As the retail landscape continues to emerge from the business devastation and disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, retailers have been battling to innovate their approach to the market to deliver their goods and services. COVID -19 will continue to be a threat in the short term and its effects are likely to be felt long after the pandemic recedes.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have the potential to shake up the customer experience in such a profound matter that 100 million consumers will shop in AR online and in-store by 2020, Gartner forecasts.

A new study from Juniper Research has found that global retailer spending on AI will reach $7.3 billion per year by 2022, up from an estimated $2 billion in 2018, as retailers target new avenues to increase personalization of the customer experience.