The rate of change in technology is likely to fundamentally alter the nature of the relationship between retailers and consumers in the future, according to the inaugural EuroCommerce Digital Lecture in Brussels yesterday.
The lecture, which took place alongside the European Business Summit, was organised by EuroCommerce, the representative group for the European retail industry.
Commenting on the changing retail technology environment, keynote speaker Martin Wild, chief innovation officer at the MediaMarkt-Saturn Retail Group, said, "The speed of digitalisation keeps accelerating, and it’s important for us to stay ahead.
"As customer experience and convenience are crucial, we, as retailers, have to innovate, experiment, and get customer feedback fast. Retail in the future will include robots guiding us, augmented and virtual reality merging on- and offline worlds to create an all-new shopping experience, and artificial intelligence will help to hyper-personalise the customer experience."
Wild added that MediaMarkt-Saturn has created the Retailtech Hub international accelerator programme to "provide start-ups focused on retail-innovation with a platform to connect with established corporations".
E-Commerce Growth
The e-commerce sector posted a 14% increase in revenue last year, according to EuroCommerce, with 57% of consumers purchasing online at least once.
With this in mind, the EuroCommerce Digital Lecture sought to examine the future of retail and wholesale in this increasingly digitised age, and what structures firms operating in the sector should put in place to ensure continued growth.
"The digital revolution is changing the way people live, what they buy, and how they buy it," Kenneth Bengtsson, president of EuroCommerce explained. "Our sector is used to an ever-changing landscape of competition and consumer demand, and reinventing itself to meet those challenges, but the rate of change has accelerated and will continue to do so."
Forward-Looking
Bengtsson's comments were echoed by Christian Verschueren, director general at EuroCommerce, who called on the sector to embrace forward-looking policies that can establish a "level playing field" among operators.
"We also need a dedicated programme to help SMEs adopt the new technologies and have access to the expertise needed to go online," Verschueren said.
"In this regard, we praise the recent Commission guide for revitalising the small retail sector and the efforts to support the transition. Equally crucial is working with educational and vocational training systems, to ensure that young people and workers are equipped with the skills needed in the digital economy."
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
