The experience economy didn’t really exist when I was growing up.
Not because people didn’t have experiences, but because they were woven into everyday life.
As a child in the 1980s, I caught buses, walked to the corner shop, ran errands, handled cash, ordered my own lunch, got bored, got lost occasionally and learnt how to navigate the world simply by being part of it. None of those moments were designed, ticketed or monetised. They were just part of growing up.
Today, as the parent of children spanning Generation Z and Generation Alpha, I find myself doing something my parents rarely had to think about.
I’m creating opportunities for them to experience the world – and ideally as ‘every-day’ as possible.
I have learnt that once what happened naturally now often has to happen intentionally.
That simple observation helps explain one of the biggest shifts in consumer behaviour of the past decade.
Businesses haven’t suddenly become brilliant at selling experiences. They’ve recognised that everyday experiences have become increasingly scarce.
That creates enormous commercial opportunity, but it also creates responsibility. If businesses are stepping into a space once occupied by everyday life, family, neighbourhoods and communities, the experiences they create need to offer something genuinely valuable. The winners won’t be those that simply commercialise connection. They’ll be those that create experiences that feel authentic, inclusive and generous enough to leave people with something that lasts beyond the transaction itself.
The Everyday Experience Deficit
The latest figures from the World Health Organization paint a sobering picture. One in six people globally now experiences loneliness, with social isolation contributing to more than 871,000 premature deaths every year. Among younger adults, the picture is even more striking, with some studies suggesting as many as 67% of Generation Z experience chronic loneliness.
This is often framed as a public health story.
It is also becoming a business story.
Barclays research found that 63% of consumers would rather talk about a memorable experience than something they bought, while consumers report feeling significantly less guilt spending money on experiences than physical possessions.
That isn’t because people suddenly stopped enjoying shopping.
It’s because experiences increasingly fulfil needs that products cannot.
Why Businesses Are Investing in Belonging
Look across today’s fastest-growing consumer businesses and the pattern quickly emerges.
Strava has seen extraordinary growth in organised run clubs, with community groups growing several-fold as participation in organised running continues to accelerate.
Alo Yoga increasingly builds wellness destinations rather than simply retail stores.
Formula One has transformed race weekends into multi-day cultural festivals.
Luxury fashion houses no longer limit themselves to boutiques, taking over hotels and beach clubs to create immersive destinations where hospitality, fashion and leisure merge seamlessly.
On paper, these businesses appear to have very little in common.
In reality, they are solving the same consumer problem.
They create places where people feel connected.
The Supermarket Test
I realised this wasn’t simply a trend while watching my own children.
Like many parents, I’d often rush through the weekly supermarket shop, treating it as another task to complete before moving on to the next item on the family calendar.
My children wanted to stay.
They wandered the aisles studying packaging, comparing colours, reading labels and asking questions about products I’d long since stopped noticing. They enjoyed looking at menus in cafés, talking to waiting staff, browsing bookshops without buying anything and spending time in stores that I regarded as entirely ordinary.
It confirmed something that was sitting in plain-sight.
Places that have become routine for adults have become destinations for children.
Not because supermarkets have become more exciting. Because childhood has changed.
Many of the everyday interactions previous generations took for granted now happen less frequently.
Cash has become contactless, shopping has become delivery, friendship has become increasingly digital and even boredom, once a catalyst for imagination, is now something we instinctively fill with a screen.
The “big good world”, as I’ve started calling it at home, has become somewhere many children experience less often than previous generations.
Perhaps that’s why they savour it more.
Products Have Become Souvenirs
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the experience economy is that consumers are replacing products with experiences.
I don’t believe that is entirely true.
They’re changing what the product represents.
Nobody really needs another branded tote bag, water bottle or limited-edition sweatshirt.
What they’re buying is proof they were there, validation they were part of that community.
Whether it’s merchandise from a concert, a Formula One weekend, a designer beach club, Wimbledon or a wellness retreat, the purchase has become a souvenir of belonging rather than the primary reason for attending.
The experience is the purchase.
The product becomes the receipt.
Why This Matters to Business
This is why the experience economy continues to outperform many traditional retail categories.
Businesses are no longer competing simply on product, price or convenience.
They’re competing on participation.
The smartest brands understand that belonging creates loyalty in ways traditional advertising never could. Shared experiences stimulate trust, emotional memory and connection in ways that passive digital interactions struggle to replicate. Those emotional associations don’t disappear when the event ends; they travel home with the consumer and influence future purchasing decisions.
So how is success measured? Attendance and sales will always matter, but they are no longer sufficient measures of success. Increasingly, businesses should be paying attention to repeat participation, community growth, referral and advocacy, because those are the behaviours that create long-term customer value rather than one-off transactions.
Businesses haven’t suddenly become brilliant at selling experiences. They’ve recognised that everyday experiences have become increasingly scarce.
Future Gazing
For decades, businesses competed for attention because attention was expensive to earn, particularly at scale.
Today, attention is abundant. Distribution has been democratised, content is created at an unprecedented pace and almost every brand, creator and platform is competing for the same fleeting glance. Attention has become easier to buy, but infinitely harder to hold. Noise has become one of the world’s most abundant commodities.
Belonging is different.
Every day we are invited to watch, scroll, listen, comment, like and share. Far less often are we invited to participate, contribute or simply feel that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.
That scarcity is creating one of the most significant commercial opportunities of our time.
The businesses that succeed won’t simply create more experiences because the calendar tells them to or because social media demands another moment. They will recognise the responsibility that comes with occupying a space once filled by everyday human interaction. The experiences that endure will feel authentic, inclusive and generous enough to leave a legacy of connection beyond the moment itself.
Because in the end, consumers rarely remember the campaign.
They remember how a business made them feel, who they met because of it and whether it gave them a reason to come back.
That is the billion-dollar business of belonging.
My children can happily spend 40 minutes walking around a store, fascinated by packaging, choice and conversations with staff. I spent my childhood doing exactly the same thing, except nobody called it an experience. It was simply everyday life.
Perhaps that’s the biggest commercial opportunity of all.
Businesses aren’t creating entirely new behaviours. They’re rediscovering something many of us lost along the way.
And in a world where one in six people report chronic loneliness, where 63% of consumers now value shared experiences over purchases, and where communities are growing faster than traditional retail categories, the brands creating lasting value won’t simply sell more products.
The brands shaping the next decade won’t simply create more events, more activations or more reasons to spend. They’ll recognise that, in an increasingly digital world, they have an opportunity to create something much more valuable: moments that help people reconnect with each other and with the world around them.
Commercial success will follow, but only if the experience itself is worthy of being remembered. The businesses that endure will be those that build relationships, communities and confidence that last long after the event has ended.
They’ll help people experience more real-life, human to human experiences.
