You know the retail world is changing when Sir Stuart Rose stands on a podium and starts talking about Twitter and Facebook. Yet there he was at this week’s World Retail Congress (WRC) in Berlin sharing the stage with a man from Google.

You know the retail world is changing when Sir Stuart Rose stands on a podium and starts talking about Twitter and Facebook. Yet there he was at this week’s World Retail Congress (WRC) in Berlin sharing the stage with a man from Google.

If there was one lesson from the WRC, it was that the digital age is transforming retail. Not a revolutionary conclusion, but the frequency with which retail leaders from around the globe mentioned both the speed of change and the disruption it is causing made it clear how profound the changes being wrought on the industry are.

And disruptive is the word. Gordon Segal, the legendary founder of Crate & Barrel, explained that for a business founded on the principle of creating a store atmosphere where customers are encouraged to touch and feel the product, a world where they’re no longer bothered about doing that before making a decision to purchase marks a fundamental change.

That’s not to say stores don’t have a future, because they do - although probably not in the numbers non-food retailers in particular have today. Those stores that survive and prosper will have to do so as an element in a multichannel operation where they can function equally well as showrooms that help drive web sales as collection points where orders can be fulfilled.

Being active on social networks and developing mobile commerce capabilities have until now been nice-to-haves. Not any more. They’re going to become part of consumers’ basic expectations. Shoppers who buy online aren’t going to want to sit at home to do it, but while they’re on the bus or out with friends. And if people use social networks as their preferred means of communication with their mates, why wouldn’t they do the same with the businesses they transact with?

If there’s one thing the multichannel age so far has taught us, it’s that the depth of the impact the web is going to have has been consistently underestimated. Unlike today’s 20 and 30-somethings, the teenagers who will be the next generation of adult shoppers have grown up with the web, and they will expect to be able to shop via whichever combination of channels suits them best.

Whether the transaction takes place online or in a shop, more sales than anyone thought possible will be web-influenced and web-purchased. The good news from WRC was the UK’s top retailers seem better prepared than any for this. But the breakneck pace of change means no-one can be sure whether that’s prepared enough.

tim.danaher@retail-week.com