Retail 2010

Retail 2010: Review

So: that was the decade that was. How did we do? (And how did you do?) For the most part, we’re pleased with our predictions, and we anticipated many of the forces shaping the consumer and retail landscape over the last ten years.

We foresaw the spread of globalisation and what that meant for price deflation. We highlighted the rise of the brand and the increased interest in well-being markets. We predicted the siphoning of spending to services, and how shopping would become a pleasurable leisure activity, rather than a chore. We also correctly foresaw cross-border retail expansion, the growth of new tourist retail locations, new leisure anchors and why a holistic approach to retail would be necessary, integrating goods, services, brands and experiences.

There were, however, certain themes we underestimated. There was the way internet-inspired technologies would ride roughshod over the whole retail landscape and the explosion of impulse purchasing behaviours.  And we did not predict the credit-fuelled boom for retailers between 2003 – 2007, or the great economic downturn that followed. But who, in all honesty, did?

Of course, the turn of a decade is a purely arbitrary point in time; and what’s particularly interesting is how certain themes we correctly predicted – clever patterns of consumption, the need for more experiential retailing, ageing populations, ethical shopping, et al – will continue into the coming decade. The past not only informs the present; it also points to the future as we will discuss in Retail 2020.

Download the full report here.