What: Retail's next frontier promises infinite possibility but won't be for everyone. Moves made today will decide retail's leaders versus laggards.

Why is it important: With the Covid-19 pandemic the world leaped five to seven years in the digital revolution. Stores are no longer the default shopping channel, but 72% of consumers still rely on stores as part of their primary buying method. Over the next five years, leaders are buying into the prospects of digitization of the physical world.

The universality of smart devices and the pervasive acceptance of digital tools has created an evolved consumer who no longer sees online and offline shopping as distinct experiences. The team at ChangeUp identified three key themes that should frame up next moves:

Liminal Defiance

Today, people drift in a fluid state of always-on consumerism, not chained to any specific journey or destination. As such, perspectives must evolve from in-store or online to non-spaces: brands thriving in an undefinable and malleable existence. There must be an acceptance of and appreciation for liminal brand experiences that are not built as physical or digital but rather created to achieve a certain objective – tools and tactics agnostic.

Cognification Commerce

The way in which data from devices is being collected, analyzed, and used is evolving. Increasing the "smartness" of the store speeds up the time between gathering insights, making decisions, and seeing results, ultimately driving a synergistic and multiplying effect across all channels over time. Armed with of-the-moment intelligence, proactive retailers will be able to make stores as responsive and addictive as the algorithm that controls their shoppers' TikTok feeds, transforming the store experience at the speed of a swipe.

Untethered Experimentation

The unknowns of XR, including AR and VR should be seen as the melding of worlds, not as a hypothetical outskirts idea to be ignored, but rather a bold expansion of our universe and in turn, expansion of profit. Taking full advantage of an experimentation mindset retailers should see this as an opportunity for creative exploration, data collection, and ultimately, growth.

With the world changing, understanding what trends to pay attention to, what technology will be most prevalent, or what move to make next can be overwhelming for physical retailers. Leaders, however, will see the maze of unknowns as pathways to discovery, of brand opportunity, consumer loyalty, and ultimately, business growth, if they are willing to step across into a new retail frontier.

Physical retail’s endless opportunities