BEST OF 2017: The world of retail is ever-changing as the sector reacts to shifts in consumer behaviour occasioned by new technologies while also exploring how it can harness such tech to its own ends.

The most-read WARC article on the subject, The future of retailing: never mind the quality, feel the personalisation, observed a trend to personalise to better meet the needs of individual consumers, but added that the role of social media in shopping is still unclear.

The second-most read article looked at the current state of virtual and augmented realities and how retailers might be able to incorporate the technology into their business plan. Virtual reality and augmented reality in retail - fad or future? outlined the broad business purposes of this tech as : traffic driving, traditional marketing, service enhancement, and translating the store into a virtual interpretation.

In third place was an article from the Journal of Advertising Research: in The Future of Retail is Mobile: How Mobile Marketing Dynamics Are Shaping the Future of Retail, comScore’s Gian Fulgoni and Andrew Lipsman argued that mobile will become foundational to how retail brands market and measure themselves.

The fourth most-read article highlighted the continuing importance of bricks-and-mortar stores – but not necessarily for simply shifting products in the short term. How adidas is evolving the retail experience examined the need for “retail diversity” that enables brands to connect with consumers in a way that makes sense for them.

The practical application of augmented reality was the focus of the fifth most-read piece, Augmented retail, a new shopping experience, which included examples from McDonald’s, Stella Artois and Walgreens.

Sourced from WARC