Report: The Future Consumer 2023

Consumers and financial service providers often play leapfrog, taking turns making the next jump into the future.

Decades ago, risk and regulatory innovations enabled banks to issue cards more broadly, leading consumers to adopt electronic payments. Consumer commerce then shifted online, leading to issuers changing products, services and experiences.

Over the past year, both traditional and upstart financial service providers have streamlined and digitised to enable remote workforces and customer experiences.

Consumers and society overcame challenges not seen in over a generation. Just as survivors of the Great Depression focused on achieving the necessary with minimal resources, consumers coming out of the pandemic have different expectations and behaviours, shaped by the events of the last two years.

The game of leapfrog continues and consumers are now jumping, leading to category growth in neobanking, crypto-investing, mobile financial services and new lending and payment schemes.

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The beginning of the consumer leap

Money20/20’s sister company, WGSN, helps predict future consumer trends and behaviour for product design – such as key colours or buying implications for the next season, in categories such as Fashion, Consumer Tech, Beauty, Interiors and Food & Drink.

With deep expertise and a global team responsible for setting the tone for what consumers want, WGSN has identified the consumer sentiments that will shape how your future consumers feel, mapped across the four consumer profiles that will shape the world around us in 2023.

Beyond what to expect of your future consumer in how they’ll feel and behave, Future Consumer 2023 provides foresight on what people will want and demand.

For an industry that prioritises customer experience, knowing what consumers want is essential in taking a proactive approach to meet consumer demands.

Implications and actions

Leaders in financial services need to plan for the changing consumer – or they’ll get left behind. Unlike most retail categories, financial products are based on relationships rather than single transactions.

Whereas a consumer packaged goods provider can alter its formulas without requiring customers to accept new terms and conditions, this is not the case in financial services, where value propositions continue for years and decades.

One of the clearest insights of this white paper is a map of where consumer segments are heading. The chart below highlights the segments, what they are seeking, as well as potential strategies and tactics companies can use to cater offerings to them.

While illustrative, they can also be springboards for discussion and ideation.

Shifting to the future

The global community has been on an unexpected collective journey over the last two years.

Whereas prior years have been on well-paved roads, the last two have been on rollercoaster tracks.

Similar to rollercoasters, the experience has left some energised, some frightened, and others somewhere in between.

Unlike a rollercoaster, we didn’t know that the ride was happening until we were on it. Regardless, most of us are different now to how we were two years ago.

This white paper has identified several major consumer clusters and analysed how their thinking is shifting in the future.