Consumers will shop until they drop using virtual reality (VR) from the comfort of their own homes in the not-too-distant future, according to a new whitepaper from Plusnet titled "How the Future Will Influence Retail." The research, which brings together experts from a variety of fields, gives specific predictions on how things like the Internet of Things (IoT), ecommerce, artificial intelligence (AI), geolocation, and web design will alter and evolve. The paper identifies seven critical areas where startups and small enterprises should focus in order to adapt to future developments and remain competitive
Websites: Make them as interactive, immersive, and ambitious as possible. In the future, improved connectivity and broadband speeds should aid this objective.
Site speed: As overall internet speeds improve, site performance will become increasingly important for online shops. It is generally regarded to be a crucial ranking signal for search engines such as Google, in addition to helping to enhance conversion rates.
Less physical shopping: As more consumers expect to be able to order goods and services from smart appliances from the comfort of their own homes, physical shopping will become less popular
Personalization: Whilst stores will generally expect fewer physical customers, those that do make the effort to shop in stores will generally expect a more personalized in-store shopping experience.
Virtual reality: With VR, consumers will be able to try on and use items from the comfort of their own home. Clothing brands and fashion technology companies will have to be at the cutting edge to make the most of this development.
Geotech: More and more retailers will be serving personalized promotions to their customers that are based on their likes, dislikes and increasingly thought geolocation technology.
It seems that innovation is a little weak in this vertical- nowadays, all ecommerce looks the same. VR allows you to take it a step further, allowing you to try on those trainers in your own home and see yourself in them, as well as download and print a 3D mold to check the comfort and shape are to your liking. All of this before you push a button and have everything is promptly delivered to your front door.
Because of data science and interconnectivity, stores will become intelligent, able to predict shopping habits and regulate advertising and supply chains. While everyone is predicting the end of retail, it doesn’t seem that’s going to happen for a long while. Teens will be allowed to travel to malls for at least another thirty years, since self-driving cars will transport them there. This means greater foot traffic for retailers that are running their businesses more efficiently and extracting more revenue from their margins.
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