The Future of Shopping – eBay Presents Future Scenarios in Retail and in Payment Processing

• Apple Pay has been launched

• Merging of stationary and digital retail

• Innovations in payment transactions support new retail options

• Linkages between the innovations within these areas possess disruptive potential

By last Sunday, it was all over already: Customers only had a week and a half to visit the first temporary eBay Offline-Store in Oranienburger Strasse in Berlin. eBay used the store not only as a sign of its push into stationary retailing, but also as a showroom in order to present several scenarios about what shopping will look like in the future: in the reciprocal relationship between the digital online world and the physical offline world. A main interface for this relationship consists of the ability to pay via a system available in both of these spheres, as demonstrated by the strong presence of PayPal in the showroom.

With this showroom, eBay presented a way for players mainly situated in the world of e-commerce to change the world of stationary retail and conquer it for themselves. In order to do so, these players are drawing on concepts that enable retailers to present products to customers in an innovative way. eBay commissioned a study on the future of retailing some time ago, which pointed to a high level of acceptance for this type of showroom.

For customers, this will lead to changed shopping scenarios at the intersection between the digital and traditional worlds:

• QR codes on the products presented in the showroom will enable the jump from the offline shop into the digital world. After the order has been placed, products will be delivered via logistics services directly to the address provided by the customer.

• In addition, providers such as “Emmas Enkel” (“Emma’s Grandchildren”) and “smobsh”, are realizing online shops in their stationary stores, thereby enabling new options for mobile shopping. These concepts offer retailers attractive possibilities for expanding their supply without the need to store the products on the shop premises. The products ordered by the customer in the shop or on the go via smartphone or tablet are delivered directly to the customer’s home.

These connections between the physical and digital worlds reveal new developments in terms of the presentation of wares and delivery options. One decisive factor for the development of retail is how new retail concepts are supported by parallel innovations in the processing of payment transactions. The best example of this in the past was eBay itself, which advanced its development through the possibility of paying via the PayPal service.

Complementary to the developments in retail, actors within the field of payment processing are also working on creating bridges between the offline and online worlds. PayPal presented two future scenarios in the showroom: the living room and the fashion boutique of the future.

• The living room of the future provides a seamless connection between TV, tablet, smartphone, and the offline world. TV commercials enable viewers to download vouchers into a PayPal wallet, and the corresponding app allows customers to compare prices, check to see if the same product has been purchased by their friends, and find out in which nearby stores the product can be obtained. Customers can conduct the entire purchase online or reserve the chosen product in a nearby store for pick-up, then pay via PayPal either remotely or in store.

• The fashion boutique of the future turns the store window into a 24/7 shop. Customers can use their mobile phones to scan and identify the products displayed, place the products on their wish list or pay directly via smartphone and have the products delivered to their home. Customers who would prefer to look more closely at a product before purchasing it can reserve it in the store. The apps installed by customers as well as by retailers enable retailers to recognize both the customer and the products reserved in store and to view details about the purchasing history of the customer. This information can be used for customized advice for clients and enables up- and cross-selling possibilities. Aside from allowing customers to shop everywhere and at any time, this method of ordering and paying gives customers the ability to manage their payment receipts in a central and digitalized way.

The individual solution details of the future scenarios presented in the showroom were not in and of themselves surprising, as many of these details are currently being realized in the solutions of other providers on the market. What was striking was rather the stringent linking of the individual details in a comprehensive new payment and shopping world.

This cohesive chain shows the disruptive potential of the new solutions that still appear cumbersome and futuristic when applied individually. One can assume that this beautiful new world will fall on fertile ground among the smartphone and online-game savvy “Generation Y”. But other user groups will quickly learn to appreciate the advantages of the seamless melding of the online and offline worlds.

If retailers and payment transaction providers are able to offer customers permanent points of intersection between the online and offline worlds, as demonstrated in the future scenarios, without losing the transaction information and the customer’s purchasing history, this will lead to great potential: for customers in terms of increased user convenience, and for retailers in terms of targeted customer advice. Due to their experience in the worlds of both retail and payment processing, eBay and PayPal possess a solid starting position in order to work together and combine innovations in both fields within a comprehensive new cosmos. For those who would like to catch a glimpse of the future – the eBay showroom will open its doors once again from 27.12. to 29.12.2012.

eBay Showroom
http://presse.ebay.de/pressrelease/4129

Innofact-Study „Die Zukunft des Handels“
http://presse.ebay.de/sites/all/files/121002_grafik_technologie.pdf
http://www.internetworld.de/Nachrichten/E-Commerce/Zahlen-Studien/eBay-Studie-Die-Zukunft-des-Handels-Werden-stationaere-Laeden-zu-Showrooms-67322.html

eBay Press Release on the Opening of the Showroom
http://presse.ebay.de/pressrelease/4129

Emmas Enkel
http://www.emmas-enkel.de/So-einfach-geht-s/

Smobsh
http://www.123boerse.com/leistungen/qr-mobile-shopping/