Investigating the link between innovation and mainstream adoption: How to identify consumer trends

Retailers operate in a very competitive environment and are facing increasing challenges. One such challenge is to anticipate change in their consumers and interpret these into relevant innovative products and service. For retailers, even with a customer centric approach, identifying imminent change in consumer preference and updating and adapting their business models on a continuous basis can create a distinct competitive advantage. Extant literature does not adequately address what methods are available to identify new consumer trends for the retail industry. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to assess the market potential of an innovation to be adopted by mainstream markets. The framework has been drawn from exiting methodologies and applied to the emerging trend in horticulture in the UK. The case study analysis provides evidence that there is the opportunity for horticulture to appeal to a broader market sector. This framework provides scholars and marketers with a foundation for a better understanding of the process of innovations for mainstream consumer