Will Stores Exist in 2030?
retailrelevancy.com
December 31, 2019 — John Andrews (Machine Generated Article)
2019 was the biggest year ever for ecommerce. The phenomenon is obvious across the entire retail industry and to suggest otherwise ignores what we know now. In fact, it’s so very apparent that some of the largest retailers are slow to react. In many cases they failed to take advantage of ecommerce as early as possible and let others, specifically their direct competitors like Amazon, eat their lunch. As a result, many companies have turned to IPO in 2019 to raise money to buy the time to catch up.
The question we need to ask ourselves is; if everything is changing at such a rapid pace, will we ever go back to going to stores? Will we rely on one another so much that we’ll all walk around our cities carrying phones? Or will the lines on the blocks even be in the same order?
Transformation
It is not that those who sell anything are unaware of this. We have tried to mention this in every article I have written because I feel that it really is important to get people thinking about the future. And, while it does remain an abstraction, because we are so often watching the changes in the stores, it still matters. The current reality is that a lot of ecommerce is taking place in our local country grocery stores, and it’s easy to see why: people like convenience. Plus, the ecommerce delivery system is basically the same as if you walked into a store, yet I think it’s too late for me to go shopping in a grocery store anymore. Of course, I’ll still shop there on occasion, but it just isn’t what it used to be.
2020
The challenges of big box stores is changing so quickly that those that were relying on the department stores and their ability to service as many customers as possible are slowly realizing that something is fundamentally wrong. And, while this doesn’t mean that the traditional retail store is dead — I still haven’t figured that out. — it does mean that all that money spent developing the world of ecommerce, should be focused on technology that will make the online shopping experience extremely helpful and efficient.
2030
For me, the future of retail stores in general has to be pushing its customers to leave the home and walk directly into the store. This is also why I think big-box stores are completely necessary, because in a world where computers are handling our shopping queues and deliveries faster, where our transactions are automated, and where our data and preferences are in their control, we need stores where we can touch and feel the products that we are buying. There’s no point in ordering a hoverboard in the comfort of your own home and walking to the store to take a look at it; even though it is probably the best on the market, you aren’t going to feel the bike or be able to test it to make sure you are going to love it.
At the same time, large stores will need to stop focusing on what’s fashionable; they will need to focus on providing value for their customers and thinking about how technology can make it much easier for people to find the products they are looking for — no matter what they wear or where they live. It’s not exactly rocket science, but technology needs to become a useful and affordable part of a large, well-thought-out physical shopping experience. If I’m going to give a technology a try I will happily take out my phone and look at any available product and check it out — so technology can do the same for the customer. Then, we’ll go from “clicking” and “trying” to “not clicking” and “not trying”.
The future of retail stores will likely revolve around very simple but necessary technologies. These technologies will allow customers to feel the products they are buying; ecommerce technology will make it easy for us to find what we want; and an environment where people can walk in and touch and feel the products will allow us to buy the same products that we would otherwise buy online. So, if we are still around in 2050, at the time of the release of the film Avengers: Endgame, I sincerely hope that the lines on the blocks will still be the same size and I am still going to sit at a computer and check out if I want.
Author’s Note: This is a Fake Article generated by Grover, a neural network platform created to identify fake news that can also generate articles. This is part of an exploration into machine-assisted content creation.
