The Future Of Retail 2020: Retail As Personal Utility

Each year in our Future Of Retail report, PSFK explores the most important topics in retail and the customer experience in order to highlight the innovation trends that will matter for retailers, brands and their partners in the coming year. This 10th annual report examines the 5 key pillars for creating a hyper-personalized retail experience, as retailers innovate to anticipate and meet customers’ every need through exceptional service in the age of Personal Utility.

Through the lens of 10 macro-trends supported by best-in-class case studies as well as statistical data and analysis, PSFK’s Future Of Retail 2020: Retail As Personal Utility report examines the advanced mix of data, delivery logistics and connected tech enabling the best retailers to optimally serve each of their unique customers in creative and memorable ways.

This report also features future-forward retail concepts developed in partnership with renowned experiential design agency YourStudio. These concepts outline a vision of commerce in 2020 and beyond through speculative scenarios based on real-life emerging trends, detailing the future of virtual reality, typology of shopping malls, grocery stores and luxury commerce.

This report also includes insights collected from the PSFK x Suzy Future Of Retail 2020 Survey, a bespoke, original survey of 500 U.S. consumers conducted in partnership Suzy, the real-time consumer polling platform. Some highlights from the survey’s findings include the following:

•70% of surveyed consumers expect a retailer to offer them the same level of personal service whether they are shopping in a physical store, online or on their mobile device

•76% will shop locally at different branches of the same retail chain if they provide different products and services

•90% are interested in being able to choose the types of rewards that they receive from a brand or retailer’s loyalty program

The report is part of a series focusing on retail innovation and customer experience to inspire the members of our business intelligence services.

Published December 2019