March 2019, by Julius Abendan
5 Things to Expect From the Future of Retail
Change is but the only constant thing in this world… and change catches up with everyone, businesses included. The retail landscape that you’ve started in is certainly not the landscape that you’re working in now.
Guess what? Change has no signs of stopping so you better know what are the five things you can expect in the future as retail evolves!
Visual Storytelling Will Be a Big Part of Retail
Being able to tell a good story is a good talent to have on your arsenal. No matter where retailers operate, I.e. online or offline, they must be able to leverage visual storytelling in order to effectively reach out and get in touch with customers.
Let your customers take control of their own narrative when shopping in your store. Innovate your displays and retail store layout so that each experience for your customers becomes immersive and memorable. In a way, you’re letting them write their own stories that you then weave into your own in terms of customer service.
The Chances of Small Businesses Succeeding Against Huge Chains Are High
This began with the advent of e-commerce, and the current retail landscape is just the result of the innovations that have begun roughly a decade ago. These changes of course will continue on until someone else comes up with something new to put into the table.
One thing is certain though - you no longer have to be a very big business in order to succeed. The successful deployment of automation technology plus some savvy business management skills will put shoulder to shoulder with the giants of retail in no time.
Outlets Will Have to Introduce Faster Checkpoints and Better Service
Nowadays, customers demand better service than what they have access to before thanks to the success of e-commerce. Through websites like eBay and Amazon, your consumers have had a taste of seamless transactions. You’d be right to assume that, soon, they’ll be looking for that same experience from brick-and-mortar stores like yours.
Fortunately for you, technology is available for you now to introduce efficient and effective service. Customers can now find out how much a certain item costs without having to wait for a salesperson thanks to QR Code and mobile devices, for example.
More Online Brands Will Find Their Way to Physical Retail
People may find this a little bit ironic and counterproductive, but there will come a time in the future that popular brands online will be seen operating physical retail outlets. This is because old school retail has some advantages that one cannot enjoy online, and vice versa. One of these is the intimate customer engagement that you, as an offline retailer, gets to do on a daily basis.
You Have to Leverage Technology or Lose
Whether you like it or not, technology, like the fledgling artificial intelligence or AI, will become a big part of your retail outlet in the future. This means that you will have the responsibility of keeping yourself abreast of the developments in retail technology. Aside from that, you will also inevitably finding yourself constantly on the look out for opportunities with which to put new technologies to use in your store.
The future appears to be very exciting for retail, and part of it is already here now even as we speak.
