Retail Horizon 2021 – introducing our new strategic toolkit

The report, put together by Retail Week’s team of analysts, provides in-depth analysis, insight and case studies around the six key macro-influences shaping the retail market.  

The launch of the strategic toolkit comes amid a turbulent year for the retail industry. During the coronavirus crisis, a whole host of macroeconomic, political and health factors have combined to create perhaps the most punishing period retail has ever known.

So much about the trading landscape has fundamentally changed and retail strategies that worked for businesses yesterday may not reap the same results tomorrow. Instead, retailers must be agile and adapt their businesses – and their thinking – to lean into a whole new set of disruptions, trends and challenges.

Retail Horizon 2021 – Winning Strategies to Navigate Disruption is designed to provide leaders with in-depth insight and analysis to help shape strategic thinking.

Below is just a flavour of the trends the report highlights:

Home-based consumers

Our analysts have defined home-based consumers as one of six key Society trends. Its highest priority rating reflects the huge influence that the radical shift in the ways people are working and shopping is having on retailers.

We are all spending more time at home with offices and leisure spaces closed and this is changing the way we shop and interact with brands. Home-based consumers are accelerating demand for online fulfilment and rapid delivery and seeking comfort, convenience and ways to treat themselves at home.

For retailers that means adapting their strategies for online, stores, product development and marketing. Our analysts also explore what it means to put digital first.

Ethics

The importance of ethics and sustainability is a huge trend that features throughout Retail Horizon 2021.

Concerns over plastic, food waste, pollution and the impact of fast fashion are now mainstream, meaning sustainability has to be firmly at the heart of retailers’ strategic agendas.

Consumers are looking to brands with purpose. There is a growing move towards peer-to-peer platforms, repair and resell. Businesses will be expected to act ethically and sustainably, measure their impact and publish metrics, which in many cases will require investment in technology. They will also need to find more sustainable ways of serving customers across all channels including online.

Automation and AI

Retail automation and artificial intelligence are two of the six trends we investigate under Technology. Both are helping retailers to drive accuracy and efficiency into their organisations and to deal more effectively with the rapid changes in consumer demand.

Customer data will be leveraged more effectively for new product development and to forecast more accurate demand, and the race for AI adoption will accelerate as retailers bring forward investment to avoid being left behind.

Decision simplicity 

Under Culture, one of the trends our analysts explore is decision simplicity. The population has contended with stress and anxiety overload in 2020 and consumers are increasingly seeking products that simplify their lives.

Brands must present simpler, curated experiences and choices, and engage with customers using personalised interactions to show consumers that they ‘know’ them and are making the right choice.

Five winning strategies

Having analysed the trends emerging within Society, Technology, Economy, Policy, Industry and Culture, our analysts have identified five winning strategies to navigate disruption in 2021:

1. Brand relevance and evolution
2. Agility and partnerships
3. Customer experience
4. Innovation and investment
5. Culture and purpose

There is plenty more to explore, debate and digest in this landmark 90-page report Retail Horizon 2021 – Winning Strategies to Navigate Disruption. Download the first full analyst report below.

The Retail Week team has found it an invaluable experience creating a 360-degree view for the retail industry and collating everything you need around potential disruption in one place. We hope you find it useful too. Read it, debate it, enjoy it, define your strategies with it.

• For more information on this report or to find out how Retail Week can provide additional insight and analysis to your business, contact Lisa Byfield-Green, head of insight – lisa.byfield-green@retail-week.com