The recent history of shopping has been defined by decade-long periods of dynamic change. The ’80s were the decade of the mall, with the explosion of malls being built, resulting in shoppers flocking to these new centers of retail. The ’90s were the decade of the discounters, as Wal-Mart rolled out their discount shopping experience from their base in the heartland to both coasts and many other discounters, Target and Kohl’s among them, following suit. The first decade of the new millennium is the decade of luxury, with retailers offering an expanded range of traditional heritage brand luxury to the “classes,” and retailers serving the mass market offering up new, more affordable versions of luxury for the “masses.” We are now into the second half of that decade and the logical question is “What’s next?”

Shopping will answer this question using the three tools that give marketers and retailers “future vision” – as discovered by Pam Danziger, president of marketing consulting and research firm Unity Marketing.