SHOPPING. A year when shoppers, sellers can expect more

Will you even visit a shop in the future? In fact, will shoppers purchase products or will they buy designs and get it made at home?

Technology is sure to disrupt shopping in the years to come. Virtual and augmented reality might bring the stores to shoppers instead of shoppers having to go to a store. Today, the shopper has to choose between the experiences of physical shopping versus the convenience of online shopping. What if both were to be available? That is what augmented or virtual reality will enable. AR glasses would help a shopper browse and shop at any store across the globe. 3D printing would enable the shopper to purchase a 3D design instead of a product and have this product created at their home. No more waiting for a delivery!

All these might happen sooner than later as technology already exists to enable these developments. However, the technology needs to become mainstream – and that will happen when the cost drops to an affordable level. Very soon, every home might have VR glasses and 3D printers alongside their televisions and ink jet printers.

In the meanwhile, let us come back to the immediate future and explore what could be the shopping trends in 2018.

Online retailers are in a rush to deliver products in the fastest time possible. Various options, including drones, are being explored. This trend would accelerate (pun intended) as competition increases. Interestingly, this might also help lock in shopper loyalty by offering the shortest delivery window to regular customers.

Shoppers do not want to be tied down to a single choice and that extends to the choice of where to buy from. As such retailers today can no longer afford to be present in only one channel. Shops would become accessible across physical stores, online, on the mobile as also through apps. Increasing seamless experiences would improve the shopper loyalty levels.

Online retail is driving the trust aspect by highlighting the ease of returns and replacement of products. The reality is still not very close to the advertisements when it comes to the ease of such interactions. However, it is being improved. The interesting aspect is that this would start putting pressure on physical stores to simplify the returns and replacement policies as also make it seamless.

Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and your willingness to trade your data for convenience and service would lead to an interesting scenario. Shoppers might be surprised to receive products which they have not yet ordered but were planning to purchase. Simply put, you would start to browse the site and the AI would have predicted your purchase and informed the fulfilment centre of the same. This product might be packed and shipped even before you have actually completed your order transaction. Coupled with some of the other trends mentioned above, the product might reach you when you are thinking of purchasing it. Amazon has already filed for a patent with regard to such technology in 2012. It is anybody’s guess if this could roll out in 2018.

Very simply put, shoppers would get locked in with retailers through a simple cycle of convenience and better service. This in turn would enable the retailer to generate more information and data about the shopper, which would feed into being able to offer even better service, experience and value.

V Rajesh is a retail and shopper behaviour expert, and author of The Ultimate Guide to SMART Shopping.