Despite a year of uncertainty and change, the retail industry demonstrated resilience and innovation. Retail experts discussed future trends and their outlook, much of which has been accelerated by the effects of the pandemic. Industry experts explore the impact on retail technology and customer experience.
Kelly Slessor, CEO of Shop You opened the event with a presentation outlining the enormous growth of online retail during the last year. While Australia’s online market represents only 12-13% of total retail sales, in the UK it now represents 30% of sales. Amazon Australia has recently reached $1 billion of sales in Australia and there’s more growth to come. Slessor’s company Shop You, aims to bring the physical and digital world together and provide a seamless virtual shopping experience. She consults for both retailers and landlords, and believes personalised experiences are the new frontier.
As a retail expert, with decades of experience, Slessor discussed how the pandemic accelerated the adoption of ecommerce for many Australian retailers. Those that managed an omni-channel strategy seemed to have fared better.
Slessor gave the example of Rebel Sport, where their ‘click-and-collect’ service now accounts for 49% of all online sales. This demonstrated how the online and physical worlds collide to provide high value experience for customers.
Slessor discussed the importance of knowing more about the next generations of shoppers, their expectations and how they consume media. Video, personalised messaging and social commerce will all play a major part in retailers remaining competitive.
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