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Industries Insights Retail What’s the Future of Retail? 47 Experts Share Their Insights 15 June 2019 Sam Mire It doesn't take an industry insider to recognize the big-picture trends shaping the future of retail. Most shoppers are aware of the convenience of e-commerce, flaws with shopper-derived data security, and new forms of marketing and advertisement. But a closer look reveals far more about the future of retail than the average consumer knows. These experts are helping shape the future of retail. Here's how they see that future unfolding. 1. Jaime Bettencourt, SVP of Business Development at Mood Media “The future of retail is a custom-made customer experience, which enables an immersion at the heart of the brand, fostering a community and offering convenience to its customers. We’ll see digital transformation take center stage where technology enables smarter, real-time decision making by retailers that resonates with customers and connects them to brands on a deeper level. The human touch and a holistic brand experience regardless of channel will be more important than ever.” Ivan Kruk/123RF 6/17/2019 What's the Future of Retail? 47 Experts Share Their Insights - Disruptor Daily

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Page 1: Industries Insights Retail What’s the Future of Retail? 47 ...sagecapitalgroup.net/uploads/WhatsThe.pdf · Industries Insights Retail What’s the Future of Retail? 47 Experts Share

Industries Insights Retail

What’s the Future of Retail? 47 Experts Share Their Insights

15 June 2019 Sam Mire

It doesn't take an industry insider to recognize the big-picture trends

shaping the future of retail. Most shoppers are aware of the

convenience of e-commerce, flaws with shopper-derived data security,

and new forms of marketing and advertisement.

But a closer look reveals far more about the future of retail than the

average consumer knows. These experts are helping shape the future

of retail. Here's how they see that future unfolding.

1. Jaime Bettencourt, SVP of Business Development at Mood Media

“The future of retail is a custom-made

customer experience, which enables

an immersion at the heart of the

brand, fostering a community and

offering convenience to its

customers. We’ll see digital

transformation take center stage

where technology enables smarter,

real-time decision making by retailers that resonates with

customers and connects them to brands on a deeper level. The

human touch and a holistic brand experience regardless of

channel will be more important than ever.”

Ivan Kruk/123RF

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2. Nikki Baird, Vice President of Retail Innovation at Aptos Retail

“A very distinct split between

transactional and experiential. For

purchases that are transactional, that

is being entirely commoditized. We’ve

seen the early impact from

eCommerce, but the rise of voice

shopping and visual product search

will further commoditize, so that for

purchases where consumers have already “selected” a brand or

a product, breaking them out of that choice will be very difficult

– it’ll be on the brand to lose that sale, rather than up for anyone

else to win the customer away.

At the other end of the spectrum is experiential retail, where

the services around the products are almost more important

than the products themselves. When the actual transaction is

so commoditized, retailers aren’t going to differentiate on ease

of purchase – they will have to either make the purchase

experience itself much more experiential, or they will have to

make sure that they focus more on the experiences that the

products enable.”

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3. Doug Stephens, Founder of Retail Prophet

“In terms of the broad changes, we're

going to see the roles of stores and

media reversed.  Media has always

been a mechanism to develop brand

awareness and drive consumers to

stores.  Conversely, stores have

traditionally been merely a

mechanism to distribute products.  However, media is

increasingly going to become the point of purchase. Online

sales are growing at +20 percent globally each year. Whether

it's my connected refrigerator ordering more milk, my car

booking its own oil change or buying a car on my mobile device,

media will no longer be a call out to visit a store.  Media will be

the store.”

4. Antonia Hock, Global Head of the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center

“There is no longer a traditional retail

segment. Every brand is in retail in

some way because now brands all sell

some type of product or experience

that requires an immersive,

personalized, real-time consumer

offering. The future requires brands

to wrap experience into everything

they do, and one of the biggest future trends is the immediacy

of response & personalization that consumers expect through

any channel. It's a 24/7, 365 extremely personalized world. All

brands must remember me, anticipate my needs accurately,

and personally respond immediately to every contact. That

sounds simple, but it's hard to execute at scale.”

