"Don't Underestimate What Can Happen in Just 1 Year"

Episode 55

"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: