IBM, known for its pioneering research in almost all things technical, has predicted that eCommerce may well lose out to physical retail in the next five years.

In a recent series of predictions from IBM, known as the ’5 in 5′ – which takes an educated guess at the innovations that’ll change our lives in the next five years – IBM has cast it’s eye over to the retail sector. It hasn’t taken a conservative approach to the future either, making a prediction that would surprise many involved in the industry: online will eventually lose out to brick-and-mortar retail.

Obviously this isn’t what many would expect, after all, online stores have enjoyed success for a while now, and behemoths like Amazon dominate the space without the need for any physical stores. There are other companies, such as WalMart, BestBuy and Tesco who have a rather healthy grasp on both the online and offline world of retail. But for the most part, if you’re not doing well in the online relm, you’re probably beginning to flounder on the high-street too.

So, what’s led IBM to think that things will change so drastically in the next five years? Well, thanks to research its doing with various retailers around the use of ‘cognitive computing’, it believes that customers can finally have the immediacy of physical shopping, with the “intelligence” of online.

This means that your customers will be able to walk into your stores and instantly be recognisable to staff. These staff members will know past shopping habits and anything a customer could well be interested in buying, meaning that when they decide to look for some help, they’ll instantly be given the help they want most. Of course, customers don’t have to go looking for help as mobile apps and augmented reality apps will help make their browsing experience in your stores far more seamless.

It’s a little sketchy on how it plans to deal with fulfilling customer’s desires to take an item home that day, after all a local store may not have that item in stock – or may not stock it – meaning that online could well win out in the delivery stage of purchases.

Speaking to Venture Beat, Vice President of Innovation at IBM, Bernie Meyerson, elaborated on why IBM believes the future of retail is in physical stores.

It’s not just about customer fulfilment, it’s also about creating an infrastructure that allows customers to gain insight and experience products hands-on. It also helps reduce the issues that surround online delivery, such as the vast amount of transport needed to shift items across the country. He believes it’s a way to help reduce pollution.

Meyerson also believes that this future of retail would be far more secure and private than shopping online where data is stored for humans to look at alongside your personal information. Here, in IBM’s stores of the future, you could come in, be offered the right products for you by a computer, and leave with nobody the wiser as to what you’ve bought.

The most interesting thing of all is that this vision of the future isn’t the ‘Us Vs. Them’ of physical against online, both competing for sales. Instead, this is a totally omnichannel approach, one that combines it all into one experience in a store. As Meyerson says “you’re combining the best of both worlds.

“On one hand you have a very personal relationship, which some people do prefer. At the same time, the technology they have available to serve you is as good as anything that’s been available in online shops. It’s an interesting evolution, and it is coming.”

Meyerson concluded by saying, “As you probably may have heard, there are a number of online shops that have talked about setting up brick-and-mortar showrooms, for this precise reason.”

Author: Vaughn Highfield

Source: Total Customer