The future of retail, between physical stores and online shopping experiences

The holiday season is an important time for many retail companies.

But nowadays, the shopping experience can be made not only in the physical stores, but in the online stores too.

This is a relevant change both for consumers and companies.

For british and international retailers that have an interest in the Italian market, there is a free webinar on the Italian retail scenario, december 5, 2016. The webinar will be opened by Jill Morris, British Ambassador to Italy, and the goal is to provide useful insights to overcome business and cultural barriers.

Retail companies generate a lot of data, but do they use them for a real improvement of the business? Is the “old” retail dead?

In the today’s business scenario, some retailers are experimenting new ways.

Nike is a global player in the apparel & accessories industry, and in recent days the company opened a 55,000-square-foot store in downtown New York. Inside the store, customers can try out new products in actual sports settings, as well as use tech-enhanced features such as treadmills with specialized sensors to test out specific running shoes. Other features include fitness lounge-like fitting rooms, an instant personalization studio that lets consumers laser engrave on products, and other features that set the shopping experience far apart from what consumers could get online. Nike plans to open a similar store in Miami in mid-December 2016 and roll out some of the new features in existing stores. “This new store creates a seamless link between Nike’s digital and physical platforms“, the company said in a statement.

The relationship between digital world and physical stores is very important to the future of retail.