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5. Cate Trotter, Founder and Head of Trends at Insider Trends

“There is no single ‘future’ for retail.

There will always be different models

that work for different retailers.

Convenience and experience will

underpin all of it though. Customers

shop in different ways according to

their wants and needs at the time and

this will guide the retail models of the

future. They are not separate values though – an experiential

store should still offer convenience, while a streamlined store

can make convenience an experience in its own right. I think

we’ll also see more physical stores being used as e-commerce

fulfillment spaces that also make money by letting people visit

them.”

6. Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Founder of Buyer Legends

“Amazon launched  Amazon Go

technology, new advertising

technology and Buy Online Pickup in

Store (BOPIS) in their app for Whole

Foods purchases.  They will launch

more “services” technology to enable

rapid digitalization of physical retail as

well as a “local” marketplace. The

local marketplace will allow customers to search for, purchase

and fulfill by delivery or pick up from retailers/restaurants “near

me.” They have seen the “near me” searches grow

exponentially on Google and want to own that slice of retail as

well.”

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7. Bryan Roberts, Global Insight Director at TCC Global

“There’s a clear distinction to be

made between food and non-

food retail. Most grocery retail is still

essentially the same as it was 50 years

ago, despite technological advances

in check-outs, payments and behind

the scenes operations. In non-food

however, e-commerce has become

much more meaningful and the role of the store is being

revolutionised – we need fewer, better and more experiential

stores that support online ordering, collection and returns. In

general, retail is moving into overcapacity in physical terms in

many countries and malls, high streets and retail parks will need

to be reimagined.”

8. Kasey Lobaugh, Chief Retail Innovation Officer at Deloitte

“There is no shortage of conjecture

about the future of retail.

Unfortunately, most projections are

flawed. Many are prophecy-based

rather than based on hard data, and

most provide fuzzy time horizons for

realization. Others are largely self-

serving, with tech companies

promoting specific visions in order to sell their services. We

believe that the future of retail is not defined by one model;

rather, it hinges upon changes to a competitive environment

that will be shaped by a series of disruptive forces. Retailers

must make strategic choices to compete in the future, but

those choices will be unique to each company.”

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9. Brian Kilcourse, Managing Partner at RSR Research LLC

“The “Retail Apocalypse” was a click-

bait headline; while the industry is

undeniably culling old stores from the

marketplace, retailers have been

closing and opening stores “forever”

as store concepts change and

markets move – so that’s not news. 

What is news is that former pure-plays are discovering the value

of physical stores in the context of a complete digital+physical

selling environment.  Shopping is a human behavior – there’s

definitely an entertainment component to it. So look at how

people entertain themselves today – with digital content.  Retail

has a bright, digitally enabled future.”

10. Miya Knights, Head of Industry Insight at Eagle Eye Solutions Limited

“The future of retail is bright. People

will always need to buy stuff. But how

they do this has changed. While tech

has also enabled retailers to automate

and scale the ways they do business,

the weakest are struggling to adapt

and modernize how they sell what

they sell. This exposes those with an

ill-defined and mediocre offer. Understanding customers, as

the driving force of any retail business or brand, and building an

agile, fully integrated, digitally enabled and data-driven

customer proposition is what will separate the winners from the

losers going forward.”

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11. John Rampton, Founder of Due

“The future of retail will move more

toward an online service but will still

include in-person shopping

experiences. There will be more on-

demand service offerings, including

delivery within the hour via drone or

some robotic delivery service so that

consumers can feel like trying things

at home rather than in a store. In this way, the retail experience

will come to them through physical, augmented, or virtual

interaction. “

12. Steve Dennis, President and Founder of SageBerry Consulting

“For years retailers could get away

with just being good enough. But

good enough no longer is as the

customer is more in charge. We are

seeing what I call the boring middle

collapse and retails need to choose to

be either more remarkable at the

value end of the spectrum or more

remarkable at the more premium experiential side. Either way,

the distinction between online and physical channels is going

away. Retailers need to work to deliver a more harmonized

experience regardless of how the customers choose to shop.

