For the last decade, VML has been revealing the trends that will change the world in its annual report, The Future 100. As part of The Drum’s Retail focus, Emma Chiu and Marie Stafford draw on this year’s edition and the archive to chart the sector's drastic recent transformation. The typically avant-garde Gentle Monster store, Singapore / Adobe Stock Everything is retail, and retail is everything.
Over the past 10 years, VML’s Future 100 has traced the evolution of this fast-moving category, driven by shifting consumer behaviors and rapid advances in technology. The shift to digital channels continues, with online shopping now accounting for just over 20% of global retail sales in 2024. Looking back, it’s clear the path was cleared by the platform giants ( Alibaba and Amazon swap territories , 2015, Amazon everything , 2018) and nudged along by innovations in payments ( Consolidation apps , 2015) and convenient services like click-and-collect ( Drive-up grocery wars , 2017) and ever-speedier deliveries ( Shipping wars , 2018).
Omnichannel experiences are now the goal, as consumers expect to flit friction-free across channels. Over the years, VML Intelligence has charted the proliferation of new shopping channels, from the earliest days of mobile and social commerce ( S-commerce , Text commerce, 2019 , Uninterrupted commerce, 2020 ) through to games, virtual worlds and even new realities ( Virtual reality retail, 2016, A(R)etail , New shopping worlds , 2020, Virtual f.
