beyond the words
Good research isn’t just about what people say—it’s how they say it. Our researchers are trained to pick up on hesitations, contradictions, and patterns that reveal deeper insight into what people really think.
Context matters
A winning idea on paper might underperform in the real world. Test in context: how the idea compares to alternatives, fits with your brand, and lands emotionally with the audience. Concept scores are just one piece of the puzzle.
Protect your IP
Early concepts are sensitive. We’ve built secure systems to ensure designs, copy, and mockups stay confidential. Features like watermarked images and self-destructing videos help reduce leaks—and in over a decade, we haven’t seen one.
Keep testing after launch
Consumer needs shift fast. Great brands keep refining after launch. Concept testing isn’t a one-off event—it’s a habit. Keep listening, keep adjusting, and your product stays relevant.

Why It Pays to Get Concept Testing Right

Every great brand knows this: launching a new product isn’t just about creativity or gut feel. It’s about getting closer to your audience—understanding their reactions, their hesitations, their unmet needs—and building from there. That’s what concept testing delivers.

It’s not a barrier to innovation. It’s the mechanism that makes innovation work.

When done right, concept testing doesn’t just tell you which ideas are most appealing. It helps you craft better ones. It shows you where to focus investment, how to improve your offer, what to communicate, and—crucially—what not to pursue. It gives teams clarity, stakeholders confidence, and brands a stronger shot at real-world success.

Because the difference between a bold idea and a breakthrough product isn’t luck. It’s research-backed confidence.

Cash is disappearing from daily life across Southeast Asia. In 2019, nearly half of all transactions in Asia were made in cash. By 2027, that figure is expected to fall to just 14 percent, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Mobile wallets—once a convenience—are now overtaking physical currency as the region’s default mode of payment.

This isn’t just a shift in how people pay. It’s a full-blown rewrite of Southeast Asia’s consumer economy. From Bangkok to Manila, behavior, access, and mobility are being shaped by QR codes, app-driven incentives, and an ecosystem of competing fintech platforms racing to own the checkout moment.

The scale of adoption is staggering. In the Philippines, over 90 million people—around 80 percent of the population—use GCash or Maya, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. In Indonesia, QRIS transactions surged to 2.7 billion in 2024, up 66 percent from the year prior, based on data from Bank Indonesia.

Thailand logged more than 16 billion PromptPay transactions in 2023, cementing it as the country’s most common payment method. In Singapore, the SGQR system now supports over 30 digital payment schemes, allowing users to scan a single code and choose their preferred app—no cash, no card, no friction.

Unlike China and India, where single players dominate, Southeast Asia is shaping a multi-platform economy. Consumers aren’t just going digital; they’re actively choosing between wallets based on rewards, speed, and the ecosystem of services attached to each app.

The Regional Play

A landmark pact between five ASEAN countries is turning mobile payments into a regional system. Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines have linked their QR code schemes, enabling cross-border wallet use. A Filipino tourist in Bangkok can pay with GCash. A Thai traveler in Singapore can use PromptPay. No currency exchange. No new app. Just scan and go.

This isn’t just symbolic cooperation. It’s a practical leap toward regional commerce at digital speed. Consumers already expect to scan and pay anywhere. Now, the infrastructure is catching up.

More than 100 million tourists visited ASEAN countries in 2024. Many of them already live cashless at home—and now expect the same abroad. For small businesses, cross-border payments mean a wider market without new infrastructure. A QR sticker and a smartphone are all it takes.

Policymakers see this as just the beginning. Cross-border wallet use could soon expand to remittances, regional e-commerce, and subscription billing. Southeast Asia is quietly building the infrastructure to support a truly interoperable digital economy.

Platform Power and Wallet Wars

Beneath all this infrastructure is a more urgent contest—one for daily dominance. Wallets are no longer just payment tools. They are retail ecosystems, vying for attention, behavior, and loyalty.

In Indonesia, ShopeePay, OVO, and Dana are locked in a three-way race, each tying payments to e-commerce, food delivery, and retail perks. In the Philippines, GCash leads with over 90 million users, while Maya carves out a younger audience through crypto, banking, and cashback. GrabPay holds ground in Singapore and Malaysia by weaving payments into transport and everyday services.

These wallets don’t just process payments. They offer credit, savings, loyalty points, insurance, and instant promotions. Consumers now choose where to shop based on who gives the better deal—not who’s closest or cheapest.

Brands are adapting fast. Retailers are building in-wallet offers and flash deals to stay top of mind. Banks are co-branding products to remain visible inside apps. In this economy, platform presence can matter more than price point.

Wallet ecosystems aren’t just changing how people pay—they’re changing how people choose. As competition heats up, the most powerful wallets are becoming retail platforms in their own right, collapsing the gap between promotion and purchase.

How Brands Are Winning in the Wallet Economy

Jollibee x GCash: Scaling Speed and Spend with QR Exclusives

Jollibee has turned mobile wallets into more than just payment tools. In early 2024, the Filipino fast-food giant piloted QR-only express counters in busy Metro Manila stores—accepting GCash exclusively for walk-up orders.

The results were immediate. Checkout times fell by 30 percent on average, with lunchtime throughput increasing by nearly 20 percent in the busiest branches. But the real advantage was behavioral. GCash-linked promotions—including “buy one, get one” bundles for specific meal sets—drove higher ticket sizes and repeat visits. Jollibee reported a 12 percent lift in average order value among wallet users compared to traditional cash or card buyers during the campaign window.

Beyond volume, the partnership gave Jollibee something more valuable: clear usage patterns. It tracked conversion by time of day, adjusted promotions instantly, and mapped how wallet users shop differently. The model offers lessons beyond fast food. QSR chains across the region are now experimenting with QR-linked incentives to boost order volume and loyalty.

Unilever Vietnam x ZaloPay: Closing the Loop on Sampling and Segmentation

Unilever Vietnam used mobile wallets for more than sales—it used them to test, learn, and refine. In a 2024 pilot with ZaloPay, the brand launched a digital sampling campaign for its new “urban essentials” personal care line targeting Gen Z professionals.

Consumers claimed samples directly through the ZaloPay app, but redemption came with a short quiz and opt-in to Unilever’s official account. In just three weeks, over 150,000 users participated. Of those, 17 percent converted to purchase. More importantly, the campaign delivered real data: which products got tried, how long users waited, and who came back to buy.

Traditional sampling often delivers little feedback and a lot of waste. This campaign flipped the script. For FMCG brands, it’s a path forward—less sampling waste, more segment-level insight, and faster market-readiness. It wasn’t just about targeting—it was about validating what a new segment actually wanted.

Wallets as Retail Real Estate

In Southeast Asia’s evolving consumer economy, mobile wallets are becoming the new shelf. They are visible, contextual, and central to purchase decisions. No longer just the endpoint, they’re shaping what happens before the sale is even made.

Wallets are now where discovery happens. Real-time promos, loyalty rewards, and flash deals make QR apps as influential as in-store signage. In Indonesia, ShopeePay’s “Deals Near Me” surfaces location-based offers that nudge shoppers toward one convenience store—or one coffee shop—over another.

UX Design is now strategy. What shows up on the payment screen—bundled meals, upsells, time-limited offers—can shift behavior in seconds. In a recent survey, 62 percent of Southeast Asian wallet users said an in-app offer had changed their purchase decision in the past three months.

Brands are responding with wallet-native campaigns. In the Philippines, GCash partners with major retailers to launch app-exclusive bundles. In Vietnam, FMCG players are testing ZaloPay-only SKUs to gauge price sensitivity among mobile-first Gen Z consumers.

