Invited by Elin at Management Events to its in person future of retail event in Stockholm, where brands from Ikea to Volvo met to discuss consumer behaviour, e-commerce and sustainability.
Matthew GriffinFounder, President and Futurist, 311 Institute
G7 · G20governments advised
850+keynotes
102countries
17codexes
Retail and consumer sessions forTASDEmnesAdobeCoca-ColaRich's ProductsValmet
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Elin at Management Events invited Matthew to its future of retail event, held in person in Stockholm, where brands ranging from Ikea to Volvo came together to discuss the future of consumer behaviour, e-commerce, sustainability and more.
His session combined a keynote, The Future of Retail Re-Invented, with a panel. He took the audience across the next decade, to a future where Amazon and others are fully autonomous retailers, from product design to final fabrication and fulfilment from dark warehouses, and where e-commerce itself has been re-invented by technologies from the metaverse to voice.
"When it comes to retail the only thing that's changing is everything, whether it's the emergence of Robo-Customers or the evolution of Direct to Consumer to Direct to Avatar."Matthew Griffin, Stockholm, June 2022
He then explored alternative sales channels, including voice and conversational AI and digital humans, and showed how Web 3.0, the Metaverse and related technologies such as crypto, NFTs and tokens will change not only how we buy products and services, but who we buy them from.
For retail, he argued, the only thing changing is everything: from the emergence of Robo-Customers to the evolution of Direct to Consumer into Direct to Avatar. And that was before the discussion even reached the circular economy, sustainability and the many other shifts reshaping how and where people shop.
311 Intelligence
What this means for your leadership team
Prepare to sell to machines.
Robo-Customers mean some buying decisions will be made by software. Products and data must be ready for them.
Automate the back end before rivals do.
Autonomous retailers run design, fulfilment and dark warehouses with machines. That sets a new cost base for everyone.
Test new channels early.
Voice, conversational AI and digital humans are becoming sales channels. Brands that learn them early set the terms.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
How would our products appear to an AI shopping on a customer's behalf?
Which parts of our fulfilment could run without people?
Which new sales channel should we test this year?
The trends and technologies behind this session
From the 311 Starburst, the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit’s map of the technologies and trends shaping the next 50 years.
The 311 Starburst tracks retailers automating design, pricing, warehouses and delivery, edging towards stores run by machines. It expects wide use around 2034.
What are dark warehouses?
Warehouses moving towards full automation, with robots picking and moving goods around the clock. The 311 Starburst expects wide use around 2035.
How will digital humans change retail?
Digital humans are life like computer made people that can talk and show feelings, opening new ways to serve and sell to customers.
How can 311 brief our leadership team on this?
Through a private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector, in person first.
Bring this to your leadership teamA private executive briefing or leadership workshop, tailored to your sector. In person first, anywhere in the world.
Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit, from Matthew Griffin’s session and 311 data.
If Matthew gave this session today
Bots make 53% of web traffic, people still buy.
311 Institute's Dead Internet Theory report finds bots make 53% of web traffic, yet people still do the buying, and prices what that means for reaching real customers to 2040. That is the next chapter of the Robo-Customer story this keynote opened.
