Retail trends for 2019: Magic Point of Sale and Deep Retail

In our previous article we talked about A-Commerce as the latest trend identified by TrendWatching in consumer retail behaviour for 2018.

This article takes one step further into the future of retail and uncovers the trends for 2019.

If your business is in retail, keep reading and get your company ready for the future!

Magic Point of Sale – AR and geolocation

In early 2000s, consumers used to engage with your brand online on your company’s website then visited your offline shops to buy. In recent years, consumers engaged with your brand on mobile through social media platforms and were redirected to your company’s e-commerce site to finish the buying process.

The development of AR has influenced the consumer’s buying experience dramatically. No physical shops, no e-commerce sites, just point your mobile and discover the purchase options available!  

Consumers expect to summon retail experiences as they would a genie from a lamp, called forth from a smartphone, personal assistant, smart speaker, or even from the physical environment itself. That means summoning an on-demand MAGIC POINT OF SALE that allows them to engage with your brand, browse products, test and purchase in innovative new ways.

TrendWatching

From mobile app…

In 2017 Nike released its Momofuku shoes using AR and geolocation technology and delighted sneaker fans with an innovative purchase experience via its app.

Shoppers who wanted to purchase the Momofuku shoes needed to find a copy of the menu for New York restaurant Fuku. Once the menu was located, Nike’s app SNKRS overlaid an interactive 3D model of the shoes and users could purchase.

…to mirrors in a shopping mall

In February 2018, ecommerce Chinese giant Alibaba partnered with InTime shopping mall to launch an augmented mirror placed in ladies restrooms. They named these restrooms Smart Ladies Rooms.

Via the mirror, customers can test makeup styles and if they like the looks, they can purchase the products from a vending machine using QR codes on their mobile phone. The beauty brands that were available for purchase are Lancôme, Benefit and Shu Uemura.

Deep Retail – Emotional data, Eye tracking and DNA

In 2019, smart retailers know their customers better than customers know themselves. 

TrendWatching

Knorr – Eat your feed

Eating is an experience that stimulates all our senses. Whether it be hearing, taste, smell, touch or sight, our senses impact what we eat. Because we eat first with our eyes, Instagram is the best social media platform to show appetising food posts.

Knorr harnesses the power of craving the foods we see on our Instagram feeds with Knorr – Eat your feed. The campaign invites Instagrammers to connect their account to the Eat your feed website. Then by analysing their Instagram data, Knorr is serving them personalised recipes based on their experiences and interests.

video by Heatwave Pictures

eBay – Subconscious shopping

In October 2017 eBay launched The Art of Shopping, an experimental shopping experience where selected guests were invited to browse specially chosen artworks showcased in an art gallery.

While looking at the artworks, the shoppers were wearing EEG devices that monitored and measured their brainwaves response. At the end of this experience, the shoppers received a personalised report and a digital shopping cart containing items based on their subconscious preferences.

We asked Liviu Taloi, Senior Consultant in e-commerce:

With so much data available, what are 3 main challenges for e-commerce businesses in 2019?

Here is what he answered:

Future clients will help online retailers to better serve them. Retailers will use all kind of AI & Deep Learning algorithms.

Despite the overwhelming amount of data there will be a difficult quest for qualitative feedback data from real humans.

Programmers should offer a chance to equanimity through diversity of choices (see the “Facebook bubble” – you don’t know what you don’t know).

Humans will have to trust the AI “instinct” and AR “help”, trust that will be hard to gain and easy to lose.  It could be heaven to clients, but in the same time hell to some of retailers.

Liviu Taloi

What is the retail trend of 2018-2019?

What comes after E-commerce and M-commerce?

How is the consumers’ retail behaviour changing?

Here is what lies ahead for retail commerce – A-Commerce.

The “a” in a-commerce stands for Automated.

Automated commerce is the latest trend identified by TrendWatching in consumer retail behaviour.

What is Automated Commerce?

AI and machine learning technology have been changing our lives and our society for the past few years.

From voice-activated personal assistants like Siri which gives us directions and sends emails on our behalf to Google’s Duplex which takes it one step further and actually talks over the phone to book hair salon appointments or restaurant reservation, digital assistants set out to make our lives easier.  

AI has brought change to various domains such as car making, customer experience, education and healthcare, and even influence our emotional well being by becoming our digital companion (Read about Replika, your digital companion).

A-commerce is the result of AI and automation having a powerful impact on consumer behaviour.

Why is A-commerce a trend?

A-commerce is a trend

because in 2018, shoppers with more important things to do – and that’s all of them – will embrace the outsourcing of certain retail experiences to algorithms and smart devices. That means the automation of hunting, negotiating, purchasing, delivery arrangements and more.” (TrendWatching)

Here are 3 illustrations of A-commerce:

Finery

Do you enjoy organising your wardrobe?

Don’t feel bad, no one does, unless you’re Sheldon of the Big Bang Theory.

Do you constantly ask yourself in the morning What should I wear?! looking helpless at the pile of clothes on your bed?

image source: finery.com

Finery allows women to outsource much of their fashion retail making it the perfect solution for every woman’s wardrobe related problems.

This is what Finery does:

• helps you catalog your wardrobe and rediscover clothes you haven’t worn in years
• brings your closets online and help you pick and style your outfit for the day
• helps you track and style your clothes
• lets you know when something you want to buy goes on sale
• styles every item for maximum usage
• connects your email, accesses your shopping receipts and helps you build out your wardrobe

WeSwap

Do you need to go on holiday or take a short trip abroad?

WeSwap takes care of your travel money.

image source: metro.co.uk

What is WeSwap?

WeSwap is the world’s first peer-to-peer travel money platform.

Instead of going to banks or exchange bureaus for currency exchange, WeSwap allows users to swap currency with other travellers.

Here are the main benefits of using WeSwap:

• it helps travellers round the world get a better deal on their travel money
• it helps users avoid losing money in foreign ATM transaction fees
• based on the platform’s insights, the app offers guides on how much money travellers can spend in various cities around the world

WeSwap was voted the Best Travel Money Provider in 2018 British Bank Awards by UK consumers.

Amazon’s recommendation engine

The latest statistics say that 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know.

If consumers buy products and services based on what their friends and family recommend them, why wouldn’t they buy following recommendations from an A.I.-powered engine which is objective and data-based?

The numbers that Amazon report hold this hypothesis to be true:

• sales increase of 29%, from $9.9 billion to $12.83 billion
• 35% of Amazon.com’s revenue is generated by its recommendation engine, both on-site and off-site

Product recommendation based on algorithm helps Amazon harness the power of personalized marketing and it is a real success!