What: imagining a future with less retail but truly meeting the demand where it lies

Why it is important: IADS CEOs asked a very similar question during the 61st General Assembly when they ask IADS to think on new business models and how to cope with retail sqm. Many initiatives on the market show that thinking retail differently is an option. The real question IADS will have to tackle is to know whether this option can be as profitable as traditional brick & mortar is.

Strategic intelligence company GDR, partner of IADS, argues that physical retail needs to re-engineer itself to survive. They are compiling a detailed list of examples, from Amazon to John Lewis, via Best Buy, 7-Eleven, Auchan, Starbuck or Nike. All those companies have repurposed stores, by transforming them in houses, warehouses for e-commerce, co-working spaces, or literally all of this at the same time. Most importantly, they rethink the role of a store in an urban context and environment, by proposing a holistic, multi-functional approach to customers who are, at the end, given meaning and reasons to come in store.

The rise of multi-functional retail