Retail technology is a long game and advancing innovations can be on the rise for a very long time. Look no further than Retail Dive’s list — published two years ago this month — of the top five technologies we expected to reshape retail in 2017: Robotics; drone delivery; e-commerce anti-fraud tools; blockchain and bitcoin; and virtual/digital assistants. Many of those technologies have yet to see wide adoption.
Robotics, for example, was one of the hottest technology topics in retail that year, as several retailers expanded their use in their supply chains. But, two years later retailer the use of robots can’t be described as widespread, and is still evolving toward use in-store and for last-mile delivery.
