2025 – A look ahead to the year in retail tech
A new year brings new developments in retail technology.
As 2025 approaches, it’s time to dust off the crystal ball and gaze into the trends that will drive the retail technology industry over the next 12 months. Here is a look at how supply chain disruption, AI “co-piloting,” and automated delivery will impact the industry:
Supply chain disruption
The global supply chain has recovered from the peak disruption levels of 2020 and 2021 and continues on an uneven course of improvement, but it still does not function as smoothly as it did pre-2020.
The supply chain also remains prone to shocks from ongoing global instability and climate events, as well as strikes affecting both ports and rail service. The possibility of new tariffs being imposed on imported goods in 2025 also raises uncertainty about how the supply chain will function.
All this will lead retailers to implement solutions that can help them better predict potential disruptions, react when they happen, and generally run their supply chains more smoothly to make the inevitable impact of disruptive events less dramatic.
On the predictive side, expect more retailers to follow in the footsteps of Dick’s Sporting Goods, which utilizes Inspectorio sourcing and production technology to obtain seamless connection of traceability data with the rest of its sourcing operations, as well as automate manual processes with AI-equipped features.
[READ MORE: Dick’s Sporting Goods centralizes sourcing and production with AI]
The retailer also intends to obtain enhanced visibility into performance and production changes and more easily identify which raw materials are being used across multiple purchase orders.
In terms of smoother supply chain operations, retailers should consider the example of Walmart, which runs high-tech fulfillment centers featuring an automated, high-density storage and retrieval system that streamlines a manual, 12-step process down to five steps. It also offers double the storage capacity and twice the number of customer orders the discounter can fulfill in a day, expanding next- or two-day shipping.
AI as co-pilot
Another trend that will help steer the direction of retail technology in 2025 is the growing realization that AI is not a cure-all and does not make things better on its own. Retailers are increasingly finding that the maximum value of AI is obtained when it serves as a “co-pilot” that enhances and expands the capabilities of a human user.
For example, Target Corp. is rolling out a new proprietary generative AI chatbot called Store Companion that will help store associates answer customer inquiries and on-the-job process questions, coach new team members and support store operations management.
The new chatbot will be available as an app on specially equipped handheld employee devices, providing immediate answers to their questions about processes and procedures.
On the customer-facing side, e-commerce marketplace Curated uses an AI consumer co-pilot to connect with customers who are a little bit earlier in their buying journey. This allows them to ask questions, start their educational process, and begin to understand the terminology about products.
"Our AI is trained on over two million conversations that our consumers have had with our experts," Peter Ombres, CEO and co-founder of Curated, said in an exclusive interview with Chain Store Age. "This database of interactions helps make our AI extremely useful in the context of shopping."
However, Curated has found that most customers reach a point in their buying journey where they have questions that only a human can answer, and they are then transitioned to one of the e-tailer’s human experts.
Automated delivery
The volume of deliveries keeps expanding and with it, consumer expectations for packages to arrive potentially within hours or even minutes of placing an order. It’s no wonder that retailers continue to look to automated delivery technologies, a trend set to grow in 2025.
Drone technology is one of the most talked-about automated delivery solutions, and now that Amazon has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) permission to fly its Prime Air delivery drones beyond the visual line of sight of the pilot and Walmart is enabling select drone delivery orders directly in its app, other retailers will surely follow.
Some smaller retailers already have, such as quick service restaurant chains Panera Bread and Jet’s Pizza recently launching delivery via Zipline drones in select markets.
Sidewalk robots are also a burgeoning automated delivery platform, as evidenced by recent rollouts from entities including Shake Shack, Uber Eats and Grubhub. And as driverless vehicles continue evolving, expect more pilots like Uber Eats’ ongoing testing of Waymo robotaxis.
