The future stores will be emotional, flexible, networked, and controlled by digital voice assistants. The future stores will be highly personalized, available everywhere, and customer oriented. If stimulated most appropriately, the latter leads to making more purchases.
Trends and forecasts on the future stores see three essential elements as protagonists, namely Artificial Intelligence, the IoT (the Internet of Things or Internet of Things, which refers to the extension of the Internet to the world of objects and concrete places), and Augmented Reality.
Business Intelligence Analytics and Machine Learning systems will also support each new technology. The evolution of the physical store towards the transformations of the digital age has yet to record a particular impact. Still, this trend is destined to change course in the future: the future stores will be more and more places to live. Digital innovation is the tool for achieving a radical transformation that follows the evolution of consumer purchasing trends. The stores of the future: applications that will be available in the near tomorrow
Voice Ordering Systems
Voice Ordering Systems offer the ability to place orders online via voice commands in future stores. In fact, according to the ComScore report, in 2020, more than half of smartphone users have already taken advantage of voice search technology and have greatly appreciated its use.
Internet Of Things
The Internet of Things will improve inventory management in tomorrow’s stores. Through the RFID ( Radio-Frequency IDentification ) technology of recognition, validation, and automatic remote storage of information, in the stores of the future, there will be a new logistic solution of identification in place of the barcode.
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Tracking With Beacons For Targeted Promotions And Offers
What is a beacon? Beacons are small battery-powered devices that emit a constant signal within a radius ranging from a few centimeters to a few meters. This signal can be collected by an enabled app and used as an interpreter to signal to the app that it is near a particular position. The software must react in a preordained way, opening the product sheet of a specific object.
Almost half of the customers use a smartphone when shopping in the physical store. Therefore, offering discounts and promotions and creating personalized interaction at the time of purchase is a further opportunity to capture the target audience. The consumer, increasingly connected, has the power to define their own shopping experience from home or in the store thanks to their smartphone or other devices, which become essential shopping companions even in the store. With tracking via beacons for targeted promotions and offers, the phone is set to become an actual customer virtual assistant.
Shops Without Cashiers: Virtual Carts
Like buying on e-commerce, even in the future physical store, the products will be added to a virtual cart as the customer proceeds with the purchases. The amount will then be automatically debited from the user’s account immediately upon leaving the store.
Virtual Reality And New Technologies To Support In-Store Purchases: The Snapchat Study
The retail and retail shopping world will have to continue to deal with the unstoppable rise of e-commerce and web shopping. According to the study conducted in 12 countries around the globe by Snapchat, in 2022, purchases in physical stores returned to growth due to a certain nostalgia for the social aspect of shopping. On the other hand, Italians will not want to give up online purchases, which will maintain a positive trend.
Interactive Virtual Services In Store
According to the same study, virtual Reality will have an essential source of attractiveness for physical stores. Italian consumers have confirmed that they would appreciate the presence of interactive virtual services in physical stores. For example, smart mirrors to try on clothes, projectors to view objects directly at home, smart screens to customize products, etc.
The smartphone is undoubtedly the preferred purchasing channel for consumers, so stores will increasingly have to adapt their sales paths to digital tools. Shoppers will leverage in-store smartphones to learn more about products.
An Increasingly Consolidated Attention To Sustainability: Purchases On Reselling Platforms
The study conducted by Snapchat has shown that, in addition to technological inputs, the world of retail will follow the increasingly close attention to sustainability. Four out of 10 consumers said they had made at least one purchase on a reselling platform, according to the circular economy principles.
Reselling consists of owning a highly sought-after product and being able to resell it at a higher price. Re-selling will become a strong point of the shops of the future. Among the advantages, consumers perceive a renewed green sensitivity, the search for unique and original pieces, and the social experience of exploration and comparison.
