8 future retail models (you've not heard of)
Retail is a fascinating place, the unique interface of people, brands, technology and commerce, people should spend way more time than they do at it.
We've had some innovations for a while, for me the dying trends of the moment are, please read on for the future predictions.
Dying trends.
Daily deals - the most flawed premise of all time based on discounting below cost to attract the least desirable customers you could imagine.
Flash sites - A version of daily deals but for physical items, based on the premise of group buying and scarcity, made popular by Fab.com and Zulily, who've both now moved on.
Name your price - It makes so much sense on paper, the internet should make this model work well, but ever since Woot in 2004 , the later iterations like Yumani all seem to fail.
Pop up shops - They still come and go, but it seems just being new no longer cuts it in the press, which is what this model depended on.
So what are the trends for the future?
1) Bespoke Retail.
The democratization of creativity , new production techniques allow much more efficient and interesting creation of units in tiny numbers.
- it’s quite likely that soon we’ll see more players like bowanddrape.com who make entirely personal clothing based on your exact size.
- 3D printing (yawn) will clearly make a huge mark in this space.
- You could soon see personalized cosmetics and beauty products sold on the basis of your genetic make up, local climate, age and other factors that make a great selling story.
- Sites like Etsy that align makers with buyers offer an increasing number of people who make products around your exact needs, as a reaction to the current world of IKEA and CB2, it’s easy to see how prices could come down as demand goes up.
2) Omni-Channel shopping.
The line between online and offline shopping now no longer exists, we have:
- Places you shop instore online, to then be delivered to your home or a locker, or a train station.
- Place you shop online, to collect instore.
- Projected physical storefronts that mean you physically interact with a digital storefront in a subway, to then be delivered the item later.
- Apps on your phone to allow you to shop in physical stores, on a rival stores website, using your mobile phone and camera.
- Digital assistants instore to allow you to buy more instore.
In short the line between the physical and digital makes no sense. We've innovations like the new Amazon Fire phone designed entirely around a new world of commerce where the worlds blend together, we've apps like ShopSavy or Red Lazer that do the same, but search many shops. We've devices like the Amazon dash that turn just our intentions into shopping lists, so anywhere we are, even with no mobile phone, we can be committing to buy.
Omnichannel shopping changes everything.
Do Digital Out of home ads become iBeacon internet enabled spots to buy the items you see advertised from Amazon?
Do shopping streets around the world project their online shopping sites onto windows to allow people to buy from them when they are closed?
Do many physical retailers give up and make their stores places to live the brand and experience stuff, with all sales transacted online?
What do logistics companies do to make online shopping easier to collect ?
Prepare the see the notion of physical retail blurr and morph.
3) Predictive Retailing.
As more of our possessions start recording and sharing more data and as people routinely use allow Facebook to be used as a way to sign into Online stores, I see a trend arising where retailers will make timely offers of goods around your predicted needs.
Coats could be offered days before a cold front reaches your town, items could be suggested to you based on the TV shows you’ve watched , Celebrities you liked & status updates you’ve made. Sites like https://www.stylitics.com/ already monitor what you buy, with the hope of making suggestions around this. All these data points could then be blended with current Social Shopping Sites like Wajam and Fancy where you can start to act as affiliate marketers to your friends and be given money off for persuasion.
4) Rise of the Small Retailer.
With e-commerce sites becoming almost free to operate and technology like Square allowing much easier credit card payments and a population bored with mass produced blandness.
When you bring easier creation of items on a small scale due to technology like 3D printing, the idea of pop up stores, funding engines like Kickstarter and the populations thirst for crafted products, it’s easy to see why small scale retailers could end up taking over our shopping streets where space left by retailers who could not compete with online retail is used.
5) Local Flash Sales.
Location based mobile marketing , especially that driven by iBeacons could easily empower physical retailers to use Flash sale techniques to draw in customers from a close perimeter at a precise moment in time for either perishable goods or items as a loss leader to bring in customers. One of the unique advantages of physical retail is it’s much easier to up-sell other items once people are in store and take advantage of impulse purchases. So "loss leaders" to draw in customers, based on these flash offers could be a interesting tactic.
6) Commodity Subscriptions.
While I've been rude about many subscription models I think there are a tranche of products we buy each month or week that we have no interest in. Toilet roll, milk, eggs, toothpaste, and washing powder and more. There are many baskets of goods each week that would benefit enormously by being delivered automatically and without us needing to think about.
