Market opportunity

Bike share systems are expanding efforts to be more equitable and accessible to everyone by offering adaptive bicycle options to people who might otherwise be unable to ride. These systems tend to range from the inclusion of electric bikes and standard trikes into the existing systems to offer a more full range of adaptive bicycle options for use at rental locations. Surveys of residents living in several low-income communities of color (n = 1,885) are used to explore the potential need for adaptive bike share options in urban locations. A national survey of cities and bike share operators (n = 70) is used to document the prevalence and basic models of adaptive bike share programming currently in place. Interviews conducted with bike share representatives in select cities with adaptive bike share programs provide context and details on how specific programs operate. Finally, interviews with adaptive bike share participants (n = 5) in Portland, Oregon, help to illuminate users’ experiences, including the perceived value and potential improvements for adaptive bike share.

This report details the current state of the North American industrial market in 2020 and its projected growth over the next couple years.

This article questions the common assumptions that delivery drones would be more efficient, cost less and be better for the environment.

"The Customers 2020 findings provide a clearer picture of what customer experience will look like in the not-too-distant future. In this report, Walker takes the message one step further, illuminating the evolutions that companies can and should focus on now to exceed customer expectations in 2020 – and to win."

The United States Parcel Service (UPS) wants to expand its Flight Forward program to include private home drone delivery service.

This article identifies how changing emerging technologies and consumer behavior and priorities will influence retail. These trends include preferences for experiences over things, faster delivery options, and brand identity.

This article discusses what makes a retail experience meaningful. Executives in retail design, experience, and real estate agreed that the main elements of meaningful retail experience are localization, service, and shareability.

This article examines how consumer behavior in retail has shifted to a trend of making online purchases and picking them up in stores. It identifies the retailers that have been most successful with this trend and makes investment recommendations.

Mobile e-commerce is growing and taking over more of overall e-commerce sales. Projections suggest that global growth will continue into 2021.

This article breaks down the varying types of ride sharing services in China and details their differing business models and levels of success.

Uber's business model of focusing on growth over profits may be beginning to unravel. They are experiencing slowing growth, which financial experts explain is a problem when there are also no profits.

There is a growing market for pedestrian- and transit-oreinted development. This article outlines existing literature in order to assess how increased demand for these types of developments is impacting land value. It also includes suggestions for further research on the topic.

The growth of e-commerce in the past led to a decrease in brick-and-mortar retail presence, but it appears as if the tides are changing in favor of re-investing in the physical retail market. The line between online and physical commerce is beginning to blur, and companies such as Amazon aim to combine their strategies to expand in both markets.

Self-driving cars will be first available to robotaxi-fleet operators, not private owners. This availability restriction comes from the expensive nature of LIDAR sensors that make the sensors themselves more expensive than the rest of the vehicle. The safety and reliability of automated vehicles also impacts their ability to be privately owned, at least at first. Safe and reliable vehicle operation is easier to achieve when the vehicles operate within a geographic range that has been mapped in detail, meaning automated vehicles will mainly operate in city centers in their early stages of adoption. These considerations driving automated vehicles toward fleet ownership will have impacts on many areas of the automotive industry.

Many traditional malls have come up with creative ways to transform themselves to stay relevant in the 21st century and maintain sources of revenue as store closures rise. The typical malls with large atriums, department stores, food courts, and parking lots are finding new uses for these spaces including fitness centers, apartments, event spaces, markets, and mini theme parks.

The American retail sector is undergoing a long-term structural shift away from small “mom-and-pop” stores and toward national chains. Retail establishments have gotten larger and more concentrated; the mass-market merchandisers of the later twentieth century continued a trend toward consolidation of the retail sector into national chains operating large stores that started before their widespread emergence. In the late twentieth century, Wal-Mart emerged as the world’s most important (and controversial) retailer. The evidence on Wal-Mart’s effects on retail employment suggests either mild positive or mild negative effects, but Wal-Mart’s effect on prices suggests increases in real income.

This study presents the emerging trends of Real Estate in 2019, such as firm Profitability prospects, real estate business prospects, housing issue, retail transforms, tax reform, and capital market. It also analyzes the trends for different type of property and different region of US and Canada.

In working with Waterfront Toronto, the public entity that owns the land, to develop Quayside, Sidewalk Labs would reimagine urban life in five dimensions—housing, energy, mobility, social services, and shared public spaces—with an aim to “serve as a model for sustainable neighborhoods” around the world.

This article explores the rate of retail store closures, its effects on employment, and the role of economy market forces on the changes.

This document provides background on micromobility and what it is, answers the question "Who uses shared micromobility?" and identifies current policies and practices.

This white paper will discuss the non-technological trends logistics managers much know and then will hone in on the technologies that will impact the logistics in 2018.

