Introduction

The subtitle of this book is “The Future of New Retail In An Always Connected World,” which talks about changes in the business environment due to technological advancement. If you’re surprised by the pessimistic headline “The End of Online Shopping,” you’re as hooked as me.

The technologies introduced in the book are ones that those working in the IT industry are already familiar with, and the future business environment the author envisions is also unexpected. This is a book that easily becomes boring because it explains techniques you already know in a repetitive manner.

This book was published in 2018, and as the author predicted, society is changing rapidly.

The main contents of the book are summarized below.

Integration of Online and Offline

  • Forms of online shopping are deeply integrated with the world of offline retail
  • A new mixed retail environment
  • Importance of data and technology

Key Technologies

  • Big data
  • Internet of Things
  • Virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality
  • 3D printing
  • Robotization
  • AI
  • Smart economy
  • Sharing economy
  • Circular economy
  • Platform economy

Future of Retail

  • Experience-oriented
  • Seamless experience
  • Hyper-personalization
  • Sustainable, ethical

Key passages

“Pure e-commerce will be reduced to traditional business, giving way to new retail that integrates online, offline, logistics and data across the value chain.”

“An era where everyone sells to everyone”

“If a customer is only interested in price, it’s probably because they haven’t been given anything else to care about.”

“We must start from customer experience and return to technology.”

Impression

Despite the book’s boring structure, the shocking title and several passages provide insight.

Rapid change

Technology and society are developing so rapidly that it seems that it will not be long before pure e-commerce will be treated as an old-fashioned business. We need to think broadly about better user experience without any more anachronistic distinctions such as online/offline.

Importance of customer experience

When I visited an offline mart a few years ago, I remember feeling uncomfortable after using the newly introduced self-checkout counter. At the time, while Coupang was doing its best to improve customer experience, offline marts were actually doing the opposite. I believe that if customer experience is undermined for short-term results, the business will be ignored regardless of whether it is online or offline.

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