Future of Retail Intelligence Report 2020
Geoblink surveys 600 retailers and 600 consumers to answer the following question: Are retailers giving consumers what they want?
Geoblink, the Location Management platform, announces today the launch of its annual report “The Future of Retail Intelligence 2020” which analyses the responses of more than 600 retailers from the UK, the USA and Spain to show how the retail ecosystem has evolved over the last year. In addition, Geoblink surveyed more than 600 consumers to find out if what retailers are delivering is aligned with what consumers expect to pinpoint new opportunities worth capitalising on at the start of the new decade. Some of the key findings are as follows:
- High maintenance costs were the main reason stores closed in 2019 (39%). Moreover, the number of retailers who plan to open new establishments in 2020 dropped to 63%, 8 percentage points less than in 2019. This suggests an end to expansion as being the only driver for growth, paving the way for network optimisation. Diversified growth will gain traction in 2020, allowing retailers to adapt their offerings according to the unique market contexts surrounding each of their locations without increasing costs.
- Consumers value the experience more than anything when visiting a store and 48% of retailers have not prioritised designing engaging in-store experiences as part of their captivation strategies. On the other hand, 48% of consumers say they would stop buying a certain brand if it wasn’t sustainable and 56% of brands claimed not to be implementing sustainable practices into their business models. A clear dissonance between consumers and retailers is unravelling which translates into a loss in opportunities for the retailer as the consumer searches for alternatives.
- Omnichannel is not the be-all-end-all it once was. The majority of retail professionals claim to be implementing omnichannel strategies successfully, with the Fashion (72%), Consumer Goods and Electronics (67%) and Grocery and Supermarkets categories (66%) leading the way to omnichannel excellence. Nevertheless, the question as to whether omnichannel still means existing on multiple channels or if it means having an array of channels that coexist and provide a unified customer experience is still unclear.
- Certain brands have been able to position themselves strongly in the minds of consumers across the UK: Shell viewed as the most-sustainable gas station, Aldi perceived to have the most innovative supermarket formats, John Lewis said to have the best in-store experience while Nike delivers the most-personalised experiences.
The report also features exclusive interviews with the most respected voices in retail, including insights from Martin Newman, Founder of the Customer First Group and Practicology, Bisila Bokoko, Founder of BBES, Bisila Wines and BBALP, Constant Berkhouse, Consultant and Author of “Assortment and Merchandising Strategy” and Nicholas Found from Retail Economics.
Founder and CEO of Geoblink, Jaime Laulhe, spoke about “The Future of Retail Intelligence 2020” launch, commenting: “The results of the report highlight a strong need for retailers to move towards a new retail business model that helps them manage and optimise their stores in an integral way, having a 360º perspective on what drives sales in each location to take the right actions needed for sustainable growth”.
About the data
The data insights revealed in this report come from two surveys conducted between December 26, 2019 and January 8, 2020 and distributed in the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States. The first survey was sent to 600 retail professionals, in retail management positions and from 27 industries, while the second was answered by 600 consumers over 18 years old.
