Episode Details

"You just went super future on me, man, and I love it." We do predictions as only Future Commerce can - with honest insight into what the retail year ahead in 2018 may hold. Buckle up - it's a fast and furious ride!

Let us know your predictions for 2018! Who knows, maybe we'll share them on the show. Go super future on us, we'll love it.

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LEGITIMATE PREDICTIONS EPISODE

• We reserve the right to predict more things as the year goes on.

• A wise person once said: "How can you achieve your 10 year plan in the next 6 months?"

Round 1

Rolling thunder round: retail consolidation:

• More retailers that don't belong in the landscape will go out of business.

• We'll continue to see retailers coming together that belong together

• And we'll continue to see a weeding out of retailers that belong in the landscape.

• Invest in tech. If you can't invest in tech, you're marching toward bankruptcy.

• We'll see more services like Westfield's OneMarket: retailers sharing data and tech to provide high end experiences for their customers.

• Physical space is no longer at a premium.

• The premium space will be experiences in, and access to, tech and data.

• Philip's challenge: if you can only come up with technology for technology's tech, then you're in for some woes in your business.

Round 2

Flagship retail will move to true showroom:

• We'll see more stores without any merchandise because they're:

• Easier to stand up.

• Easier to roll into markets.

• Require less commitment.

• They'll give digital consumers the ability to have the tactile experience

• We'll have more experiential retail.

• Delayed gratification can work in a retailer's favor: 48 hours for a product is a trained expectation, and an experiential showroom can leverage this expectation in your favor.

Round 3

Hyper-personalization:

• Glossier is already pointing in this direction.

• We'll see more and more 1 to 1 personalization at a product level.

• Retailers will be able to have more customizable products based on your data.  

• Imagine perfectly fitted hammers for your little hands: do it soon, hammer companies.

• Future plug: R Riveter is coming on the show to talk about innovation in their manufacturing process soon.

• Brian Says: "Expect to see improvements in manufacturing that result in hyper personalization in products and even services."

• Change in supply chain and manufacturing will allow for more personalized products.

• A company called ubiome has a product called smart gut: probiotics tailored to you.

• Whether you like that with that is irrelevant, we're going to see more and more of this type of specialization.

Round 4

More instability in marketplace security: