Retail Industry: Innovations and Impact on Society and Economy

Running Head: RETAIL INDUSTRY
Retail Industry
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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INNOVATION, ENTERPRISE AND SOCIETY: ESSAY OPTION ONE
In the business world, innovators are constantly creating new products, ideas and
methods to stay at the top of demand and popularity. The business organizations manage to look
at the problems and come up with new solutions, which are unreachable by others. Through
innovation irrespective of the products, services or the organizations itself, a company can
provide value to itself. Innovation has been considered as the most significant component for a
successful company. The global environment might leave greater impact on the way an
organization operates (Arvanitis and Stucki 2014). It helps to define the global business
environment along with describing the benefits and risks of operating under the global
environment. It is obvious that almost three decades ago, when a person wanted a new outfit or a
special weekend function, he/ she had to visit a range of retail shops to find something liked and
fit. However, today the scenario has completely changed through the incorporation of e-
commerce in the retail industry. E-commerce can be rather defined as the ability to buy online
products providing the customers an extensive range of options to find the desired one. I want to
develop my career in the retail sector as the industry is developing too fast and there are many
opportunities. The idea of e-commerce has opened up a range of possibilities for both the buyers
and the sellers. It has opened more shopping options and has added convenience and value to the
lives of people.
The retail innovation is entire about change and more specifically, the change is
regarding providing optimum and tangible value to the customers. It adds go the value as it
provides something improved in the field of service, product, technology or in the business
systems (Mansfield 1983). Additionally, when an organization provides value to the consumers,
it also provides benefits for the retailers as well. It also might come in the form of heightened

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sales, competitive advantage and business growth as well over the market rivals (Cohen 1979).
Taken for example, Starbucks has incorporated some of the process innovations in its retail shop.
They have introduced mobile wallet, which is used, by more than 20 % of the customers in order
to pay for the purchases. Moreover, it also collects loyalty points for placing online orders. The
mobile wallets also allow people to pay with even a mobile device rather than the cards (Dong
and Wu 2015).
Another product innovation is the innovation brought about by Apple. This company
ranks at the top of most innovative companies in the entire world. The time when the company
first introduced iPod, a seismic shift had been created in the way showing how music is not only
enjoyed but also consumed. Previously, people had to go to the music shop for purchasing
cassette tapes and CDs. The innovation through iPod also changed the way music used to be
stored and purchased. Gradually, music began being stored and purchased through the platform
of Apple that is iTunes (Heracleous and Papachroni 2016) .
As far as technology is concerned, it can be said that technology has been used through
various ways in the retail industry in order to appeal maximum users, enhance the convenience
for the buyers and promote the online presence of a retailer. The online shopping experience has
been significantly modified by Amazon Go’s automated checkout. It has somehow
revolutionised the online experience of shopping. More elaborately, the Go stores utilize a
combination of deep leaning , computer vision along with a sensor fusion technology for
automating the checkout and payment process (Polacco and Backes 2018). It further highlights
that the customers can easily enter the store and leave the store after picking up the desired item
without having to check out standing in a queue. This is because the payment is made
automatically through the amazon Go app.