Last Thursday, San Marco Village was the Mecca of Belgium Retail for one day. As a proud partner of “Anyville | Home Of Retail*, ThisPlays2 was also present at this retail detail congress in Schelle.
Wijnand Jongen, the driving force behind thuiswinkel.org, kicked off with his new book: “Het einde van online winkelen” (The end of on-line shopping). He talked about the in-line and on-line consumers who will be connected 24/7 through the Internet Of Things. In this way, retailers will be able to adapt better to the ever-changing demands of the customers in the future.

“A mental model for change” Cate Trotter of Insider Trends is proof that women can also stand their ground in retail. With her business expertise, she led us through the technological pitfalls and opportunities of the future. Such as exponential technologies that are constantly improving and that will be arriving faster and faster, such as: 3D printing, robotics, processing power, the Internet of Things, etc. All these innovations will help to ensure a better and faster shopping experience.
Eric Croon from Zamro emphasizes that everything depends on a good team. In March, they won the award for best starter at the Shopping Awards XS in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. Such a thing is only possible through solid teamwork. Don’t be an asshole!
The evening was rounded off in style by the likeable Doug Stephens, the Canadian retail prophet. According to him, we have only seen “the end of the beginning” of e-commerce, and technology and experience will go hand in hand in the store of the future. After all, according to him, physical stores will not disappear, but will change drastically.
In summary, we can state that the four speakers agree that Amazon is well on the way to conquering the world of e-commerce.
But, above all, we should remember that tomorrow’s store manifests itself in two directions. Not on- and offline. But “fast” or “deliberately slow”. Striving for more efficient collection points or responding to the total shopping experience of “Slow Shopping”. ThisPlays2 is ready for these changes.