Mega-trend Seamless Commerce
Competitive pressure in commerce is enormous and is steadily increasing. The competition is not confined to the relationship between online and physical retail. It is also a matter of offering customers the best cross-channel and seamless shopping experience by means of an omnichannel strategy (omnichannel performance). This applies both to convenience and experience shoppers.
Hybrid instore experiences
Online retailers not only have cost and market reach advantages, thanks in part to the platform economy. They also continually generate valuable data on customers and their needs. This enables them to improve their business models. Physical retailers can digitise processes using retail automation in order to collect customer data also and, in addition, to reduce costs. Furthermore, by integrating digital added value services, hybrid instore experiences can be created to match the offering of online competitors.
Curated consumption
Agile providers are making the competition in commerce more intense. They can quickly fill particular niches in the market or product categories with Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) and/or curated consumption models. In addition, they use digital and social platforms for achieving market reach and communication.
Last mile solutions
Profitability for retailers and the shopping experience for customers often comes down to the costliest stage of product delivery, the last mile (last mile solutions). These are constantly undergoing optimisation by way of innovative forms of delivery.
Mega-trend Seamless Commerce and its macro-trends
As a long-term sign of change, each mega-trend emerges in the form of medium-term macro-trends. Depending on factors like technological development, research status and societal acceptance, the macro-trends need different lengths of time for mainstream adoption.
Exclusively in the Trendexplorer: Macro-trend deep dive
- Drivers of Innovation
- Degree of maturity/mainstream adoption
- Challenges for different industries
- Opportunities for different industries