For marketers, this changes the playbook. Campaigns now live inside the moment—built into the wallet, not broadcast through media. And just like endcaps in a store, wallet placement is scarce, valuable, and judged by performance.

How Digital Wallets Are Closing the Financial Gap

While wallets compete for urban customers, they also unlock access for millions previously excluded from formal finance. The World Bank estimates that over 40 percent of adults in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam remain unbanked. Mobile wallets are changing that.

Street vendors, farmers, and gig workers are now building financial histories with every tap. In Indonesia, over 29 million small businesses use QRIS to accept payments. In the Philippines, GCash delivers welfare payouts, subsidies, and remittances, often to people who’ve never walked into a bank.

This shift is producing an entirely new class of consumers. They’re connected but overlooked—digitally fluent but invisible to most traditional marketing models. For researchers, the challenge now is to understand how financial access rewires habits and reshapes trust.

Wallet adoption may be booming across the region, but no two markets look alike. Some are dominated by one or two players. Others support overlapping apps, bank wallets, and homegrown fintechs. The variation speaks to different consumer needs and regulatory choices.

Comparing Wallet Ecosystems Across ASEAN

Country	Dominant Wallets	Notable Features	Estimated Adoption
Indonesia	Dana, OVO, ShopeePay	QRIS compliance, local cashback, offline ubiquity	70–75%
Philippines	GCash, Maya	Microloans, utility payments, crypto access	80–85%
Thailand	PromptPay, TrueMoney	Linked to national ID and digital welfare payouts	90%+
Singapore	GrabPay, PayNow, DBS PayLah	High QR interoperability, cross-border ready	95%+
Malaysia	Touch ‘n Go, Boost	Toll road integration, state-backed incentives	80%+

Sources: Central bank data, World Bank Global Findex (2024), platform reporting

What This Signals

The wallet boom in Southeast Asia is not a trend—it’s a system reset. It’s changing how value flows, how behavior is tracked, and who gets included.

Consumers are gaining fast access to finance, but only through platforms that decide the terms. Governments see more. Banks lose ground. Retailers shift strategy. But the risks are real—ecosystem lock-in, data monopolies, and a widening gap for the disconnected.

Southeast Asia is building the prototype for a fully digital consumer economy. What works here won’t stay here. Markets with similar demographics will follow—some already are.

As wallets become embedded in daily life, they generate a stream of behavioral data that most traditional research methods cannot easily replicate. For brands and researchers alike, this shift is not just an operational upgrade—it is a structural advantage.

Who Gets Left Behind in a Wallet-Led Economy

Not everyone is tapping phones or using QR codes. Across Southeast Asia, millions still rely on cash, not by choice, but by necessity. As digital systems race ahead, they are leaving some consumers behind.

The elderly, rural communities, and informal workers without smartphones or stable internet still make up a large share of the population in countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. For many, wallets remain either out of reach or out of trust.

Even in cities, resistance is growing. Consumers worry about data tracking, fraud, and hidden fees. In Thailand, a watchdog recently warned about wallet-based lenders targeting young users with high-interest loans disguised as pay-later perks.

Cash still offers something digital doesn’t—trust. In many traditional communities, handing over bills is easier, more familiar, and more accepted. As merchants go digital, cash users risk being pushed out of the transaction altogether.

Governments face a balancing act: modernize finance without deepening exclusion. Incentives for wallet use should not come at the cost of cash access, especially in rural or unbanked areas. For brands, the solution lies in hybrid systems that serve both digital adopters and cash loyalists.

The danger of a wallet-led economy is not that it moves too fast, but that it forgets who isn’t coming along. Progress will be measured not just in QR checkouts, but in how well the new economy includes the voices, habits, and limitations of every consumer.

A View from the Future Consumer

Southeast Asia is not just adopting digital finance—it’s rewriting the rules. While Europe debates regulation and the U.S. sticks to cards, this region is designing a payment system that is mobile, fast, and increasingly borderless. Consumers aren’t waiting for banks to evolve. They’re building the next model themselves.

For brands, the implications are clear. The old playbook—national campaigns, static rewards, and linear funnels—no longer works. Today’s consumers jump across apps, currencies, and contexts without hesitation. The winners will meet them there, designing not for convenience, but for relevance at the point of payment. Pricing isn’t set in advance. It’s surfaced in the moment—shaped by wallet prompts, bundled rewards, or time-limited offers.

For researchers, this landscape offers something rare: behavior in real time. Every wallet tap leaves a trackable decision—what was bought, where, when, and how the user was nudged. But knowing what happened is not the same as knowing why. That’s where research matters most. Ethnography, cultural fluency, and journey mapping are the tools that explain what dashboards alone can’t.

Research must move faster, go deeper, and sit closer to where decisions are made—in wallet ecosystems, in platform partnerships, and in the fast-evolving lives of Southeast Asian consumers.

Some brands are already blending behavior data with on-the-ground insight. In Vietnam, a beverage company spotted rural sales spikes through wallet data. Field interviews revealed the link: payday loans disbursed on the same day each month. That single insight reshaped everything—from promo timing to pack size.

The next breakthroughs in understanding consumers won’t come from dashboards alone. They’ll come from pairing live data with lived experience—decoding what people do and why they do it. The future of research isn’t digital by default. It’s embedded, agile, and built inside the systems where decisions happen.

Consumer power is shifting from income to intuition—from how much people spend to how fluently they move through the ecosystems around them. Southeast Asia isn’t adapting. It’s leading.

Kadence International helps brands decode evolving consumer behavior across Asia and beyond. To understand what drives tomorrow’s decisions, talk to our team.

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In 2023, more people moved to Charlotte, North Carolina than to New York City. Once known primarily as a banking hub, Charlotte is now among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States, with its population increasing by over 15% in the past decade. Its rising appeal is part of a larger pattern: a quiet but powerful migration away from megacities to what demographers call “secondary cities.”

This isn’t just an American phenomenon. Across global markets, from India to the UK to Southeast Asia, mid-sized cities are absorbing growth once concentrated in capital centers. In India, cities like Coimbatore and Ahmedabad are drawing IT investments and retail developments. In China, Chengdu has added more new retail space than many first-tier cities, and consumer spending in tier-2 urban areas is growing at a faster pace than in Beijing or Shanghai.

Affordability is a clear driver. As housing prices and costs of living continue to rise in the world’s biggest cities, residents and businesses are seeking out more livable alternatives. But what’s notable is that consumption isn’t declining as people move. In fact, recent data from McKinsey shows that residents of US secondary cities are just as likely to spend on premium goods and services as their peers in larger cities. The same is true in markets like Vietnam and Indonesia, where new urban enclaves are seeing surging demand for fast fashion, electronics, and beauty products.

This shift challenges a long-standing assumption: that consumer growth follows the gravitational pull of megacities. Instead, smaller urban centers are establishing themselves as independent engines of demand. They are not satellite economies or overflow markets—they’re increasingly self-sustaining hubs with distinct consumption patterns, retail ecosystems, and growth trajectories. Understanding these evolving dynamics isn’t just about tracking migration. It’s about recognizing where the next wave of market opportunity is taking shape.

The Urban Migration Redrawing Consumer Behavior

The reasons behind this urban realignment are pragmatic. In the United States, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in New York City now exceeds $3,000 a month. In contrast, cities like Raleigh or Nashville offer not only lower housing costs but also rising job opportunities and improved quality of life. Remote work has made this trade-off possible for millions. According to US Census data, more than 8.2 million people relocated across state lines in 2023, and the majority moved away from the country’s most expensive urban centers.

