Technology is constantly evolving which means many aspects of our life are too – shopping included. Online shopping, smart tags, social show-rooming, contactless payment options and advancements within logistics management have all changed the way we shop physically and online – the retail industry remains set for continued and ever more dramatic change.

In a remarkable development, the recent Amazon Prime Day became the sixth biggest shopping day in the UK in its first year. The one-day-only event was only open to Amazon Prime members, offering them exclusive access to thousands of deals and discounts across all of Amazon’s product categories. The day saw a total of 29.1 million mobile and desktop visits to the UK’s top 25 retailers, 10.5m of those visits going to Amazon.co.uk.

Prime Day also saw an influx of visits to third-party marketplace sellers on the site, showing that innovations in retail don’t just benefit the online shopping giants.

This recent development could lead to deep changes in how retail takes place, perhaps eventually manifesting in automated last mile delivery in cities across the UK.

However, the changes that have swept retail in recent years aren’t always as dramatic as this. No-one expected the adoption of click and collect to reach today’s level or that take up would be at the pace seen yet PUDO points now play a dominant role in providing convenience to consumers whilst allowing retailers, dependent on the scope of their offer to differentiate and offer improved customer experiences over their competition.

These changes have all made their mark on the world of retail and may take some time to adapt to. Ultimately, the retail industry is always going to be a fast-paced one, and the most useful thing that stakeholders can do is learn to embrace such change wholeheartedly.