Three retail experts weigh in on the the future of the store.
Retail is increasingly a stark tale of winners and losers. Holiday 2018 saw the best retail sales (online and off) in six years, according to MasterCard. In-store sales were up as much as 5 percent, while e-commerce saw almost 20 percent growth.
But the other side of the story is closures and bankruptcies; Sears and Toys-R-Us were the two highest profile failures of 2018. But there are plenty of other traditional retailers struggling too. Against that backdrop is the growth of e-commerce and Amazon specifically.
As traditional retailers and direct-to-consumer brands with stores adapt to an increasingly complex retail environment, with the looming possibility of recession in 2019, they will need to use their stores, technology and data in smart ways. They’ll also need to potentially rethink the store experience entirely.
In that context we asked three retail experts — James Giglio, CEO of MVP Interactive. Amitaabh Malhotra, CMO of Omnyway and Jonathan Cherki, CEO of ContentSquare — to weigh in on the the future of the store and what will separate winners and losers in 2019 and beyond.