In the UK, London saw net domestic outflows in every quarter of 2023, as younger workers and families opted for cities like Birmingham and Manchester, where housing is more affordable and infrastructure investments have been accelerating. A similar pattern is unfolding across Europe and parts of Southeast Asia, driven by both economic necessity and post-pandemic lifestyle recalibrations.

China’s urban development offers a sharper example. For over a decade, the central government has actively promoted growth in tier-2 and tier-3 cities as a way to reduce overreliance on Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Chengdu and Hangzhou have emerged as digital and cultural hubs in their own right, attracting tech startups, luxury retailers, and young professionals seeking lower living costs and less congestion. Between 2010 and 2020, Chengdu’s GDP more than doubled, and consumer spending rose in parallel.

India’s Smart Cities Mission, launched in 2015, is another case study in how policy can redirect population and spending patterns. The initiative, aimed at improving infrastructure and governance in 100 mid-sized cities, has already resulted in faster retail expansion in places like Indore and Bhubaneswar than in Mumbai or Delhi. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, consumer electronics sales in tier-2 cities grew by 23% year-on-year in 2023, outpacing metropolitan areas.

What links these movements is not a retreat from consumption but a reshaping of it. Consumers in secondary cities aren’t pulling back; they’re reallocating their spending. Travel, home improvement, wellness, and personal tech are among the categories seeing strong growth. Rather than dining out five nights a week, they may invest in premium groceries or upgrade their living space. Rather than fast fashion hauls, they’re choosing higher-quality basics from emerging local brands.

The geography of consumer demand is no longer centered on a few megacity powerhouses. It’s diffusing across a wider map—one defined by affordability, connectivity, and rising expectations. This new distribution isn’t temporary. It reflects a deeper recalibration in how people want to live and what they choose to prioritize when they have more control over where they are.

Rising Cities to Watch Across Global Markets

The rebalancing of population isn’t just reshaping where people live—it’s altering the architecture of consumption. Cities that once played a secondary role in national economies are now driving demand across key categories, from beauty and electronics to groceries and home improvement. These are not temporary trends. They reflect long-term investments, shifting demographics, and the redistribution of growth across geographies.

In India, urban expansion is no longer confined to Delhi, Mumbai, or Bangalore. Mid-sized cities like Ahmedabad, Kochi, and Coimbatore are seeing a surge in both population and retail development. Ahmedabad, now part of India’s key freight and industrial corridor, is drawing major logistics and manufacturing investment, boosting both employment and disposable income. Kochi, a port city historically associated with trade, is evolving into a service economy with rising demand for consumer goods, even as its organized retail recovery lags behind some peers. In Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore’s industrial economy has been buoyed by its emergence as a textile and engineering hub, contributing to increased uptake of electronics, fast fashion, and D2C brands among its aspirational middle class.

In China, government-backed decentralization has helped elevate cities like Chengdu, Wuhan, and Hangzhou into powerful regional markets. Chengdu’s GDP surpassed 2 trillion yuan in 2023, underpinned by thriving sectors such as tech services, gaming, and high-end dining. Wuhan, long known for its manufacturing base, is diversifying into optoelectronics and biotech, helping shift consumer demand toward health and wellness products. Meanwhile, Hangzhou—home to Alibaba and a growing number of innovation hubs—continues to drive premium consumption, particularly among younger professionals seeking upgraded personal care, fitness tech, and lifestyle products.

In Southeast Asia, a cluster of cities is quietly gaining ground. Da Nang, once considered peripheral to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, has logged annual growth over 6% on the back of a booming service economy and increased tourism-linked retail. Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, saw retail sales top $100 billion in 2023, as more middle-income households gained access to modern trade and e-commerce. In the Philippines, Cebu posted a 6% increase in GDP last year, with infrastructure and tourism projects spurring demand for beauty, packaged food, and mobile tech.

In the US and UK, the shift away from megacities is most visible in cities like Charlotte and Austin, where population growth and GDP expansion have outpaced the national average. Charlotte has attracted a steady influx of residents and companies, with population now nearing 3 million and median retail prices having risen more than 50% over the last decade. Austin led US metro areas in GDP growth in 2023–24, thanks in part to its dual reputation as a tech and cultural capital. Across the Atlantic, Birmingham has attracted new retail entrants and commercial investment, while Bristol—one of the UK’s fastest-growing core cities—is seeing a younger demographic drive e-commerce and convenience spending trends.

What unites these cities is not their size, but their trajectory. They’re absorbing the momentum once monopolized by megacities, and in doing so, are becoming primary battlegrounds for brands competing across FMCG, luxury, and tech. Each reflects a different facet of a global shift toward distributed growth—one that rewards those who understand the nuances of local demand, not just national averages.

How Consumption Patterns Differ from Megacities

What’s emerging in these secondary cities isn’t just a new geography of growth—it’s a different style of consumption. While the megacities have long been the testing grounds for innovation, image-driven luxury, and niche categories, smaller urban markets are shaping demand through a blend of aspiration and pragmatism. Consumers in these cities are not necessarily spending less; they’re spending differently—guided by function, value, and a growing sense of local identity.

In these rising hubs, premiumization often takes on a more practical form. Rather than high-concept luxury or limited-edition drops, there’s stronger traction for what might be termed “everyday upgrades.” Products that offer quality, longevity, and status without signaling excess are gaining ground. In the US, for example, Uniqlo’s decision to expand into cities like Austin and Charlotte aligns with this mindset. The brand’s clean aesthetic, moderate price point, and reputation for functional basics resonate in markets where value is prized, but style isn’t overlooked. These are not anti-fashion cities—they simply reject the transience and markup that characterizes fashion in New York or Los Angeles.

In China, L’Oréal has tailored its go-to-market strategies accordingly. The company segments its product lines and retail mix not just by income level, but by geography. In tier-1 cities, its high-end lines dominate marketing spend, while in tier-2 and tier-3 locations, there’s more emphasis on skincare basics with scientific credibility and accessible pricing. Offline retail formats also shift—with pop-up stores and mobile beauty trucks seeing greater success in secondary cities where e-commerce growth hasn’t yet plateaued, and where physical presence still builds trust.

One factor that consistently shapes behavior in these markets is the multi-generational household. In many Indian and Southeast Asian cities, discretionary income is often pooled across family units. That influences purchasing decisions across categories—from appliances to packaged food—prompting brands to market not just to individuals, but to households as collective consumers. There’s also a preference for products that serve dual or extended purposes: tech gadgets that function across work and leisure, food brands that cater to both tradition and convenience, and beauty products positioned around self-care rather than indulgence.

There is, however, no uniform pattern. In the Philippines, the growth of Korean skincare brands in cities like Cebu is as much about digital influence as affordability. In Birmingham, the return of legacy department stores is tied to nostalgia and civic pride as much as retail demand. And in Chengdu, the rise of lifestyle cafés and boutique gyms reflects a younger population that wants access to the symbols of metropolitan living—without the daily grind of Beijing.

These cities are not diluted versions of their larger counterparts. They are developing their own consumer signatures, shaped by local infrastructure, employment patterns, and cultural nuance. For brands and strategists, the challenge lies in abandoning the notion of a one-size-fits-all urban consumer. The goal is no longer just market entry—it’s market fluency. And increasingly, fluency in these smaller, faster-growing cities may prove more valuable than reach in the capitals.

how-consumer-spending-varies-across-tier-1-and tier-2-cities

Implications for Brands

The changing face of urban demand calls for more than just expansion—it requires recalibration. As secondary cities gain economic influence, many of the assumptions that once shaped brand strategy are no longer reliable. Markets that were once considered peripheral now demand bespoke planning, grounded in the specifics of place rather than the generalities of national averages.

