With such formidable competitors as Amazon and Apple successfully invading their space, many traditional retailers will struggle to keep pace over the next decade unless they can swiftly develop a deeper, more intimate and long-term relationship with consumers. Most retailers still define their operating model in terms of product categories or store formats, not customers. They manage tactically, for the short term, and season to season. They have been remarkably slow to innovate. Which is why consumers, empowered by technology that gives them unprecedented choice and price transparency, have turned increasingly to more agile and creative interlopers.