The technology disruption in the retail sector that has been underway for several years now has seen some high profile casualties in the fashion sector.

The toppling of Payless Shoes and Pumpkin Patch has now been followed by the voluntary administration of Marcs, David Lawrence, Herringbone and Rhodes & Beckett.

Those major fashion merchants who have not, at least, matched their high street and mall presence with an on-line service have either gone already or will struggle to survive.

Savvy retailers are now exploiting fashionable technology to sell their apparel.  Consumers are letting their fingers do the walking and shopping digitally.  But that is just the tip of the iceberg with mobile devices allowing retailers to provide their customers with a deeper retail immersion.  RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are being used to enable customers to check sizes, colours and stock levels.  Having tried on a garment, the customer can buy the item on their mobile device and have it delivered to their home.

Some retailers, who must be confident in their pricing, are offering instant price comparison technology using RFID in store.

The increased use of credit cards for consumer spending combined with the introduction of PayPass and similar technologies will result in an increasing number of payments being made using a mobile phone’s NFC (near field communication) capability, which allows encrypted credit card data to be passed from the device to the retailer.

There will doubtless be more casualties, not only in fashion, but in retail generally.  And technology isn’t going to be the only disruptor.  Notwithstanding the threat of US localisation, globalisation will continue to prosper in the rest of the world.  Retailers are often the face of globalisation with name brands appearing in new locations around the world on a regular basis.  Amazon is about to roll into Australia and no amount of chest-beating about service and locality or price matching will prevent the inevitable impact.

Developments in the retail sector have always produced a steady trickle of business failures.  However, disruptive technology has already started to turn that trickle into a wave.

February 2017