Article Highlights:
Many retail technologies are becoming more mainstream, but there are five retail technology innovations that we can count on not being big in 2022 – the metaverse, cryptocurrencies, checkout-free stores, rapid deliveries, and NFTs.
While the metaverse – a 3D digital environment offered through a combination of AR, VR, and video – holds exciting possibilities for retail, ABI Research notes that it is still more of a buzzword and an idea then it is a defined opportunity that will be widely adopted by the retail industry this year. Even though using cryptocurrency for payments has gained traction across the retail industry, it remains niche and has yet to convince many that it is solving an in-store or online payments problem. While checkout-free stores are becoming widely adopted, many consumers remain hesitant, largely because of the need to download an app and register payment details, making it less convenient and frictionless as many had hoped. Rapid delivery – aka quick commerce – became popular over the course of the pandemic, but despite the growing number of players in the space, consolidation and acquisitions mean that few will survive. The rise of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) has been on the rise in retail over the last few years, but the one-of-a-kind assets will remain fringe in 2022.
