How Leading Retailers Innovate

When consumer spending falls, as it has recently, retail becomes a desperately competitive business.

Retail e-commerce sales worldwide from 2014 to 2024 in billions of dollars | Source: Statista

The natural reaction is to compete on price with sales, customer discount coupons and special offers. However, there is always scope for innovation and as we walk down the high street we can see imaginative retail approaches to the business of attracting customers. Here are a couple of striking recent examples.

IKEA in Australia has experimented with a section called Manland. It is basically a creche for husbands and boyfriends with low retail attention spans. It has table football, video games, sports channels etc. A woman can leave her man there and take a buzzer to collect him when she is at the check-out. It is corny and sexist but it is getting a lot of media coverage.

Tesco faced a tough challenge in Korea where they had far fewer retail outlets than the market leader. So they created virtual stores in subways. They have large poster displays that look like retail shelves. Each picture of an item carries a QR code. Busy commuters, while waiting for their trains, can use mobile phones to snap the QR codes and order the goods online. The shopping is delivered to the home later that day. Working with a trusted custom display manufacturer is crucial for creating a unique shopping experience of this kind. Moreover, offering a convenient and innovative shopping experience is what sets these retailers apart from their competitors.

Proctor and Gamble and Mall.cz are trying a similar idea in Prague. I expect we will see many more examples of mobile retail creativity and innovation in shopping generally.

Here are 8 trends shaping the retail industry:

1. Relying on influencer marketing to advertise products

2. Providing an immersive experience with augmented and virtual reality solutions

3. Ethical branding is on the rise

4. Offering same-day delivery

5. More voice assistant speakers and self-checkout solutions

6. Contactless delivery

7. Frequent use of chatbots and automation driven solutions

8. Increased focus on sustainability