The world of retail is in a state of flux. The things that used to work are beginning to fail, as 2015’s Black Friday showing clearly demonstrated. Worse, there’s not clear path forward for retailers yet. We’re now entering a period in which new technologies will be embraced, and the retail experience will change entirely. 2016 is where is begins.
Machine learning is about to explode in a big way. Machine learning is defined as computational algorithms that refine and optimize themselves in response to new data. IBM’s Watson, for example, has been out in the world for awhile, and now we’re seeing competing technologies hit the market. It will make its biggest splash this year in advertising, where predictive marketing will serve users and customers ads in advance of expected behavior. You’ll also see a renewed focus on mobile apps, which have taken some hits in the past few years. Many retailers have thought apps not worth investing in when the mobile site can do the same thing, but retailers are now realizing that their apps should be capable of much more than their mobile sites. This trend began in 2015, and will continue to snowball in 2016. Find out which other trends to watch out for this year below!
Read the full article here: 5 Big Things That Will Happen in Retail in 2016
