“Innovationhas nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came upwith the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s notabout money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much youget it.”– SteveJobs“Thesebusinesses are wholly aware that Amazon is eyeing what’s theirs and that whatworked yesterday probably won’t work tomorrow. They are motivated to embracechange and their customers are certainly changing.” – BeckBesecker, ForbesAs Besecker goes on to say, consumers today have constant access to entertainment and communication through smartphones and the internet, while real estate development trends are leaning away from bedroom communities and towards new urbanism and gentrification. And soadaptation remains far more relevant than innovation. To adapt we must have: visionbravery skill risk appetite insights and an insatiable ability to question the why.Businessesthat meet this criteria will be hugely successful in this retail landscape bothnow and into the future because they will be best placed to meet threeinescapable trends emerging quickly:In-store retail is naturally becoming less about inventory and more about providing intermediary and indispensable, location-based services that result in sales, craft relationships with customers and capture new data. Advances in fulfilment and same-day delivery services will dictate largely the role of retail shops as points of sheer fulfilment As this blends into the landscape, physical space in shops will start to decrease, and digitally integrated experiences will become more common, and sales will occur in different ways.Bricks-and-mortarretail has always been about the fantasy of what is possible, and thatinspirational experience remains at the heart of retail.Emergingretail formats will further blur the line between shopping and entertainment –so much so that the customer may lose sight of the fact that they are in astore. Take theIkea shopping experience, which is designed to help people imagine Ikeaproducts as part of their day-to-day lives. Ikea doesn’t just sell furniture,it sells a lifestyle, and its stores are set up to entice customers to adoptthe Ikea way of thinking.But whilethe global retailer traditionally has built huge lifestyle outlets, now thebrand is adapting its store format to global consumer trends aroundurbanisation. Lastyear, the Swedish furniture brand announced it would open 30 new store conceptsin urban centres, from stores of the future, to sub-100sqm shops, to pop-ups,to standalone cafes and singular category shops.Ikea Australia country manager, Jan Gardberg, in the retailer’s small-format store in Sydney.Thestores are backed up by the most advanced technology, providing everything Ikeahas to offer, but in a virtual environment. The goal is to make everyinteraction between the customer and the brand more seamless, allowingconsumers to have fun while shopping and learning about the brand along theway. Lookingat Ikea’s urban store in Madrid, there are three very important reasons for thesuccess of this concept:servicesproximityentertainment.The newstore offers much more than a standard Ikea store. There is a high level ofentertainment available, with the main goal being to engage customers. Andsince the store is located in the city centre, customers can easily shop ontheir way to work, or while they spend their time in the city. Customercan learn how to customise their products, try different furniture concepts andstyles, receive expert decoration and design advice, enjoy various projectionsand visual merchandising of products, and so much more.Otherretailers can learn from Ikea’s example. Aside from delivering the highestlevel of brand engagement, inspiration, and entertainment, it also uses digitalto make its services and products fully customer-centric.Ikea isalso continuing to explore new store methods and formats that will allow it toget even closer to its customers and deliver world’s best omnichannel offer,while remaining a leading brand in furniture retail, and potentiallyrevolutionising the way people buy products.Brian Walker is founder and CEO of Retail Doctor Group, a retail advisory and consultancy group and the Australian elected partner member of the global retail expert’s alliance Ebeltoft Group.