A synopsis of how Walmart plans to increase services and capacity in order to continue to compete with Amazon.

The news talks about Amazon expand their warehouses (and other facilities) across 382 metropolitan areas in US and how the supply chain may impact local development.

To gain a deeper understanding of retailers’ focus, concerns and investment plans, Zebra conducted a global research study across a wide spectrum of retail segments, including: specialty stores, department stores, apparel merchants, supermarkets, electronics, home improvement and drugstore chains. The results of this study are shared in this 2017 Retail Vision Study.

The future of department stores in suburban malls is grim, this article explains the rising trends and what is causing the push.

This article explains to us the reasons Amazon bought Whole Foods - working to create a rather seamless day-to-day operation for its customer base.

This article examines the burgeoning future of electric buses and the possible impacts it may have on society.

This report estimates that by 2030, a substantial share of the 175 million Americans who live in the nation's largest cities will turn to SAEVs, cutting transportation costs by nearly 50%, reclaiming time instead of losing hours a day to traffic and putting up with all the expense and hassle of urban automobile ownership. SAEV fleets will account for nearly 25% of all auto passenger miles traveled in the US by 2030. Such a change will have an enormous impact on health, safety, and quality of life in cities: Traffic accidents and fatalities will be reduced by nearly two-thirds. Pollution will be drastically curtailed. Cities can repurpose millions of square feet once used for parking to new green spaces or commercial uses while securing more affordable mobility and accessibility for elderly, disabled, and low-income people.

The expansion of delivery services is expanding each day with the use of new technology. In this article, we see how a new app can give delivery drivers access to your trunk to leave packages, an option that is created to eliminate the need to leave packages on your doorstep if security concerns you.

Target acquires delivery service Shipt for $550 million, this article explains how its going and how they match up to other delivery options.

In an effort to keep up with competitor Amazon, Walmart partners with delivery company Postmastes to offer same-day grocery delivery to more US households.

This book is about on-demand delivery and its logistic process. It also presents the trend of on-demand services.

This article explores the possible motives for online retailers to open up physical stores.

Bonobos, a popular menswear e-tailer, opened a brick and mortar store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, but you can't actually leave with anything. This article explains how the store works.

In 2013, eyewear e-commerce pioneer Warby Parker opened its first retail store in SoHo with fairly low expectations. In 2015, that store still occasionally had a line out the door on weekends, and Warby Parker had 12 retail locations across the country, with plans to open seven more before the end of the year. This article explores why the online-native eyewear retailer chose to open so many stores in such a short period of time.

In the United States, public transportation agencies are experimenting with on-demand, shared, and dynamic models to augment traditional fixed-route bus and train services. These services—referred to as microtransit— are enabled by technology similar to the mobile smartphone applications pioneered by privately operated transportation network companies. As interest in this technology grows, it is critical for public transportation agencies and departments of transportation to understand the benefits and challenges of incorporating components of these innovations into publicly funded services. This research is informed by limited literature to date as well as a series of interviews with the project teams working on the pilots. It concludes with a set of recommendations intended to inform the design and implementation of future public microtransit pilots and service delivery models.

A new analysis tracking the relationship between transit access and apartment rent seeks to put some numbers behind the dramatic shifts in urban mobility. The new study by RCLCO, a real estate consultancy, and TransitScreen, a company that provides real-time arrival and departure info, analyzed 40,000 apartment developments nationwide, which contained roughly 9 million units, to determine how access impacts costs in different cities and neighborhoods. Results found that improvements in access to bike-sharing and ride-hailing made a more significant difference nationally than access to traditional transit or carshare services.

The questionable acquisition of Jet.com by Walmart last year has seemed to pay off, this article explains the purchase and their success since.

Amazon agreed to buy the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion, in a deal that will instantly transform the company that pioneered online shopping into a merchant with physical outposts in hundreds of neighborhoods across the country.

The presentation includes the macro trend of e-commerce, investment overview, emerging trends in e-commerce, and the future predictive.

Meal-delivery companies are the ultimate symbol of the most powerful force in business today: convenience maximalism. But it comes with ethical, ecological, and economic costs.

The luxury industry has entered a “new normal,” characterized by lower growth. To succeed in the next decade, brands will need to refocus on their customers to better anticipate and cater to their needs.

There's a good reason Walmart, Kroger, and other supermarket chains are rapidly building out their online grocery options: Amazon.com is running away with the category, and as more grocery shopping moves online, it may develop an impenetrable lead over the competition.

This article lays out the share of the market Amazon versus its competitors hold and the impacts its growth is having.

This article explores the history of Amazon's attempts to get into the fresh grocery game, and looks at potential future methods the company may use as it continues to do so.

