NEW YORK—Amid the disruption of COVID-19, and the resulting store closures, a few retail companies actually fared well. These retailers did succeed by adjusting their supply chain, managing their stocking and inventory processes, and revamping customer service, according to a recent analysis by eMarketer. The research firm cited these factors as some of the keys to success for big-box retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy.
 
“Others, such as Apple, lululemon athletica, Nike and Starbucks, are focusing on innovating and modifying store experiences through digital integration, frictionless shopping, and atmospherics modified for a ‘new normal’ of social distancing and sanitization,” eMarketer added.
 
In its report, eMarketer predicted that sales for U.S. retail overall will begin to recover in 2021, climbing 3.8 percent year over year to $5.856 trillion. Following upon the outsized 33.6 percent increase in 2020, though, e-commerce sales will moderate to 13.7 percent growth this year. Brick-and-mortar retail sales will rebound from a 0.2 percent decline in 2020 to a 2.2 percent gain in 2021, according to eMarketer.

“The physical retail experience emerging in 2021 suggests that stores must still be able to adjust to rapidly changing conditions, and technology will be key to that flexibility,” the research firm noted. “For example, U.S. consumer interest in mobile payments and mobile app orders increased significantly from March to June 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, according to a survey from Periscope By McKinsey. In the June polling, consumers also expressed interest in the use of digital screens for store navigation (22 percent) and digital shelf labels (20 percent).”
 
Of relevance to retailers, there was a smaller, but nonetheless significant, portion interested in augmented reality (AR) for product try-on and product info (16 percent each), eMarketer noted.
 
In addition, the firm’s “Future of Retail 2021” report predicts the following: 

  • Brick-and-mortar retail will incorporate digitally enabled technologies, and there will be increased emphasis on atmosphere and community-driven experiences to make retail more inviting. Retailers can leverage 5G’s bandwidth for mobile devices to make stores more experiential and frictionless.
     
  • Click and collect, cashier-less checkout, contactless payment, and digital signage will streamline in-store transactions. 5G’s bandwidth and low latency will come into play as mobile devices become the interface between the retailer and the consumer’s bank account.
     
  • Frictionless “stores of the future” will land and expand as digital-first retail experiences, such as Amazon Go, become more commonplace. These stores will use 5G’s bandwidth and latency characteristics, alongside edge computing services, to enable computer vision technologies that underpin inventory and payment systems.
The overall takeaway about 5G in retail, according to eMarketer, is this: The main focus for retailers will be on how in-store experiences are evolving in a post-COVID-19 environment, as the boundaries between the digital and physical worlds are blurring.