One immediate shift is the need for greater geographic precision in research. National surveys and tiered segmentation models often flatten regional nuance, failing to capture the complexity of cities like Coimbatore or Chengdu. For companies reliant on trend forecasting or demand modeling, that means moving from regional sampling to localized data capture, often city by city.

Product development and inventory planning are also evolving. In India, brands like Mamaearth and Plum are adjusting their SKUs for tier-2 and tier-3 cities, shifting from large-format products to smaller, trial-sized offerings that match local price expectations. In the US, national retailers like Target have refined their assortments in cities like Charlotte and Nashville, prioritizing core everyday goods while reducing premium or seasonal inventory that underperforms outside the major metros.

Media planning is undergoing a parallel transformation. As digital access expands in emerging urban centers, traditional broadcast budgets are giving way to city-level targeting across mobile platforms and social commerce channels. Short-form video, regional influencers, and WhatsApp-based promotions are becoming more effective in places where ad fatigue hasn’t set in and trust in peer-to-peer recommendations remains high. In markets like Vietnam, TikTok is now the primary discovery channel for beauty and electronics purchases in cities outside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, according to recent industry data.

Even logistics, often treated as an operational concern, is now central to brand reputation in smaller cities. The rise of same-day and next-day delivery expectations—previously confined to tier-1 cities—is now common in places like Cebu or Bristol. For many brands, the challenge isn’t reaching these markets, but reaching them reliably. That’s led to increased partnerships with regional fulfillment services, and in some cases, internal investments in micro-warehousing and localized dispatch.

This redistribution of consumer power is forcing brands to move beyond scale and standardization. The era of national uniformity in messaging, product lines, and delivery models is fading. In its place is a more fragmented but arguably more dynamic landscape—one where understanding the pulse of smaller cities is becoming essential to staying relevant in the broader market. Brands that treat these urban centers as strategic priorities, not afterthoughts, will be the ones best positioned to grow as the next wave of consumer demand continues to take shape outside the old capitals.

The Future Is Smaller, Faster, and Closer Than You Think

The cities driving the next era of global consumption won’t always be the ones on postcards. They won’t host the Olympics or top the rankings for financial centres. But they will be where new preferences are formed, where loyalty is won, and where growth happens quietly until it isn’t quiet anymore.

This is not a temporary correction or a cost-of-living workaround. It’s a structural shift. In many ways, secondary cities are better attuned to the values shaping modern consumerism: access, flexibility, and balance. These are places where people can afford to live and choose how they spend, not just how much.

For brands, the path forward lies in proximity—not just geographic, but cultural. Success will depend less on scale than on sensitivity. Less on dominating share of voice in capital cities, and more on understanding how tastes evolve in places that rarely make headlines but increasingly make markets.

The middle is no longer a middle ground. It is the next frontier. And those who invest in it early will not just meet new demand—they’ll define it.

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Marketers may position Generation Alpha as the next big consumer cohort, but the real power behind their spending lies firmly with their Millennial and Gen X parents. From the designer sneakers children wear to the AI-powered math apps they use, it is parents who dictate the purchases—and, by extension, the market trends. For these parents, spending on their children has become a projection of their own aspirations, fears, and ambitions.

In the United States, the cost of raising a child to age 18 now exceeds $310,000, while in the United Kingdom, the figure surpasses $332,000 (£260,000) for couples. These estimates, which cover basic needs such as housing, food, education, and childcare, only tell part of the story. For affluent Millennial and Gen X parents, discretionary spending—on private tutoring, AI-powered learning apps, luxury children’s goods, and elite summer programs—adds a new, fast-expanding layer. What was once considered optional is increasingly framed as essential, as parents project their ambitions and anxieties through their children’s consumption.

In Southeast Asia, the same pattern is accelerating. In Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, rising affluence is fueling demand for premium education, designer children’s fashion, and curated experiences. Parents are investing heavily in AI-powered tutoring platforms, coding bootcamps, and high-end family travel, viewing these as critical to giving their children a competitive advantage. These purchases are not merely about comfort or entertainment; they are treated as stepping stones toward social mobility and status preservation.

This behavior—widely referred to as “projection spending”—is now a defining force in markets ranging from luxury retail to EdTech. By channeling their ambitions, values, and anxieties through their children’s consumption, Millennial and Gen X parents are reshaping sectors that were once thought to target only youth consumers. The economic power in the so-called Gen Alpha economy resides firmly with the generations raising them.

Asia’s Tiger Parents Get a Luxury Upgrade

In Southeast Asia, the traditional model of tiger parenting is evolving into an economy where affluence and ambition converge. Across markets such as Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, parents are increasing discretionary spending on education, designer children’s goods, and curated experiences. In Singapore alone, household spending on education has historically accounted for over 5 percent of budgets, a figure likely to rise as premiumization takes hold across the region.

Singapore exemplifies this shift. The country’s EdTech sector is projected to reach $2.2 billion by 2027, expanding at 13.6 percent annually, while across Asia, EdTech overall is forecast to grow at more than 30 percent each year through 2030. Platforms such as Geniebook, blending AI-driven personalized learning with human instruction, have become staples in middle- and upper-income households. The region’s scale is considerable, with an estimated 258 million children receiving private tuition, underscoring the depth of parental investment in academic advantage.

Image credit: Geniebook

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest Gen Alpha market, is seeing children’s fashion emerge as another arena of status spending. Brands such as Hello Alyss have capitalized on the growing demand for premium, design-focused children’s apparel, with parents treating their children’s appearance as a reflection of family identity and ambition.

In Thailand and Vietnam, rising household incomes are translating into higher spending on enrichment classes, international schools, and premium goods for children. In these markets, middle-class parents are allocating a growing share of disposable income toward products and services they believe will provide their children with an advantage, reflecting the same status-driven spending patterns seen elsewhere in the region.

Vietnamese parents remain among the region’s most education-focused, often making significant personal sacrifices to ensure access to private education and enrichment programs. This cultural commitment to education as the primary path to social mobility is now paired with growing acceptance of tech-enabled learning models and international curriculums.

Family travel has also become a key focus for status-conscious parents. In Asia-Pacific, 87 percent of Gen Alpha and Gen Z now influence family travel decisions, pushing hospitality and tourism brands to design experiences that cater directly to children’s tastes. High-end resorts in Bali and Phuket now offer educational workshops, wellness programs, and social media-friendly activities, meeting parental demand for travel that is both enriching and socially validating.

Across Southeast Asia, Millennial parents are driving the rise of a projection spending economy where success is measured not just in academic performance but in curated experiences, status goods, and global exposure. Indonesia alone is projected to become Southeast Asia’s dominant market for Gen Alpha spending, underscoring the urgency for brands to recognize that parental influence remains the decisive economic force in these markets.

America’s Status Race Starts in the Stroller Aisle

In the United States, parenting has become a public-facing performance of status, ambition, and affluence. Millennial parents, many of whom delayed starting families, are now older, wealthier, and driving a surge in spending on high-end products and experiences for their children.

The economic scale of this behavior is substantial. The estimated cost of raising a child to age 18 in the US now exceeds $310,000, but that figure obscures the additional layers of discretionary spending reshaping the parenting economy. From luxury strollers to influencer boot camps, parents are investing in their children not just for care but as extensions of their own identities and aspirations.

The rise of the baby tech economy illustrates this shift. The Snoo smart bassinet, retailing at $1,695, and the Doona stroller-car seat hybrid at $550 have become mainstream among affluent families, with sales buoyed by social media visibility. Brands such as UppaBaby dominate the luxury stroller market, with models like the Vista priced from $1,000, becoming as much a statement of parental identity as a functional item.

