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Looking to the future of commerce: Retail transformation as connected consumers embrace smart homes and smart stores
Journal of Brand Strategy,
8
(3),
241-249
(2019)
Abstract
Retail has undergone disruption every 10 years on average owing to economics, format innovation, and, most recently, technology transformation. We envision this landscape will go far beyond the shift towards e-commerce. This paper reviews technology of the future that will affect the industry, with predictions of how consumers will be likely to adapt. It is informed by extensive fieldwork throughout the world1, 2 and the authors’ combined experience in retail and technology. Beyond commerce, we see all industries facing a future of transformation. But retailers have historically coped with disruption, and we believe the dramatic pace of changes and opportunity facing them can be a playbook for executives in all businesses. Retailers have to operate 24/7, 365 days a year — at full speed and with narrow margins. An immense challenge is making step changes while not simply discarding existing mission-critical infrastructure. The retail industry will enter this unknown future with existing systems that must become far more effective with incremental technology, digitally enhanced employees and pervasive data management across the whole organisation. In other words, they must operate with the capabilities they have for today while transforming for tomorrow. This becomes more complex as smart homes, smart stores and connected cities advance.
Keywords: digital transformation; future store; voice technologies; connected consumer; frictionless transactions; FinTech; Amazon; Alibaba; motion sensors; artificial intelligence (AI); smart homes; robotics; shopping in the future; retail operations; grocery channel; data
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Gwen Morrison has been devoted to helping companies create growth through more meaningful customer engagement. At The Store, Gwen is responsible for extending WPP’s leadership in commerce and retail innovation. She supports global resources for WPP group companies across the Americas. Gwen is a previous author for JBS and HBR. A frequent speaker at NRF and other international conferences such as CES, she is a guest lecturer at Northwestern University, U of C and U of A. Gwen also serves on the Advisory Board of Fashion Group International.
David Marcotte is Kantar’s Senior Vice President for Retail Insights with a focus on cross-border retail, cross-industry processes and technology. He is an experienced leader of complex international teams, an executive consultant and developer of industry solutions. Before coming to Kantar, he was the business intelligence lead for retail, manufacturing and transportation for IBM for large data solutions, business intelligence and complex modelling. Mr Marcotte was in the retail industry for 20 years prior to both companies in every level of responsibility from the shop floor to executive management. He has also been a member of the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) Category Management Standards Group, the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) and the IBM Academy of Sciences. He has helped write and edit widely varying studies and books such as ‘Retail in the Emergent Market’ for the Harvard Business Review, ‘Retail 2020’ for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and ‘The Data Warehouse Mentor’ with Robert Laberge.
