In January 2018, Amazon opened Amazon Go, the world’s first checkout-free store, in Seattle. In November of the same year, Nike opened its six-story flagship store in New York – where there’s only one cashier. The world of shopping is changing fast, and brands that can’t keep up are having to close stores. From drone delivery to VR tech, here are 23 ways shopping is set to transform in the future.

For many of us, the thought of paying without even thinking about it is unsettling. Yet we do it already – just think of apps like Uber. It’s likely that bricks and mortar stores will be kitted out with sensors, cameras and artificial intelligence in the future, so they can tell exactly what you’ve bought and charge you correctly, most likely through an app on your phone.

Online fashion retailer ASOS is paving the way for chatbots, which are essentially automated messaging systems that interact with customers. Its bot, named ‘Enki’, was released last summer and helps customers find clothes through style matching and visual search. We can expect other e-commerce sites to follow suit soon, with bots of the future integrating search, maps and virtual assistants to make shopping even easier.

Chatbots will also power purchases through social media. As if Mark Zuckerberg didn’t have enough of your data, you’ll soon be able to make purchases through Facebook’s messenger app. Chatbots will be on hand to answer questions about products and delivery, before you are directed to the brand’s e-commerce site to make the payment.

Want to go to a store where you can’t buy anything? It might sound bizarre but that’s exactly what shops of the future will offer, prioritising a showroom-based experience where you can try before you buy. The Dreamery in New York, a showroom run by Casper bed company, is ahead of the game: you can book a 45-minute nap in one of its ‘nooks’ (pictured), allowing you to test out its mattresses before buying online.

How do you know how cozy that down jacket is unless you test it out? Stores of the future are predicted to have special zones which replicate the environments in which you’ll use the products: think grass-like surfaces to try out athletic shoes and cold zones to try on winter coats.

“Smile! You’re on CCTV” is likely to take on a whole new meaning, as the in-store cameras of tomorrow won’t only be able to watch out for thieves. They’ll be linked to facial recognition scanners, which can then identify customers and provide tailored shopping experiences, such as suggesting products for them.

Retail isn’t just moving online – online features are coming into the retail space. That’s the case for smart mirrors, which can be used in two key ways: to provide customers with ‘virtual try-on’ options, with mirrors used in non-retail spaces; or to act as personal style assistants which recommend clothes and show what’s in stock when used in store changing rooms. The Tommy Hilfiger shop in Bond Street, London has already trialed a basic version of a smart mirror.

Redefining service with a smile, using our faces to pay for purchases is soon to become widespread. E-commerce firm Alibaba Group recently trialed its ‘Smile to pay’ service in a branch of KFC in Hangzhou, China. Customers make orders via screens before looking into a camera that can recognize their faces and charge them via the Alipay app.

Many smartphones now allow us to pay with a fingerprint, and it’s only a matter of time before this technology becomes commonplace in stores too. In an ahead-of-the-curve branch of 7-Eleven in Seoul, South Korea, biometric verification technology is already being used to scan the vein patterns in shoppers’ hands, meaning they can literally pay with the swipe of a hand.

Remember when next-day delivery was the next big thing? Not anymore – e-commerce giants are streets ahead, with Amazon currently trialing 30-minute drone delivery. In fact, in September this year Amazon announced the new service could be operational within months, and has filed a request to the Federal Aviation Administration in the US to use commercial drones. That’s right, parcels could be getting to you quicker than the time it’d take you to go to the store.

If you’re bothered by targeted ads online, we’ve got some bad news: similar technology is likely to extend to physical shopping soon, as companies like Target and Walmart are trialing GPS-linked alerts. These will allow brands to seek out potential customers nearby, sending them offers and coupons to lure them in. Meanwhile, Apple has already put in place Bluetooth technology which senses who is in store.

