FutureConsumer.Now

Technology is creating a new, smart consumer. Anticipate how their world will change, so you can shape a future where your business thrives.

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Which consumer future are you designing for?

2 minute read 29 Apr 2019

The consumer is transforming with incredible speed. Where that change will lead is far from certain. But by looking ahead, challenging assumptions, and anticipating the full range of possibilities, leaders can shape what happens.

With FutureConsumer.Now, we’re helping leaders make their organizations future-fit by thinking differently about where the consumer is heading. What could happen, from the possible to the plausible? What are the implications for businesses today?

We’re exploring those questions by looking at every aspect of the future consumer’s world – from how they might shop, play and stay healthy to how they will consume, work, move, and use technology.

Stay relevant as consumers evolve. Shape the direction of travel. Create profitable growth.

Our latest thinking

How EY can help

EY and SAP alliance

EY and SAP help power the intelligent enterprise for the Transformation Age.

Direct to Consumer

Enhance brand equity and customer loyalty with the direct-to-consumer model.

Creating customer insight from Retail DnA

Retail DnA goes beyond traditional demographics to create an unbiased way to understand customers based on what they do, not who they are. It’s designed to generate real customer insight from data that retailers can convert into value-generating actions.

Customer experience

When it comes to serving the customer of the future, the answers lie in being client-centric, especially in today’s world.

Indirect taxes and global trade

In recent years, issues related to managing indirect taxes — such as VAT, GST, customs and excise duties — have risen on the corporate agenda.

Blockchain consulting services

Blockchain is a decentralized ledger of each transaction that occurs across a network, enabling the decentralized exchange of trusted data.

Smart Factory

EY Smart Factory arms your shop floor with dynamic predictive data analytics, virtual reality and artificial intelligence to deliver unprecedented performance.

Artificial intelligence consulting services

Our Advisory approach to the adoption of AI and intelligent automation is human-centered, pragmatic, outcomes-focused and ethical.

Supply chain reinvention

Supply Chain Reinvention helps clients effect a fundamental change in their performance to support sales growth, become more cost-competitive, minimize risk and improve operational resilience.

The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.

Restoring trust in the wine industry, from grape to glass

Wine fraud is a significant issue for the wine industry – but blockchain could help change that

The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.

In vino veritas?

Adulterated wine and fake labels cause headaches for the wine industry

People, of course, want to know that what they’re eating and drinking is what it claims to be, and that it comes from a reputable source, but adulterated wine, or fake labels on wine bottles, are major issues for the industry. In Italy alone wine sellers lose €2b of revenue because of it.

Giuseppe Perrone

Advisory Senior Manager

That’s why LaVis, one of the biggest wine producers in Italy has also become one of the first to sell blockchain-certified wine using EY Ops Chain.

The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.

Picking wine by the label

Data is captured from every stage of the wine-making process; smart labels tell the story

Blockchain is a method of recording data – a digital ledger of transactions, agreements and contracts. The technology is often associated with cryptocurrencies, but it can, and is, used for anything that needs to be independently recorded and verified as having happened. This allows for faster, cheaper collaboration, stronger information security and more reliable data.

EY Ops Chain is a set of applications and services designed to help organizations commercialize the use of blockchain technology across their enterprise.

Each of LaVis’ bottles now comes with a smart label – a unique QR code – that the buyer scans.

This label tells the ‘story’ of the wine. Not just the history of LaVis and their vineyards, but a full account of the wine’s DNA: when and where the grapes were harvested, how the wine was treated – for example the quality of the sulphites – the bottling date, lot number and more.

This information is based on data captured during each stage of the wine making process, using a mix of manual records and automated tools like drones and Internet of Things (IoT) technology, and recorded into a blockchain.

Furthermore each time the bottle moves – between producers, brokers, importers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers – the status of the bottle is also updated on the blockchain.

As Giuseppe says, “Blockchain in the wine industry means we can add a layer of transparency and traceability – captured in a decentralized, permanent, time-stamped record – to every stage of the bottle’s journey.”

How EY can help

Blockchain consulting services

Blockchain is a decentralized ledger of each transaction that occurs across a network, enabling the decentralized exchange of trusted data.

woman harvesting red grapes vines vineyard

The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.

A nice finish

Blockchain builds brands by meeting rising demand for authenticity and provenance

Our work with LaVis is about letting their customers see exactly what’s gone into the wine that they’re drinking, and connect more closely with the LaVis brand.

The benefits of blockchain, like added security and visibility, aren’t limited to the wine industry. We’re working with organizations from farmers to insurers, to help them meet growing demand for authenticity and accountability, and ultimately greater trust, in the products and services that people are buying.