The customer is the channel.”

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13. Nicole Leinbach Reyhle, Founder and Publisher of Retail Minded

“The future of retail continues to

evolve. How it will look in even one

year is impossible to predict entirely,

but I believe that customers will only

be in more control of their path to

purchase. This means retailers —

either online, offline or both — need

to embrace what modern customers

expect from them and be more proactive in supporting them

during their path to purchase. Using AI and ML in particular,

retailers will be better positioned to be more precise and

proactive in their customer support, inventory management,

and overall retail operations.”

14. Shep Hyken, Author of The Convenience Revolution 

“Customers continue to be smarter.

Year after year their expectations

increase, especially in the areas of

customer service and customer

experience. Customers no longer

compare a retailer to its direct

competition. Now they compare

that retailer to the best service they

have had from anyone. That means the bar is raised. If

the retailer has what the customer wants, customer experience

(which includes service) will be a big differentiator. While this

has been going on for a number of years, it is more important

than ever.”

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15. Bob Phibbs, CEO at The Retail Doctor, a New York Consultancy

“Retail will continue to evolve with

shoppers increasingly moving basics,

renewables, and disposables to online

while boutique brick and mortar

retailers will thrive.”

16. Kevin Sterneckert, Chief Marketing Officer at Symphony RetailAI

“Consumers will continue migrating

to the paths of lowest resistance and

highest value, which means retailers

that provide the best experience with

the lowest points of frustration will

win a greater share of wallet.

I see an increase in direct-to-consumer

transactions between manufacturers and consumers, expanding

the definition of retailer to now include suppliers. However,

manufacturers are not organized to accommodate all

transaction types of a full-service retailer. Hints of what retail in

the U.S. will look like can be seen in the reflection of retail in

western Europe: high service and more frequent purchases with

smaller transaction sizes.”

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17. Richard Heyes, Managing Director at Tecmark

“A lot of people say that the high

street is dying, but I don't believe that

to be the case. I think what the future

holds is linking online with high street

experience. The retailers must know

where they sit in the market and offer

either value for money or luxury

alongside a first-class experience. It's

never been more important to be clear on who your target

audience is and where you sit in the market. The key thing is to

then work to drive traffic into the store from online searches

(there are many made on mobiles) in addition to passing

footfall. I believe high street retail stores will likely become

more akin to ‘showrooms' where people can touch and feel the

products before purchasing. I think that's something that

online retail will never be able to replace, so offline retailers

should evolve to fit this.”

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18. Dennis Wakabayashi, VP of Digital and Integrated Marketing at The Integer Group

“2020 will be known as the “Rebirth

of Retail” across every industry as

shoppers take control of their data

and rush to subscribe to their favorite

brands virtually and in-person.  Stores

will proliferate as “instant” retail

experiences pop-up, and big footprint

retail centers will become the

playgrounds of real-life customer engagement and

experimentation.

Consultancies and agencies will start taking bold leaps of faith

to break down the physical geography of shopping, and

adventurous brands will help them along with reaping huge

rewards. We've all seen this coming for a long time, and this is

the year it's finally happening.  The combination of 5G and

augmented reality means instead of ditching math class to

catch the next Supreme drop 11 am on your cell phone, you

might hunt for the next Supreme VR pop-up in Central Park.

Alternatively, Nike may decide to launch their newest Jordan's

at VR pop-up stores exclusively in neighborhood basketball

courts across the world.”

