The Future of Retailing
Open accessAbstract
Retailers have embraced a variety of technologies to engage their customers. This article focuses on “The Future of Retailing” by highlighting five key areas that are moving the field forward: (1) technology and tools to facilitate decision making, (2) visual display and merchandise offer decisions, (3) consumption and engagement, (4) big data collection and usage, and (5) analytics and profitability. We also suggest numerous issues that are deserving of additional inquiry, as well as introduce important areas of emerging applicability: the internet of things, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robots, drones, and driverless vehicles.
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Digital mediation of consumption is not new.
“Digital mediation of consumption, as illustrated in the vignettes above, is not new.”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Grewal et al., 2017
Prior research has examined recommendation agents, algorithmic curation and personalization, platform governance, and the growing role of analytics in shaping firm strategy.
“Prior research has examined recommendation agents (Jiang & Benbasat, 2007), algorithmic curation and personalization (Grewal et al., 2017), platform governance (Van Alstyne et al., 2016), and the growing role of analytics in shaping firm strategy (Rust & Huang, 2014).”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Grewal et al., 2017
At the ecosystem level, algorithmic borders redefine visibility.
“At the ecosystem level, algorithmic borders redefine visibility, building on platform theory's insight that infrastructure governs access and value capture (Grewal et al., 2017;Van Alstyne et al., 2016).”
From Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era (2026) · cites this paper as Grewal et al., 2017
The Visual Display & Merchandise Offer Decisions section discusses how retailers display offers online and in stores, and the Technology & Tools section discusses targeted promotions (page numbers unavailable). Neither addresses algorithmic borders at the ecosystem level or platform infrastructure governing access and value capture. Searches for those concepts found no passage that verifies the attributed claim. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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Cites
Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey
Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016) · Journal of Marketing · doi:10.1509/jm.15.0420 · Cited by 5,765 · see citing works
Aguirre, E., Mahr, D., Grewal, D., de Ruyter, K., & Wetzels, M. (2015) · Journal of Retailing · doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2014.09.005 · Cited by 868 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Retailers therefore need to be careful to use their knowledge about customers in a way that balances out this personalization–privacy paradox (Aguirre et al. 2015).”
BackgroundSelf-citationThe Role of Big Data and Predictive Analytics in Retailing
Bradlow, E. T., Gangwar, M., Kopalle, P., & Voleti, S. (2017) · Journal of Retailing · doi:10.1016/j.jretai.2016.12.004 · Cited by 516 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 21
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- Rafaeli, Anat, Daniel Altman, Dwayne D. Gremler, Ming-Hui Huang, Dhruv Grewal, Bala Iyer, A. Parasuraman and Ko de Ruyter (2017), "The Future of Frontline Research: A Glimpse through the Eyes of Thought Leaders," Journal of Service Research,, (forthcoming).
- Roggeveen, Anne L. and Dhruv Grewal (2016), "Engaging Customers: The Wheel of Social Media Engagement," Journal of Consumer Marketing, 33 (2) (editorial).
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- Verhoef, Peter, Katherine Lemon, A. Parasuraman, Anne Roggeveen, Michael Tsiros and Leonard Schlesinger (2009), "Customer Experience Creation: Determinants, Dynamics and Management Strategies," Journal of Retailing, 85 (1), 31-41.
- Wansink, Brian (2017), "Healthy Profits: An Interdisciplinary Retail Framework that Increases the Sales of Healthy Foods," Journal of Retailing, 93, 65-78.
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Marketing to the Machine: Rethinking Global Marketing for the AI Era
Sands, S., & Campbell, C. (2026) · Journal of Global Marketing · doi:10.1080/08911762.2026.2697021
“Prior research has examined recommendation agents (Jiang & Benbasat, 2007), algorithmic curation and personalization (Grewal et al., 2017), platform governance (Van Alstyne et al., 2016), and the growing role of analytics in shaping firm strategy (Rust & Huang, 2014).”
- Authors
- Grewal, D., Roggeveen, A. L., & Nordfält, J.
- Affiliations
- Babson College (US)
- Stockholm School of Economics (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Grewal, Dhruv
- Venue
- Journal of Retailing
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-03
- Volume
- 93
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-6
- ISSN
- 0022-4359 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2578287714
- Cited by
- 1,195
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 169 · 2025: 142 · 2024: 112 · 2023: 105 · 2022: 132 · 2021: 165 · 2020: 154 · 2019: 138 · 2018: 64 · 2017: 14
- FWCI
- 183.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Retailing (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Retail Behavior Studies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management of Technology and Innovation › Digital Innovation in Industries
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing
- Keywords
- future of retail, retail technology, customer engagement, visual presentation, big data, retail analytics, profitability, Internet of Things, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous vehicles
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