The Transformation of the Retail Industry by Digitization: Operating Models, Geography Pattern and Future Trends

Digitization is one of the current pivotal research topics. All industries are gradually undergoing transformation by leveraging digital technologies. Research approach on digital transformation process of retail sector includes: operating models, geography pattern and future trends. New outputs will be introduced in three innovative aspects of smart inventory system, AI prediction, IoT at consumer-end and cloud computing at retailer-end. Built on the research of consumers demand, an overview of restructure of relationship between demand and supply is discussed. After stating how digitization alters the traditional agglomeration, the research focus on the persistence of physical clusters. The future trend of retail industry is highlighted and fully discussed. Research result shows that digital technology increases new outputs in aspects of selling and inventory, making both consumers and retailers more dominant to the market and product design. Therefore, digital technology balances the influence brought by geographical patterns by weakening some traditional geographical factors.