In the past few years, retail has been heavily disrupted by the integration of information technologies. Yet, a report by the World Economic Forum and Accenture predicts that the retail landscape is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has done in the past 40 years.

Consumer needs are evolving, with a growing demand for meaningful experiences and easily accessible, transparent information about price and quality anywhere, anytime.

Retail experiences are going through a revival as both brick-and-mortar stores and eCommerce sites adopt advanced tech that is responding to these needs and transform the customer journey.

As more and more customers are choosing online shopping over shopping in-store, brands need to figure out a way to add something unique to their offline purchasing experience.

Consider the reasons why a customer chooses to shop in-store over online. It’s likely that the in-store experience already offers something that online doesn’t. Perhaps it’s an offer specific to that store, or the customer service provided is worth the extra effort to travel. About 90% of all retail revenue in 2016 accounted for brick and mortar retail, so in-store shopping isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Millennials are one of the largest demographic segments of our planet. In the US alone, they account for almost 80 million citizens and they spend an average of $600 billion per year. They are the first truly digital generation and differ greatly from the average consumer.

They respond differently to marketing and mistrust traditional advertising. Companies must, therefore, address this change in values and shopping habits if they want to reach out to these young, digitally native consumers.