How technology and Big Data in retail are shaping store designs of the future

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Part of the Longitudes blog series posted by delivery giant UPS, this post imagines a retail era where shops are fitted out with sensors monitoring customers and inventory, and collecting and reinterpreting data; embellished by touch-screens and possibly even virtual reality technology. While some have predicted that the rise of online shopping will spell the end of physical stores, other argue that all the funky new technology coming our way could mean a renaissance for bricks and mortar stores as retailers design venues that maximise customer experience: “Shoppers want to move forward by going back: Like their forebears who visited Harrods, they crave emporiums that are experiential, not transactional, in nature.”