Ten Major Trends That Will Occur In The Retail Industry In 2018

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, 2017, the United States

The performance was very low, and this trend did not show any signs of improvement in 2018.

In January, the core retail sales in the United States dropped by 0.2%, the biggest decline in the past 14 months. Even the Winter Olympic Games being held can not prevent sales of sports goods from falling by 0.8%.

But AlixPartners, a consultancy, said they believe that retailers who can adapt to the situation and make timely adjustments will soon pick up and give the 10 major trends they will see in the retail industry in 2018.

1) the trend of closing stores will continue.

In 2017, retailers in the US closed a total of 7000 stores and set a record.

AlixPartners said that the total number of retail outlets closed in 2018 will be close to that of 2017, or even higher than that of 2017.

At the same time, retailers are not blindly closing stores. They will streamline unnecessary retail networks in this way to create the greatest value.

2) rising costs and backlog of profit margins

Inflation, rising labor costs, multi-channel investment and price pressures from competitors such as Amazon, discount stores, and so on, make retailers' profit margins constantly squeezed.

Bold retailers may choose to adopt a more aggressive outsourcing and automation strategy in order to reduce costs.

3) faster pace.

The business model, once regarded as a "fast-paced" business, has not been able to keep up with the trend of the market.

Retailers may have to spend a whole year investing in a product.

And now many

Retailers outside the country have reduced the incident to less than 10 weeks.

AlixPartners expects that more retailers will continue to shorten product development cycles in 2018, with a maximum of 75%.

4) reduce inventory levels

A faster product development cycle means that retailers will not be able to hoard stocks and sell them at a discount price later.

They must pform their business models from "buying large quantities of goods every quarter" to "purchasing small quantities of commodities many times", and finally completely abandon the mode of quarterly procurement.

This will enable them to purchase goods more flexibly in order to cope with the current trend of the market, thereby reducing the situation of late season discount and clearance.

5) the rise of rental services

The heat of rental services is heating up.

This year, retailers that allow consumers to rent a piece of goods instead of having to buy will be more popular with consumers, especially Millennials.

In addition, retailers will outsource more business to third parties to better focus on their core businesses, such as product design and development, which will also help them reduce fixed costs.

6) investment in logistics is rewarded.

The logistics capability of Amazon, an e-commerce giant, is an important advantage for them. The new Shipping With Amazon service is expected to further strengthen their capability in this area.

In order to fight against Amazon, many retailers have adopted various strategies, such as investing in warehouse automation, acquiring third party logistics companies, etc.

These strategies will bring rewards to them in 2018.

7) actively embrace the electricity supplier

Retailers are facing huge competition pressure from the electricity supplier.

But retailers themselves are gradually changing, and they will enhance their online retail competitiveness through acquisitions or partnerships with start-ups.

AlixPartners predicts that more retailers will be involved in the business sector in 2018, while traditional retailers will be more open to the use of digital technology.

8) personalized online shopping experience

Retailers will be better at using new technology to provide personalized online shopping experience.

In 2018, through chat robots and other new technologies, they will upgrade this strategy to a new level.

9) strengthen store shopping experience

Although some people think that with the rise of online shopping, consumers do not like to shop in stores, but AlixPartners does not agree with this.

They think retailers will introduce new ways to attract consumers into stores.

In 2018, store shopping experience will be the focus of attention of retailers, and they will introduce more entertainment means.

In addition, more stores will become "guided stores" without inventory. Consumers can observe and touch the goods here, and learn more information from the shop assistants, then buy them online.

10) old retailers abandon traditional thinking mode.

The shock from start-ups and e-commerce has led many veteran retailers to survive.

To this end, many traditional retailers in 2018 will be more innovative and more aggressive in launching new strategies.

They will abandon traditional thinking patterns and turn to business decisions based on data and technology.

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