Image credit: UppaBaby Vista

This visibility extends to children’s own digital lives. The US remains the epicenter of the kidfluencer economy, where children on platforms like YouTube and TikTok command millions of followers and drive product demand. In recent surveys, over 55 percent of Gen Alpha parents say their children regularly request items seen in influencer content, while 37 percent of Gen Alpha tweens aspire to become influencers themselves. This dynamic has created a feedback loop where parents invest in photography equipment, curated experiences, and branded content opportunities for their children, often viewing influencer success as a new form of social capital.

The obsession with elite experiences has also reshaped the summer camp industry. Specialty camps offering STEM immersion, leadership coaching, and influencer training now charge fees exceeding $15,000 per season. Concierge services that handle packing and pre-camp preparations have emerged to serve affluent parents, further commercializing what was once a recreational pursuit.

Underlying these behaviors is a commercial system built on parental fear and aspiration. Brands have capitalized on Millennial parents’ anxieties around safety, opportunity, and social standing. Smart monitors, AI-powered tutors, and luxury camps are not marketed as indulgences, but as necessities for responsible, future-focused parenting. In this economy, good parenting is performed through purchases and curated experiences, and the market is more than ready to supply the tools and platforms to do so.

Europe’s Fewer Kids, Higher Stakes Economy

Across Europe, low birth rates have reshaped family economics, with parents concentrating resources on fewer children. In Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and France, this has translated into intensified discretionary spending per child, particularly in education, luxury goods, and curated experiences.

Luxury brands are responding. The global market for luxury children’s products is estimated at over $40 billion in 2023, with European consumers accounting for a significant share. Fashion houses such as Dior, Gucci, and Burberry have reported steady growth in their children’s lines, reflecting demand from European parents who view high-end clothing as a discreet extension of family status. While this spending is less conspicuous than in the United States or Asia, the motivations are similar—parents seeking to invest early in their children’s cultural capital.

Image credit: Baby Dior

Education is another focal point for projection spending. In the Netherlands, enrollment in bilingual and international schools continues to rise, driven by parents eager to prepare their children for a globalized economy. In Spain and France, private tutoring and enrichment programs have quietly expanded, offering bespoke language, coding, and arts instruction outside the public system. These services, often discovered through niche networks rather than overt advertising, command premium fees among affluent families.

Family travel reflects the same patterns of discreet status consumption. European parents increasingly favor experiences that blend leisure with education, such as cultural immersion trips, private art tours, or wellness retreats tailored to children. Luxury hotels and tour operators have responded with packages that offer exclusivity and enrichment, catering to parents who view travel as a formative investment rather than a vacation.

While European parents may eschew overt displays of projection spending, the underlying behaviors mirror those seen in other regions. The emphasis on quality, exclusivity, and cultural capital has created lucrative niches for brands that can align with these values without appearing ostentatious. For businesses, understanding the subtleties of Europe’s parenting economy is critical—status here is communicated through craftsmanship, education, and experience, not spectacle.

The United Kingdom’s Boutique Upbringing

In the United Kingdom, projection spending has merged the country’s traditions of elite education with a modern appetite for boutique goods and curated childhood experiences. Millennial parents, many of whom came of age during economic austerity, are driving this shift, investing heavily in their children as an expression of both ambition and status.

Private tutoring has become a cornerstone of this economy, with British families spending around $7.5 billion (£6 billion) annually. On average, households engaging private tutors allocate approximately $3,450 (£2,750) per child each year, reflecting widespread parental anxiety over academic performance and university access. The post-pandemic years have seen a surge in uptake of AI-powered tutoring platforms and personalized coaching services, further commercializing what was once considered extracurricular.

Beyond academics, the UK’s affluent families are fueling demand for boutique childhood experiences. High-end summer camps, offering coding, leadership, or arts immersion, now command fees upwards of $6,300 (£5,000) for two-week sessions, with waiting lists that mirror the country’s most prestigious private schools. Services catering to this ecosystem—such as personal shoppers and concierge camp packing—have emerged to meet demand from parents outsourcing even the logistics of these curated experiences.

Luxury children’s goods have also gained a firm foothold. British retailers report robust demand for premium baby tech, design-led nursery products, and sustainable children’s fashion, all framed as responsible investments rather than indulgences. Heritage and innovation intersect in the UK’s parenting economy, where parents seek to balance traditional markers of status, such as private education, with modern expressions of care, wellness, and exclusivity.

In the UK, projection spending may appear more restrained than in the United States or Asia, but the drivers are no less potent. The country’s parenting economy has become a hybrid of legacy privilege and boutique consumerism, creating opportunities for businesses that can straddle both. For brands, the path to British families lies in offering products and services that combine pedigree with personalization, always mindful of the country’s cultural preference for understatement over spectacle.

Projection Spending Has Become the Market

Projection spending has moved beyond a byproduct of affluence. It is now a primary engine of growth for industries as varied as private education, luxury retail, hospitality, and digital technology. Across regions, the behavior is consistent. In Southeast Asia, parents drive demand for AI-powered tutors and curated family travel. In the United States, they sustain the economies of kidfluencers, premium baby tech, and elite summer programs. In Europe and the United Kingdom, they blend heritage education with boutique experiences, using subtle consumption as a marker of status.

These are not isolated behaviors. They form a global, cross-sector economy in which children’s consumption is shaped almost entirely by the ambitions, fears, and status signaling of Millennial and Gen X parents. The result is a spending landscape where children may appear to be the target, but the decision-making authority remains firmly with the generations raising them.

Any brand that continues to approach Generation Alpha as independent consumers will misread the market. The economic power resides not in the children, but in the wallets and worldviews of their parents. Businesses that fail to account for this will struggle to capture loyalty, relevance, and market share in a consumer economy increasingly dictated by parental projection.

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Thailand is embarking on a bold economic initiative that intertwines fiscal stimulus with digital innovation. The government has launched a digital wallet scheme, providing eligible citizens a one-time payment of ฿10,000 (approximately USD 275). This initiative aims to invigorate local economies and accelerate the nation’s transition to a cashless society.

The program is being rolled out in phases, with the third phase targeting 2.7 million young individuals aged 16 to 20. These recipients will receive the funds through the Thang Rath app, a government-developed platform to facilitate digital transactions. The funds are intended for use within local communities, with certain restrictions to ensure the money stimulates domestic consumption.

Thailand’s digital wallet initiative aims to stimulate economic activity and promote digital transactions. The program’s first phase targeted 50 million citizens aged 16 and above, each receiving ฿10,000 (approximately USD 275) through a digital wallet. This approach is designed to encourage spending within local economies and accelerate the country’s shift towards a cashless society.

Thailand’s digital wallet program is a significant case study in integrating fiscal policy with digital technology. By distributing funds through digital means, the government stimulates the economy and encourages the adoption of digital payment systems, potentially influencing consumer habits and financial behaviors.

From Handout to Handset

This is money designed to move markets. Thailand’s ฿10,000 (USD 275) digital wallet credit is distributed exclusively via mobile apps. It has clear boundaries: it must be spent within a designated time period, in specific geographic areas, and only through participating merchants equipped to handle digital payments. The delivery mechanism is the government-backed Thang Rat app, which uses national ID verification to register users and link them to eligible purchases.

The program injects short-term liquidity while strategically embedding digital transactions into routine life. Access requires digital fluency – scanning codes, verifying identity, and transacting within the PromptPay ecosystem. The interface has been streamlined for ease, but the implications are layered. Thailand is accelerating the normalization of app-mediated spending across demographics and regions.