Many people are proclaiming the death of stores due to the competition from e-commerce, but what we’re more likely to see is a blurring of the two categories. Notably, online stores may well launch in physical locations, a trend which can already be seen from eBay’s ‘digital storefronts’ in New York and San Francisco, which showcase items usually shown online and allows customers to order them for delivery.

When Amazon can lower its prices in split seconds, it’s no wonder regular stores can’t keep up. Well, if you can’t beat them, join them. Digital price displays, or ‘dynamic pricing’ as it’s been called, are being trialed to allow stores to adjust prices and stay competitive. It’s thought that this technology will also incorporate other data, including seeing what else is in your shopping cart.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that virtual reality was a bit of a fad. But the tech is set to transform our shopping experience. VR headsets will detect your mood in the atmosphere of simulated stores, while immersive virtual experiences will allow you to see how products are made. For instance, if you’re buying coffee beans, you’ll be able to pop a VR headset on and see the journey they’ve made from harvest to store.

While virtual reality immerses you in a completely virtual world, augmented reality blends the real world with digital elements. Stores may start providing AR glasses in the future, which will allow you to only “see” products that fit your specific preferences – whether that’s foods that fit your new diet, vegan or palm oil-free foods, or ingredients for the recipe you wish to cook.

To combat the rising price of rent, companies are beginning to look towards digital technologies for storage. As well as stores using “virtual merchandising” to allow customers to try out products virtually, there will be quick, low-cost distribution services which allow customers to have products delivered afterwards. This will reduce the warehouse space needed, while making the supply chain more efficient.

If the success of start-up CommonSense Robotoics is anything to go by, grocery shopping may look very different in the future. The company, which won the Startup Showcase in WIRED Retail 2015, ran a small yet successful seed-picking unit in an underground car park in Tel Aviv, where robots picked and packed orders for customers, which were delivered within just one hour. It’s in its early stages, but if the process can be replicated for other groceries it could be a more efficient way to shop.

Many of us have already got Google Assistant or Amazon's Alexa at our beck and call, which can create shopping lists and even complete purchases for us. Yet with the $2 billion (£1.5bn) voice shopping industry expected to grow to $40 billion (£31bn) by 2022, we might see further development. As the apps gather more information about us, they may learn what we want, and when we want it, without us even needing to ask.

Amazon's future plans: from cashier-less stores to home robots

Here’s another way that bricks and mortar stores are upping their game to provide unique retail experiences. Microsoft has already started using immersive, floor-to-ceiling screens in stores, which can do everything from displaying weather forecasts to allowing customers to play Xbox games. A 2018 survey by RIS news found that 56% of respondents were interested in using interactive, shoppable screens, so we can expect much more of this in the future.

Experiential retail is something we’re likely to see more of as a way of luring people out to shop, and multi-sensory experiences in shopping malls may well become commonplace. The Mall of America has already had big success with its Universe of Light, a free nine-minute interactive light show which attracts families and younger audiences.

Other malls are going a few steps further, if Westfield London’s ‘Destination 2028’ vision is anything to go by. The plans to revamp the mall – currently the largest in Europe at 2.6 million square feet – include hanging sensory gardens, wellness centers, allotments, reading rooms, stage areas and much more. It’s no surprise that new retail spaces are being described as hyper-connected ‘micro-cities’.

Robot shop assistants have had some bad press in recent years. In January 2018, the first robotic retail assistant, ‘Fabio’, was trialed in a grocery store in Edinburgh, Scotland, only to get the sack a week later for annoying customers and being too efficient when handing out meat samples. However, the (human) shop assistants involved in the trial believed that robots could, when more fully developed, be useful for dealing with simple requests like product location and stock. 

What it looks like when robots take our jobs

With Amazon selling everything from pickle-flavored lip balm to wine for cats, it can be hard for small independents to survive. One answer is that they’ll become uber-specialized, with many stores in Berlin already doing this: there’s a liquorice store, a button store, and even a store that exclusively sells decorative cushions in the shape of different meats. With millennials driving the trend for specialist products, it’s thought these stores will grow in the future.

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