Retail In 2023: How Shopping Is Evolving

The retail landscape looks vastly different than it did five years ago. Ease of access and the infinite shelf mentality of ecommerce has accustomed shoppers to being able to discover, select, and quickly obtain most any product or service they need at the click of the button. The ubiquity of the smartphone (access to choice), the globalization of supply (abundance of choice), and the digitization of delivery (expedited convenience) has built a superior buying mechanism. By 2025 e-commerce is expected to account for nearly 25% of total global retails sales, compared to 2016 when it was just over 7%. Across verticals, buyers are no longer limited by what is on the store shelf, and their expectations of brands and product availability have grown in accordance with technology. Consumers have become more comfortable with shopping online, and have demonstrated a great willingness to exchange the ability to physically touch a product prior to purchase for the convenience of having it delivered to their door, particularly in the case where free returns and exchanges are points of parity between brands.

It is not only the growth of ecommerce that has shifted consumer behavior, the immense amount of information available has shaped how consumers shop in-store, with 81% researching brands online prior to a purchase, and 59% actively reaching for product information or pricing while in…