Retail Tech Trends in 2024

A good retail experience can change the way people think about retail – and we’ve got a lot of technology available to us to help retailers do just that.    

You can shop online. You can shop in-store. You can shop in-store, and have your item delivered to your house. You can shop online, but pick it up in store, and that’s not getting into the tools that exist to make the shopping experience even better – virtual try on, putting the product you want to buy into a space into your home, advanced AR filters that let you customize the product itself. 

Retail tech is a growing industry that’s limited only by the rate at which tech develops, and the good news is that tech develops a lot faster these days than it used to. 

Here’s three trends for retail tech that we think you should keep an eye on – you’re probably going to see them in a store near you sooner rather than later! 

Hyperpersonalized content with AI

AI’s capability to deliver hyper-personalized experiences and predictive content is a game-changer for retailers – especially as consumers become a little pickier about what they buy as the cost of living increase tamps down on purchases. From full-scale immersive experiences to more advanced filters, AI can help your consumers make their mind up on what they want to get. Add in the data that retailers already have on their consumers, and you can even create and use AI to recommend certain products if the push-to-purchase hasn’t been met yet. 

Gamified, immersive experiences

Hot on the heels of the holiday season, the last thing any consumer wants to do right now is spend more time shopping – unless there was a way of changing the shopping experience. A big part of our lives is already gamified: from habit-tracker apps that give you awards if you complete all your tasks to interactive drink-more-water prompts, gamification is a proven way to get people back into your store. Gamified shopping experiences such as Sephora’s Beauty Insider Challenges help encourage consumers to log on and take part in games which can help build a relationship with the retailer that might otherwise be difficult to establish. This connection will then help encourage the consumer to consider the retailer for their next purchase.

Greater emphasis on omnichannel shopping

A seamless shopping experience is the least that a person expects when they’re buying something – but a lot of retailers have one shopping channel for online, and one for offline, and the two don’t integrate at all. Some exceptions, such as Nike, exist, but the majority of their offline and online shopping exist as separate entities. 

For 2024, consumers are looking for an even-more unified shopping experience than they’re used to, one which allows them to both shop online and offline with the same level of finesse. Not only will integrating the channels provide a lot more customization for the consumer’s shopping preferences, it helps retailers keep inventory management a top priority, which can help smooth the issues that arise with stock management. 

As consumers seek out more engaging experiences, retail has to turn to tech in order to manage the gap between expectations and reality for consumers – but fortunately, there’s thousands of different applications that you can use to make the retail experience better overall. 

If you have a store, and you’re looking to implement some new ideas for the new year, reach out: we’re always happy to guide you in the right direction!