Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Futurist and business consultant Amy Webb says that by asking the right questions, just about anyone can do what she does: separate real trends from hype and glean the paths that technologies will take.

In her recently released book, The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe Is Tomorrow’s Mainstream, Webb shares some of her methods for analyzing the impact of innovations. She spoke to MIT Technology Review’s executive editor, Brian Bergstein, in an interview that Insider Premium subscribers can listen to here. Highlights condensed for clarity follow.

Now, Los Angeles-based advertising agency Ignited has considered 100 trend reports and identified 15 key trends for 2015 from the most relevant end-of-year predictions.

"Upon sifting through all of these trends, we narrowed it down to the ones that we think will have the biggest impact on our business in the near future," says Frank Striefler, SVP planning & strategy, Ignited....

It’s clear the shopping scene is rapidly evolving with advents in technology and changing consumer behaviors, so it’s no surprise that new players in the retail game are aiming to spice things up. In PSFK Labs’ ongoing research, we’ve discovered startups that aren’t just doing something cool, but completely innovating the shopper experience and raising the bar for consumer expectation of service. Existing companies—from global retailers to growing brands—can aim to mimic these new offerings and practices.

Below is an excerpt from the Future of Retail 2016, where PSFK Labs has identified five key players redefining the retail landscape....