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There are a lot more opportunities where these have come from. Take a look at this youtube video:

As much of the world contends with the serious impact of the coronavirus outbreak, innovation and creative solutions abound. This week, PSFK turns its lens to the ways emerging technology is enabling businesses and services to carry on and communities to come together in new, virtual formats—from clubbing in the cloud and streaming health to neighborhood grocery runs and much more.

We are also excited to present new research into the emerging recommerce operations that retailers are embracing to foster more sustainable business—PSFK Members now have access to the fresh 21-page paper full of inspiring trends and compelling examples here!

Spotlight

At times of crisis like this, we see innovation flourish. In particular, we see the popularization of obscure technologies and the mainstreaming of niche consumer behaviors. Yes, we can point to the jet engine or the radar as well-known examples of this, but did you know that China’s strength in ecommerce rose out of the impact of the SARS epidemic, or that Shopify’s user baseexploded during the financial crisis when people were laid off and wanted to find something to do online?

For this analysis piece, PSFK researchers explored what ideas and technologies that have been manifesting at the ‘edges’ will evolve rapidly as a result of mass confinement, safety worries and inventory shortages? Here’s a run-through of possibilities:

Facial Recognition Roll-Out — Organizations and government bodies ask people to adjust their privacy expectations for access to mass transport, health care and other services. In China, facial recognition programs have been designed to both overcome the wearing of surgical masks and identify people whose foreheads have high temperatures.

Take-Out Becomes Grocery-In — Unsure about the safety of the food prepared in restaurant kitchens (and meeting the delivery person), people order the delivery of the raw ingredients instead to cook at home. For some restaurants in China, delivery has declined 50% while grocery stores have seen a 70% increase.

Informal Group Buying — This sees shoppers getting together to buy in bulk: they communicate over chat platforms and then one of them buys the products. In China, people are doing this to buy their apartment block’s weekly shopping: Residents scan a QR code, join a WeChat group, and post a list of what they have run out of.

Informal Wholesaling — People notice demand for a product and buy up in bulk so they can then retail individual units through ecommerce channels. We witness this with surgical masks on Facebook and Craigslist.

Video Connections — Video conferencing and chat becomes the main way for people, businesses and services  to connect. Here are five sub-themes:

Cloud Entertainment — Musicians play live from venues (and theirbedrooms) to at-home crowds watching and sharing on social media. Lots of examples have cropped up in China as festivals and night clubs now entertain through social streams.

Streaming Fitness — Like musicians, physical trainers and gym instructors share routines in a crammed space. We’ve been watching the rise of premium versions of this with the likes of Peloton; now we witness the broadening of access to live fitness instruction over the web. The BBC also writes about a scenario in China where friends tag other friends on social media to do plank challenges.

Show Conferencing — The broadcast of fashion and business events to a professional audience via web conference. Giorgio Armani recently streamed his Milan Fashion Week runway show from inside an empty showroom. Read more on this.

Connected Education — Meeting the right teacher to give the right lesson at the right time via web-conferencing. In China, students are sending videos back as homework assignments.

Live Commerce — Real time web-shows retailing products across platforms. When Chinese brand Forest Cabin realized recently they were two months away from running out of cash, they asked 500 of their staff to work as livestream hosts to sell products online.

Robot Delivery — The autonomous transportation of shopping to peoples’ homes with wheels and with rotors. Ecommerce company Meituan-Dianping is running mini-trucks for groceries on some Chinese streets and in Wuhan, customers use facial recognition tech to access parcels in JD.com’s autonomous carts (without having to touch the vehicle).

Citizen Reporting — The contribution of information to help authorities understand needs. In China and Korea, developers have created hacks for the phone that use government and user-reported data to provide geography-based health reports.

Try & Return — The shipping of products so prospective consumers can check them out. In Korea, Samsung has cancelled its experiential retail program and switched to an at-home testing strategy.

QR Signage — The use of QR to share public information or allow access. Some signage is being hung by drones and at other times the codes check personal credentials to grant entry to a bus or market.

Contactless Delivery Options — Restaurants and other retail businesses use click-and-drop units in third-party areas to avoid human-to-human connection. eCommerce company Meituan-Dianping is offering a “contactless” solutionwhere delivery drivers drop off customer orders at special cabinets.

A lot of these ideas have been circulating for a while now, but PSFK researchers think that this crisis is going to bring then to the mainstream. Sometimes the “way we always did things” needs to change, so we move on to different tools, means and formats—and then once again, we will meet up with each other and still laugh and play, eat and dance.

There is a growing discussion around how AR can be used to elevate the museum experience and bring exhibitions to life. PSFK, a leading trend reporting publication and authority on consumer experience, reports on the topic in the piece “How Augmented Reality is Changing the Museum Experience.”

PSFK: THE CONSUMER 2020

Developed as a partnership between PSFK and Cisco, provides a challenging but fresh perspective on consumer trends in the near future and offers key strategies and resources to help brands in the retail, hospitality, and sports & entertainment industries better connect with consumers

Featured in the 18+ page report, readers will find:

In-depth insights and statistics about changing consumer behavior leading to 2020

5 profiles of new consumer roles and responsibilities in the marketplace

4 key shifts transforming consumer-first industries

Actionable engagement strategies and resources for retail, hospitality, and sports & entertainment brands

Detailed information about how Cisco can help your company develop a Digital Network Architecture

Plus a 15+ page presentation deck

What The Supermarket Could Look Like In 2065

At PSFK 2017, Studio Industries CEO Mike Lee teleported us in a time machine to the grocery store of the future, where experiences will reign over products

When you think about how much the digital age has transformed the world around us—how Netflix has disrupted the film industry, Spotify the music industry, Apple the telecommunications industry—the one industry that seems to be left in the dust while everyone else is riding off into the sunset is the food industry. We’re used to going to places like the Apple store to interact with products and be inspired by them, but very little of our trips to the grocery store result in some sort of learning or mind-stimulating experience. Studio Industries and Food Market founder Mike Lee, however, believes the future of food is finally having its a-ha moment. In his words, the food industry looks just like Silicon Valley, except it’s 10 years behind and twice as slow. Why? Because food is a tangible physical thing and not just pixels, and therefore, is more capital intensive.

Studio Industries CEO Mike Lee took to the stage at PSFK 2017 to discuss his predictions on what the future supermarket will look like and that the key to the food industry of tomorrow is to offer an experience over products.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Institutionalize the idea of dreaming Where are the dreamers and concepts in food? The food industry should follow in the footsteps of the automotive industry by having a team devoting to dreaming and putting out concepts out there, that are concept food products.

Be ambitious and optimistic about the future With Studio Industries and the Future Market, Mike brought to life the ideas that he wanted to see in food and developed a conceptual grocery store as a place for these concept food products to exist.

Build conceptual products and experiences that explore the implications of change Mike took the big issues of climate change, population growth, hunger, nutrition and food waste and distilled them into boxes on shelves that people can actually consume.