Process optimization, interaction between sales and customer experience, sustainability: the challenges of an industry historically anchored to the more human aspects of innovation in the first of two in-depth looks at global retail trends.
What are the main trends in retail evolution? What digital innovations are changing the market approach of international and Italian companies? Managers of shops and chains, of all product categories and sizes, are reflecting on their business. More so because of the dynamics triggered by the pandemic, first, and then by economic instability. But also of the new challenges in personnel management and customer communication.
Some scenarios come from the “Osservatorio Innovazione Digitale nel Retail” of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano. Although I followed the entire presentation of the 2023 research, last 20 February, I want to dwell on the investments that concern shops. An area that has always concerned AV technologies.
Physical-digital models
A first significant fact concerns the narrowing of the gap between the offline and online market. Ecommerce continues to grow, but at a slower pace and close to that of the physical shop. This dynamic applies to several markets: Europe contrasts a +3.9% increase in total retail in 2022 with a +4% increase in online. China closes the year at +8.6% and +9% and the USA at +3% and +9%.
But what is important, in our context, is that shop is regaining a central role in retailers’ investment plans. A space seen as a laboratory of innovation, where technology brings automation and customer engagement. Here, the integration of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things increasingly enables convenient and autonomous shopping experiences (personalized suggestions, invisible payment, etc.). At the same time supporting operational and management processes, with all the economic benefits.
In short, the shop seems to have outgrown its original meaning as a transaction-oriented space. It now fits into an urban context as an experiential place, thanks to a service component more typical of entertainment. There are those who work on the offer of new digital services to increase the quality time the customer spends in the store, and those who focus on the frequency of visits, thus on the satisfaction of different needs (e.g. sales and co-working spaces). Or, on offering good reasons to experience the shop. Symptomatic, in the latter case, is the example of Louis Vuitton French shop-museum dedicated to works of art on the history of the brand.
