Global Frictionless Commerce Growth Opportunities

Global Frictionless Commerce Growth Opportunities

The retail industry is undergoing a transformational shift wherein physical and digital customer experiences are converging. Retailers want to leverage digital tools that will help them derive contextual, behavioral, and location-based information to create unique and engaging customer experiences. Digitalized eCommerce platforms will enable frictionless commerce and zero UI experiences that leverage deep customer analytics to offer hyper-personalized services.

Frictionless commerce entails that all the paths to commerce converge into an omnichannel environment where the consumer is at the center and the path to purchase is seamless across all channels. The road to zero friction across all physical and digital touchpoints requires the right solutions with minimal or no friction across different environments, depending on cost-benefit considerations as much as on customer needs.

The 3 Pillars of Frictionless Commerce that are Enhancing the Consumer Journey:

Consistency: Consistency is vital when building a true omnichannel experience. Consumers expect a unified brand presence and a name that can be trusted.

Relevance: The degree of personalization in a consumer’s journey will continue to rise with behavioral data determining product choices based on buying patterns and preferences.

Convenience: In the post-pandemic scenario, convenience will gain significance, and the emphasis will be on contactless and frictionless anywhere-anytime commerce.

Frictionless commerce is built on 4 main components, that is, omnichannel experiences, frictionless checkouts, frictionless fulfillment, and frictionless returns. To achieve a truly frictionless experience, brands must build capabilities to streamline in-store and online consumer touchpoints.

Omnichannel Experiences: Omnichannel experiences involve the merging of digital interactions with in-store engagement to deliver seamless brand experiences.

Frictionless Checkouts/Payments: Customers are becoming more loyal to retailers that offer frictionless checkouts. New checkout models in retail (smart carts, contactless checkouts, BOPIS, BNPL) will eliminate a singular point of sale (PoS).

Frictionless Fulfillment Models: New shipping/delivery models such as drop shipping and WaaS and micro-warehousing are enabling significantly faster delivery times and allowing better integration of inventory-level data between online and offline channels.

Frictionless Returns: Delivering against customer expectations is more costly than absorbing return costs. The rising pressure from giants such as Amazon will push businesses to reevaluate their return models.


  • Strategic Imperatives
    • Why Is It Increasingly Difficult to Grow?
    • The Strategic Imperative 8™
    • Our Mega Trend Universe—Overview
    • Growth Opportunities Fuel the Growth Pipeline Engine™
  • Executive Dashboard
    • Our Mega Trend Universe—Data Marketplace Impact
    • Key Findings
    • Growth Opportunities Critical to Future Success
  • Trend Opportunity Analysis
    • Highly Customized Shopping Experiences Will Enable Zero Returns and Inventory Losses
    • Roadmap to Frictionless Commerce
    • The Three Pillars of Frictionless Commerce
    • Frictionless Retail Enables End-to-end Customer Experiences
    • Enabling a Frictionless CX—Omnichannel Experiences
    • Enabling a Frictionless CX—Frictionless Checkouts/Payments
    • Enabling a Frictionless CX—Frictionless Fulfillment Models
    • Enabling a Frictionless CX—Frictionless Returns
    • Trend Opportunity—Regional Exposure
    • Trend Opportunity—Industry Implications
    • Key Trend Opportunity Levers, Global, 2020–2030
    • Trend Opportunity Attractiveness Analysis
    • Trend Opportunity Competitive Activity
    • Trend Opportunity Impact and Certainty Analysis
    • Trend Opportunity Matrix—Trend Innovation Index
    • Innovation Attractiveness Score
    • Trend Opportunity Matrix—Trend Growth Index
    • Growth Attractiveness Score
    • BEETS Trend Implications
  • Growth Opportunity Analysis
    • Growth Opportunity 1—Digital Assistants for Seamless Shopping Experiences
    • Growth Opportunity 2—WaaS for Flexible Fulfillment
    • Growth Opportunity 3—Biometrics for Seamless Transactions
    • Critical Success Factors for Growth
    • Conclusion—The Way Forward
  • Appendix
    • Our Mega Trend Universe
  • Next Steps
    • Identifying Your Company’s Growth Zone
    • Your Next Steps

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