Retailers’ constant experimentation with new concepts and formats helps lay the groundwork for the industry’s future. For this reason, Euromonitor profiles the most innovative concepts in retailing each year. While today some of the winning concepts over the past five years represent the future of retail, others have inevitably failed. This report puts a spotlight on 12 of the key new retail concepts from the past and examines the factors that have determined their success or failure.
This report comes in PPT.
Addressing a relevant market opportunity, at the right time, with a good understanding of the competitive environment, and managing to reach a wide enough target audience that would allow a new concept to evolve, while maintaining positive cashflow, is a great balancing act. Execution is key, and it is often necessary to fail before finding the path to success.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic led to a dramatic increase in customer traffic through digital channels. Commercial or purpose-driven, a retailer’s quest to provide the perfect digital shopping experience must now include an enhanced presence via mobile and apps, and a frictionless customer journey.
Technology is reshaping retailing. In-store shopping is becoming a seamless experience, allowing for greater personalisation and even a completely contactless or automated journey. Online, new technologies allow increased efficiency and added-value at lower costs, with potential to scale fast in new product categories or geographies.
Retailers need to integrate omnichannel offerings and continuously innovate to keep up with customers’ needs. Offline extensions of online shopping, better in-store feel to online experiences, and diverse delivery options are all features that need to be integrated to preserve the swift and seamless shopping journey across all channels.
The pandemic revealed already present weaknesses and accelerated pre-existing trends in the industry. The crisis proved to be fertile ground for new concepts, as well as being a great incubator of innovation. E-commerce, last-mile and digital concepts benefited most, sustainability maintained its importance, while other concepts were impacted more negatively by the restrictions the industry had to face.
Retail is the sale of new and used goods to consumers from a business for personal or household consumption from retail outlets, kiosks, market stalls, vending, direct selling and e-commerce. Retail is the aggregation of Retail Offline and Retail E-Commerce. Excludes specialist retailers of motor vehicles, motorcycles, vehicle parts. Also excludes fuel sales, foodservice sales, rental transactions, and wholesale sales (e.g. Cash and Carry). Sales value excluding or including VAT/Sales Tax. Retail also excludes the informal retail sector. Informal retailing is retail trade which is not declared to the tax authorities. Informal retailing encompasses (a) sales generated by unregistered and unlicensed retailers, i.e. retailers operating illegally, and (b) any proportion of sales generated by a registered and licensed retailer that is not declared to the tax authorities. Unregistered and unlicensed retailers operate predominantly (although not exclusively) as street hawkers or operate open market stalls, as these channels are harder for the authorities to monitor than permanent outlets. Activities in the illegal market, which is usually understood to refer to trade in illegal, counterfeit or stolen merchandise, are included within our definition of informal retailing. Activities in the “grey market”, which is usually understood to refer to trade in legal merchandise that is sold through unauthorized channels – for example cigarettes bought legally in another country, legally imported, but sold at lower prices than in authorized channels – will be included as informal retailing if no tax is paid on sale by the retailer. However if the retailer pays tax – for example on cigarettes bought legally in another country but sold at a lower price than standard – the sale is included within formal retail.
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