The changing retail landscape
Following on from last week’s edition of The CEO Files about ‘retailtainment’ and the changes the retail world has gone through in the last few years, I just wanted to give my thoughts and predictions on what is still to come for retailers. The demand for online shopping will, without doubt, continue to dictate the market however I believe the impact of online will eventually start to plateau. The effect the online shopping industry has had would have been unimaginable, nevertheless, we are now seeing online retailers like Amazon wanting space on the high street. Could we see another shift in the coming years?
Over the space of 2019 and beyond we will see more advances in retail and shopping, a few of which I will give my opinion on below. I believe these will happen because of 5G, which launches this year, and will drive change even more. I will be covering 5G in The CEO Files in the coming weeks so make sure to keep an eye out. 5G doesn’t just bring faster internet on the mobile, it will bring so much more.
10 retail changes we’ll see this year
Below are my top 10 predictions of the next big changes that we will see impact retail and businesses alike in the very near future:
- 3D Payments – This will become present this year due to mobile devices offering facial scanning to unlock them, this will move to payment like Apple Pay and android pay becoming even more popular.
- Faster and simple shopping – like we’ve seen with ‘Dash Button’ ordering on Amazon.
- Cashless environments – I believe in the next 3-5 years that mobile devices will replace all other payment methods as more and more people use smartphones and devices to pay for their goods. The UK is currently the third highest cashless country, behind Canada and Sweden.
- AI and machine – learning customer’s needs faster and more efficient will become important for businesses. Also, this will shape things like driverless vehicles offering faster deliveries.
- Voice recognition – ordering through our smart devices, ‘Hey Siri. ‘Alexa’, etc.
- Mobile led approach – This method will be adopted by more and more businesses as 1 in 5 people use the smartphone to buy something every week. 66% of digital traffic in retail comes from a smartphone and over 50% convert to transact.
- Social media – it will continue to disrupt the shopping and buying experience and will continue to replace call centres as web chat, Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, etc see growth in marketing and customer interaction.
- Push communications – through apps, beacons in stores and direct messages through social media will play a part in marketing changes.
- VR – Virtual Reality has come on leaps and bounds and will feature in the buying experience. Consumers will be able to experience the virtual retail environment from their own private setting, at a time convenient to them.
- 3D sensing – retailers will be able to use your facial expressions to decide the products they display. You will be shown products that you give a positive facial reaction to,
As you can see there is a lot on the horizon and a lot more change still to come in the retail industry. One thing that will stay the same is that the customer experience and the ability to ‘retailtain’ will always be paramount.
Thank you for reading and I hope this has been useful to my fellow retailers and business leaders. Please feel free to find me on Twitter (@DannyMIDSimpson) and give me your opinions on how you think the retail world will change in 2019 and beyond.
Until next time…