Since the dawn of the Mayan and Aztec civilizations, the Americans have been an area filled with innovation, advanced technology, and business and commerce. The world as a whole has been this way as well for centuries, but it wasn’t until the 21st century that we saw organization and growth in the purchase and sale industry, more commonly known as retail.
Thousands of stores were opened across the United States, but in more recent years, the advancement and popularity of the internet have taken these stores into a roller coaster of competition, where it truly has become survival of the fittest.
For that reason, in this article we will be discussing the top five retail trends of 2019 and how that can affect manufacturing companies like Universal Manufacturing Corp.
Top 5 Retail Trends for 2019
The main reason why the retail industry is seeing such an alarming change is because we are evolving into something much better, faster, and inexpensive. The leader of this change is Amazon, which showed and has now trained millions of customers to want things almost immediately. This is a great thing for online stores because these same buyers will be able to input their credit card information and close the sale faster than ever. But it affects retail stores tremendously. The only reason why people may want to visit and actual store is one, for the experience of actually going to a store, and two, to try certain items before purchasing them online for the cheapest price.
So what then are the four trends for 2019 in the retail space?
- Stores will shift onto the Internet
- Cognitive computing will be used more and more frequently
- Augmented and virtual reality will bring retail stores back to speed
- Social media will become the first step in the sales funnel
1. Stores will shift onto the Internet
The first one is obvious. Stores will have to take action on getting their products online. If you don’t believe every retail store on the planet will be on the internet by 2020, then tell us why there are apps like Instacart that will deliver groceries to your doorstep?
2. Cognitive computing will be used more and more frequently
The second point is that cognitive computing will be used more frequently than ever to understand what sellers want and how to give it to them. Though this can be done in-store, it is much easier to track customer behavior on the internet because we can analyze more customers and more metrics. Cognitive computing is a piece of technology whose sole purpose is to analyze large amounts of data to create patterns and allow businesses to optimize their systems and create better customer service programs.
3. Augmented and virtual reality will bring retail stores back to speed
As stores begin to shift their businesses to the internet, they will implement virtual and augmented reality technologies to give customers and easier method of shopping. Virtual reality allows a customer to go into a virtual world in the comfort of their home. All they have to do is put on a pair of goggles and they can experience any store available. They can see the inside of the store with three hundred and sixty degree views, but will not be able to touch any of the products as of yet. With augmented reality, a customer can see products in real life and it will appear as magic when they show up on their kitchen table.
4. Social media will become the first step in the sales funnel
Finally, brands will optimize social media and will resort to selling experiences in their stores, since people can purchase all of the products online.
Conclusion
In conclusion, in this article we discussed the topic of retail stores and how this industry has changed tremendously over the past few years. Stores like KMart, Toys-R-Us, and just recently, Sears, have gone out of business. It may have been a myriad of reasons, but one thing is true, when shoppers prefer to get things online, having a physical store becomes a pointless and expensive luxury to offer.
Author Bio:
Douglas Pitassi is a freelance writer and small business blogger. He helps small business bloggers to achieve their goals. During his journey to becoming a small business blogger, he found a lot of information that was just plain wrong, and so he decided to start his own blog to show aspiring small business owners how they can go on to achieve their goals
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