Seven-Year Watch
May 1, 2003 12:00 PM
It's not just Retail Traffic that's soothsaying the state of the retail business in 2010. At its 2003 Strategic Outlook Conference, consulting firm Retail Forward released a report entitled Twenty Trends for 2010: Retailing in an Age of Uncertainty. Here are some of the more dramatic trends and death knells — and their rankings — that the report highlights:
Wal-Mart will wait for no one.
Department stores are caught in a vicious circle propelled by escalating competition from mass retailers and lifestyle specialists; more consolidation and retrenchment are inevitable.
Malls aren't going away, but many will change almost beyond recognition.
Compressed life cycles for products, retail concepts and brands mean the days of the large, mass-merchandised specialty chain are over.
The selling of products and services via mobile devices will remain elusive.
Retailers will become brand managers on an unprecedented scale as the search for competitive differentiation accelerates.
Supplier direct-to-consumer will become a more viable scenario for the future.
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