SIX White Paper: Future of Brick & Mortar Commerce
10 December, 2020
- The Shopping Experience of Tomorrow
- Is there a future for traditional retailing and what does it look like? Why are more and more online retailers opening physical stores? And what opportunities are available to retail banks in the new shopping world?
The new SIX White Paper "Future of Brick-and-Mortar Commerce" is dedicated to the future of brick-and-mortar shopping and offers orientation in an industry that is currently undergoing fundamental transformation. It approaches the task by identifying the key characteristics that will define customer journeys around brick-and-mortar places in the future. It explores the entire spending journey from what happens before entering a brick-and-mortar place, what happens while visiting it, to what happens after leaving it. And it shows where stationary trade is heading. It focuses specifically on retail banks and on business opportunities that might arise for them.
In tomorrow's world, visiting a store is a holistic experience, with technology relieving consumers of all tedious tasks. At the same time, "online" will continue to grow in importance, accounting for around 40% of global retail sales in 2030, up from 16% in 2019. Sustainability plays a role in almost all purchasing decisions - whether it is the all-important factor remains to be seen.
On the one hand, it has been possible for some time to observe how one store closes after another in city centers. On the other hand, more and more companies, especially those from online retailing, are opening stores in prime locations. They emphasize the importance of physical presence.
The white paper presents the future in two scenarios. The first, most-likely scenario, assumes that stationary sales will continue, albeit in a modified form. The second, less likely scenario is based on the assumption that sustainability in the consumer sector will become much more important and that people will therefore shop in a completely different way than today. Both scenarios are designed for the years 2027 - 2030.
