BOSTON ? Retail is being transformed by the exponential growth in mobile and technology, according to a keynote speaker at Shop.org's Annual Summit.

Retail will be affected by the growth of fully immersive virtual reality, as well as augmented reality. Virtual reality experiences will become fuller, giving retailers a way to improve the digital shopping experience.

?Right now when you shop online there are certain advantages because you can get recommendations, among other things, but the experience with the product is limited,? said Ray Kurzweil, Boston-based author of ?The Age of Intelligent Machines.? 

?You can?t try on the clothing or feel the material," he said. ?The experience does not have the realism in the virtual world.

?This will change as we move toward full immersive virtual reality where shopping will be able to have an immersive retail experience in virtual reality.?

Tablets mix
Additionally, tablets are a key ingredient in the retail space.

Companies are continually coming out with their own tablet version and consumers are using them to shop online while sitting in their living rooms.

?Tablets are transforming the lives of consumers that own them,? said Sucharita Mulpuru, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, New York.

?The amount of mobile traffic coming from tablets is significant and growing,? she said. ?We hear from numerous retailers that well over half of their mobile traffic is coming from tablets.?

Informational technology
During ?The Impact of Technological Innovation on Consumer Behavior and Retail As We Know It,? keynote, Mr. Kurzweil said that information technology is having a wide impact on society ? from health issues to retail.

Mobile is a big part of the transformations taking place in retail right now and other changes coming down the pipeline include fully immersive virtual reality and 3D printing.

?Every sector of society is being transformed by the exponential growth in information technology,? Mr. Kurzweil said.

?Every aspect of retail will be transformed,? he said. ?Retail is the nexus where technology meets consumers.?

Exponential growth in ecommerce is one of the ways that the explosion in information technology has impacted retail, per Mr. Kurzweil.

Looking forward, the continued growth in information technology will result in other transformative developments for retail, including the ability to sell and deliver more products as digital information.

Today, 3D printers can print out working mechanisms for putting together a functioning violin or finished products such as a glove. 

While such printers are not widely available right now, they could be in the future.

?If I were to say 15 years ago that we would be sending products as digital information, such as ebooks, people would have thought I was crazy,? Mr. Kurzweil said. ?Today, a major portion of retail products are not only purchased online but delivered online.?

In approximately 20 years, technology will enable shoppers to buy and print their purchases using 3D printers, per Mr. Kurzweil said.  

?The enabling factors are gradually being put in place,? Mr. Kurzweil said. ?Right now, you can print out a violin ? ultimately, you will be able to download any physical product.

?It will be transformative,? he said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York