15 Consumer Channels Shaping the Future of Retail
Products are no longer found on a shelf, and buying no longer happens in a shop. Fifteen consumer channels now carry the customer instead, in four distinct clusters. This report analyses each one with a live case behind it, and shows how to pick the ones worth your investment.
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56 pages · PDF and online- A map of the fifteen channels now carrying consumer demand, and what each one is for
- A worked case behind every channel, from brands already operating it
- A method for choosing which channels are a value space for you
The shelf moved, and the shop is no longer where buying happens.
Discovery now runs through algorithms and creators, convenience has become invisible, and resale has turned from a virtue into a revenue line. Most consumer brands are still organised around a channel mix that assumed none of this.
of social commerce in 2024, the fastest-growing route to discovery
of consumers now shop across channels rather than in one
of US shoppers used click and collect last year
of global ad spend will sit in retail media this year
Figures from consolidated industry reports, 2024 to 2028.
The question is no longer which channel to add. It is which four clusters you intend to be found in.
Fifteen channels, in four clusters.
Each cluster answers a different question about the customer, and each channel inside it carries a case from a brand already running it.
Know where products get found now
- 1Social commerceThe feed as the new shelf
- 2Influencer-led commerceDemand built by someone else's audience
- 3Live shopping streamsSelling in real time, at scale
- 4AI shopping assistantsThe algorithm choosing on the shopper's behalf
Know what a store is for when buying happens elsewhere
- 5Pop-ups and brand eventsPresence without a lease
- 6Flagship experience storesThe shop as the brand's argument
- 7AR and VR environmentsTrying before there is a product to try
- 8Immersive and gaming commerceBuying inside somewhere people already are
Know how buying disappears into the everyday
- 9Quick commerceDelivery measured in minutes
- 10Voice and conversational commerceReordering without a screen
- 11Subscription and auto-replenishmentThe purchase nobody makes twice
- 12Hybrid click and collectThe store as the last mile
Know which channels your customers run for you
- 13Recommerce, rental and resaleA second life you earn from
- 14Branded niche mediaOwning the audience, not renting it
- 15Group commerceDemand that organises itself
Built to choose with, not just read.
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