Future of Retail

August 11, 2023

How to Win in Retail: Less Science, More Art

By Doug Stephens Over the last 20 years, technology has transformed retail. Mobile phones have become essential conduits for communication, entertainment and commerce. Technologies like augmented […]
April 13, 2023

The Key to Winning the AI Arms Race? Human Creativity.

  By Doug Stephens Companies across the global retail sector are poised to become the beneficiaries of a historic windfall: an unprecedented boost to the bottom-line […]
February 6, 2023

The Metaverse Crash Is Exactly the Moment to Take the Metaverse Seriously

Many of the high-flying concepts and companies that led the charge into the metaverse and web3 have come crashing down to earth. Ironically, this makes it […]
July 18, 2022

The Future of Retail in the New Era of Risk

In the post-Covid era, the rethinking of risk offers profound competitive advantage, argues Retail Prophet founder Doug Stephens.    If a single image has come to […]
January 17, 2018

A New Era of Retail is Coming

By Doug Stephens On October 25 of this year — on an otherwise quiet day in retail news — Nike chief executive Mark Parker fired a […]
January 17, 2018

To Save Retail, Let It Die

By Doug Stephens In 2011, in what has now become retail folklore, Ron Johnson, one of the brains behind the Apple Store, was hired to resuscitate […]
November 11, 2014

Thriving In The Golden Age Of Retail

By Doug Stephens While I was in Iceland earlier this year I shared some thoughts on the future of retail and on the characteristics and competencies […]
March 18, 2014

The Future Of Retail: Experiences Per Square Foot

By Doug Stephens   This is a just partial list of retailers who have closed or plan to close significant numbers of stores in the near […]
April 20, 2013

The Store Is Media And Media Is The Store

By Doug Stephens There’s a dramatic and strangely under-editorialized reality taking shape in retail.  One that seems to be eluding even some of the industry’s most […]