Changes in the retail landscape - a Nordic perspective

Abstract

The retail industry is disrupting fast. Shopper behavior is evolving and keeping up with the pace of modern technology such as big data, AI, AR, VR, apps and gamification, which is a challenge as well as an opportunity that the retail industry faces. New technologies are creating new ways to do business, making it important to find balance between what worked in the past and what is needed in the future. Digitalization has (positively as well as negatively) a huge potential to help achieve sustainability or at least help reduce the negative impact of people. In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the already struggling physical retail, which accelerated the digital transition in retail. We are living in a time where we cannot dodge the challenges and changes that are happening, and therefore, people as well as companies have to keep up with the pace of modern technology and take responsibility for the environment in order to be prepared for the future that is already here. With this focus, in November 2021, Umeå School of Business, Economics, and Statistics, Umeå University hosted the 7th Nordic Retail and Wholesale Conference (NRWC). Every second year, NRWC is held in order to create a broad meeting point for the researchers in retail and wholesale. The retail and wholesale-oriented academic research network, NRWA – Nordic Retail and Wholesale Association, is behind the conference and was initiated and funded by the Swedish Retail and Wholesale Council and the Hakon Swenson Foundation. In total, the NRWC 2021 attracted around 100 researchers in the retail field. A doctoral colloquium was held in connection to the conference as well as a practitioner-academic workshop. On the practitioner-academic workshop, we discussed the future of retail and what knowledge is needed in the transformation that is now ongoing. Some of the questions discussed were What will the retail industry look like in the future? What knowledge is needed for practitioners? What is missing in research? What knowledge do we need to find out in order to be better equipped for the future? The best-rated research papers from the conference, which matched the aims and scope of the journal, were selected for inclusion in this special issue of the International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research. This special issue consists of seven papers that were presented at the conference and selected based on the outcome from the review process. The papers highlight the ongoing changes in the retail landscape in different ways. The pandemic has accelerated the grocery industry to become more digital, and the online grocery shopping in Sweden has increased during the pandemic. In ‘Reorganising grocery shopping practices – the case of elderly consumers’, the authors Hansson, Holmberg, and Post show that post-pandemic, elderly consumers are likely to alter between different types of stores (online and physical stores) to achieve the best experience. The discussion is centered around the three themes: independence and flexibility, from socializing to provisioning and new digital experiences. The article THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF RETAIL, DISTRIBUTION AND CONSUMER RESEARCH 2022, VOL. 32, NO. 4, 349–350 https://doi.org/10.1080/09593969.2022.2101625