Abstract:

Nearly one decade into the 21st century, we have witnessed a seismic shift in how consumers gain access to and leverage information and each other. While the digital impact has been felt across many industries and sectors, one of the most profoundly impacted has been the global retailing industry. The nature of this impact is central to this paper and subsequent presentation. To be clear, this paper is not focussed (at least, not entirely) on how on-line retailing is growing and will continue to grow. In simple point of fact, even if current estimates for on-line retailing growth are conservative, it will reach about 10% of retail sales in key lead markets by the end of the decade. Furthermore, this growth is usually focussed on non-perishable products, services and media-related products. This is not to trivialise the importance of on-line retailing in any way, as it has been significant,transforming a number of industries rather quickly (music being the most notable perhaps).