Financial institutions and major digital wallet providers are working behind the scenes to integrate merchant systems and stabilize the transaction flow to ensure rapid uptake. This isn’t limited to major retailers. Many small vendors, from noodle stalls to corner pharmacies, are registering to accept payments. The digital wallet scheme demands not just consumer participation, but full-scale merchant onboarding into a cashless economy.

This is a behavioral leap for millions of Thais who still rely heavily on cash. But for younger recipients, the transition feels intuitive. Many live on their smartphones, accustomed to social commerce, e-wallet promos, and gamified savings. What the government is effectively doing is placing a financial incentive on behavior they’re already inclined to adopt.

In this way, the program is a behavioral nudge packaged as an economic policy. It’s teaching people how to spend in a new way, and rewarding them for doing it quickly.

A Timed Windfall for Local Commerce

Businesses across Thailand are preparing for increased consumer spending driven by the digital wallet program. The requirement for funds to be used within a specific period encourages immediate spending, prompting merchants to adjust their pricing strategies and promotional activities accordingly.

Food stalls are printing QR codes, retailers are adjusting shift schedules, salon owners, café managers, and shopfront vendors are updating signage to remind passersby that e-wallets are accepted here. The shift is visible and urgent in provinces where cash has long dominated daily transactions.

In Bangkok’s inner districts, chains and convenience stores are doubling down on digital promotions. Buy-one-get-one offers, bundled discounts, and mobile flash sales are being calibrated to coincide with the disbursement dates. The psychology behind it is clear: create immediacy, trigger impulse purchases, and keep consumers in-app and on-premise.

Meanwhile, mom-and-pop stores in Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, and Phuket are entering the formal financial ecosystem for the first time. Participation in the program requires digital onboarding. The upside: access to new customers flush with government-backed spending power. The risk: failing to move quickly could mean missing the wave altogether.

Consumer behavior is expected to be fluid but focused. Analysts anticipate that essentials and small indulgences, like meals, home goods, and personal care, will dominate early spending. But discretionary categories, especially fashion and electronics, could also benefit, particularly if retailers tailor offerings to fit within the ฿10,000 bracket.

This is a demand surge programmed into the system. Every player, from a street vendor selling grilled pork skewers to a regional supermarket chain, is being pulled into a countdown economy, where readiness and responsiveness could decide who gains and who gets left behind.

Digital Payments Go Mainstream in Thailand

The timing of Thailand’s digital wallet rollout is no accident. With PromptPay already embedded into daily life through peer-to-peer transfers and utility payments, the infrastructure for mass adoption was quietly laid years ago. What’s happening now is a sudden acceleration, where digital payments are no longer a convenience, but a condition for participation.

The mechanics are simple: the digital credit can only be spent via QR code transactions within the Thang Rat app or partner platforms. While younger, tech-savvy consumers may find the digital wallet system intuitive, older demographics and small businesses in semi-urban or rural areas face challenges in adopting this technology. Efforts are underway to support and educate these groups to ensure inclusive participation in the program.

This forced familiarity is a powerful lever. In previous government subsidies, such as the “Half-Half” co-payment scheme, uptake of digital payments spiked, but often reverted once the incentive expired. The difference this time lies in scale, urgency, and exclusivity. With no offline alternative, digital behavior becomes the default.

Retailers, both large and small, are expanding their digital loyalty ecosystems, leveraging infrastructure that’s already in place. Meanwhile, independent merchants are being trained through government-led and private sector initiatives, many of whom accept mobile payments alongside cash for the first time.

There are structural benefits too. Digital transactions bring transparency, reduce leakage, and pull more activity into the taxable economy. For financial institutions and fintech platforms, it’s a rare moment to onboard users en masse, expand digital credit histories, and introduce adjacent services like microloans and savings tools. What was once novel, QR payments and app-exclusive deals, is now baseline behavior. Habits form, preferences evolve, and expectations reset.

For Thailand, this isn’t just about going cashless. It’s about normalizing a new rhythm of consumption, one mediated by apps, verified by biometrics, and reinforced through constant interface with digital payment systems.

Programmed Consumption and the Rise of Directed Demand

Thailand’s digital wallet program doesn’t simply encourage spending; it shapes it. By placing parameters on how, where, and when the ฿10,000 can be used, the government has introduced a form of economic steering rarely seen at this scale. Unlike traditional cash stimulus, which relies on recipients to allocate funds freely, this initiative narrows consumer choice and concentrates activity into predefined lanes.

The logic is deliberate. Restricting usage to local businesses prevents capital leakage to international e-commerce platforms. Limiting the timeframe creates urgency. Requiring digital payment methods brings consumers and merchants into closer contact with formal financial systems. By specifying where and how the digital wallet funds can be used, the government effectively directs consumer spending towards specific sectors and regions, aiming to boost local economies and encourage digital payment systems.

This creates a behavioral moment for consumers. Faced with a ticking clock and a limited range of vendors, they are more likely to make purchase decisions that are reactive, needs-based, or convenience-driven. This doesn’t eliminate agency, but it does channel it. The consumer becomes a participant in a curated economic script.

Retailers are adapting quickly. Some design promotions that align with the wallet’s value cap, offering bundles or tiered discounts pegged just under ฿10,000. Others are integrating in-app incentives, such as exclusive digital deals or gamified rewards. It’s not a one-off campaign. It’s a moment for brands to convert compliance into long-term connection.

There are also downstream effects. Data trails emerge as millions engage in digital-first transactions over a condensed period. Purchase preferences, time-of-day activity, and location-based behavior are logged in real time. This creates a trove of behavioral insights for tech partners and financial services firms, potentially reshaping how credit scoring, product development, and localized marketing unfold in the months ahead.

Similar experiments have been attempted globally, particularly in conditional cash transfers. But Thailand’s version is uniquely digitized, centralized, and transactional. It offers a test case in how programmable money can accelerate economic recovery and behavioral adaptation.

Understanding how different consumer groups respond to this stimulus is essential for long-term strategy. Young adults, already comfortable with mobile interfaces, adapt rapidly, but older consumers may show resistance or partial adoption. Rural users face infrastructure gaps that could slow uptake or reshape spending patterns around trusted local merchants. Urban Gen Zs may spend impulsively and favor experiential categories, while Gen X participants lean toward utility-driven purchases. These behavioral distinctions matter for segmentation, pricing, and product development, particularly as brands look to refine future targeting based on wallet usage data.

New Norms in Marketing and Merchandising

The digital wallet program is forcing businesses in Thailand to rethink the fundamentals of how they market, merchandise, and manage demand. Digital credit may be temporary, but behavioral ripple effects influence how brands present themselves online and in-store.

At the heart of this transformation is timing. With a strict window in which the funds must be used, consumer attention is compressed. That changes the marketing calculus. There’s no luxury of a long lead funnel or sustained brand storytelling. Campaigns must hit fast and deliver clear value. QR codes aren’t just payment methods; they’re now marketing triggers, embedded in posters, flyers, and social posts that tie spending to immediacy.

Product curation has also shifted. Brands are building product bundles priced just below the ฿10,000 threshold, creating psychological cues for consumers to spend the full amount. Some offer flash deals that reset daily, while others push limited-time bundles through retailer apps or LINE commerce channels. These are not just promotions but engineered conversions calibrated to align with the digital wallet framework.

Inventory planning, too, has become more dynamic. Mid-sized retailers and national chains are using digital dashboards to track wallet-driven demand in real time, enabling rapid stock reallocation. Categories like food delivery, personal electronics, cosmetics, and small household appliances are spiking, especially among younger consumers already fluent in app-centered shopping habits.

