The Retail Model of the Future
It is expected that e-commerce sales in Europe will increase by 18.4% in 2015 and will be worth €185.39 billion (study:RetailMeNot). These figures relate only to retail spending. The growth of online sales will inevitably reduce the market for traditional stores. And consequently, the "bricks and mortar" stores will have to reinvent themselves. Technological innovations and a hyper-connected world have significantly changed buying behaviors. People who decide to purchase must be able to compare instantly the prices with those of the competitors. And the modern consumer don't want to waste time: the product must be available and delivered immediately.Therefore, the "new retailer" obsession will be to find the best supply chain partners. But, will the e-commerce kill the traditional retailer? No! He definitely has a future if he invests in technology. Even in the US it is expected that around 80% of the retail sales will still happen within the 4 walls of a store (figures Mc Kinsey).However, the "smartphone shopper" and the "digital consumer" will bring about disruption in traditional stores practices. In the clothing trade, for example, a virtual fitting room should become a standard. In the food trade, the products at discounted prices will have to be displayed on the screen of the mobile phone even before the customer enters the store. In short, the "new retailer" will have to be hyper-reactive and thus invest significantly in new technologies. And he will first have to collect as much data as possible on customers' behavior. Otherwise, the retail shop will just become a storage facility depending on the commercial strategies of the main actors in the field of online business.
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