The Economic Impact of Smart Retailing Technologies in the US and China: An Empirical Study Using Patent-Economic Analysis

With the growing population of digital users gaining social network consumption power, retail industries are facing evolutionary changes in attracting and maintaining online and offline customers. The concepts and implementation of smart malls and retail shops are proposed by retailers or solution providers to satisfy new customer demands. The foundations of smart retailing include information integration, customer experience, and etransactions. This research investigates the economic impact of smart retailing and the growth of related intellectual properties, specifically, a domain related patents. The technological aspect of smart retailing is organized by constructing a patent ontology map to define the domain boundary. The economic impact of technological transformations is studied by measuring the economic growth of the leading regions and countries and the representative patent assignees. Consumption preferences and labor structure changes related to the retail industry are analyzed to verify the economic impact of corresponding intellectual properties. According to the results of patent and economic analyses from registered claims of Amazon and Alibaba, the leaders in smart retailing, there is an empirically verifiable trend towards information integration, customer experience, and etransactions as the three domains for developing smart retailing. This research contributes to an understanding of developing regional development strategies for smart retailing including business process models and the creation of patent barriers.