Future of Retail: 10 powerful trends and 1 meta-trend

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Dominique Turcq

I fully agree with your points Ross. One of my current field work with some members of the Boostzone Institute is even on a sligthly extended notion, the one of”continuity of service”. In other words, not only will retail have to adjust but most businesses using several channels (internet, outlets, phone, mail, etc.) for interacting with their customers or users but most business models where there is an interaction will face the same challenge. It has become unacceptable to place an order, fill a form, report taxes, be in need of After Sales Services, use the self service HR in a company, etc. on a website and not to be able to immediately speak to a human representative should one have a question of face a problem. All interactions will have to be seamless if one wants to satisfy the customer or the user, i.e. multichannels, 24/7.
To me this is a central marketing question where one can build, or not, a competitive advantage.
Dominique

http://www.rossdawsonblog.com Ross Dawson

That’s interesting Dominique. The real implication of this is an organization that has fully integrated communication flows internally. Seamless external service and communication requires seamless internal communication. That’s what few organizations are yet able to achieve.

Dominique Turcq

Absolutely, thats the real point. To be consumer/user centered means being able to change one’s organization, an older adage than the internet indeed but quite hard to apply in the real world (yet). And without doubt a real competitive advantage for those organizations that can change themselves.

CP

As retail industry consultants, you have a prerogative to preach and influence a higher spend on part of the retail chains. You ignore why people shop. A trip to a mall is a family time together. Or better still, we are humans, and we buy as humans and sell as humans. It is acceptable if there is a touch of warmth in your customer services, and replacing people with robots and ivrs will only help you grow so much as an organization.

ashraf wagdy

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have the pleasure to brief you on our Data Visualization software
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TC is a new concept in viewing statistics and trends in an animated
way by displaying in one chart 5 axis (X, Y, Time, Bubble size &
Bubble color) instead of just the traditional X and Y axis. Discover
trends hidden in spreadsheets. It could be used in analysis,
research, presentation etc. In different business sectors, to name a
few we have Deutsche Bank, NBC Universal, RIM, Vanguard
Institutional Investor, Ipsos, Princeton University as our clients.

NBC presentation on TED using Trend Compass exported Videos. Now on
CNN Money / Fortune (Dec 21st,2010):
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/12/21/from-laughing-to-judging-in-fifty-years-the-evolution-of-televised-emotion/

The following link is for our new Geographical Trend Compass
(Earthquake in Japan – Mag vs Depth vs Time):
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/japan-earthquake

Link on OPEC oil indicators:
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Link on Ads Monitoring on TV Satellite Channels during April 2008.
Pick Duration (Ads daily duration) vs Repeat (Ads repetition per day).
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/tv-monitor/

Link on UK Master Card vs Visa performance :
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Links on Funds:
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http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/us_insurance_funds/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/aaim_fund_performance/

Link on other KPIs :
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/hospital_performance/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/international_insurance/

Link on Chile’s Earthquake (Feb 27th 2010):
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This a link on weather data :
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Misc Examples :
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http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/airline2/
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http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/football/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/swinefludaily/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/flu/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/babyboomers/

This is a project we did with Princeton University on US unemployment :
http://www.epicsyst.com/main3.swf

A 3 minutes video presentation of above by Professor Alan Krueger
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You can download a trial version. It has a feature to export
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http://epicsyst.com/trendcompass/FreeVersion/TrendCompassv1.2_DotNet.zip

All the best.

ashraf wagdy

Trend Compass Team
Epic Systems
http://www.epicsyst.com
http://www.psfk.com/ Piers Fawkes

Thanks for the great shout out! Future of Retail 2 comes out this July.
Nagle

The future of retail is online. Remember WebVan? That was very popular, but it was too expensive to operate. That was then. Now there’s Soap.com, delivering routine items for a maximum of $5; free delivery if you order more than $39. With robotic fulfillment (look up Kiva Robotics, now used for about 10% of on-line orders), order picking costs less than 1/4 of manual picking. That’s less than it costs a retailer just to restock the shelves. With gas at $4 a gallon, driving to the mall is so last-cen.

When was the last time you visited a record store? A video rental store? A bank branch? A travel agency? Look at all that vacant retail space near you. It will never be filled again.

It took a while. A decade ago, pundits were predicting this, but people kept going to the mall. It just took time for people’s habits to change. Look at your demographics now. The age of your customers is increasing. In time, going to stores, like reading paper newspapers, will be something only older people do.

The middle of the market will disappear. Dollar Tree and Nordstrom may do OK, but there won’t be much in the middle.
http://twitter.com/Arleneuc Arlene Murchinson

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Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of AHT Group, which consists of 3 companies: consulting, publishing, and ventures firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy firm Future Exploration Network, and events company The Insight Exchange.

Ross is author most recently of Implementing Enterprise 2.0, the prescient Living Networks, which anticipated the social network revolution, and the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships (click on the links for free chapter downloads). He is based in Sydney and San Francisco with his wife jewellery designer Victoria Buckley and two beautiful young daughters.