Supermarkets — your fate

Dear supermarkets, I have polished my crystal ball and here’s the future:

1. As more and more people order online for delivery/collection price comparison becomes ever easier increasing downward pressure on prices and making stores less relevant;
2. You will begin to see that duplicating fulfilment operations is pointless and your brands will become gateways to a larger, near monopolistic fulfilment companies. It’s what you do already with phone networks, financial products and energy businesses;
3. The huge fulfilment companies will wring the last life out of the farmers and vertical integration will accelerate;
4. Because prices cannot be driven down forever, the key will be finding ways of selling the same product to people for more. Loyalty becomes more important with loyal customers receiving a loyalty bonus in the form of greater reductions which are lost in the event of defection;
5. Stealing the most loyal customers becomes a key metric for brand success and acquisition teams will battle with retention teams over the souls of a loyal elite; and
6. Eventually the Sun will die.