TrendSights Analysis 2019: Sharing – Mapping consumers’ motivations for shared products, services, and experiences

Summary

The desire to share experiences, products, and services with others reflects the “feel-good” factor associated with communal interactions. Sharing can also help to alleviate the financial burdens of “big-ticket” products and services. The proliferation of the internet in daily life has expanded sharing from the real to the virtual world. It has also reinvented traditional consumer behavior, making access, instead of ownership, attractive.

Sharing falls under the Comfort & Uncertainty mega-trend. The influence of, and interactions with peers, friends, and family shapes “social sharing” and a desire for building a social community. The social aspect of sharing is also a source of wellbeing, generating a “feel-good factor.” Sharing like this also helps share risks and make collectively “safe” decisions about products, experiences, and social occasions.

Scope

– Personal inter-connections are key, fostering relationships and promoting wellbeing by sharing products and services.
– Distributing costs and engaging in collaborative consumption helps consumers to access products and services in a more cost-efficient manner.
– Hyper-connected consumers are participating in others’ lives through social media and accessing products and services through digital tools.

Reasons to buy

– Understand the role of the Sharing trend in shaping consumers’ consumption priorities, attitudes, and behaviors.
– Compare the relevance of the trend in each industry across the FMCG space, and learn what the key opportunities are.