Inquiry Project: Emerging Trends in the Retail Industry in the UK

This report provides an overview of the recent trends in the UK retail industry. It highlights several key developments, including the adoption of augmented reality (AR) for shopping experiences, the increasing emphasis on product customization to meet customer demands, and the transformation of physical stores into digital platforms to cater to online shopping preferences. The report also discusses the use of big data and AI for personalized services, the impact of social media marketing strategies, and the growing customer preference for healthy and environmentally friendly products. The analysis includes examples of how retailers are implementing these trends and references relevant sources to support the findings. The report emphasizes the evolving nature of the retail sector and the importance of adapting to technological advancements and changing consumer behaviors.

Inquiry project

Table of contents
Recent trends in Retail industry................................................................................3
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................6

Recent trends in Retail industry
United Kingdom’s retail industry is experiencing many emerging trends
and the industry is evolving at an exceptional rate. Techological
advancements, changing needs of customers, better connectivity with the
world has led to some and innovative trends in the retail sector of the country.
Some of the major trends in the retail industry observed are :
Shopping with augmented reality (AR) :
Machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), AR are some technologies
which the retailers are focusing for the purpose of bridging the disparity
between the digital and physical (Esbjerg and et.al., 2016). For example,
Furniture retailers are offering the facility to their customers to picture the
intended furniture in their homes. Likewise, clothing retailers who offers
personalized clothes, offers its customers regarding how a particular dress will
look upon them with the help of AI technologies.
Product customization :
Retailers are increasingly emphasizing on the product customization for
the purpose of meeting their demands and achieving the objective of
customer satisfaction and enhancement of customer experience (Monios,
2015.). For example, Levi’ which is a denim products retailer offers its
customers personalized embroidery on denim products such as jackets, jeans
etc., for offering something unique to its customers. Similarly, Nike brand
allows its customers to entirely personalized their pair of sneakers.
Also, the retailers in the UK are increasingly the big data analytical
devices and AI technologies for extracting out the pattern of particular needs
and demands of the customers, their buying habits and their preferences so
that more personalized services and goods can be provided to the customers.
Physical stores transforming into digital stores :
Advancement in the technologies has drastically changed the way shop
for grocery items. Large number of supermarket retailers are offering their
products and services on the online platforms where people are facilitated to

research about the product they need and to buy through an in-store guidance
virtually and digitally. This trend has become popular because of the huge
shift of customer preferences from in store shopping to online shopping. The
reasons behind such shift is availability of services 24 * 7, convenience, more
economical and lastly lack of time for the working professionals. For example,
Amazon is posing some serious threat to the physical supermarket retailers
by offering people routine products and have seriously hampered the
profitability of retailing sector. It is for this reason that these supermarket
retailer are opting for online business.
Innovation :
For enticing the customers into the physical stores, retailers are
continuously putting their large efforts into innovation and creativity. They are
employing digital assistants for sorting out the needs and requirements of the
customers (Filimonau and Gherbin, 2017).
Using of social media strategies for marketing their products :
Emergence of social sites such as Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter
has largely impacted the business of retailers in United Kingdom.
Supermarket retailers and other retailers are increasing using the social
media for telling their stories to the world. This has resulted into increased
customer engagement with the brand and has also helped the retailers in
increasing their brand awareness (10 Innovative Retail Trends to Watch in
2019, 2019). Because these social sited immense connectivity with the world
and reach to large number of people, retail business owners are focusing their
every bit for grabbing such opportunities and leveraging upon them.
Big data is impacting the decisions of retailers :
Data ‘s part in the decision making of retailers has grown in last few years
and is expected to increase in the future. Retailers for the purpose of building
competitive advantage and for surviving the intense competition in the market,
emphasizing on collecting and using the data related to sales, customers,
operations, customer service etc., for making rational decisions.
For example, Walmart which is one of the largest supermarket retailer in
the world is already started using AI and big data devices for optimizing its
delivery routes of its associate home deliveries. Further, it was reported by
Forbes that the giant supermarket leader in the world is using a face

recognition technology which can determine the shoppers/customers who are
not happy or frustrated. The data obtained from such technology is used by
the management of the Walmart for forming decisions such as telling
associates to open different checkout lines for engaging, attracting and
exciting the customers (The future of retail, 2018).
Customers are preferring healthy and environmental friendly
lifestyles:
Customers are becoming more rational regarding their choices and are
more concerned with the environmental issues. People are selecting the
products which are produced responsibly and which does not leave major
footprints on the environment. This trend has revolutionized the way retailers
and manufacturers in producing and packaging the products which are
healthy & nutrition for the customers and which does not harm the
environment in any way.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Monios, 2015. Integrating intermodal transport with logistics: a case study of
the UK retail sector. Transportation Planning and Technology. 38(3).pp.347-
374.
Filimonau, V. and Gherbin, A., 2017. An exploratory study of food waste
management practices in the UK grocery retail sector. Journal of cleaner
production. 167. pp.1184-1194.
Esbjerg, L and et.al., 2016. Retailers and technology-driven innovation in the
food sector: caretakers of consumer interests or barriers to
innovation?. British Food Journal. 118(6). pp.1370-1383.
Online
10 Innovative Retail Trends to Watch in 2019.2019. [Online]. Available
through <https://www.cpcstrategy.com/blog/2019/01/retail-trends-2019/>
The future of retail.2018. [Online]. Available through
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/tips-for-the-future/future-of-retail/>