With its 1950s aesthetic intact, Knightley’s Garage is more than a kitschy throwback to the past. Wichita’s repurposed parking facility may actually be an indication of things to come. As personal auto ownership declines in urban downtowns, car-related urban infrastructure is increasingly underused. Some garages, like Knightley’s, are ripe for adaptive reuse. Others are being constructed from scratch in ways that will allow them to be repurposed down the road.

Food delivery apps are reshaping the restaurant industry—and how we eat—by inspiring digital-only establishments that don’t need a dining room or waiters.

Amazon's physical retail strategy is coming into focus, and just like the company's e-commerce business, it's focused on convenience. Perhaps the best way to make things more convenient for customers is to shorten the time it takes for them to complete a shopping trip.

Like most other industries, transportation and logistics (T&L) is currently confronting immense change; and like all change, this brings both risk and opportunity. New technology, new market entrants, new customer expectations, and new business models. In this paper we discuss four key areas of disruption logistics companies need to focus on now, and explore some possible futures of the industry.

Uber Eats will now deliver food to customers in the most unexpected of places—restaurants. The food delivery and pick-up app's "Dine-in" feature is now being pilot-tested in Dallas, Austin, Phoenix and San Diego, according to an Uber spokesperson.

The quintessential college experience of getting pizza delivered to your dorm room is about to get a high-tech upgrade. Starship Technologies announced its plan to deploy thousands of its autonomous six-wheeled delivery robots on college campuses around the country over the next two years.

"To better understand the emerging area of low-speed automated shuttles, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) partnered with the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe) to review the current state of the practice of low-speed automated shuttles. These vehicles share many characteristics with other forms of automated vehicles but include unique considerations in terms of design, operations, and service type, including: fully automated driving (intended for use without a driver); operational design domain (ODD) (restricted to protected and less-complicated environments); low speeds (cruising speeds around 10-15 mph); shared service (typically designed to carry multiple passengers, including unrestrained passengers and standees); and shared right-of-way with other road users, either at designated crossing locations or along the right-of-way itself. This report defines design and service characteristics; discusses the deployers, their motivations, and their partners; and provides information on demonstrations and deployments, both international and domestic. The document also provides context on common challenges and suggested mitigations. Building on all of this information, the document identifies several research questions on topics ranging from safety and accessibility to user acceptance and societal impacts."

As retail went digital, the idea was, physical space would become redundant. But while pivoting to a new digital paradigm hasn’t been easy, the retail industry’s ability to adapt has been notable and impressive. In fact, as cities grow and new hordes of consumers flock to establish themselves in urban communities, opportunities for innovation are emerging that suggest brick-and-mortar may be the pillar of a new retail era." This article primarily talks about the urbanization and the consumer, and the rebirth of brick-and-mortar.

Low wages, lack of career paths and an overwhelming belief among the working public that fast-food jobs should only ever be temporary all contribute to the worsening turnover issues faced by quick-service restaurants. Automation is being explored as an answer.

Meow Wolf started as a loose group of penniless punks coming together as an art collective. Now it’s a multimillion-dollar dream factory thriving in creating installations for the experience economy.

On Thursday, five years after launching and two and half years after being acquired by Ford for a reported $65 million, the app-based shuttle service announced it is rolling to a permanent stop. Transportation technology companies have never been sexier than in the past decade, but this stumble is a potent reminder that creating a profitable transportation business can be far harder than it seems.

It’s nothing short of a revolution, and the stakes have never been higher for retailers and consumer goods companies. Our Total Retail survey results, together with 2015 fourth-quarter retail results around the world, point to 2016 as a watershed for many of the trends that have been percolating over the past few years. From the unmistakable desire to be a member of a specialized retail community to buying more on their mobile phones, from becoming more reliant on social media to demanding a more service-focused and knowledgeable store employee, global consumers are pushing the boundaries of what shopping means.

This article explores the different ways retailers might engage with their customers in the future as we shift into an evermore digital-physical hybrid world.

A year after shutting all its U.S. stores, Toys R Us is making a comeback. The international chain, which filed for bankruptcy in 2017, is opening two mall stores this holiday season and bringing back its website. But don’t expect the Toys R Us you’re used to. 'We’re reinventing Toys R Us to make it fun and interactive for kids and parents.'

The fight to be an official provider of electric scooters in Paris is driving firms to dredge discarded vehicles from the River Seine, run apologetic ad campaigns, redesign their models and reshape their workforces.

Segway-Ninebot Group, a Beijing-based electric scooter maker, "unveiled a scooter that can return itself to charging stations without a driver, a potential boon for the burgeoning scooter-sharing industry.

Drones, for the last few years, have been viewed as the future of last-mile delivery for a variety of organizations ranging from 3PLs to hospitals. Amazon has applied for a waiver with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that, if approved, would allow the retailer to begin drone delivery in the United States.