IBM‘s “5 in 5” series presents ideas about how life will be affected by technology over the next half decade. A video series provides the highlights, including this one that predicts the return of local brick-and-mortar retail to prominence over e-retailers that have been “spanking” them for years.
IBM’s release says…
This year’s 5 in 5 explores the idea that smart machines will learn, reason and engage with us in more natural ways – helping to amplify human abilities, assist us in making good choices – big and small, and help us navigate through life.
Within five years, we predict buying local will beat online. Savvy retailers will use the immediacy of the physical store to create experiences that simply can’t be replicated by online-only retail. Watson-like technologies and augmented reality will allow physical stores to turn the tables and magnify the digital experience by bringing the web right to where the shopper can physically touch it.
Brick-and-mortar retailers may still drive a significant majority of retail sales, but online sales are growing faster. Physical stores, once seen as a negative, will become a big positive. Their proximity to the customer will give them the advantage of integrating the immediacy of physical shopping with a magnified digital experience inside the store.
It’s true that Watson’s offspring could drastically change a physical store’s shopping experience, but presumably any digital tool that a sales associate could use in-store could also be used by the shoppers themselves while they’re sitting on their couch. IBM says augmented reality, for example, could enhance the retail experience. Why not put that tool online and make it accessible from home? Virtual tools aren’t tied to physical locations.
For every company like IBM that offers tools to draw you back to the store, there will be a dozen online startups using the same tools (plus a few innovations of their own) to drive their own business that isn’t hampered by overhead costs like staff, rent and building insurance.
