Top Five Retail Startup Trends– While technology continues to create fresh opportunities and avenues for startups to capitalize on, the following retail trends could give rise to fresh startups in 2020.
Retail Startup Trends -Autonomous Delivery Robots
With every passing day, digital disruptions are changing the retail landscape. It is anticipated that AI guided autonomous delivery robots will be seen by 2020. As global businesses come under increasing scrutiny to pay better wages to employees such as delivery persons, retail giants could start turning to robots for automating the delivery system to cut down the wage bill and increase the work efficiency.
A 53% increase in the sale of logistics robots (2018 statistics) is a fair indicator of where things are heading in 2020, taking the overall delivery robotics segment to $3.7 billion.
Amazon could possibly be the leader for such an initiative since it continues to face global backlash for its harsh work conditions and wage policies. Amazon, UPS, Uber and Google Wing are expected to emerge as pioneers and leaders for drone-based last-mile delivery systems.
Retail Startup Trends- Green Startups
In the aftermath of the devastating Australian bushfires, global warming is set to take center stage once again. This will not only motivate individuals to look for greener alternatives for appliances and products they continue to consume, but global investment giants to also tow the public sentiment and diversify their portfolios by investing in greener startups to make a conscious effort to cut down the carbon footprint and establish innovative and sustainable practices.
Retail Startup Trends -5G Connectivity
2020 promises to be the year when 5G could be commercially available to subscribers. Handset manufacturers have started rolling out 5G compatible devices since mid-2019, therefore, it is probable that ultrahigh-speed wireless internet will come in 2020. This increased speed is likely to alter shopping patterns. A study reported that better browsing speed is directly correlated to online sales being realized into a confirmed transaction rather than just sitting in the wish list. Adobe expects an additional $12 billion to be pumped into the US retail market by 2021 solely due to 5G availability, with a significant chunk being taken by startups.
Retail Startup Trends- AI Aided Healthcare
In 2018, Amazon acquired PillPack, an online pharmacy for $753 million. This was followed by the launch of Amazon Care, a health initiative for its employees. To date, Amazon Care continues to be an internal initiative; however, considering Amazon’s history of using its employees to test products before rolling them out commercially, could signal the start of the AI Aided Healthcare era. The appeal behind such ideas stems from the fact that developed economies will increasingly face the challenge of caring for an aging population, and along with it will come challenges to provide adequate and affordable healthcare for all. Since most millennials will also be crossing over into the 30s, reproductive health-related digital healthcare could also become a trending segment. Progyny, a venture aided startup, is already working on the idea by signing up employers who would like to invest in the reproductive health of its employees who battle modern-day infertility issues due to the ever-changing lifestyle of the 21st century.
Retail Startup Trends – Personalized Marketing
From the days of Henry Ford offering a standard black color Ford Model T for all customers, marketing has come a long way. With every passing day, customer preferences have been incorporated into the marketing process with customization eventually replacing mass production as the mantra of the day. But in 2020, AI aided Big Data tools are likely to revolutionize the marketing experience completely. Thanks to the internet and social media, businesses now not only have access to personalized data which tells a business what to target every individual with, but a delivery system also exists where each customer could be catered to on an individual basis. Gone are the days of targeting a whole segment with a uniform offering, 2020 could see the advent of personalized offers with some businesses going as far as offering personalized sales and discounts specific to a particular customer based on the data available. Already, over 70% of online marketing endeavors are personalized, but 2020 is likely to take the game to the next logical level with hyper-personalization ruling the roost.
Looking forward to the Year
Based on the above list, 2020 looks like an exciting prospect with propositions that could simply change the world we know and radically modify the social fabric of the world at large, courtesy of startups making tech-based disruptions and rewriting the world order.
Check out our new post discussing 5 Green Startups to Follow.
