Future Trends in Retail Industry

Any business that sells goods to individual consumers is a retail establishment. Retail establishments are one of the largest industries in most parts of the world; in the United States, 12 percent of all jobs are involved in retail. This retail industry has changed a lot in the last two decades. It used to be comprised of a wealth of small, often family-operated shops, department stores, and shopping malls. Today, however, it is increasingly common to see people doing their shopping in large mass merchandise stores, specialty stores, or online.

Downturn in the global economy means that the future of retail industry will be shaky. Consumers are curbing their spending. Bargain shopping is emerging. Department stores are suffering a decrease in popularity. However strong companies are growing stronger, and the less competitive ones are being swallowed up in this bad economy. The retail industry has started using of CRM, consumer resource management and RFID, radio frequency identification. With CRM, companies started using the data collected about their customers to figure out and suggest other products that might interest them. RFID is being increasingly used to make supply chain management more efficient, since with RFID a company can precisely track their inventory, knowing when more of something is needed as well as how much. This is done by placing a small chip on the packaging of the item itself.

Recently it has been seen that e-retailers, online shopping are doing good comparatively than in-store. Another recent trend is lifestyle retailing, in which stores will sell both apparel and household items of the same style, i.e. Urban Outfitters. Ecologically friendly products are an emerging trend, with items are made through sustainable practices, are environmentally friendly, energy efficient, or “green” in other ways rising in popularity.