At Flonomics, we’re always looking into the future. That’s why we bought a DeLorean, turned it into a time machine, and brought back an almanac of information that will help you prepare for what’s to come in the retail industry of 2020.

More Personalized Mobile Experience

Just like computers, smartphones will continue to grow in popularity, affordability and integration with the real world. One example of its use today is the FloTrack, which reads the signal of a cell phone’s unique serial number, processes the information anonymously and tells business owners how long a customer has been in a store, and how frequently he or she returns.

All data is anonymous, to protect the identity of shoppers. But this concept will continue to evolve into other industries and into a more personalized experience for users, as new smartphone apps enable them to interact more intimately with a store’s environment.

Increased Automation through A.I.

According to Popular Science, the world will also start seeing humanoid A.I. robots doing rescue operations by the end of 2013. It might sound like a Terminator sequel, but it’s actually happening now. And if A.I. progresses down the same path as G.P.S., consumers will soon see it more readily available throughout their daily lives. Imagine self-automated checkouts, automated help stations for customer support and possibly even robots that sort your products. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. Trust us…we own a Delorean.

Increase in Information Overload

As people continue to upload information endlessly on to the web, customers and businesses will be able to research one another with a new level of accuracy. Any question you have will have a billion surveys of research to validate your hypothesis, and any store you own will have a billion reviews from customers validating your service. Likewise, new technology will enable you to collect data within your store on a new level of accuracy. For example, the Flonomics Flo Pro camera automatically counts your customers with 98 percent accuracy, and translates that data to a dashboard that illustrate the details of your shopper traffic.

We’d like to share more about what the future holds, but this elderly man with a cane just flew off with our almanac in the Delorean. That’s right. The future also has flying cars. It’s not as cool as it sounds though because there’s also this giant war between robots and humans, and that’s kind of a bummer. Dogs can talk though, so that’s kind of cool…