The future of Retailing

Future of Retailing

A 1st glance scenario exploration hosted by KONE Corporation. On 1, 2 and 3 December some of the most interesting thinkers on retailing will come together at the Royal College of Arts in London to explore how retailing will develop in mature markets.

Preparatory research:

In preparation for this workshop the following people are being interviewed:

Paco Underhill (sound recording of the interview)

Street Views

Jukka and Daniel travelled the streets of Manhattan to look at new retailing concepts that might give us early indicators of future developments

Fairway Market on 125 West is situated in Harlem and on the road to North. Here the rich and poor shop next to each other. The store has an incredible variety of goods, from the low end to the very high end. There is for example 8 kinds of sprouts alonside simple very fresh salad heads. On top to the salad heads there are 6 kinds of packaged salads. In this way prepared and fresh produce are alonside each other taking about the same amount of space. They have 137 kinds of fresh coffee, roasted on the premises. Fairway Market photos

ABC store Six floors of home furnishing, and across the road anothe carpet store. Each floor has its own reasonably distinctive style. The first floor seems to be organised like a market. It is designed to have interesting objects at 4 levels: the ground, midwaist, eye level, above eye level. Each of the sections are organised in little circles, where you feel comfortable to spend time realy looking at things, followed by the next circle. The feeling is one of wondering through a bazaar. ABC store photos

Prada Flagship (Store) Prada Photos

Apple Store Apple Store Photos

In addition we are doing some desk research to develop views on the future:

RFID Technology Metrogroup as a very optimistic view of [the future of the grocery shopping]. Some [cool videos]. They work on 4 themes: Mobility, Efficiency, Virtuality and Personalization. The critique is that it seem geared to position RFID as a key technology in the space. The question is of course [will customers accept this technology?]