Retail 2030: What The Future Holds

Retailers are starting to acknowledge the role of IT as an enabler. Basically, it can speed up processes and deliver cost-saving benefits to companies

You are out for an evening stroll in the market. One of your shirt’s fancy button breaks and rolls out of sight. You enter a big apparel retail store and allow one of the robots to scan another shirt button. The robot walks you to the right shelf where you are able to locate the exact same button.

You probably did not notice the beeping sound when you walked into the store—it was the thermal crowd management non-intrusive sensor installed at the front door that detected your body heat, recorded your entry and added you as a customer into the customer-tracking system.

As you walk out, you notice fur coats in four different designs. You tell the store robot that you would like to try all four. The robot’s screen displays the product codes and leads you to a high-tech mirror. Its parametric technology simulates your body type based on your weight, height and measurements, and one by one shows how you would look in each coat. Then, it simultaneously shows you all your pictures in each of the four fur coats so you can compare and decide which one you want to buy.

You walk out of the store with the most appealing coat, and the money is automatically debited by an app installed on your phone.

This is not a scene out of some science fiction book but a retail experience you can look forward to in the future.