The new challenge is coherence for businesses operating in both physical and digital spaces. Messaging must be synchronized across touchpoints, inventory systems must be tightly integrated, and customer service needs to anticipate a wave of first-time digital shoppers. This isn’t just a surge; it’s a behavioral onramp for consumers who have never interacted with a loyalty program or browsed a brand’s offerings through an app.

Loyalty itself is being redefined. With state-funded money in play, consumer allegiance becomes fluid. People are less concerned with brand heritage and more focused on price, accessibility, and in-app rewards. The brands that win in this window may not be the ones with the longest history, but the ones that adapt fastest to this new consumption model.

A Testbed for Market Entry and Innovation

Thailand’s digital wallet stimulus is becoming a live laboratory for market entrants and tech innovators. The initiative presents a rare opportunity to observe real-time consumer responses at scale, under state-structured conditions, by creating a compressed environment of digitally enabled, time-bound consumption.

This moment offers more than a demand bump for global brands and startups exploring Southeast Asia. It provides behavioral proof points. Which price points resonate with a digitally empowered consumer base? How do young adults prioritize purchases with a fixed wallet balance and expiration date? What formats – QR discounts, app-based coupons, social-first promotions – translate into immediate action?

For global brands operating in Thailand, the closed-loop nature of the wallet system introduces new constraints. Transactions are restricted to pre-approved domestic merchants using Thai QR payment infrastructure, sidelining international platforms and foreign e-commerce flows. This forces global players to rethink their localization strategy, not just in language or pricing but also in payment compatibility, compliance with local fintech protocols, and partnerships with Thai digital ecosystems. Without local enablement, access to wallet-driven demand is effectively off-limits.

These are questions that typical market entry research can only approximate. But in Thailand right now, the data is unfolding in real time.

Retail tech platforms are already responding. Point-of-sale solutions are being retrofitted to accommodate PromptPay and Thang Rat app syncing. Loyalty software providers are rolling out integrations tailored for the short-term stimulus. Meanwhile, financial institutions are watching new patterns emerge around credit top-ups, digital wallet storage, and tiered savings, insights that could inform broader regional product development.

For brands considering market entry, the digital wallet rollout reduces uncertainty. It forces clarity around key operational requirements: payment infrastructure compatibility, smartphone-optimized UX design, local partnership strategy, and promotional agility. Previously theoretical risks like payment fragmentation and uneven digital engagement are unfolding in real time, offering rare visibility.

There is also a broader story unfolding around interoperability. Local players that capture wallet-based spending may quickly gain bargaining power in distribution deals or tech partnerships. New winners could emerge, not just based on product strength but also on their ability to move quickly, adapt nimbly, and serve a new type of Thai consumer who expects digital fluency as the norm.

In this way, the program becomes more than a fiscal initiative. It is a proving ground for what works in digitally conditioned economies, and a barometer for how brands, especially those eyeing ASEAN growth, should rethink their playbooks.

Beyond the Wallet

The digital wallet program is temporary, but the behavioral architecture it introduces is anything but. Thailand’s push toward app-based, conditional cash disbursement may be a one-off stimulus. Still, it functions as a prototype that could shape the long-term relationship between consumers, digital ecosystems, and the state.

At a policy level, it hints at future mechanisms for targeted fiscal relief. With a national app tied to ID verification, merchant QR capability, and geofenced rails, Thailand has the infrastructure for agile, targeted interventions. Imagine fuel subsidies issued directly to drivers’ wallets, or education grants tied to purchases at approved vendors. Thailand is effectively building the scaffolding for programmable transfers that move beyond welfare and into consumer engineering.

For brands, this shifts the horizon. Suppose public spending can be deployed with this degree of precision. In that case, market strategy must now factor in state influence – not just regulation or taxation, but direct participation in how demand is created, distributed, and spent.

It also raises questions about data sovereignty and consumer privacy. Every transaction under this program is logged, time-stamped, and geolocated. While much of the data is anonymized or aggregated, tracking purchasing behaviors at this scale gives policymakers and platforms a new level of visibility and responsibility. Transparency, ethical use, and public trust will become defining themes as similar programs proliferate.

For consumers, the wallet scheme introduces a new normal, not just in how they pay but also in how they engage with money. Spending has become traceable and digitally shaped. This could foster a generation of Thais who expect convenience, traceability, and flexibility from every financial interaction—expectations that will extend far beyond this program.

In the broader Southeast Asian context, Thailand’s experiment is being watched. Governments from Vietnam to Malaysia are exploring their own pathways toward digital inclusion and financial modernization. If Thailand’s model successfully drives lasting consumer habits, similar regional models could be accelerated.

What remains unclear is whether these behaviors will stick. Will consumers continue favoring QR payments, or will familiar cash habits resurface? Much will depend on how embedded digital convenience becomes in daily transactions and whether follow-up incentives, merchant retention, and habit reinforcement mechanisms remain. This presents a live opportunity for market researchers to track post-stimulus drop-offs, digital payment stickiness, and evolving consumer loyalty under real-world conditions.

If replicated across ASEAN, this state-led digital payment model could redefine how governments stimulate economies and how brands prepare for demand. Thailand’s model offers a scalable blueprint in markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, where digital infrastructure is expanding but financial inclusion remains uneven.

There’s also a broader possibility: what begins as a one-off wallet scheme could evolve into a prototype for Universal Basic Income trials delivered via fintech. Conditional, trackable, and segmentable, such frameworks would allow governments to deploy aid, test responses, tweak incentives, and monitor outcomes in real time.

Thailand’s digital wallet initiative illustrates the growing interplay between government policy and consumer behavior. For businesses, this underscores the importance of aligning with digital platforms and payment systems increasingly influenced by public sector strategies.

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Jollibee is rewriting the rules of global fast food.

After a strong financial year, the Filipino fast-food giant is entering 2025 with around USD 364 million earmarked to open as many as 800 new stores worldwide. That would push Jollibee’s total store count past 10,000, a staggering figure for a homegrown chain once dismissed as quirky outside Asia. But this is no vanity expansion. The brand’s global push reflects a more profound shift at home, where demand for quick, affordable meals surges, defying inflation, reshaping food culture, and fueling a new era of fast-food dominance in the Philippines.

This isn’t just about chicken and burgers. It’s about how one brand’s rise is capturing the cravings of an entire nation.

Fast food emerged as the most popular choice for dining out, particularly among chicken and burger lovers. Quick-service establishments accounted for over half of the industry’s total revenue, generating over USD 7 billion in 2023. Since then, the segment has been dominated by homegrown players, led by Jollibee Foods Corporation, whose portfolio includes Mang Inasal, Greenwich, and Chowking. McDonald’s remains a distant second, operating under the exclusive franchise of Golden Arches Development Corporation. As demand rises, local chains expand into provincial areas, while international brands continue to enter the market, adding more variety to Filipino tables.

Whether students meet after class, families treat themselves on weekends, or office workers order lunch through an app, the momentum is clear: Filipinos are dining out, ordering in, and doing it more often.

This revival isn’t a return to the past. It’s an acceleration. The pandemic disrupted routines and deepened appreciation for fast, reliable food options. A more mobile, value-conscious consumer emerged who now sees fast food as affordable and dependable.

Demand for fast food stays strong in the Philippines

The latest research indicates that consumer spending on food services remained steady despite elevated inflation rates, with quick-service restaurants showing particular resilience. Budget-friendly combo meals, seasonal promos, and tiered pricing have helped brands stay within reach for everyday customers.

For many, an under-two-dollar value meal is more than just food. It’s an accessible treat, a small reward at the end of a long day. In uncertain times, the routine of fast food offers something dependable.

