Dansk Handelsblad, Denmark: Cognizant’s Chief Digital Officer for Retail, Consumer Goods, Travel and Hospitality Says In Another Decade, Virtual And Augmented Reality Could Be Shaping Consumer Retail Trends.

“Retail is evolving at a faster pace than any time in recent memory, with mobile firmly established as the platform of the future,” says Scott Clarke. “Retailers that are still merely ‘cobbling’ platforms together risk being left behind as customers want a quick and seamless omni-channel experience and will go elsewhere if brands cannot provide this.” Excerpts:

“Technology is the catalyst for getting consumers into stores, the brains behind every interaction, and shaping every angle of the customer experience. As omni-channel blurs the line between online and offline, retailers should make it their mission to improve the customer’s shopping experience on both.

By 2020, more than two billion people will use conversational AI on a regular basis. It will become a vital – and possibly the primary – tool for finding, researching and buying products.

Whether to speed up retail deliveries or bring key parts and equipment to heavy industry projects, drones have the potential to enhance process efficiency and reduce costs.

As technology drives greater innovation and access to new products, the differentiator becomes all about the customer’s experience with the brand.

In the future, retailers will produce bespoke and tailored clothing items in a matter of hours, rather than days or weeks.

There is simply no point in retailers spending huge amounts of money on in-store technology if it does not work properly and nobody knows how to use it.

If this decade thus far has taught us anything, it is that technological disruption is unpredictable."

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