19. Keith Anderson, SVP, Strategy and Insight at Profitero

“More personalized, experiential, and

circular.”‘

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20. Stephen Rector, Founder and President of Bakertown Consulting

“The future of retail is strong for

those brands that recognize that the

customer should be the #1 focus — in

terms of product development &

design, user experience both in-store

and online & logistics on how to get

the product to the customer as

quickly as possible. For those

companies that fail to be customer focused, they will

disappear.”

21. Dr. Lucas Lu, CEO of 5Miles

“Today’s high-tech, urbanized

environment favors big-box retailers

like Walmart and e-commerce giants

like Amazon. Centralized operations,

though efficient, tend to focus on

selling new, standardized products,

leading to less durability and more

waste. However, we’re starting to see

a return to decentralized, localized commerce.”

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22. Nate Masterson, Chief Marketing Officer at Maple Holistics

“As social media continues to take

over our lives, there is a rising need for

retailers to move their companies

onto relevant platforms. While brands

are already able to let consumers buy

products directly from their posts,

many people still leave the platform

to make a purchase from the site

itself. This has the potential to change with considering the

consistent rise of social media usage. As this becomes the

primary form of communication, it will eventually be the only

way to reach consumers.”

23. Kosta Popov, Founder and CEO of Cappasity 

“We are now living in a time when

customer expectations are changing

particularly fast, and retailers that

can't keep up get left behind. A

consumer who enjoys the online

shopping experience at an e-store

automatically begins to expect the

same level of service from every

virtual point of sale.

Thus, the expectation loop is born, and the only thing for

retailers to do to get ahead of the curve is to innovate, innovate

and innovate.

Emerging 3D technologies are a force poised to drive the

revolution in the online shopping experience.”

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24. Carlos Castelán, Managing Director of The Navio Group

“More than ever, a holistic shopping

experience across all customer touch

points is vital for brands. With an

increasingly complex customer

journey and dozens of customer

touch points with brands from apps

to websites to brick-and-mortar

stores, companies need to present a

seamless experience across touch points for customers. As an

example, REI, the camping/outdoors clothing company, does a

tremendous job providing a great online experience and, for

those seeking more information on a product, they’re able to

come into a store and speak with a highly knowledgeable

expert to match the product to their need. The ability to shop

conveniently online complemented by an elevated in-store

experience provides REI customers with the best of both

worlds.”

25. Vivek Kumar,  Founder and CEO of Qlicket

“Outside of the well-known changes

coming to the retail industry— such as

the rise of e-commerce — workforce

obstacles will define the future of

retail to a large extent. The Bureau of

Labor Statistics reports that average

employee turnover in the retail

industry was 58% in 2018. In other

words, only 42% of the average firm's

retail workers remained with their employers into 2019. The

solution to this problem is cutting avoidable turnover through

technology and giving employees a voice. By encouraging

workers to provide feedback throughout their workday,

companies can bridge the communication gap between

management and employees.”

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26. Jacquie Young-Sterling, Director of Customer Experience at CompiantIA

“Smaller store formats, stores within

stores, exclusive private labels lines,

better customer experiences and

operating in the niches. The future of

retail is broad and exciting for

retailers who can think outside of the

box, listen to their customers and

reinvent themselves without losing

themselves.”

27. Alen Paul Silverstein, CEO of Imagination Park Technologies

“Augmented Reality will allow

shoppers to try on clothes, shoes,

cosmetics in-store prior to purchasing

or online — this is called Virtual Try-on

(VTO). This AR engagement will

excite people and lead up to more

purchases similar to what Nike is

doing for Sneakers, L'Oréal for

cosmetics, and Ikea for furniture purchases. Physical retail

stores will leverage AR to provide a gamification experience for

shoppers to fully engage the space to participate in scavenger

hunts, sweepstakes, and receive on-site purchase coupons for

instant redemption. This mixed experience will activate and

engage consumers and result in increased personalized

shopping experiences.”

