EDITORIAL Retailers look for new ways to do business as consumers change the way they buy

In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter we’re reporting as retailers from Carpetright to Waitrose and MediaMarktSaturn rethink the way that they do things. They’re using fast-evolving technologies to make strategic and innovative changes. Waitrose is trialling ‘farmbots’ to see how it might use robotics and machine learning to boost yields at farm-level in order to boost its grocery supply chain. MediaMarkt Saturn is piloting cashierless stores over the Christmas period. 

Carpetright says it’s investing in digital technologies both online and in-store, to be unveiled next spring. That investment has come as Carpetright has closed stores, retuning the ‘legacy’ model that worked up to now but is now changing as shoppers move to make more of their purchases online than in stores.

This is a critique borne out in our This week in peak coverage, where we take a look at how visitor numbers to the UK’s high streets fell in November, and are expected to keep falling in December, compared t last year. It’s not all about changing consumer behaviour. The continuing uncertainty around Brexit is also putting pressure both on consumers, affecting whether they buy at all, and on retailers – we take a look at the current situation and cover what retailers would need to do in the event of a no-deal Brexit. 

Now retailers of all stripes are looking for more ways to make a winning difference to their businesses as competition continues. 

Today’s guest comment comes from Simon Spaull of Applovin, who considers how the high street must consider mobile – and mobile gamification at that. 

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