The View | A peek into the future of retailing as technology reinvents how the world shops

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Staff at a logistic centre in Lin'an city in Zhejiang province on Nov. 11, 2016. E-commerce companies and courier services are scrambling to deal with the orders placed during the Singles Day shopping spree. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 2:04pm, 29 Aug 2017Updated: 7:36pm, 30 Aug 2017

The history of how Alibaba and Amazon have come to dominate retail through e-commerce has been told countless times. What about the future?

Needless to say, Alibaba and Amazon have not been complacent sitting on their laurels. Together with other innovative companies in China and America, Alibaba and Amazon are aiming to reinvent the retail experience again for consumers over the next decade.

Here are 5 current trends that provide glimpses into how technology will shape our buying habits in the future.

Groceries from Whole Foods Market sit in a cart before being loaded into a car, outside a store in Jackson, Mississippi. On Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, Whole Foods shareholders will be voting on whether to approve Amazon's US$13.7 billion takeover bid of the organic grocer. Photo: AP Photo

Trend one: Omnichannel.

Online and offline retail will be more integrated and seamless. When Amazon acquired Whole Foods in June 2017, the e-commerce giant gained more than a stronghold in groceries and fresh foods. Combining the strengths of online with offline retailing, Amazon is now in position to potentially offer O2O services such as buying online and picking up in store, or buying in store with delivery to home.

The Whole Foods acquisition parallels Alibaba’s move in January to privatise InTime, a Chinese operator of shopping malls and department stores, for US$2.6 billion. Both Alibaba and Amazon recognise that an offline retail network can be highly synergistic with their already massive online marketplaces.