When you think about brick-and-mortar retail, you may not be thinking about hyper-personalized shopping experiences, digital shopping engagement tools, blockchain-powered commerce, autonomous delivery, virtual shopping, contactless self-checkout, or supply chain visibility. These might seem like topics for eCommerce-only businesses, but that is no longer what the present or future holds.
Before I go any further, let’s keep in mind that the retail industry is a behemoth in all societies. All of the goods and services we purchase as individual consumers come to us in a variety of different ways. Decades ago, we went to brick-and-mortar stores after being prompted by a coupon in the Sunday paper, listening to a radio commercial, or seeing an ad spot on television. In the early 1990s, a technology-enabled disruption happened with the commercialization of the Web and the option to actually purchase goods or services via web pages, and eCommerce was born.…