What can the retail industry expect in 2017?
It is precisely this question that top officials from Russia's major retail chains, including directors for innovation, strategy, IT, and other experts, sought to answer on March 29, 2017, during the event Retail 2017: Future Horizons.
The event was also attended by representatives of international retail, leading manufacturers and suppliers in both the food and non-food industry, system integrators, market analysts, and investors. In total, the event, which was organized by the newspaper Vedomosti, attracted over 300 participants. This event, which is so important for participants of the retail market, was supported by the Management Company MLP.
"We see an urgent need for discussing global trends and their effect on Russia's retail. We want to take part in this discussion with the professional retail community about how this business will change in the immediate and long-term future, and what strategic decisions await the leaders of this market. We understand that now, to maintain current market leadership or stay on top of the list of leading retail corporations of the future, it is necessary to constantly monitor new trends, implement new technologies, and change accordingly. Changes often affect more than one aspect of business, they cause a change in the whole business model, and this is reflected in product storage," commented Gleb Belavin, Deputy Director General of Management Company MLP, on supporting the XIII annual conference Retail in Russia.
Many top managers seriously consider not only today's situation, but also what awaits the company in 5-20 years. In this situation of constant change, top managers cannot rely on cookie-cutter decisions, they should base their decisions not only on numbers, but also on intuition, and must look to the future. Participants heard straight from companies' top officials what leaders of the retail market do in this situation. Company CEOs, leaders in their fields, presented their views on how technology and the companies themselves will develop in the immediate and long-term future, as well as details on the strategic tasks they are working on now to maintain market leadership or top positions in rankings of retail corporations of the future.
Many topics were discussed during the strategy session Visionaries of Future Retail, including "What is the store of the future?".
Several important people took part in the session, such as: Oleg Alkhamov (Auchan), Ekaterina Eliseeva (Mars), Vincent Jeanty (Leroy Merlin Russia), Dmitry Kostygin (Julmart), Mikhail Kuchment (Hoff), Pedro Manosalva (NieLsen), and Andrey Spivakov (Sovkombank).
An especially prominent moment was Mikhail Kuchment's presentation, in which the co-owner of Hoff (furniture retail) discussed plans to implement a new project, which would allow clients to find their desired item of furniture with the help of virtual reality technology (VR). "The company will create digital floor plans for typical apartments in the most common building types, which customers can take advantage of by wearing VR glasses. This will help them understand how one or another item of furniture will look in their home. The company is already in negotiations with a potential executor for the project. We plan to start testing this project before the end of the year," Mikhail Kuchment remarked.