Description
There are five key issues facing the food retail industry today: emerging new consumerism, artificial intelligence and technology, workforce, the new marketplace, and food production. Our Cover Story – Unveiled! Breakthroughs in F&B Retail (pages 38-56) – looks at these issues and how they are prompting the food retail industry to come up with the innovations, changes, and solutions to survive and thrive in today’s new retail world.
More numbers of consumers now regularly buy groceries online and they are showing an eagerness to cherry-pick more formats more frequently. According to industry estimates, within 10 years, 20 percent of all food, and 40 percent to 50 percent of all non-food products would be sold online. To survive and thrive in this fast-changing retail landscape, “innovation has to be pervasive in an organization.”
The best way for grocery retailers to ride out the retail challenges and drive business innovation is to leverage technology to create a seamless shopping experience for consumers who embrace both the smartphone and the brickand- mortar store.
However, while adapting to digital retail is important, retailers also need to focus on things that are tactile and emotional. Going ahead, as retailers become more comfortable talking science, technology and nutrition, they should also have the ability to adapt, adopt and evolve, which will prepare them for the next golden era of retail.
