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USA Today on the future of retail shopping.
Since many here work in or around advertising and marketing, I thought this might be interesting to many.
It’s an article I came across today on USA Today’s site where a variety of experts in retailing look ahead to some of the technological and social changes that may affect the retail industry in the future.
A small exerpt…
“Within 10 years, retail as we know it will be unrecognizable, says Kevin Sterneckert, a Gartner analyst who follows retail technology. Big-box stores such as Office Depot, Old Navy and Best Buy will shrink to become test centers for online purchases. Retail stores will be there for a “touch and feel” experience only, with no actual sales. Stores won’t stock any merchandise; it’ll be shipped to you. This will help them stay competitive with online-only retailers, Sterneckert says.”
The article talks about a lot of other stuff too.
The times they are certainly a-changin’
https://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-08-05/future-retail-tech/56880626/1
And as retail changes, our industry will likely have to change as well to best serve whatever it transforms into.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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29 Replies
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Theu will ship from china or elsewhere depending on the type of prodicts. more lost jobs for americans.
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Theu will ship from china or elsewhere depending on the type of prodicts. more lost jobs for americans.
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Well, possibly.
But if there comes a time when you can actually “print” something like kitchenware – I suspect that local merchants will install the machines – and the people they have to hire to do customer service and handle sales will, of necessity – be local.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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There are already consumer grade 3D printers so I see a not-so-distant future where we ‘buy’ a single-use right to print a wrench, for example, from an online store. The store directly communicates with the in-home 3D printer and a few minutes/hours later we have a wrench. The devil, of course, will be in keeping people from pirating the printing plans and tossing them out onto the web for anyone to grab. I wonder if Craftsman and Mattel are contemplating a world where people can print tools and kids toys at home?
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I saw a story about an Oxford professor who has published open source plans to build your own 3D printer. The best part is that most of the parts for the printer can be made with his 3D printer (apart from some metal bits). So find someone with his printer and make your own printer and so on.
Self replicating machines almost.
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[Richard Cardonna] “more lost jobs for americans.”
Not just Americans but anyone in the world. If you can obtain a 3D printer by having it replicated by a friend’s 3D printer, that manufacturing job in China or Singapore will have disappeared as well.
An interesting question to ask is if a country has too many workers that have been displaced by technology, what will happen to that country? People who don’t have jobs have no money to buy anything. If there’s no one to buy products, how will a business remain in business? I see a vicious circle approaching.
I have a feeling that the next 20 years will see fundamental shifts in every aspect of world communities. There is no job in the world that technology will not effect. I fear that we will also have a huge population that can’t find employment, not because they aren’t capable, but because they just aren’t needed.
A result of this may be a population implosion.
“Sometimes Life Needs a Cmd-Z!”
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Along similar lines, I saw an article last month about Amazon ramping up its plans for SAME DAY delivery. It’s available in some markets already. As a consumer, I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl.
I’m also as giddy as a schoolgirl that I’m not a bricks and mortar retailer or somebody who works at one.
Tim Wilson
Vice President, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine
Twitter: timdoubleyouThe typos here are most likely because I’m, a) typing this on my phone; and b) an idiot.
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[Daniel McClintock] “A result of this may be a population implosion.”
The reverse will be true. It’s the professional classes that don’t have kids and if you haven’t got a job, what are you going to do all day?
Liam Hall
Director/DoP/Editor
http://www.liamhall.net -
They’ve been saying that since 1998. I recall copy writing gig when we had a marketing dept debate on whether to use “show room” or “showroom.”
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This idea is a bunch of bunk. Said the same thing when DVDs came to our homes for <$200 a player. Movie theaters were all going to go bankrupt.
Nothing compares to seeing a movie in a theater in the same way that nothing beats seeing an item, touching it, using it and then buying it. I don’t want to go to Sears and look at jeans then go home and order them online so a UPS truck can deliver it to my house. I want the jeans now.
There is room for both models, but brick and mortar shopping will never go away.
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com
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