The Values-First Consumer

Consumer Behaviour

📈 Values are the new Value, but value is still critical

Younger consumers no longer view purchasing as transactional. For them, a purchase reflects identity. It is an expression of what they believe, how they live and who they want to be.

This shift is cultural and structural. It is reinforced by social norms, environmental urgency and digital fluency. Gen Z often sets the tone, but the mindset is broader. Millennials introduced it. Gen Alpha is growing up with it as default.

The data is clear. Alcohol consumption among 14–17 year olds has fallen by over 50 percent since 2001. Fast fashion giants face pushback due to unsustainable practices. Resale, rental and small independents are rising. Clean brands publish their carbon impact on the label. Artisan’s are what is craved for, but can big brands ever meet that expectation?

The shift also shows up in what people expect from the market. Queer-owned skincare, neurodivergent fashion, halal nail polish and mental health-first workplaces are no longer marginal stories. They are mainstream expectations.

Emerging technologies are reinforcing this agency. Generative AI and product personalisation are enabling younger consumers to co-create, not just consume. From custom designs to chatbot-driven curation, these tools shift power further towards the individual. For Gen Alpha especially, digital fluency and creative control are baseline. Retailers will need to support this new authorship; where the customer shapes the product, the story and the outcome. But removing the innovative use cases, the reality is that companies such as Perplexity, OpenAI and Anthropic are providing the instantaneous ability for young consumers to question everything with minimal effort, something aligned to their ethos and attention span that has been crippled through years of consistent cognitive overload.

Yet many strategies are still built for a passive, aspirational buyer. One who cared more about branding than beliefs.

That customer has left the building.

• What this means for retail leaders:

  • Update your segmentation: Track what customers value, not just what they buy. This can be one of the best use cases for a broad loyalty ecosystem with partnerships that give you insights beyond your own product set.

  • Test your integrity: Ethical consistency across the business is now a commercial requirement.

  • Show, don’t say: Values must be evidenced in operations, not just voiced in campaigns.

 🔍Supply Chain

Transparency as Strategy, Not Slogan

For decades, operational excellence meant speed, scale, and cost control. The logic was simple in that customers judged retailers by what they could see on shelves or screens. The rest was backend machinery. Invisible by design.

The next generations of consumers—millennials with spending power, Gen Z with influence, and Gen Alpha with expectations, are rewriting the rules. They do not separate product from provenance. They scrutinise the chain as much as the brand. What was once backstage is moving more and more into full view.

And their demands are not vague. They want proof.

Proof that cotton is traceable, not just organic. That logistics partners aren’t exploiting gig labour. That AI and robotics aren’t creating human casualties in the name of efficiency. These aren’t fringe concerns but ones that are shaping where money flows, loyalty forms, and advocacy scales.
The strategic shift? Transparency is no longer a defensive play, it is a growth driver and retailers who build trust into the supply chain (visible, verifiable, and consistent) will outperform the rest should value (cost) still be viable.

Circularity has worked it’s way through it’s maturity curve from experimental to infrastructural. Leading retailers are not “adding” recommerce; they are redesigning for it. Returns at The Iconic now fuel resale channels. Citizen Wolf has proven that zero-inventory custom manufacturing is not a dream—it is a discipline.
Meanwhile, the race to automate is intensifying. AI, robotics, and predictive logistics are transforming throughput. I believe that the winners won’t be those who simply go faster, they will be those who align speed with scrutiny. In a market where consumers can amplify concerns globally in minutes, an opaque fulfilment process is a reputational risk waiting to mature.

The future? Open-source retail. Supply chains that are not just auditable but actively interpreted by customers, investors, and regulators. Platforms that integrate environmental data, labour conditions, and carbon accounting as standard. Expect ESG reporting to be both mandatory and monetisable.

The so what for retail leaders?

• Redefine operational KPIs: Treat visibility, traceability, and ethical compliance as primary metrics, not adjuncts to speed and cost

• Institutionalise circularity: Move from isolated pilots to system-wide recommerce, take-back, and closed-loop manufacturing strategies

• Design for scrutiny: Assume that every partner, process, and policy will be examined. Make it a strength, not a stress test

• Align automation with values: Build AI and robotics into a broader workforce and impact strategy; where human dignity is a feature, not a casualty

• Prepare for public supply chains: ESG isn’t a report, it’s a user interface. Invest now in making that interface credible, accessible, and competitive

🔭 Gemba - At the place

Your store is your stage, perform as such

For years, retail was precision-engineered for efficiency. I still remember walking store floors with operations teams who could recite traffic heat maps and SKU turns down to the aisle. Everything had a function. Layouts directed flow. Lighting pushed conversion. Every square metre had to earn its keep.

