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Some Pandemic Retail Tech Trends May Be Losing Their Luster

Retailers’ live shopping channels, curbside pickup and robot delivery struggle to stay relevant.

Published

2 years ago

March 6, 2023

INSTORE Staff

iStock, ablokhin

As the pandemic fades from the spotlight, several cutting-edge technology trends in retail may also be falling by the wayside, ModernRetail reports. Examples: Instagram said that last month it is ending its live shopping feature that lets users tag products in livestreams beginning in March. Around the same time, Walmart announced it was closing its last two pickup-only stores. And several months earlier, Amazon slowed testing of Scout, its home-delivery robot.

Those actions reflect three larger trends taking place in the post-Covid era, Modern Retail concludes:

Retailers’ live shopping channels could be DOA
Curbside pickup might get kicked to the curb
Autonomous robotic delivery remains problematic

So, what’s the takeaway for retailers in all this? “It’s really about making sure that the decisions you make when it comes to technology are brand right,” Insider Intelligence Principal Analyst Suzy Davidkhanian told Modern Retail.

Click here to read the full report.

Related Topics: retail retail technology technology

INSTORE Staff

Since launching in 2002, INSTORE has won 89 international journalism awards for its publication and website. Contact INSTORE's editors at editor@instoremag.com.

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