Marketers will need to be more creative, buyers will shop even more locally, empty shelves are here to stay, and the impact of AI is growing in the FMCG sector. These are the trends for 2024, according to Davy Van Raemdonck from Consumer Panel Services GfK.

Making Choices

"Last year, we predicted that 2023 would be the year of making choices. In several areas, this has indeed proven to be the case. Among other things, we saw that buyers made clear choices, whether forced by an inflationary context or not.

These choices have led to continued pressure on volumes in the Belgian FMCG market. In addition to volume pressure, there has also been a reduction in transactions: buyers sought cheaper alternatives, causing the market share of private labels to continue to rise.

With a strong focus on price and promotion in the sector, this trend will undoubtedly continue in 2024. For this reason, in my opinion, marketers will need to take a different and more creative approach in 2024. If they want to regain the advantage for A-brands, they will need to move away from price and promotional actions and focus on innovation and creative communication."

Response to Existing Trends

"A number of trends will remain important and continue to evolve: think of the importance of local products. The energy crisis and the war in Ukraine have clearly exposed Europe's dependence. Also, the recent war in Gaza may again cause shortages of certain raw materials or higher logistics costs.

Buyers are becoming increasingly aware of this, and it will prompt them to consider the local aspect even more in their buying behavior. The broader theme of sustainability will also play an even more significant role in 2024.

Year after year, the group that consciously deals with this and puts their money where their mouth is will grow. Marketers will need to use these developments even more than before to convey their message to consumers.

Empty Shelves and Franchise

"Despite volume pressure, even today we see a deliberate choice for empty shelves, due to recurring conflict situations between retailers and manufacturers around price negotiations.

In addition to the short-term impact of this choice, the strategic long-term choice regarding the retail business model has been one of the themes of the past year. Indeed, the clear choice to further develop the franchise model has not gone unnoticed."

Impact of AI

"When we talk about the near future, artificial intelligence has remained (too much) under the radar so far – especially its implementation and integration. From what I can estimate, the adoption of AI capabilities within FMCG has remained very limited.

However, I expect many more companies to start experimenting with it this year and discover the opportunities it offers.

This will have an impact on several fronts, such as marketing, sales, logistics, product development, or HR.

However, what will undoubtedly remain at least as important on the agenda is the ethical discussion about how deeply AI can and should begin to find its way into the business world.

Recent events around OpenAI have once again underscored this. So I am very curious to see what this will mean for this new year."