The Path To Global Retail Growth Has Fundamentally Changed

There has been a lot of focus on how traditional retail is being disrupted by technology, but very little of that discussion has extended to looking at how that changes how retailers scale. However, the model for retail growth has been just as disrupted, and one of the places it has had the biggest impact is in what makes for a “global” retailer or brand. The traditional path to growth and scale was earned the hard way. Retailers identified a market niche, met the needs of that niche, and grew in their home market. Twentieth-century retailing was marked most notably by the rise of retailers that could be “everything to everyone”. The general store, the department store, the mass merchant – they met the market need of one-stop shopping and the convenience that consumers could get from that. Read more at Forbes.