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Analysts Predict 2018 Retail Trends

This year’s forecasted trends revolve around production, inventory and technology

Published

6 years ago

February 22, 2018

AlixPartners (New York) released its annual list of 10 predictions for the retail industry that it expects to see over the upcoming year.

According to AlixPartners, changes that will impact the retail industry will revolve a lot around production time and costs. For example, the group predicts that retailers will work to get merchandise from production on to the sales floor faster than ever and will begin ordering stock in smaller quantities so that they are less likely to be stuck with lots of products that will then need to be clearanced out.

It is also expected that to better compete with e-commerce, more retailers will partner with technology companies and increasingly turn to chatbots for better online customer service as well as data to inform more product and business decisions.

Additionally, the firm predicts that 2018 will include a number of store closures that will match or exceed the 7000 closures that occurred during 2017.