Reshaping Retail: Why Technology is Transforming the Industry and How to Win in the New Consumer Driven World

Chapter 3

Game-Changing Technologies

Co-authored with Roger Roberts

In Japan, the audience at a top fashion show can buy the latest outfits the very moment they are modeled on the catwalk, thanks to a mobile application that sends real-time, close-up pictures of the clothes along with links for making a purchase.¹ In the United Kingdom, one retailer collects no fewer than 1.5 billion new items of data every month—and can analyze them meaningfully.² Its segmentation model, for example, now differentiates between 3,000 groups of customers, up from six pre­viously. And in the United States, a pizza delivery company can cope with huge spikes in demand during the Super Bowl without installing extra IT capacity.

These are examples of three preeminent, parallel, and mutually reinforcing trends that will define the digital era of retailing: mobility, measurability, and agility. The availability of technology everywhere—in stores, at home, on the go—will power mobility: consumers can consider what to buy and make the purchase anywhere, anytime. Far more activities in the value chain will be measured more accurately, not least consumer behavior. Agility will come from further development of cloud computing, which allows companies to develop systems—so often the roadblock that slows progress in improving business processes or pioneering new business models—with speed and productivity.

The technology behind these trends will help retailers improve their processes and contrive new experiences ...