The Road to 2025. Retail, Reimagined.

Description

In 2025, the retail store as we know it is dead.
The digitization that swept through books, music and travel has blown an equally chill wind through all retail categories. As predicted, one-third of malls have shuttered, and Amazon has passed the 50% mark in its share of e-commerce. As for shoppers, the preferences of millennials and Generation Z have taken precedence, and both demographics now move fluidly from “experiencing” products in stores to ordering them online. Their smartphones and wearables buzz with customized assistance from virtual agents.

Surviving retailers are the ones that have embraced digital and envisioned new ways to serve their customers. Physical stores have morphed into lively, immersive environments. They rely on sensors to capture and analyze data in real time, and all boundaries between online and offline shopping have blurred. Collaboration is the order of the day.

Supply chains have moved to starring roles. Digitization has rewritten the rules of competition in every retail function, and after much trial and error, supply chain operations now hum efficiently as a result of connected, automated elements, including inventory, logistics and fleet management systems. Airborne fulfillment centers and drone-launching delivery trucks have closed the last-mile gap.

In the following report, we examine what retail will look like in 2025, as a result of the changing customer, and re-imagined stores and supply chains. We lay out key strategies and a potential roadmap for facing the future, including how retailers can make shopping easier and more convenient in 2025, in part by creating a solid omnichannel foundation.

Change can be daunting, but it brings with it enough opportunities for retailers to move ahead, unfazed by the gloom that pervades much of the traditional sector.