Blockchain for Retail: Use Cases and Potential Applications

The latest of the big developments in this vein came up at this year's Consensus conference, as blockchain startup Flexa made public its partnership with a number of major U.S. retailers.

While expanding the number of stores and chains that accept digital money remains an important avenue leading toward mass adoption, there are several other domains where distributed ledger technology can be of help to the retail industry.

Another important domain of the retail business that could use some optimization and enhanced fraud protection is loyalty programs.

Introducing blockchain into the equation could help retailers address both issues.

Another well-established and profusely covered family of blockchain use cases in retail has to do with the technology's capacity to make the goods' origins transparent and verifiable.

The IBM Food Trust initiative, which offers its members a blockchain-based platform to track produce on every step of the supply chain, launched in the fall of 2016, when the U.S. retail giant Walmart began testing the system.

Luxury apparel brand Alyx will implement Iota's blockchain solution to showcase sustainable practices used on every step of its supply chain.

Blockchain applications related to streamlining processes in this line of their work present a less explored yet immensely promising area.

With a blockchain data-sharing system in place, customers could also proactively let retailers know about their needs and preferences, sending them shopping lists in the form of smart contracts.

Coupled with the potential affordances of the Internet of Things to outsource the execution and delivery of such orders to machines, blockchain could become a fundamental infrastructure for the new era of fully automated shopping.