Recent years have been somewhat chaotic for the retail industry. Significant shifts in the supply chain and consumer preferences have forced retailers to move quickly — spurring the surprising adoption of new tech and design strategies that help companies better anticipate and respond to their customers’ needs.
Consumer experience has steadily risen to become one of retailers’ top priorities. We see this shift reflected in the design techniques and technology they’re starting to use. Right now, more than ever before, data-driven design is transforming how retailers approach marketing, data collection and store layouts.
These are five ways new design and tech are enhancing the retail space for consumers.
1. Retail Apps
Retailers are developing proprietary apps to provide extra functionality to consumers. Retail app usage has steadily increased in recent years, with one report showing a 50% rise in year-round shopping in 2019.
These apps provide some significant benefits for both consumers and retailers. With an app, retailers can collect massive amounts of behavioral data on their customers — like their interests and purchasing decisions. For example, a retailer might view aggregated data on which products customers typically view back-to-back when trying to choose what to buy. With this data, they can improve their recommendation engine by suggesting products consumers are already comparing.
Over time, data from these apps can also help retailers offer better personalization for their customers. Recommendation engines can use details on individual preferences to highlight the most relevant products, offerings and deals.
2. Artificial Intelligence in Design
AI has quickly become one of the most vital new technologies for businesses across the economy. Companies have found a massive variety of ways to use it — everything from smart recommendation algorithms to AI customer service chatbots to new health care tools.
Because artificial intelligence can help companies find patterns in massive amounts of information — like data collected from apps, or real-time shopping data — it’s become especially useful for retailers in the past few years.
Now, the industry is using AI in a range of ways. New AI-powered sales forecasting is helping retailers better plan for high demand — like the kind they see during the holiday season. Retailers are also using the tech to improve their recommendation engines and sift through the customer data they collect.
3. Smart Displays
More and more often, retailers are beginning to experiment with smart displays — those that adjust their visuals based on consumer and company data.
Retail apps, running in the background on user phones, can passively sense nearby displays and send them information. Some of these displays can even change their content based on the preferences of individual passersby. The apps can provide the display with data on consumer behavior and recommendations.
Then, the smart display may update the products it shows off — highlighting deals or new offerings that are likely to be relevant to whoever is passing by. Simultaneously, the screen can collect information, like the amount of foot traffic in the area. Retailers can use this data to improve their understanding of how customers move through the store.
4. Shelf Sensors and Smart Store Design
Smart tech will also impact retail in other ways. Advanced Internet of Things technology has enabled a new kind of store — one where weight-detecting smart shelves, cameras and displays coordinate to improve customer experience.
The best-known example of this tech that’s already in use is Amazon’s foray into the retail space, Amazon Go. These cashierless stores use a combination of shelf sensors, cameras, phone apps and AI to create a store where customers can walk in and walk out with the products they need, no checkout required.
Other companies are experimenting with versions of the tech that will boost existing stores without going as far as cutting out cashiers altogether. For example, Walmart has started using smart shelf tech at their “retail lab” in Levittown, N.Y. There, shelves that can detect product availability instantly alert clerks when specific products have sold out. As a result, they can quickly restock the item, reducing the chance that a customer runs into a bare shelf.
5. E-Commerce and Multi-Channel Retail
E-commerce continues to become increasingly relevant to almost every business in the industry, even for pure-play physical retailers that have previously avoided or not considered the online retail space.
The growing popularity of buy-online-pick-up-in-store services, for example, is encouraging retailers to expand their online storefronts — or develop e-commerce solutions for the first time. E-commerce will likely become even more relevant through the decade, even for retailers that have previously focused their resources on physical locations only.
Meanwhile, digitally native brands — ones that operated only in the e-commerce space — are experimenting with physical retail, opening brick-and-mortar stores around the world.
It’s likely that, in the future, a hybrid approach that combines both in-store and online offerings will be crucial to business success and providing the best possible experience for customers.
Future Trends in Design and Tech for the Retail Industry
These new trends are likely to drive further industry shifts through the rest of the year and beyond. Smart technology will probably become central to cutting-edge retail operations, powering everything from better recommendations to more efficient store management. Concurrently, as data collection ramps up, retailers will be able to more effectively anticipate their customers’ needs.
Lexie Lu is a freelance graphic designer and blogger. She keeps up with the latest design news and always has some coffee in close proximity. She writes on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.
Retail stock photo by fizkes/Shutterstock
