PwC: Wall-less Omnichannel Future For Retail

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

According to a new report from PwC US and Kantar Retail, titled Retailing 2020, the retail industry may be transitioning to a ‘post-modern’ consumer-centric era triggered by the speed of technological advancements, globalization and hyper-competition, both online and offline. According to the report, successful retailers will need to transform themselves to grow in an increasingly polarized world of greater channel fragmentation that will result in greater non-store retail growth and smaller retail formats.

As well, the US retail industry will have entered the post-modern period by 2020 with the end of the growth of Supercenters being a large change across the retail landscape. Non-store retail, driven by online today, and mobile and tablet commerce in 2020 is expected to be the fastest growing retail channel.

In its analysis of shopper behavior changes, Retailing 2020 finds that the older generation, having lived through several recessions, is more financially conservative than the younger generation. By 2020, this generational difference is creating two mega-cohorts – the ‘over 50’s’ and ‘under 30’s’ – dividing the US into two distinct shopping nations.

By 2020 the speed of technology innovation will further transform the retail landscape. Retailers will leverage the use of ‘big data’ to gain a deeper understanding of individuals.  In the future, retailers will have a more granular comprehension of product movement. Tracking technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and other innovations will enable seamless checkout while also ensuring that shoppers can understand everything from product origin to brand legitimacy on a mobile device.