Publicerad: 2022-12-15

Some argue that business as usual no longer exists. The public health, geopolitical, and climate-related business environment challenges (to name but a few) mean that retailers will need to consider how to operate in a world where business as unusual is the new normal.

Photo: airfocus on Unsplash

Things are far from usual in the world right now. We have suffered two years of restrictions, closures and shortages because of a global health crisis. A war in Europe has caused supply chain disruptions and energy price shocks. The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union has hindered cross-border movement of capital (both human and physical) in Europe. And we are witnessing an increased frequency of climate-related catastrophes (such as fires and flooding) related to the climate emergency. 

Earlier this week, students from the Multichannel Marketing, Retail & Internationalization masters course at LUSEM presented their analyses of the future of retail from a business as unusal perspective. They identified the most relevant and disruptive business environment challenges and used a variety of tools and theories from the course to make predictions about the consequences for retail organisations in the near future. 

Some groups had collected data to make their predictions, while others used scenario thinking to forecast the effects of the business environment trends. The retail branches analysed ranged from luxury fashion to gas stations. The presentations were watched and evaluated by a panel of retail industry experts who were universally impressed by the students' findings and predictions.