Manhattan Associates have identified five key technology trends that will impact the Australian and New Zealand retail markets in 2023.
The top five trends include visibility, automation, social platforms, an evolving payment landscape, and unified commerce.
Raghav Sibal, Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand, Manhattan Associates, said the Australian retail landscape will be significantly challenged in the year ahead.
“Limited stock, growing volumes of returns and increased customer expectations for online deliveries have substantially impacted local brands – pushing them to innovate.
“As a result, retailers will find that they quickly need to adopt new systems and approaches to meet consumer demand for a seamless and more personalised shopping experience in 2023.”
Visibility
The significance of “visibility” will grow and extend to encompass both product inventory in the store and warehouse as well as products in motion. Since knowing exactly where inventory is at all times is essential to their business, shippers will need to be able to respond to continual disruption in almost real-time as market volatility increases.
Customers today demand that store employees be knowledgeable about inventory and stock levels in order to provide them with the best possible service. However, just six per cent of merchants said they consistently had a reliable picture of their inventories across their whole network (in-store and online). Retailers will probably seek to quickly close this inventory visibility gap in the coming year or else risk losing customer loyalty and money from their businesses.
Automation
Automation and robotics adoption will increase as a result of labour shortages being a key barrier for businesses across Australia, particularly in the context of warehouses.
While Manhattan doesn’t anticipate robots to completely replace people in critical supply chain positions, more robots that supplement human labour by taking over dull, repetitive jobs are being developed. As a result, man and machine collaboration will advance.
Social Platforms
Australian consumers are now using Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook Pay to communicate with brands and make purchases on social media. Businesses are quickly extending their reach to younger populations by using traditional marketplaces like Amazon and eBay alongside social media sites like TikTok and Instagram as sales channels. In 2023, Manhattan anticipates a rapid increase in the number of social shopping platforms.
Evolving payment landscape
The demand for e-wallets, cryptocurrency, and cashless payment methods are all anticipated to increase in 2023. If businesses want to keep up with consumers who are becoming more digitally sophisticated, they must adapt and integrate these new technologies into their offline and online systems as they develop.
Retailers will strive to offer their consumers more flexible payment alternatives as the cost-of-living problem starts to bite throughout the course of the year. As a result, expect a significant growth in “buy now, pay later” offerings in 2023.
Unified commerce
In 2023, traditional stores will experience a comeback as they transform into multi-functional facilities that go beyond display and selling to include micro fulfilment, returns, and even customer support hubs.
In order to effectively connect their customers’ digital and in-store shopping experiences, retailers will need to examine their usage of technology. As retailers try to save costs throughout their supply chains, it is anticipated that storefronts would handle a higher portion of internet returns.
Additionally, if the rate of returns rises overall, merchants will start raising the fees and shipping costs involved with returning things purchased online, which will encourage more customers to make these returns in-person.
To stay up to date on the latest industry headlines, sign up to the C&I e-newsletter.