automated customer service agent

• Retail firms will invest $3.4 billion this year on AI, including automated customer service agents, expert shopping advisors and product recommendations, and merchandising for omnichannel operations.
• The cognitive / AI use cases that will see the largest spending totals in 2018 are: automated customer service agents ($2.4 billion) with significant investments from the retail and telecommunications industries; automated threat intelligence and prevention systems ($1.5 billion).
• Retail will overtake banking in 2018 to become the industry leader in terms of cognitive / AI spending: Retail firms will invest $3.4 billion this year on a range of AI use cases, including automated customer service agents, expert shopping advisors and product recommendations.

growth

• 70 percent of growth in Africa's retail-banking-revenue pools by 2025 will come from two middle segments comprised of individuals that earn an annual income of between $6,000 and $36,000.
• The global growth of online retail is expected to generate lucrative avenue for 3 PL s.
• McKinsey's research indicated that nearly 70 percent of retail banking revenue growth through 2025 will come from customers earning between $6,000 and $36,000.
• About 60 percent of the total retail revenue growth of nearly $18 billion expected over the next five years will be concentrated in South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and Ghana.
  

sale

• IHL projects the North American and EMEA retail markets to each grow approximately three percent over the next five years to $5.5 trillion and €4.4 trillion in sales respectively.
• Recent research found that physical retail will still account for 80 per cent of sales globally by 2025, an indicator that consumers still see huge value in high street shopping.
• By generating a decent proportion of sales from international markets, Ted Baker will be more protected considering the tough UK retail climate.
• E-commerce in Asia and the Pacific is booming: It is already the world's largest retail e-commerce market with the bulk of sales (47 percent) coming from China, but total sales are expected to almost triple from $1 trillion in 2016 to $2.7 trillion in 2020.
• Online sales will account for just 12.5% of Australian retail sales by 2025.
• UK consumer confidence - especially among "middle income" earners - may also be fading, judging by the slowdown in year-on-year retail sales volumes, mortgage approvals, foreign trips and car sales.
• The global e-commerce sales amount will be around 15% of the global retail sales by 2020.
• Online sales are growing much faster than the brick-and-mortar retail sales: E-tail sales in current fiscal year will cross $1 billion.
• Online sales in Europe will grow 10 times faster than the retail market over the next five years.
• Online retail sales will grow at an average of 11.9% per year over the next five years in Western Europe.
• Retail sales of ethnic foods will jump from $10.9 million in 2013 to an estimated $12.5 million this year.
  

market

• The entry of new foreign retailers into the Australian market over the next few years is expected to constrain retail price inflation.
• The e-commerce share of China's overall retail market will have grown from 17% in 2017 to 25% in 2020.
• Suning and Tencent-makes it clear that unmanned retail will grow into a much larger part of the consumer market.
• In 2015 the global luxury footwear market grew by 4.4 percent to reach $28 billion and is expected to reach $36 billion by 2020.
• The penetration of online retail in India's total retail market is expected to rise from 2.5 per cent in 2016 to 5 per cent by 2020.
• By generating a decent proportion of sales from international markets, Ted Baker will be more protected considering the tough UK retail climate.
• Online sales in Europe will grow 10 times faster than the retail market over the next five years.
• Many product supply lines serving the world's biggest retail market will become shorter.
• The VR-AR global market was worth about $11.4 billion in 2017 and will soar to almost $215 billion in 2021.
  

retail

• VR in retail and marketing sectors is expected to generate US$1.8 billion in 2022.
• After 2021, new UK controls could produce particular shortages in construction, retail, healthcare, and hospitality, raising occupier and developer costs.
• On a geographic basis, the United States will deliver more than three quarters of all spending on cognitive / AI systems in 2018, led by the retail and banking industries.
• Western Europe will be the second largest region in 2018, led by retail, discrete manufacturing and banking.
• The cognitive / AI use cases that will see the largest spending totals in 2018 are: automated customer service agents ($2.4 billion) with significant investments from the retail and telecommunications industries; automated threat intelligence and prevention systems ($1.5 billion).
• Retail will overtake banking in 2018 to become the industry leader in terms of cognitive / AI spending: Retail firms will invest $3.4 billion this year on a range of AI use cases, including automated customer service agents, expert shopping advisors and product recommendations.
• CBRE expects 35 million square feet of cold storage to shift from retail to industrial by 2024.
• In addition to outperforming the global economy over the next ten years, Travel & Tourism is also forecast to outpace a range of other major global economic sectors, including communications, business services, manufacturing and retail and distribution.
• The UK is not as over-supplied with retail as it's Transatlantic cousin, but traditional high streets and shopping centres will see lots more shops - especially clothing outlets - pulling down the shutters in 2018.
• 2018 will see augmented reality in retail, technology-infused employee experiences and virtual assistants in the workplace.
• Retail is the sector in America most at risk.
  

