Window between tech showing and shipping shrinking: Future Shop

Vendors at CES 2015 better be ready to deliver.

According to Future Shop, with customers having increasingly enhanced, live access to the latest announcements and unveilings at trade shows, the time between a technology being shown and when it is expected to be in stores is shortening.

Even with futuristic Jetsons-like technologies that may be five to ten years away from adoption, savvy customers are now rushing to stores with high hopes, said Elliott Chun, communications manager at Future Shop.

The trend is a “pendulum swing”, Chun told CDN. “In the later years, we’ve seen a lot of more in the showcase, and within a month we’re seeing that product hit retail.”

Aside from meeting accelerated consumer demand, the reason for this is two-fold, he said, one being that vendors are choosing a different timing to showcase their products, and two, that many are bringing upgrades to existing ones like wearables and TV’s, which have faster turnaround cycles.

This has had a couple of benefits to retailers.  Not only does it drive curious customers to stores like Future Shop where they inquire about the latest and greatest, it’s also helped drive the pre-order business model, which in recent years has grown to include more than just video game titles.

According to Chun, Future Shop has, in the past, allowed pre-orders of products announced at CES that won’t be launched until summer.

Even when a retailers aren’t able to fulfil a certain request – such as in the case of self-parking cars featured at CES this week, Chun says retailers have been able to offer existing solutions, such as rear-view cameras, Bluetooth or touch screen technology.

When it comes to existing technologies getting an upgrade, “wearables 1.0 benefits from 2.0 because of curiosity,” Chun said.

While the widely anticipated consumer adoption of wearables this year is not news, another area that Chun expects to grow significantly is connected homes – a market he says Future Shop has invested in for about a year by giving the technology significant shelf space.

Though a staple, in the B2B sector, Chun expects significant shipments of 4K displays in the form of upgrades in the workplace over other investments such as wearables.

Keep it tuned to CDN for all the latest CES 2015 coverage.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Dave Yin
Dave Yin
Digital Staff Writer at Computer Dealer News, covering Canada's IT channel.

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