How in-store shopping has changed over the last 75 years

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How in-store shopping has changed over the last 75 years

Technological breakthroughs have made modern shopping as easy as tapping on a device from the comfort of your home. Even with these conveniences for consumers, brick-and-mortar stores are still relevant and attract customers daily, though the companies behind them have had to catch up with the times.

Shopping online has steadily grown over the years, making up a significant chunk of purchasing habits in the United States. In the third quarter of 2024, e-commerce made up 16.2% of total sales, a sharp rise from 10 years prior, when it accounted for 6.5% of total sales, according to Census data. And it’s no wonder: Shopping online offers a greater variety of available products, cost and time savings, and payment security.

But don’t count out in-person stores just yet. Shops have incorporated various technologies to improve on-site shopping experiences, like introducing self-checkout systems, digital signage to increase awareness of promotions, and augmented and virtual reality to try products before purchase.

Uniqode analyzed news coverage and industry reports to explore how consumer expectations have shaped in-store shopping over the last 75 years. In-store shopping has inherent advantages, including sales staff interactions, opportunities to see and try out products firsthand, and no shipping costs. With physical locations, retail centers have opportunities to bolster and build local communities—a valuable element considering shopping complexes such as malls have long been a staple of American culture.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have always played a pivotal role in new shopping trends. History is chockful of disruptions to retail, such as the rise of big-box superstores like Walmart and Target, the introduction of the consumer credit card, and the invention of the now-essential barcode. Despite these significant changes in the industry, in-person stores have managed to adapt, constantly evolving to meet consumer needs.

Read on to learn how shopping experiences have adapted to technological advances over the decades.

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The birth of the big-box store

So-called big-box stores shook businesses to their core, particularly local mom-and-pop shops. Major retailer chains, including Walmart, Target, and Kmart, first opened their doors in 1962, drawing in consumers with their massive retail space, variety of products, and compelling discounts.

While department stores like Macy’s and Nordstrom are known for their personalized service to customers, big-box megastores are all about convenience and self-service, allowing consumers to freely sift through the dense selection of merchandise available. These locations focused on suburban communities, particularly where families own cars.

According to the Department of Energy, big-box stores represent 82% of total revenue from retailers in the United States. Walmart alone reached up to $648 billion in revenue in 2024. Even with the format’s domination of the market, these big stores have changed through the years in response to new technologies and trends. They’ve expanded online stores and integrated features into their physical locations, such as ordering products online and picking them up at stores.

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The rise of revolving credit and the consumer credit card

Today’s credit cards provide consumers convenience and ample opportunities to spend, but the concept borrowed heavily from department stores. In the mid-20th century, department stores offered shoppers “revolving” credit that allowed them to keep a balance with the shops from month to month, up to a specific limit.

Banks soon got into the credit business. Eventually, retailers with credit card programs also started to accept bank-issued credit cards, such as Visa and Mastercard, due to convenience for customers and the rise of better technology that could relay credit information more quickly and efficiently.

Credit cards have become an appealing way to make general-purpose purchases—especially since credit card companies offer rewards such as cash points and airline miles for spending.

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The invention of the barcode

With a barcode on practically every purchasable product, shoppers may take those black-and-white lines for granted, but their introduction to markets was revolutionary. In 1949, Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver submitted a patent for a design of lines representing numbers. It took until the 1970s for stores—beginning with those selling groceries—to regularly use barcodes, the basis of which is a standardized Universal Product Code and a rectangular design by IBM.

Thanks to barcodes, retailers can efficiently track inventory, pricing information, and other product information, leading to better supply chain management. The incorporation of barcodes made business easier and more cost-efficient, lowering consumer product costs as well.

Consumers also benefitted from faster checkout at stores and grocery markets, especially once more locations introduced self-checkout lanes. Shoppers can also scan barcodes at stores with devices or, increasingly, with their own smartphones to learn more about a product.

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The invention of e-commerce

The inception of e-commerce, buying and selling goods and services online, goes back decades to 1969 with the founding of CompuServe, which allowed businesses to interface. The first transaction on the internet wasn’t until 1994, however, through a website called NetMarket. From there, it wouldn’t take long for some recognizable companies to emerge and make a splash in the business world.

Online marketplaces, including Amazon and eBay, launched in the mid-1990s. