future retail trends

from the North Jersey Record 7/28:

How we'll shop in year 2015
Saturday, July 28, 2007

By JOAN VERDON
STAFF WRITER
AP

"In the future, Smart carts such as this one would be able to virtually steer themselves to sale items in the stores — and offer a reminder that you forgot to pick up a gallon of milk, according to predictions offered by the TNS Retail Forward consulting group." ...

Get ready for the future of retail. And that future could be as near as eight years away.

Gallo and Mary Brett Whitfield, senior vice president of TNS Retail Forward, urged retailers to be receptive to change, and warned that those who don't stay knowledgeable about new technologies could be left behind by the competition."
.....

"Technology is integrated into the social fabric and has become a fundamental driver of change," Gallo said. "It is clearly changing the economics of all the business models for anybody that's in the business of creating or satisfying demand."

Here are some of the ways technology will change retailing by 2015, said Gallo:

Privacy will become optional. "Would you rather stand in line at the airport, or would you rather give up some information in order to get a card that lets you breeze through security? Or looking at retail, do you want to give up some information in exchange for all sorts of high-value offers, exclusively for you? Increasingly it will become a choice."

Shopping ''avatars'' or agents will be online shopping assistants. Intelligent software will track shopping suggestions, inventory levels and unique promotions for frequent shoppers.

Cellphones and computers will come equipped with instant translation devices. "Eventually, it will be possible for people who don't speak the same language to communicate in real time without the need of a human translator."

A company called Speech Gear is already working on this technology.

Niche marketing will replace mass marketing. "Niche-casting will allow us to cost-effectively reach niches heretofore unable to reach and it will have a huge effect on the mass marketing model that many business are currently built upon."

Cellphones will replace credit cards. Sony is already working on technology that would allow shoppers to use their cellphones to authorize payments.

Smart carts. "There are people coming out with grocery carts with video interfaces. The idea is to get you to buy what they want you to buy." A cereal maker, for example, could contract with the cart maker to have the cart play a video featuring a certain cereal as the cart turns into the cereal aisle.

Hologram store clerks. "You'll be able to use them to access information, look at pictures, and using your cellphone you'll be able to talk to someone and even conduct transactions."

Interactive mirrors. "The mirror, a high-resolution digital screen with a camera, can relay live video. When a customer tries on an item, she can send live video to her friends for feedback." The customer can try on other clothes projected on the screen as holograms. "This technology is available today, and it won't be long, looking to 2015, before you have a version of it available to you in your home."

Pay by touch. "People can steal your credit cards, but they can't steal your finger."

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