The ‘retail apocalypse’ is a myth

22

October

2017

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Today I bring to you an article from Mark Elgan, a contributing columnist of Computerworld, in which he discusses the imminent changes in the retail industry. On one hand, in recent years the retail industry has faced a series bankruptcies which lead to the closing of big retail physical stores bellowing to some of the biggest brand names in the industry such as, J.C. Penney, RadioShack and Macy’s. On the other hand, online shopping has been booming in developed countries such that in the US it is predicted 40% of this year’s holiday gifts will be shopped online.

Companies like Amazon dominates the online market and strive to find new ways to improved customer online shopping experience. However, this year Amazon bought Whole Foods a grocery giant in an attempt to follow a new strategy for opening physical stores of different types. Google another online giant plans to open flagship stores to sell their products. Like this, a prominent question arises, why are successful online retailers rushing into brick-and-mortar stores?

According to the author, the retail apocalypse is nothing but a story which has started to grow based on the conception of mall industry’s past failure in the US. The author points out the latest National Retail Federation prediction which points out that physical retail is expected to grow about the same as online retailing. The reason for this is that customers still enjoy the experience of physical shopping. However, nowadays customers are ever more demanding on the type of experiences they want which make Omni channel retail stores, such as H&M and Forever21, a huge success thanks to their bet on data-driven strategies, personalization and app.

In my opinion, people want the best of both worlds. They want convenience. They want personalization. And, they also want the chance to experience the moment. I believe that people are still uncomfortable in buying certain goods online due to the fear of fraud which makes them not discarding physical stores. However, I think that is crucial for retail companies to adapt to current cultural and technology trends, balancing the need the to own a physical store and the necessity of being present online.

Concluding, I agree with the article for the most part, but in the long term, physical stores will lose what in my opinion is their key advantage – experiencing the moment – has technological advancements will allow online shopping to be closer and closer to the physical experience and when in the same position online retailing will win for its convenience. And you, what is your opinion on this subject? Do you think physical stores are a thing of the past or is there a place for them in the future?

 

Source: Elgan, M. (2017, October 21). The ‘retail apocalypse’ is a myth. Retrieved October 22, 2017, from https://www.computerworld.com/article/3234567/it-industry/the-retail-apocalypse-is-a-myth.html

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In A Digital World, Are We Losing Sight Of Our Undigitized Past?

3

October

2017

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Today I bring to you an article from Forbes’ contributor Kalev Leetaru regarding the interaction of technology with society, namely the repercussion that the digitalization era has on human society and its implications on the potential loss of past knowledge.

According to the author, the preservation of our history can be divided into two segments: one which encompasses all web archives where our online world is stored and another where museums and traditional archives struggle to preserve our past. Society has in recent decades grown accustomed to have easy and free access to the world’s literature through digital screens, which means that everything that has not yet been digitized might incur the risk of being forever lost to the digital era. This is particularly worrisome when it comes to underrepresented topics, geographies and languages that expand beyond traditional English language content. However, the author points out that the rise of powerful smartphone cameras has promising potential to facilitate vast crowd sourced digitization of this type of materials thus  enabling mass scale access preservation of a large fraction of the world’s books.

Furthermore, copyright issues established since the late 1920’s have been a challenge to the effective digitization of printed knowledge and to its fair use, which still leads to a great effort in order to specifically find this information, thus making scholars and individuals leave the comfort of the digital world and dive into the old-fashioned physical realm.

In my opinion, the digitalization of knowledge should be a priority not only for institutions but also to individuals. With that said, I believe time shouldn’t bound knowledge. If we look back to the beginning of times, we cannot quantify the amount of relevant information that has been forever lost to the ages. For that reason, if today we have the technology to preserve almost all wisdom and know-how that mankind was able to gather – is probably impossible to save every bit of information -, I think that all efforts towards its preservation should be done. Even in the corporate business world, for example, the preservation of knowledge is essential so that past mistakes won’t repeat themselves. As George Santayana so remarkably said, “Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness… when experience is not retained … infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

So, what is your opinion? As asked in the article, “as we race towards our digital future will we lose touch with and ultimately forget our history”? What do you think will be the implications for the business world?

Forbes.com. (2017). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/09/29/in-a-digital-world-are-we-losing-sight-of-our-undigitized-past/#5fb7f9e0cd01 [Accessed 3 Oct. 2017]

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