Kantar Retail, a global retail consulting firm, and PwC released a report on what successful retailing will look like in the future. Titled Retailing 2020, the report examines the likely outcome of current phenomena, including sales channel fragmentation, shrinking bricks-and-mortar footprints and consumers’ enduring devotion to value.
The report predicts, for instance, that as globalization takes over the retail sector, chains both in the U.S. and overseas will have to adapt global best practices inside their stores in order to be able to compete. It also foretells that bricks-and-mortar formats will continue to shrink further, as consumers gain more and more choices of how and where to shop.
By the year 2020, the U.S. retail industry will have transitioned from the “mature and saturated” phase into “post-modern” phase, resulting in an extremely competitive marketplace and curtailed opportunities for new store growth.
“Brick-and-mortar retailers will still be leveraged for immediate and acute needs and will need to be in close proximity to shoppers to be successful,” the report reads. “This will require more precise real estate modeling and smaller physical footprints.”
To read the full report, please click here.
