How Will Retail Look like in 2020 - Essay Example

What Retail will look like in 2020 The retail business is continuously undergoing innovations that are leading to a better business world. The dramatic changes that have been experienced over the past 50 years will continue for the next 5 years making the retail sector absolutely different by the year 2020. These changes are partly steered by the stiff competition experienced in the contemporary corporate world and the continual complexity of consumers. Consumer changes, preferences, and tastes are constantly changing giving the retail sector a new look (Coen N.p). By 2020, the retail sector will have more connected consumers, increased trust and transparency, buying will be frictionless, a change in store experience, and will be more challenging to retailers. Considering the ostensible fact that the 2020 consumers will be more tech-savvy than the present, they will be more connected through wearable technology. While laptops, tablets, and smart phones will undoubtedly have their place, digitally connected contact lenses, earpieces, and watches will imply that the consumers will be permanently connected. Consequently, customers will straightforwardly blunderbuss online marketing thus living in a world where their buying decisions will be influenced by personalized recommendations (Meng N.p). The unwarranted staff costs attributable to property leasing and gratuitously lengthy trading hours will be eliminated as wholesalers and manufacturers will have recognized how lucrative and simple it is to make undeviating online sales. Apparently, this will bring consumers close to the manufacturers thus jettisoning the middlemen who often hike the prices of retail goods. Additionally, buyers will buy by a single command without having to click severally. Chatting with retailers, choosing products, trying samples, and getting endorsements will be fast and proficient. This will also be bolstered by the mixture of frictionless imbursement systems and virtual currencies such as the Bitcoin Mark 5 that will be in circulation. More contactless technologies will be in existence particularly considering the speed at which the US and UK consumers are embracing the technologies. A good example is the NFC (Near Field Communications) technology which is presently making it a realistic to pay for a myriad of products ranging from bus tickets to chocolate with merely a tap of the credit card. The PayPal and Visa.me services will be extremely advanced. The 2020 customers will simply use their mobile phones to make and implement pay arrangements (Kare-Silver 72). Similarly, retailers will concentrate more on the use of social forums such as Twitter and Facebook plummeting street shopping. The number of retailers running ‘real’ shops will, thus, be enormously abridged. However, as the intrinsic need to touch and feel will still be high, consumers will still visit stores maintaining the resilient social component connected with shopping as asserted by Meng (N.p). What’s more, in the socially integrated 2020 world, reliance and transparency will be fundamental. The many retailers and brands that are presently not transparent and trustworthy will have emaciated by 2020. Retailers will not be able to offer lip service for their poor products and will be forced to offer quality. To thrive, retailers will have to embrace morality in their culture and products. The then consumer will be more vigilant. Hence, substandard products will unquestionably nosedive in the market (Meng N.p). Consumers will also be willing to spend their hard-earned dollars on morally upright and socially accountable retailers. Retailers will have to face the reality of changing consumer needs, tastes, and preferences since any mismatch will lead to customer dissatisfaction which will torpedo businesses. In this post-modern epoch, growth will not be driven by super centers, but by small-box centers. This is evident considering Wal-Mart’s current trialing with smaller stores and the triumph of Family Dollar. Moreover, the customer experience will be improved through utilization of the internet and the mobile technology which will make it tranquil for vendors to forge alliances. While shopping malls will not be prevailing, the few that will be in existence will have transformed beyond completely. The staff will provide advice, entertainment, exceptional customer service, and products will be showcased. Apple Inc. has already taken this path as an iceberg of what is to come (Kare-Silver 23). Regardless of the location or the device that customers will use to buy merchandises, delivery will be when and how the consumers aspire (Coen N.p). Customers will visit places such as car showrooms to pick keys and test drive the type of car that they are considering to purchase or probably the cars will be brought to the potential customer’s premises. Moreover, the retail sector will be more challenging to retailers in the year 2020. Retailers with limited aptitude and capability to concentrate on their core business will find it harsh to endure. Retailers will be forced to demonstrate that they are trustworthy and capable of providing meaningful and outstanding guidance to the customers (Meng N.p). It will also take time for retailers to adapt to the cultural shift that will be dominant in the sector. Building on competitive advantage will be an essential element for any retailer to survive the stiff competition that will lead to collapse of many retail startups. Willing or otherwise, retailers will have to think outside the box to circumvent destructive innovation from sullying their businesses. More investments will be made on innovation and co-creation tools in an effort to cultivate ideas from their employees and customers. Retailers will be using proactive instead of reactive approaches to enable them incorporate consumer suggestions and opinions that will be crucial for an entity’s success in the marketplace (Kare-Silver 84). Retailers will offer more customer-tailored products as it will be hard for one size to fit all the customers. The niche needs and customer preferences will be dominant; the need of the incessantly increasing amount of online shoppers will be hard to disregard. The above exposition candidly and comprehensively indicates that the retail sector has been changing over the past years, but will experience a tremendous change in the next 5 years. By 2020, the retail sector will boast of an increasing proportion of online shoppers, reduced trading costs, increased used of frictionless imbursement systems, and trustworthy retailers. Presumably, any retailer hoping to thrive in the retail sector by 2020 will have to concentrate on acting responsibly and creating a competitive advantage for their businesses. Works Cited Meng, Christina. "The Future of Retail: 3 Business Lessons from IBM’s ‘Retail 2020’ White Paper Blog." Vision Critical. N.p., 2014. Web. 8 June 2015. . Coen, Dan. "What Will the Retail Sector Look Like in 2020?" Real Business. N.p., 2012. Web. 8 June 2015. . Kare-Silver M. Digital Insights 2020: How the Digital Technology Revolution Is Changing Business and All Our Lives. Leicester: Troubador Publishing Ltd, 2014. Print. Read More