Screenless shopping thanks to the new generation of virtual reality glasses or contact lenses, drone deliveries, experience stores, and automated retail concepts\u2026 The future of retail looks very promising, according to Dutch futurist and trendwatcher Richard van Hooijdonk. \u201cWithin the next three to five years, major changes will take place. Companies must take action now to future-proof their business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
E-commerce and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly shaping consumer purchasing behaviour. In addition, AI can help companies make their processes more efficient and reduce costs. According to Richard van Hooijdonk, the opportunities offered by emerging new technologies and tools are endless, yet we are still making far too little use of them. The Dutch trendwatcher and futurist travels the world to closely examine and test the latest technologies and retail concepts firsthand. A conversation with a man for whom drone delivery and online shopping in a gaming world are just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think retailers are still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. Over the past two to three years, the high number of bankruptcies has continued. In Belgium and the Netherlands, quite a few retail chains have run into trouble because they didn\u2019t adopt a digital strategy in time. Take BCC, for example (a Dutch electronics retailer owned by Mirage Retail Group, ed.). It was a very large chain with around 700 stores, but it went bankrupt a few years ago, while its competitor Expert has grown by as much as 500% precisely because it has gone online, developed an app, and made home delivery incredibly easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see people making the transition from offline to online. More and more is possible online: better apps are being developed, more data is available, and people can predict when we are going to buy things\u2026 It has become very easy for us to make our purchases online. For example, you have Google and Google Shopping, but now you also have AI assistants. There are also shops where you can place orders via AI. If, for instance, you are having a conversation with ChatGPT about sports and football boots, it becomes very easy to add a reference to the Nike brand within that conversation and point to the nearest store where you can pick up the shoes, or have them delivered by drone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consumers are clearly looking for a multichannel approach: they prefer to buy online because of the convenience, but when they do go to a physical store, they are primarily looking for an experience. We are clearly evolving toward a world of experiential shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Physical stores will evolve into experience stores in the future. You can see this, for example, in the Dubai Mall, the ultimate example of future shopping. Nike has a store there: you don\u2019t go there to buy anything, but to experience basketball, and you can talk to shoe experts and top athletes. Another example from Dubai is a supermarket where I shop regularly, a kind of Walmart-style concept. In the fruit and vegetable section, for instance, there is a greenhouse where fruit and vegetables are grown on-site. In addition, there are robots that come to you to guide you to the right aisle. That creates a great experience. It\u2019s much more than an ordinary supermarket. In the Dubai Mall, you can clearly see that people don\u2019t necessarily come to shop, but to have a good time. In the future, it will become important for retailers to come up with concepts that make people enjoy their visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Netherlands and Belgium, you can also see experience becoming more prominent in stores. For example, there are many (children\u2019s) clothing stores or opticians such as GrandVision, where a DJ is present on Saturdays and where people can enjoy food and relax. The \u201cmeet me at the mall\u201d concepts \u2013 concepts designed to bring people together and let them have a good time \u2013 are very popular. Businesses make a lot of money from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s correct. The shopping streets in Belgium and the Netherlands are changing as well. For example, you can now also find physiotherapists, municipal services, and other non-retail functions in shopping streets\u2026 Shopping centres themselves are increasingly becoming more like service hubs, creating a very different environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, a second trend is emerging in physical retail: people no longer want to be assisted by staff. Research into the importance of personnel in stores shows that 90% of shoppers simply want to do their own thing. In concrete terms, this means that physical retail in the future will split into experience stores and autonomous store concepts like Amazon Go, where there is no staff, no checkout counters, and no queues. The autonomous store of the future is a robotised store with sensors and cameras that knows who you are. You move from human customer service to AI companionship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That is mainly due to convenience. Online, it\u2019s so easy to watch videos of the clothes you might want to buy, or to purchase a piece of furniture that you can place virtually in your own home via IKEA\u2019s website. There are so many tools in virtual reality that can show you what a product looks like in real life, so you can better visualise your purchase. Take the automotive sector, for example: 30% of cars are bought online without people ever having seen the car in person. What\u2019s more, you can use an AI agent that knows you and can show you all sorts of options within your budget, create your outfit in real time, compare prices, and more\u2026 That\u2019s not possible in a physical store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks to e-commerce, it\u2019s also become very easy to get products delivered quickly or to return them. So why would you still go out to a shopping street in all kinds of weather, where you can barely find parking and where it\u2019s often far too crowded for your liking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, that doesn\u2019t apply when it comes to exclusive products. People still go to physical stores for a very expensive watch or for products that truly require advice. In short, we don\u2019t want human interference, but we do want human assistance when we need it. It also depends on the target group: many older people still like assistance and, for example, still go to a traditional optician or clothing store where they can get help with their purchases, whereas the younger generation does more of that online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n