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28. Robyn M. Bolton, Founder of MileZero

“Shoppers expect a customized and

effortless shopping experience and

that expectation will soon extend to

the products they buy. As more DTC

brands, like MTailor (men’s clothing),

True Gault (women’s shoes), and

Susan Lanci Designs (per products),

go mainstream, shoppers will eschew

the time and hassle of having mass-produced goods altered to

their specifications, and instead opt for tech-enabled fittings at

home that result in custom clothes at their doorstep.”

29. Jon Nordmark, CEO and Co-Founder of Iterate.ai

“The future of retail will be driven by

artificial intelligence and

microservices. How? The holy grail of

online retail is in personalization, and it

requires AI. Retailers are acquiring AI

companies at a faster pace. (Ulta

Beauty, for instance, which invested in

Iterate, recently acquired an AI firm

and an augmented reality startup.) AI is driving personalized

chatbots, it’s behind online product bundling, visual search,

voice shopping, and in-home devices. Companies will be forced

to move faster than ever before. Amazon is driving that race,

putting $22 billion into R&D and making 7,000 new AI hires, and

doing more AI acquisitions than any other U.S. company.”

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30. Amy Webb, Quantitative Futurist and CEO of The Future Today Institute

“The future of shopping will consist of

a constellation of mobile app

features, augmented and mixed

reality mirrors, robots, faceprint

checkout kiosks, and voice

recognition systems, which are all

used to identify you and provide you

with an array of services. Retailers,

struggling to combat vast online shopping experiences, will

start deploying AI-power Digital Associates, thanks to the

convergence of AI, voice and facial recognition technology,

predictive algorithms, big data, and robotics.”

31. Ville Levaniemi, co-founder of HappyOrNot 

“It’s fair to say that traditional retail

has been somewhat limited in terms

of its service offering, insofar as the

sole purpose of the entire shopping

process is typically the end purchase,

meaning that buyers strictly shopped

for products.

Consumers in the retail sector are now predominantly ‘digital

millennials’, and this demographic shift has driven a

considerable change in consumer behavior. The future of retail

is heading towards a more experiential and consumer-centric

model, where shoppers prioritize experiences over what’s

actually in their shopping bags when they walk out.

At the same time, the power of the customer is increasing.

Significant companies have been reduced to rubble overnight

because of media savvy disgruntled customers. This means the

consumer experience is a new priority for retailers and a

necessity for them to survive in the future. ”

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32. Rob Maille, Digital Transformation Consultant at RM Digital Consulting

“With the trends we’ve seen taking

shape over the last few years, it looks

right now as though the future of

retail is really about understanding

your customer, creating a great

experience and extending on both

bricks and clicks. This year alone,

we’ve seen a few big brands start to

implement AI and robotics into their brick and mortar stores as

a way to further reduce friction in the shopper experience by

incorporating digital into their businesses and better

connecting both their online and brick and mortar operations

into a more seamless experience for consumers.”

33. Paul Duffy, President of NexTech AR Solutions

“The future of retail lies in creative

uses of augmented reality to

empower customers by offering a

more personalized, fulfilling shopping

experience both in-store and online.

AR can be paired with a number of

other up-and-coming technologies

and as well as existing e-commerce

infrastructure to create a truly comprehensive, interactive

shopping experience. This includes holographic brand

ambassadors, high-quality 3D, and 360-degree product

imaging, facial recognition to “try on” AR items and artificial

intelligence to monitor customer reactions in real time and

provide actionable insights, just to name a few.”

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34. John Konczal, Product Management and Marketing Leader at Manhattan Associates

“The future of retail belongs to those

that fully embrace and invest in

omnichannel. Modern customers

expect retailers to meet them

wherever and whenever they are. To

meet the demand of immediacy

driven by the rise of BOPIS (buy online,

pick up in store) and same-day

delivery, many retailers are transforming their stores into mini-

fulfillment centers. In this context, the accuracy of inventory

availability becomes critical to ensure a seamless customer

experience across both digital and physical channels. As such, a

sophisticated inventory and order management system is

crucial to offering successful (and profitable) omnichannel

fulfillment.”