That model still matters, but it no longer inspires. The best stores today do more than optimise. They perform. They are expressive, participatory, and culturally alive. They create content, attract community, and tell stories at scale. These spaces are not built around the cash register. They are built around the camera.

Walk through a flagship in Seoul or a boutique in Fitzroy and the difference is clear. The stores that stop you in your tracks feel more like sets than sales floors. They are designed to be experienced, not just shopped.
This shift is generational, but its implications are strategic. Consumers born after 1990 view the store through a different lens. For them, retail is not a transactional errand but a cultural ritual; just as clubs and cafés once defined identity for earlier generations, physical retail now plays that role. These customers want more than a product. They want to be seen. They want to participate in something memorable. They want to share.

I have seen it firsthand. At a General Pants store in Sydney, a group of twenty-somethings spent thirty minutes styling each other for photos in front of a neon backdrop. They did not just leave with clothes. They left with content. More importantly, they left with a sense of belonging to the brand.

Independents are going further still. Whilst in Manila recently, I visited a boutique that becomes a gallery on Thursday nights and a workshop space on Sundays. There is less stock on the floor than a typical mall kiosk, but the space is packed. Customers come for events, conversation, and curiosity. That is foot traffic built on narrative, not necessity. The most incredible reshaping that I saw whilst there was Gentle Monster, who’s only downside was knowing that they actually sold glasses and weren’t an art exhibition only. The queues were down the street, the sculptures were out of this world, and the social content being produce will flow down the screens of millions. They replace signage with scenography, and quite frankly are masters at turning every corner into something visually distinctive.

Globally, this repositioning is already mature. Nike’s store in Shanghai includes content zones where customers record their own product reviews.

This evolution demands a new approach. The store becomes less of a logistical asset and more a cultural product. Executives must now view retail space as both physical infrastructure and media channel. It is not about adding a selfie wall or painting a mural. It is about architectural storytelling. It is about giving people something to talk about, post about, and come back to.

To respond, retail leaders should:
- Design stores to support dynamic storytelling, event programming, and content capture
- Equip store teams to host, guide, and engage, not just assist
- Rethink performance metrics to include dwell time, amplification, and cultural relevance alongside sales. Create a unified camera management system as well as a strong Edge infrastructure that allows you to leverage AI to analyse every move the consumer makes, incorporating it into their world through personalisation delivered via the RMN

In a world where digital noise is constant, physical presence must be unforgettable. A forgettable store is a liability. A shareable store is an asset.
This is not theatre as novelty. It is theatre as strategy. In today’s attention economy, performance is not a nice to have. It is the price of relevance.

🧰 Framework of the Week

🎯 The R.E.A.C.H. Model: A diagnostic tool for retail brands responding to generational change

As we’ve discussed, consumers are no longer satisfied with brands that promise connection but fail to deliver substance. Millennials brought values to the forefront, Gen Z is demanding action and evidence, Gen Alpha will expect transparency to be built into the core.

Retailers must move beyond awareness campaigns and seasonal adjustments. The question is no longer whether your brand is relevant, but whether your entire operating model is aligned with emerging expectations. The R.E.A.C.H. Model provides a structured diagnostic to assess and respond to this shift.

It focuses on five dimensions that matter most to younger consumers: Relevance, Empathy, Agility, Credibility, and Humanity. My guidance is to think of these the same way that we look at XLA’s or KRA’s in a business, they are operational metrics that we should be tracking and improving.

How Retailers Can Leverage This Approach:

• Embed the R.E.A.C.H. framework into annual brand audits and transformation roadmaps

• Create incentives that reward trust-building and long-term relevance, not just conversion metrics

• Use R.E.A.C.H. to assess external partnerships, talent strategy, and innovation priorities

• Position REACH not as a campaign message, but as a leadership mindset

I believe that brands which integrate R.E.A.C.H. will stay credible, current and valuable. In a retail landscape shaped by permanent visibility and accelerating expectations, that is the true competitive advantage.