Learn more from China
China has been a leading force in applying artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, drones and other cutting edge technologies, which makes it rich of experiences and application cases.
There is a lot can be learnt from the technologies that are already applied in large scale in China and the implications for the United States and Europe, said Rod Sides, vice-chairman of Deloitte LLP, who also leads the retail, wholesale and distribution practice in the United States and the retail consulting practice globally.
Sides noted China has an online economy scale of almost $1 trillion and there has been the massive adoption of digital payment systems in the country.
China just leapfrogged in adopting mobile phones and became the largest cashless economy in the world, said Bratcher.
"I think China is a main hub of testing all the things in terms of innovation like AI technology, as we have partnership with Alibaba and other vendors. For us, it's going be a lot of focus coming from China in terms of knowledge I was looking for as well", said Edward H J Park, senior vice-president with North America operations of Guess Inc.
The next breakthrough for retail sector relies on 5G technologies, said Joy Tang, CEO and founder of Markable.ai, an AI computer vision company for the retail sector.
AI is making a lot of differences not only in the future but also right now to the workforce, customers and retailers, said Hui Cheng, senior director with Silicon Valley Research Center of JD X, the innovation lab for JD.com.
As an online and offline retailer, JD has the opportunity to combine them and deliver new technologies in the store, added Cheng.
The next generation of retail would be characterized by decentralization thanks to the flexibility enabled by artificial technology, machine learning, robotics and other technologies, according to Steven Blitz, chief US economist and managing director with investment research firm TS Lombard.
"Actually if you look out over the next five years, I would say the trends of manufacturing is an absolute reversal of what we've seen over the last hundred years, which is that you move to a decentralization of production," Blitz told Xinhua in an interview on the sidelines of Retail's Big Show.