35. Mike Funk, Group Strategy Director for R/GAPortland

“There’s a lot of talk around the

impending death of retail. The truth is,

retail isn’t dead. Old, stagnant

formats are. The future of retail will be

concept-led, and this means the retail

experience will lead with an intention

larger than simply product availability

and quality service. These are table

stakes today and consumers will soon expect much more.

Retailers that win will reinvent their spaces to serve as

platforms for experiences like education (REI), community

(Rapha, Tracksmith), and activity (Nike, Lululemon). But more

importantly, these retailers will be able to harness the power of

data and leverage the flexibility of digital to ensure the cadence

of programming aligns to the rhythm of their consumers' lives,

not necessarily their priorities as a brand.”

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36. Jimmy Duvall, Chief Product Officer at BigCommerce

“The future of retail will revolve

around providing customers a great,

convenient experience and ensuring

they have options to buy in the way

that works best for them. While it's

not all that different from the core

principles that have guided retail for

the last century, technology has

reinvigorated the entire experience. Physical retail won't go

anywhere, but it will incorporate more customized concierge

and on-demand services. Additionally, the opportunity to

purchase goods will be more intertwined with our lives, similar

to the experience created through Instagram Shopping.”

37. Michael Hardman, CMO at SAIS Group

“The future for retail is in connective

strategies. A website for any retail

brand is a prerequisite these days (and

is already viewed as traditional), a

business is not even in the game if they

have no digital presence. The next stage

for businesses is to understand their

consumers and customer interactions, connecting them with

everything their business can provide both offline and online.

These connective strategies are also related to the various

communication channels and digital touch points you can have

with your customer from social media, website, app (native or

progressive web app), in-car, Al driven product (e.g. Alexa, Siri)

— the consumer decides how they want to connect with your

brand. These strategies need to be cohesive for the consumer

to get what they need out of your organization and this will lead

to more businesses looking toward Customer Experience

Management (CEM) solutions to help them manage every

aspect of their campaigns.”

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38. Franklin Chu, U.S. Managing Director at Azoya

“To glimpse into retail’s future, we

can look toward the biggest market in

the world: China.

In China, retailers and brands are

making transactions faster with

simple QR code technology, which

allows shoppers to access detailed

product information and even pay using a smartphone app. al

commerce lowers customer acquisition costs because retail

companies leverage their existing customers to market their

products with enticing content and incentives to share with

their own connections.

Sophisticated marketing, including live streaming videos by

influencers, shorten the customer journey by helping to build

brand engagement, trust, and credibility.”

39. Erik Huberman, CEO and Founder of Hawke Media

“Retail is not shifting as much as the

media will have you believe. However,

there are two things that are shifting.

The first  — people expect an

experience when going into brick-

and-mortar locations these days. If

you have a store that doesn't think

about the consumer experience, you

are going to struggle. The reason for this is the other shift.

People are extremely comfortable purchasing online now. So if

they aren't provided additional incentive by visiting a store,

they'll happily purchase the product online. That's really why

you see so many retailers failing. They are used to just needing

to have products on the shelves and that's where their job ends.

The ones who have understood this shift have been more or less

fine.”

6/17/2019What's the Future of Retail? 47 Experts Share Their Insights - Disruptor Daily

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40. Mark Van Zuylekom, General Manager, Australia and New Zealand, at Esendex Australia

“Mobile. Research by Google

indicated that people today have 2x

more interactions with brands on

mobile than anywhere else – tv and in-

store included. We talk about multi-

channel or omnichannel, but

consumers access most of these

channels via their mobile phone. Even

AR or VR technology retailers adopted rely on mobile to deliver

(the Genius App by L’oreal or the IKEA Place App for instance).

No matter what channels retailers wish to engage consumers,

mobile is the device to get to them, so all content/strategies

need to be optimised for mobile.”

