Reinventing Retail for the Next Normal

The impact of the recent health crisis on the way consumers shop is prompting retailers to move faster with the transformation of their operations. Rather than disrupting existing trends, the environment emerging from the crisis is accelerating developments that were already in place, such as the digitalization of retail operations, the rise of contactless business and services and global multi-source supply chain strategy.

While growth estimates for global retail in 2020 will be revised down versus pre-crisis forecasts, sectors including grocery experienced strong demand that weighted on operations, requiring an acceleration in the adoption of the technology that enables efficient operations and seamless shopping experience. 

During the IDC European Retail Executive Digital Forum 2020, we looked at the retailers’ ability to proactively respond to product, workforce, partner, and operations needs which will separate the winners and losers in the “next normal” environment.