Abstract
Retail was born in 1879 with the first Five & Dime Stores. 130 years after, we still live in the era of Retail 1.5, this means, no real Quantum Leap was made in Customer Experience. However, we strongly believe that, starting half of the first decade of the 21st Century, a new Retail Era began. This change is due to the fact that, not only Classic Retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco and Carrefour started to look to the Persona, instead of a Person among Persons, but also eCommerce Retailers, such as Amazon or eBay showed that eCommerce Retail it’s more than a Start-Up, which is something that we can observe by the continued and sustained Double Digit Revenue growths year after year. Social Retail hit the mainstream, when Time Magazine awarded Social Shopping Experience as one of the Best Inventions of 2007. The objective of the present study is to understand what have been done in the field of New Customer Experiences since the beginning of the Classic Retailers, and try to devise what will be the strategic implications for the future, arising from the changes foreseen in the field of retail business. The authors will emphasize the emerging new Trends, and try to foresee what in Social Retail and Online / Shop Customer Experience could be the mainstream for the next decade.
TopBackground
According to Datamonitor (2009), global hypermarkets and supercenters sector grew by 8.9% in 2008 to reach a value of $1,476.9 billion. Datamonitor states that in 2013, the global hypermarkets and supercenters sector is forecast to have a value of $1,923.8 billion, an increase of 30.3% since 2008.
The hypermarket and supercenters sector’s annual growth rates fluctuated slightly over 2004-2008, but remained strong overall. The hypermarket and supercenters sector generated total revenues of $1,476.9 billion in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.5% for the period spanning 2004-2008.
The performance of the sector is forecast to decelerate, with an anticipated CAGR of 5.4% for the five-year period 2008-2013, which is expected to drive the sector to a value of $1,923.8 billion by the end of 2013.