What will the future of retail look like? What capabilities will retailers need to remain relevant to demanding customers? How should retail executives begin preparing? The answer lies in a retailer's ability to embrace fundamental change and become truly customer-centric to maintain market leadership in 2010's world of extremes. In the recent IBM global CEO survey, over 80 percent of chief executives from a wide range of industries identified revenue growth as their key focus area for the next three years. A similar number cited speed of response to changing customer needs as a high-priority means of driving that growth. For retailers, this should be a familiar refrain, as growth has long been the primary driver of shareholder value for their companies. Yet, as we look toward the future, the challenge to retailers to achieve sustainable growth has never been greater. The consumer marketplace around the world is evolving rapidly, with unprecedented social diversity and competitive intensity pushing the industry to a world of extremes characterized by market polarization. The "bell curve"-oriented thinking of the twentieth century -- focused on serving homogeneous mass markets -- will need to shift to a mindset informed instead by "well curves" as growth and perceived customer value migrate to opposite ends of the competitive spectrum. Retailers will succeed in 2010 to the extent that they abandon the undifferentiated middle and focus their organizations on serving the extremes of the demand curve, even if they play both sides. In this in-depth study, IBM Business Consulting Services examined a broad range of social, political and economic forces to forecast the nature of the consumer marketplace in 2010 and the implications for retailers. We identified five deep-seated trends that are redrawing the rules of competition in the industry. To read the complete study, download the PDF file at the top of this page. | 