industry

• AI has caused disruption in almost every industry and with this massive technology growing steadily, the following year could see some better use cases and innovations.
• In two years, mobile payment will take the automated retail industry by storm.
• On a geographic basis, the United States will deliver more than three quarters of all spending on cognitive / AI systems in 2018, led by the retail and banking industries.
• In 2018, manufacturing industries will realize quick results with human-machine partnerships.
• PSD2 is going to shake up the retail banking industry in 2018.
• The cognitive / AI use cases that will see the largest spending totals in 2018 are: automated customer service agents ($2.4 billion) with significant investments from the retail and telecommunications industries; automated threat intelligence and prevention systems ($1.5 billion).
• The UK retail industry has warned it could cost £1bn to implement the government's plan to charge deposits on drinks cans and bottles.
  

food retail development

• The 2018-2021 growth rates for vending in Russia are expected to equal the rates of food retail development at 12-13%.
• In 2018-2021 growth rates for vending in Russia will meet the rates of food retail development at 12-13%.
  

system

• On a geographic basis, the United States will deliver more than three quarters of all spending on cognitive / AI systems in 2018, led by the retail and banking industries.
• The United States will deliver more than three quarters of all spending on cognitive / AI systems in 2018.
• The cognitive / AI use cases that will see the largest spending totals in 2018 are: automated customer service agents ($2.4 billion) with significant investments from the retail and telecommunications industries; automated threat intelligence and prevention systems ($1.5 billion).
• Many supermarkets and even smaller stores are rapidly introducing Self-checkout systems reducing the need for employing checkout workers.
  

federation

• According to the National Retail Federation, spending for Easter will hit $17.3 billion in the U.S. - a new record.
• The US National Retail Federation is predicting imports will rise by 4.9% in the first half of 2018.
  

space

• New retail space of 6.4 million has finished and supply of around 20 mn sq ft is expected in 2019.
• Lamb continues to capture the third largest value share of fresh meat protein in the retail space ahead of pork and seafood, but behind beef and chicken: Per capita lamb consumption is forecast to remain steady in coming years, provided there is no economic downturn or unexpected leap in pricing.
• American cities will need to repurpose overbuilt retail spaces.

System map
The forces for change are legion in retail driven by ecommerce, emerging technologies and the fight for global share. 

Pie charts
Athena thinks it will take another two decades to complete the transformation of retail. The prizes for success are very large but much of the transformation has yet to become universal. 

Radar chart
This graphic shows the most likely and promising top areas of change in retailing. These are likely to be in new advertising models and approaches to luxury sales, more data analysis, health improvement services, IT developments, responses to changing laws, influence of women, leading market approaches and use of AI.

Graphit
Far and away the biggest impacts on retailing in 2023 will be increasing use of robotics along the entire supply chain, growth in ecommerce and aggressive marketing in the face of increasing, intense competition.

We recommend you explore the topics in more detail at Shaping Tomorrow to mitigate threats to your organization and to seize upcoming opportunities.

Emerging topic

Year-on-year
Almost all sectors are already experiencing the intense competition in retail and this is likely to continue for the next ten years at least as rivals battle for supremacy and consumers take advantage of an ever more transparent marketplace.

Countries 
Changes in retailing are likely to mostly effect North America, Northern Europe, Asia, Australasia and the BRICS first with Southern Europe, the rest of South America and Africa lagging behind.

Sources
Athena used the sources below as the top ones to create this report and determined which embedded forecasts are included in this Trend Alert. She found 3692 forecasts in seconds on the 3rd April 2018 to allow us to publish this summary in less than thirty minutes. She can turn these into PowerPoint slides and Audio files in minutes too as you wish. 

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