Retail is undergoing a major transformation. The sector is redefining itself in order to adapt to the new shopping experience. Consumers use m-shopping, social shopping, tablet shopping, and crowd shopping along with more traditional forms. Retailers are trying to engage these new digital and tech-savvy consumers by filling stores with digital content & experiences.
For over a decade we’ve been deeply involved in researching the retail transformation and during that period assisting our clients – retailers as well as property owners – on how to adapt to and take advantage of this transformation. We’ve seen the tide coming, and now it’s here.
”We’ll see a very radical shift in terms of what our shopping future is. Stores will change more over the next twelve years than they have over the past fifty years”
Paco Underhill in an Interview with Kairos Future
In the future, the entire physical and virtual space will be “always on”, and we will be within the shopping process constantly. This means that customers are able to browse, choose, pay and get delivery of products across channels, and have a consistent “brand experience” vs. “offline or online experience”. Omnichannel is not only the new buzz – it’s the new reality. This approach significantly impacts retailers’ business models, including pricing, logistics, stock keeping and CRM.
The question is: What does the omnichannel revolution mean to our business?
Did you know that globally, more than 70% of the youth own a smartphone, and among those who do, more than one in four claim to use it for shopping-related purposes on a daily basis. Kairos Future Global Youth 2013