Global ambition with local roots in the Philippines

Jollibee’s international footprint is a calculated strategy powered by years of steady domestic growth and rising demand from Filipino communities abroad. From Los Angeles to Riyadh, queues outside Jollibee outlets speak to nostalgia and a global appetite for distinctly Filipino offerings.

In 2024, Jollibee Foods Corp opened new stores across North America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, adding to its diverse portfolio that includes Smashburger in the U.S., The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Yonghe King in China. Its global network spans over 30 countries, with stronghold cities like Toronto and Dubai seeing expansion fueled by the diaspora and growing mainstream interest.

But the push outward is rooted in confidence built at home. JFC’s record earnings have created room to double down on international markets, and the brand’s ability to localize, while staying true to its core identity, has become its competitive edge.

Regional QSRs take root beyond Metro Manila

While major players dominate the headlines, a quiet transformation occurs in provincial cities. Homegrown fast-food chains like Mang Inasal (also under JFC) and Potato Corner are seeing rapid expansion in tier-2 and tier-3 areas, where demand is driven by a growing middle class and increased infrastructure investment.

Cities like Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, and General Santos have become new frontiers for QSR growth. These markets value familiarity, affordability, and local relevance, and regional chains are responding to these preferences with rice-based meals, grilled dishes, and snackable comfort food.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) notes that regional retail hubs posted double-digit growth in food service in 2024, a sign that the fast-food phenomenon is no longer concentrated in major urban centers. For brands, this shift signals the need to build hyper-local strategies, not just nationally but by province, city, and even neighborhood.

Global fast-food chains step up competition in the Philippines’ quick-service market.

Jollibee may dominate the local scene, but it no longer stands alone. International quick-service brands are scaling up in the Philippines, eyeing the same value-driven, convenience-loving consumers.

McDonald’s Philippines, which opened its 700th store in 2024, continues to match Jollibee’s momentum with localized offerings and digital upgrades. Popeyes and Shake Shack are expanding footprints in Metro Manila, while brands like Tim Hortons and Five Guys are testing growth in urban centers. Each new entry promises variety and the pressure to compete.

What’s different now is the intensity. With a young, urban population and rising mobile penetration, the Philippine QSR market has become a battleground for homegrown and global players. Store count is only one metric. The real contest is for relevance: who can adapt, respond, and resonate fastest with local tastes and lifestyles?

Fast Food Menus that speak the local language

Taste is local, and brands are listening. Filipino diners want more than burgers and fries. They expect flavor profiles reflecting regional preferences and seasonal cravings. That’s why spicy chicken, sweet-style spaghetti, and ube-flavored desserts are staples, not novelties, across fast-food menus.

Before launching new items like Spicy Tuna Pie or ube-flavored desserts, Jollibee conducts sensory testing and product trials to gauge appeal across regions. JFC’s 2021 Sustainability Report outlines a quality assurance process that includes sensory evaluations and physicochemical analysis, ensuring every product meets both safety standards and consumer taste expectations.

Jollibee continues to lead with offerings designed around Filipino palates, from its best-selling Burger Steak to newly launched spicy Tuna Pie variants. McDonald’s Philippines has followed suit, bringing back its Twister Fries and McSpicy lines while experimenting with rice-based meals and desserts like the Ube McDip.

This localization trend isn’t limited to Filipino chains. Even global brands are learning to localize faster, rolling out limited-time items that reflect local tastes. Product development has become both a marketing tool and a competitive differentiator, allowing brands to stay top-of-mind in a saturated landscape.

Sustainability now comes standard in fast food chains in the Philippines

Sustainability is no longer a side note—it’s influencing what Filipinos order, how often they return, and which brands earn their trust. Jollibee’s “Joy for Tomorrow” program has moved beyond recycling pledges and into action, including energy-efficient store designs, reduced food waste, and stronger partnerships with local farmers.

Other fast-food players are following suit. Biodegradable packaging, cage-free sourcing, and ingredient transparency are making their way into the mainstream. These shifts speak to a consumer base that wants convenience without compromise. The cost of a meal now includes a calculation of impact, and brands that take that seriously are gaining ground.

The screen is the new QSR storefront.

Ordering food has become a tap-and-go experience. Mobile apps, third-party delivery platforms, and social commerce are no longer add-ons; they’re central to the Filipino consumer journey.

In 2024, Food Industry Asia reported that nearly 60% of quick-service restaurant orders in Philippine cities were placed through digital channels.

Foot traffic has given way to app traffic, with brands competing on flash deals, loyalty rewards, and free delivery to stay top of mind.

Digital payments are now part of everyday life in the Philippines. In 2024, usage among adults aged 15 and up hit 33%, a steep climb from just 3.2% in 2018. The shift mirrors the rise of mobile-first ordering and in-app transactions, especially in fast-paced urban dining.

Jollibee’s mobile ordering platform has expanded its features, allowing personalized recommendations, pre-orders, and seamless integration with payment apps. McDonald’s Philippines, GrabFood, and Foodpanda continue to lead in delivery convenience, but newer players like TikTok Shop have begun to influence food discovery and promo-led conversions.

Fast food is no longer just about what’s on the menu; it’s about how quickly, easily, and enjoyably it can be accessed.

Where Gen Z eats, posts, and connects

For Gen Z in the Philippines, fast food isn’t just a meal; it’s part of the social fabric. Chains like Jollibee and McDonald’s have become informal meeting places, study zones, and TikTok backdrops. With free Wi-Fi, student discounts, and sleek interior revamps, fast-food locations are evolving into lifestyle spaces for a digital-first generation.

Over 70% of Filipinos aged 15–24 visit a fast-food restaurant at least once a week, not only to eat but also to socialize, stream content, or work on school assignments. The ambiance, affordability, and accessibility make these venues a go-to choice, especially in areas with few alternatives.

QSR brands have noticed. Jollibee’s recent store designs incorporate more seating zones, charging stations, and group-friendly configurations. Meanwhile, McDonald’s continues to roll out McCafé-style concepts with a café vibe. Marketing also leans heavily on youth-driven platforms. Jollibee’s TikTok content, for instance, regularly goes viral thanks to campaign hooks that merge pop culture, food hacks, and humor.

This convergence of dining, content creation, and community adds a new layer to how fast food functions in Filipino society. It’s not just about convenience or flavor; it’s about belonging.

Innovation behind the fast-food counter

Fast food has always been about speed, but now it’s also about smarts. Behind the counter, brands adopt AI-driven inventory systems, real-time analytics, and predictive modeling to optimize operations.

On the consumer side, personalization is becoming standard. Delivery apps suggest orders based on time of day, while loyalty platforms trigger tailored promos and gamified incentives. In 2024, over 8 in 10 Filipino consumers ordered fast food through delivery apps, the highest in Asia, making digital innovation a make-or-break factor for staying relevant.

This tech transformation isn’t just about convenience. It’s how brands scale, adapt, and survive in an economy where expectations move faster than supply chains.

A new flavor of identity in Philippine QSRs

Fast food in the Philippines has evolved from an occasional indulgence into a defining thread in everyday life. It reflects shifting routines, modern appetites, and a generation that blends tradition with convenience.

Jollibee’s global rise is not just a business story; it’s a cultural signal. It shows how a local brand, deeply rooted in national identity, can compete on the world stage without losing its soul. At the same time, the growing presence of foreign QSR players and the embrace of digital-first experiences suggest that Filipino consumers are increasingly cosmopolitan in their tastes, but still loyal to brands that understand them.

Jollibee’s QSR expansion isn’t just about chicken. It’s about claiming a cultural and commercial space that reflects where Filipino consumers are headed, and how fast the world is learning to follow.

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