Episode 43: Founder & CEO of Tomorrow Retail Consulting, Jordan Berke: Bringing Dark Stores Into the Light

The digital channel and an on-demand retail world are here, front and center. There isn't a retailer out there who doesn't realize that digital retail is one of, if not THE most important element of their future. The amount of online order fulfillment that retailers are doing today is about 3 times what they were doing a year ago and the physical boxes (aka stores) are becoming less and less practical to fulfill that volume. In this episode we catch back up with Jordan Berke, Founder of Tomorrow Retail Consulting, who we spoke with almost a year ago about the notion of and need for dark stores. Jordan shares his expert opinions and predictions on the true rise of dark stores over the next year and what it means for stores to become fulfillment centers.<br /><br />01:04 – A refresher on Tomorrow Retail <br />02:06 – An on-demand retail world<br />05:37 – The rise of dark stores (for real)<br />09:10 – Stores as fulfillment centers<br />17:18 – “Blank” from home<br />20:17 – The boardroom’s reaction <br />24:22 – US vs. Asia (digital adoption)<br />26:47 – Predictions for the future and obligatory football talk