Sectoral Innovation Watch Retail and Wholesale Trade Sector. Final sector report

Abstract

The retail and wholesale trade sector traditionally is considered as a poor innovator. Innovation is seen as driven mostly by applications of information and communication technology (ICT). This report adopts a more comprehensive definition of innovation than the traditional one, taking into account both ICT-driven technological innovation and non-technological innovation. The report emphasizes the changing concept of the retail and wholesale trade sector which not just acts as a delivery channel of products to the customer, but forms a critical part of the producer value chain shaping producer business strategies. Furthermore, the sector is a provider of customer services connected with the products sold (e.g. warehousing, financial services) and embodies the client interface where customer preferences are shaped and expressed. Innovations mostly have the character of process and service innovations, for example new ways of selling, marketing, logistics and firm operations. The on-going transformation of the sector is demonstrated by blurring distinctions between wholesale and retail, by diversity across horizontal branches, and by a diversity of organizational and strategic concepts. In this transformation, ICT (in particular e-commerce), as well as new organizational concepts, fulfil an enabling role through facilitating the formation of client perceptions, desires and need