Retail Means Perpetual Reinvention

Wanted to share the intro to our program booklet for this year's #ces2020 @hightechretail conference. We're at the intersection where brands and retail are looking for new tech and new tech are looking for brands and retailers.  Join us at https://ces.tech or https://hightechretailing.com to register for your place at the future of retail.

Shopping has become a modern-day sport, whether you’re the consumer on the hunt for the perfect product or the retailer/brand gathering loyal customers with the right message at the right time and place. Both hunters and gatherers have new toolsets to meet ever-changing shopping expectations. That’s where The High-Tech Retailing Summit coalesces -- on using technologies to help the hunters and gatherers increase efficiencies, sales, and customer satisfaction.

The 800-pound gorilla, Amazon, maintains it’s voracious appetite. Involved in all aspects of retail from the online store and delivery to voice activation and physical stores, the Amazon juggernaut remains an inexorable force.

Yet it’s been an exceptional year for physical stores. Online native brands from mattress companies to fashion and makeup are zealously staking out a physical presence. New experiences in malls, arenas and other venues use technology to aid the ease of a purchase. And a new generation of shoppers thrives on the social/experiential as an alternative to click and buy.

We’re seeing the search bar find new competition. Whether it’s voice-activated or a visual search, a clickable showroom or an AI-based delivery system that knows what you want before you do, the holy grail is to read a shopper’s mind without creeping them out. We’re hurtling to the point where everything is shoppable; just tap your heels three times and you own it.

AR and VR continue to make strides to help provide the narrative behind the product. AR and Retail turn out to be besties, whether you’re previewing how that plant might look in your garden or finding out about the painter behind the next masterpiece on your mantle. VR is still best used in public places to make an experience take on a life in multiple dimensions.

5G and IoT are combining forces to bring a host of new shopping experiences to the market, from display signage to humanoid interactions. Consumer devices at home are learning how to shop when the toothpaste runs low. And just like Uber and Lyft let you pay without cracking open your wallet, other models of retail are quickly adopting the frictionless, invisible payment approach. Driving forces like computer vision, machine learning and AI are the magician’s assistants.

What do we know for sure? Retailers that embrace tech are moving to the head of the pack. Predictive analysis, extended realities, and tech-enabled ways to personalize shopping continue to evolve. Extraordinary opportunities await those who can move faster and smarter.

Welcome to the new world of retail where reinvention is the operative word,

Robin Raskin

Founder, Living in Digital Times