Emerging Retail Trends

The responsibility of managing inventory will shift up the value chain towards the manufacturers. Assembly of the final product will move down the supply chain and as close to the customer as possible (owing to the increased need of mass-customization).
Preponderance of web driven sourcing.
Retailers will use Systematic and Spot sourcing from the many B2B sites to meet their requirements of core merchandise as well as peripherals.
Supermarkets and discounters will rely on thin client technology whereas specialty retailers who need a higher level of customer interaction and information sharing would continue to rely on fat clients.
Source: http://retailindustry.about.com/