The retail industry must work harder and faster to make a meaningful impact to deliver on climate change commitments. Boston Consulting Group highlights the need for a seismic shift in attitudes and business processes to place sustainability at the core of corporate strategy, decision making, and value creation.

The ongoing pandemic and lockdowns have exploded social media usage and increased traffic in online shopping platforms, forcing many brands to embrace emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and virtual stores to remain competitive and engaged with their customers.

New research by Juniper Research found that annual revenues from blockchain retail asset tracking will leap to $4.5 billion by 2023. While anything from gemstones to cars and healthcare can be tracked on blockchain, retail is a hotbed for the technology. Blockchain’s versatility offers retailers transparency in the supply chain, customer loyalty management and operational efficiencies, among other benefits; leading to faster adoption than in other sectors.

While E-commerce and digital marketing have proven to be effective platforms, Virtual Reality (VR) is the next innovative technology that will improve and impact the retail and marketing sectors.  ABI Research forecasts that VR in retail and marketing sectors is expected to generate $1.8 billion in 2022.

Online sales will grow at an average of 11.9 percent per year over the next five years in Western Europe with 21 percent of non-grocery retail sales being online by 2022, according to a new report from Forrester Research. Although grocery will be one of the fastest-growing online retail categories, just 4.5 percent of grocery sales will occur online in 2022.