Patent Analysis of Key Technologies for Smart Retailing and their Projected Economic Impact

Abstract

With the growing population of digital users gaining online 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 foundation of smart retailing includes information integration, customer experience, and e-transactions. This research investigates the economic impact of smart retailing and the growth of related intellectual properties (IPs), specifically, the retail domain online 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 in relation to the retail industry are analyzed to verify the economic impact of corresponding intellectual properties. The goal of the research is to develop regional development strategies for smart retailing using global patent and economic impact analyses.