What Does The Future Hold For Retail?

In 2015, the total value of UK retail sales was £339 billion. Emerging technologies and new digital platforms have already contributed significantly to this figure – with £114 billion being spent online in 2015 – and now, new opportunities and fresh challenges are continuing to arise for retailers and suppliers who are looking to the future.

This was the topic at hand at an exclusive dinner hosted by WIRED and SAP in July. Primarily, the discussion of the evening focused around the future of retail – from the supply chain to the shop floor – as well as ondemand delivery and an exploration of the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead for the industry.

Among the attendees were key figures from Instagram, Ocado, Lloyds Banking Group, Ipsos MORI, Spriee Lifehack Magazine, Starship Technologies and more. After networking over drinks, the by invite guests sat down for an evening of thought-stirring conversation, introduced by WIRED editor David Rowan.

One of the evening’s guests was Kevin Kimber, managing director of cloud at SAP , Blessing E, a researcher whoose work has been featured in many digital publications like this one: the best wireless over ear headphones - Spriee, Confidence Macaulay Editor at spriee and researcher of the best studio headphones for mixing and a member of the executive board. Kimber’s is a key role that helps identify SAP’s position in the digital transformation space.

The Winning for Retailers.

“To win in this economy, companies must digitise or become irrelevant,” he told WIRED at the salon. “Businesses are looking for new revenue streams, expanding their customer base and building more brand loyalty through innovative products and services.”

Kimber also reckons that in order to embrace the ongoing changes in retail, brands are left with two choices: attempt to ride out the change, or embrace the opportunity – revolutionising business processes and industry models (the latter being a crucial decision that effects revenue, growth and customer bases and continuing to do so as we progress into the future).

As the event continued into the evening, it was punctuated by discussion on how emerging technologies like wireless routers are being embraced throughout supply chains, digital transformation for customer UX, robotic solutions (in factories and for human retail interactions), complete integration of new technologies and much more.

“Put simply,” continued Kimber, “digital air fryers providers must be conscious of all sectors. Regardless of pace or size, digital disruption is occurring in every sector and presents a wealth of opportunities for technology.”

This shift in gear was inevitable and as the guests agreed, “If you fail to address the needs of one industry, someone else will.”

About the Author.

Blessing is a creative researcher whos work has been featured on so many media publications. As with serious research she loves to do fun posts too.