The State of Data Streaming for Retail in 2023

9 min readJul 21

This blog post explores the state of data streaming for the retail industry in 2023. The evolution of omnichannel customer experiences, hybrid shopping models, and hyper-personalized recommendations requires an optimized end-to-end supply chain, fancy mobile apps, and integration with pioneering technologies like social commerce or metaverse. Data streaming allows integrating and correlating data in real time at any scale. I look at retail trends to explore how data streaming helps as a business enabler, including customer stories from Walmart, Albertsons, Otto, AO.com, and more. A complete slide deck and on-demand video recording are included.

(Originally posted on Kai Waehner’s blog: “The State of Data Streaming for Retail in 2023”… Join the data streaming community and stay informed about new blog posts by subscribing to my newsletter)

General trends in the retail industry

Several disruptive trends impact innovation in the retail industry to reduce costs, increase the customer experience, and keep customer retention and revenue high:

Researchers, analysts, startups, and last but not least, labs and the first real-world rollouts of traditional players show a few upcoming trends in the retail industry:

Hybrid shopping models with digitalization and omnichannel (see a recent Gartner webinar)
Generative AI and automation to improve existing business processes and innovation (as discussed in an article by McKinsey)
Live commerce with social platforms changes the shopping experience (even beyond China and Asia, as an analysis of Grand View Research shows)

Let’s explore the goals and impact of these trends.

Hybrid shopping models with digitalization and omnichannel

Capabilities for omnichannel retail change and improve the customer experience significantly. Mobile apps enable seamless hybrid and location-based in-store experiences. Customers leverage options like “buy online and pick up in the…

The State of Data Streaming for Retail in 2023

General trends in the retail industry

Hybrid shopping models with digitalization and omnichannel

Written by Kai Waehner

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