Trend spotting

January 10, 2008

Trendwatching.com, located in Amsterdam, has released its 2008 trend report. The report claims companies should host product reviews on their own websites rather than rely on or completely ignore the reviews being posted on the myriad of product reviewing sites on the internet, including Facebook. Renting is coming into vogue with consumers preferring experiences over owning physical goods and there has been a boom in rental concepts around the work from bikes and cars (veli.paris.fr and ecoigo.com) to baby clothing (luette-leihen.de). The trend for faster more convenient service continues, with a growth in fast hair-cutting services and baby-planning services for busy parents-to-be. The environment is increasingly on everyone ’s mind and organisations that offer eco-benefits without much effort on the part of the consumer will increase in popularity, such as solar panels and Carbon Zero credit cards.

Another ongoing trend is for more consumer and customer involvement in product development and improvement, with DVD rental site Netflix now offering $US1 million to any individual who can substantially improve its movie recommendation scheme.

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