WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

Download Shopify’s Future of Commerce report for sound predictions from commerce leaders and business forecasts that will impact 2022 and beyond.

Sometimes the centre of gravity in tech is very clear, but as we enter 2022 there are lots of areas where trillion dollar questions are wide open. These are the questions I wonder about today, from crypto to cars to fast fashion - there are others.

Amazon has 147 million Prime members in the United States, according to estimates from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

1. Niche assortment: Niche assortment companies focus on a narrow product assortment and gain a following among fanatics.  
2. Distinctive convenience: Distinctive convenience companies strive to deliver ease and speed as a service. 
3. Social connection: Social connection companies home in on the community and social aspects to promote product discovery, connection, and sales. 
4. Personalization: Personalization companies focus on merchandising (product recommendations and search) and product customization (tailor a product specifically to a customer).
5. Sustainability: Sustainability companies strive to reduce material waste, add more efficient products and services, and incorporate more transparent messaging. 
6. Amazon market jockeys: Amazon market jockeys are companies that buy and scale up third-party marketplace brands on Amazon. Rather than Amazon-proofing, these companies are riding the wave of Amazon’s success.

Covid brought shock and a lot of broken habits to tech, but mostly, it accelerates everything that was already changing. 20 trillion dollars of retail, brands, TV and advertising is being overturned, and software is remaking everything from cars to pharma. Meanwhile, China has more smartphone users than Europe and the USA combined, and India is close behind - technology and innovation will be much more widely spread. For that and lots of other reason, tech is becoming a regulated industry, but if we step over the slogans, what does that actually mean? Tech is entering its second 50 years.

Online grocery shopping surged since the pandemic kept Americans at home. The CEO of Whole Foods says as people start to feel more safe going out, that trend will fade.

Amazon’s business is delivering very rapid revenue growth but not accumulating any surplus cash or profits, because every penny of cash is being ploughed back into expanding the business further. But, this is not because any given business runs permanently at a loss - it is because the profits from what is already there are spent on making new businesses. In the past, that was mostly in operations, but in recent years the investment firehose has again been pointed at capex.

we’re in a period of both forced experiment and forced experimentation. In January everyone was online and willing to try anytime online: now we have no choice. So, some of this is the future happening more quickly, with years of growth being pulled forward, but some of it also is an experiment that won’t stick. We’ll find out which in the next six months or so.

Organizations should first consider how the behind-the-scenes logistics of their “Full Service 2.0” offering will be best facilitated by advances in technology. Ride-sharing services could provide a chauffeur-like experience by modifying their algorithms to allow a user to request trips with the same driver instead of the first available car. Hotels may accelerate the introduction of robots to handle room deliveries or other in-room services in a socially distant manner. Technology gives organizations new options to address the previously high costs of high-touch, full-service models or the uncertainties around service and delivery times that turned away consumers from these services.

A landmark study identifying key shopper, brand, and retailer trends to provide a holistic view of the rapidly evolving ecommerce and retail media landscape.

Pop-ups may seem minor, but they offer a solution to some of the pressing challenges facing landlords, tenants, and the ground-floor spaces of cities — particularly amid Covid-19. 

In January, everyone was online, and probably willing to try anything online. Now we don’t have a choice - we’re shut indoors for weeks or months. What does that means for work? Ecommerce? Health and education? And the people left behind?

New retail concepts are challenging the traditional store format and pushing the boundaries of innovation. Retailers must adapt and cater to evolving consumer expectations to retain customer loyalty. Explore the top retail concepts from around the world to inspire your strategy.
- Identify new store formats applicable to your business
- Understand the latest retail developments to elevate your shopping experience
- Uncover tactics to maintain your competitive edge

Key findings: 

- Funding to retail tech companies slowed in 2019. 
- Retail tech deals shifted toward later stages. 
- Companies in Asian countries are winning more deals.
- Among the unicorns born in 2019, 31 were retail tech companies

- In-store retail technology investment grew significantly in 2019.
- Funding to e-commerce companies and related technologies declined in 2019.
- Deals to new retail formats also slowed in 2019.
- Funding to supply chain & logistics tech continued to rise.
- Deals to on-demand businesses slipped slightly.
- Online grocery and broader food delivery deals declined.
- Funding for artificial intelligence (AI) companies working across retail tech functions accelerated in 2019.

Brands and retailers are moving quickly to provide more seamless omnichannel shopping experiences--but your customers are moving faster.

As the retail industry continues to be disrupted by emerging technologies and shifting consumer behavior, how do you keep up? One of the first steps is to keep up to date with the latest innovations and trends that will transform how you start, market, manage, and grow your business in 2019 and beyond.

We’ve put together a list of our favorite retail blogs on the internet and outlined the subjects each of them covers. We’ve selected blogs based on their industry expertise, the volume of content they publish, and how actionable their content is.

The 15 best retail blogs that every retailer needs to add to their reading list. Convince and convert. Retail Dive. Insider Trends. Retail Wire. Harvard Business Review. TechCrunch. Lightspeed Blog. The Retail Doctor. The National Retail Federation. Medallion Retail. Forrester Retail. Hubspot Blog. Retail Design Blog. Neil Patel Blog.

The retail industry is rewriting the laws of physics. Change is coming at an ever faster rate each year and 2030 will be upon us before we know it. Explore the world in 2030 and the future of retail 2030.  

The move to Manhattan comes at a time when many other retailers have been experimenting with pint-sized locations in urban areas. Target has opened a few small-format shops within New York and has one planned down the street from Ikea’s new store. Macy’s is trimming back some of its real estate, including testing out pop-up marketplaces at its Herald Square flagship in New York, while Kohl’s is cutting up its stores to bring in new tenants like Aldi and Planet Fitness. Many companies are thinking small.

“We chose right from the very start to not hide the technology,” Hanrahan explained.

In China, the either-or retail equation is being cast aside for New Retail, which merges the best of the in-store and online experiences. To Alibaba, success these days also means helping brands go omnichannel. An increasing number of brands are doing just that, tapping Alibaba’s New Retail tools, erasing the lines between online and offline. 

The key to New Retail is the mobile phone, which provides the critical connection between online and offline retail to consumers. Brands in China have an advantage here because they don’t need to convince consumers to download and use their apps. That’s because they know 500 million consumers already have the Tmall app. “China is moving much faster than the West in this evolution because the Western retail model is built on legacy systems. China’s model is disruptive,” said Frank Lavin, CEO of ExportNow, a company which helps Western brands sell to China. “China does not have the legacy of malls and big-box stores like the West. China has no traditional retail model to defend.”

The experts predict that AI will outperform humans in the next 10 years in tasks such as translating languages (by 2024), writing high school essays (by 2026), and driving trucks (by 2027).
But many other tasks will take much longer for machines to master. AI won’t be better than humans at working in retail until 2031, able to write a bestselling book until 2049, or capable of working as a surgeon until 2053.

Retailers at the Future Stores event in Seattle had a lot to say about where they thought the future of the store is headed. Here are some of the top takeaways.

The future of retail by Trendwatching: "Because while consumers may not care about the future of retail, they’re still busy creating that future. They’re fueled by a set of unchanging human needs. And their expectations never stand still. They want greater convenience. They want better value. They want excitement, meaning, status, relevance, authenticity, social connection and more."