Global Retail Trends & Innovation (2018)

Greek philosopher Heraklit was right 2,500 years ago when he said, “The only constant is change.” It’s certainly true today when it comes to retail.

The monopoly of brick-and-mortar-based transactions is history. The launch of online shopping marked a new era in retail, challenging the mindset of traditional retailers and forever changing the expectations of consumers.

Voice services, like Google Home and Amazon Echo, and Amazon’s leap into physical retail space set new standards. Today’s consumers are always shopping – even when they’re not. A new normal is born!

Changes are coming fast. The majority of tomorrow’s consumers are digital natives, born in a world where boundaries between digital and physical worlds have vanished. Retailers need to adapt to find their space in this new normal world. They need to be relevant, interesting and meet new expectations.

It’s time to change, to re-think, to innovate.

For more than a decade, Ebeltoft Group has been monitoring brand and store innovations, enabling us to uncover the trends both underlying and emerging in modern retail. Our retail experts around the world join forces to share insights from their local markets that will inspire your ideas to innovate and future-proof your business.

We have evaluated over 40 innovative cases from more than 18 countries, revealing four different retail trends, with two sub-trends apiece, to create a detailed big picture of what’s to come.