As more of our possessions start recording and sharing more data and as people routinely use allow Facebook to be used as a way to sign into Online stores, I see a trend arising where retailers will make timely offers of goods around your predicted needs.
Coats could be offered days before a cold front reaches your town, items could be suggested to you based on the TV shows you’ve watched , Celebrities you liked & status updates you’ve made. Sites like https://www.stylitics.com/ already monitor what you buy, with the hope of making suggestions around this. All these data points could then be blended with current Social Shopping Sites like Wajam and Fancy where you can start to act as affiliate marketers to your friends and be given money off for persuasion.
4) Rise of the Small Retailer.
With e-commerce sites becoming almost free to operate and technology like Square allowing much easier credit card payments and a population bored with mass produced blandness.
When you bring easier creation of items on a small scale due to technology like 3D printing, the idea of pop up stores, funding engines like Kickstarter and the populations thirst for crafted products, it’s easy to see why small scale retailers could end up taking over our shopping streets where space left by retailers who could not compete with online retail is used.
5) Local Flash Sales.
Location based mobile marketing , especially that driven by iBeacons could easily empower physical retailers to use Flash sale techniques to draw in customers from a close perimeter at a precise moment in time for either perishable goods or items as a loss leader to bring in customers. One of the unique advantages of physical retail is it’s much easier to up-sell other items once people are in store and take advantage of impulse purchases. So "loss leaders" to draw in customers, based on these flash offers could be a interesting tactic.
6) Commodity Subscriptions.
While I've been rude about many subscription models I think there are a tranche of products we buy each month or week that we have no interest in. Toilet roll, milk, eggs, toothpaste, and washing powder and more. There are many baskets of goods each week that would benefit enormously by being delivered automatically and without us needing to think about.
The current model is bifurcated in two, we have the model of "surprise" ( like Birchbox or Five Four Clothing) and we have the "boring but best" model of organic food of what's in season or Dollar shave club.
Soon thanks to better grocery delivery systems and smart connected fridges, we will find autofilling of our fridges a common solution. One day brands will spend what is currently advertising money on changing the algorithms your fridges uses to chose what food you want.
7) Disruptive Manufacturing.
Companies like Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club and Tesla have done an incredible job of disrupting industries with either lazy competitors or monopolistic attitudes. We will see new wave of companies buoyed by this success to enter new verticals that need a shake up. The disruption comes not in the single minded focus on these companies, but their desire to be full stack players and challenging the current market
7) Disruptive Manufacturing.
Companies like Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club and Tesla have done an incredible job of disrupting industries with either lazy competitors or monopolistic attitudes. We will see new wave of companies buoyed by this success to enter new verticals that need a shake up. The disruption comes not in the single minded focus on these companies, but their desire to be full stack players and challenging the current market
Tuft and needle "disrupting" mattresses is an example, a company that rejects the current confusion in the market place and fake special offers and procures products it makes itself, in the USA and offers a very limited number of sheets. There are many companies jumping on the 'Warby parker of X" who are rebranding simple direct to consumer products with limited range, Evenki for sheets or Milk and Honey for shoes are examples of non disruption but great marketing to the press.
I can think of few harder markets to enter than car production, so if that can be done then we will soon have new contenders in new verticals.
I can think of few harder markets to enter than car production, so if that can be done then we will soon have new contenders in new verticals.
8) Ultra-Fast Fashion.
Zara changed the nature of Fashion retailing by changing their store’s line up one or twice a week, as a result large fashion houses have upped their centuries old game of 2 seasons a year, and now the likes of Prada and Louis Vuitton may make 4-6 collections per year.
But in this age of decreasing patience, the incredible power of celebrities and taste makers and the ability to make Bespoke clothing and better supply chain model perhaps we will soon see sites like As seen on screen and retailers working off the back of paparazzi images to offer identical items to people a day or so later.
Zara changed the nature of Fashion retailing by changing their store’s line up one or twice a week, as a result large fashion houses have upped their centuries old game of 2 seasons a year, and now the likes of Prada and Louis Vuitton may make 4-6 collections per year.
But in this age of decreasing patience, the incredible power of celebrities and taste makers and the ability to make Bespoke clothing and better supply chain model perhaps we will soon see sites like As seen on screen and retailers working off the back of paparazzi images to offer identical items to people a day or so later.
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