Retail Futures Report:
The Future of Service

As omni-channel retires, the era of Total Retail begins in earnest. Customers are demanding frictionless commerce within a see-now, buy-now culture.

Meanwhile technology such as AI, chatbots and VR are tipping over into the mainstream. Future-facing companies are refocusing away from product and are harnessing these tools to differentiate their business through outstanding customer experience and service.

Our Retail Futures Report is an invaluable framework for brands seeking to deliver excellence in this rapidly evolving sector. With rising trends, market insights and best-in-class case studies, it arms your team with pertinent knowledge to guide your strategy for success in the years ahead.

Top: Bolon By You collection by Bolon, Milan
Right: RŪH Collective

: Global Market Shifts

We bring opportunities for growth into focus with a look at emerging markets across the world, rising hubs for manufacturing and logistics, and key economic and consumer drivers of change.

: Market Insight

Wide-ranging and relevant insights, including the evolution of physical stores into experiential media hubs, a study of the Muslim market, the technologies serving the Cult of Convenience, and a look at the technical, connected textiles that people will want to wear.

: Special feature: The Future of Service

Customer service has almost been forgotten in an age of automation. We show how balancing human interaction with algorithms can make a winning combination.

: Retail Trends Rising

From retailers pushing transparency to its limits with Extreme Brandsparency to the merging of digital and physical retail with Streamlined Shopping, we present five trends that reveal the changing relationship between retailers and consumers.

: Retail Toolkits

We explain how the report’s insights can be put into practice, through strategies such as Humanising Digital and forming New Allegiances, to help your brand achieve success in these uncertain times.

: Siam Discovery by Nendo, Bangkok. Photography by Takumi Ota

Looking for a quick and compelling way to share this information with your team? Or perhaps you have an event that requires a thought-leading and inspiring keynote?

We provide sharp 20-, 40- and 60-minute presentations, delivered by our expert researchers and analysts, and taking the key insights from the report to connect business leaders with the latest trends, innovations and consumer behaviour in a live and interactive environment. 

‘The Future Laboratory’s presentation did exactly what we wanted it to – offer a glimpse of even further ahead, in a compelling and engaging way, to prepare for what brands need next.’

Maya Draisin, associate publisher and head of marketing, Wired USA

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