Four new retail futures are emerging. Are you open to change?

A social media dumpster diver recently discovered deliberately damaged handbags – but otherwise brand new – outside a store belonging to Coach, an American luxury design house. The social media storm that ensued forced Coach into re-writing its corporate policies on unsold goods.

This incident captures one set out of the many pressures retailers are facing right now. Consumers are increasingly engaged with ethical, climate, plastic waste, farming, and health dilemmas, with social media playing a significant role. They are increasingly asking themselves whether they need yet another new pair of shoes, an upgraded hot tub, or whatever else it might be. And retailers who deliberately damage and dump unsold lines to prevent price erosion are being called out.

The second set of pressures contains the cost and availability demands we’ve always had in retail, which are now reaching intense levels. The Covid pandemic put extraordinary pressures on supply chains to get products into distribution channels. It became a question of survival of the fittest: Retailers who responded to home-centric living and working with new or better frictionless/touch-free shopping and innovative fulfillment emerged the winners.

Offline shopping is not going away anytime soon. Consumers are prepared to buy, but totally on their ‘I want it all now’ terms regarding price, access for inspection, delivery and returns policies. Price sensitivity is as strong as it ever was, driven by continuing wealth polarization that is exacerbated by the Covid savings spike, job insecurity, gig economy working, new inflationary pressures and a host of other factors.