41. Emil Waszkowski,  Head of Consulting at Future Mind

“Fortunately, physical stores will

continue to attract customers – in

fact, Forrester estimates that 86% of

U.S. retail sales still happen in brick-

and-mortar stores. By using

technology to their advantage,

retailers have already been blending

the online and in-store shopping

experience to provide new value to their customers and stay

competitive. The changing nature of retail, however, is bound

to require a more tech-fueled and customer-centered approach

from the retailers.”

6/17/2019What's the Future of Retail? 47 Experts Share Their Insights - Disruptor Daily

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42. Ethan McAfee, CEO of Amify

“The future of retail is becoming

increasingly digital. Brands and

retailers are finding that a strong

digital presence to augment, not

necessarily replace, their brick-and-

mortar presence is becoming

increasingly crucial to remain

competitive. E-commerce is so

ingrained in the consumers’ mindset that 66 percent of in-store

shoppers will price check a product online before purchase,

meaning that consumers appreciate the insight online shopping

provides. The ease and convenience of online purchasing is

important to consumers, and increasingly correlates with a

business’s success.”

43. Rob Keve, Co-founder and CEO of Flow

“We're seeing a rise in Digitally Native

Vertical Brands (DNVBs) and how

they're dominating niche markets

within categories like ready-to-wear,

athleisure, performance wear, and

others. DNVB's are already proving to

be popular among Millennials, and we

expect this trend to continue with

Generation Z as they become old enough to make more buying

decisions.”

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44. Mark Gingras, CEO of Foko Retail 

“With the rise of e-commerce taking

customers away from traditional

brick-and-mortar retailers, and major

chains expanding their product

offerings and speeding up same-day

deliveries, it’s important for retailers

to find ways to differentiate

themselves, both in-person and online.

Because of that, the future of retail will consist of retailers

elevating

the in-store and customer experience in an effort to stand out

from the competition, whether that’s through seamless

shopping experiences (think click-and-collect and self-

checkout lines), boundary-pushing technologies (like

augmented reality that help customers try products or AI-

assisted selling that offer suggestions), or more personalized

and authentic interactions with sales staff and associates.”

45. Mark Smith, President of Kitewheel

“Consumers aren’t making purchasing

decisions based on price anymore;

they make these decisions based on

experience. Since research shows

that customers will pay more for a

better experience, the future of retail

will involve creating ever better–more

personal, more seamless, more

anticipatory–experiences for customers. The key to a good

customer experience is understanding the customer journey

–how it happens, where it breaks down, where it can be

improved–and using these insights to optimize the journey for

each individual customer.”

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46. Benny Saban, CEO of Sonarax

“We see a clear trend in bringing back

the face to face brick and mortar

physical store experience returning, but

in a whole different way. After a couple

of decades of growth in e-commerce

and m-commerce for shopping and other

retail support transactions, the

capabilities of nearby communication technology is helping to

bring shoppers back to the physical stores by re-creating the

digital online experience in the real world physical store. This

means, immediate service. immediate personalized offers,

extending digital re-marketing in-store, all through proximity

-marketing and location-based connectivity using mobile

phones and beacons. As well, it offers retailers to have a truly

multi-channel business as they are able to stay with their

customers throughout every payment moment (online,

attended and unattended POS). In terms of digital payments,

secure authentication, anti-fraud security, we predict that

local-based services communication technology will improve

greatly.”

47. Brandon Leibel, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Sand Cloud

“Gen Z is the future of retail. Trends move

quickly with Gen Z’ers, so constantly keep

yourself up to date on the latest, or you’ll

find yourself out of touch. You can also

appreciate and learn from their social media

skills. This is the generation that has

mastered the art of self-promotion, so allow yourself to be

mentored by them as well.”

6/17/2019What's the Future of Retail? 47 Experts Share Their Insights - Disruptor Daily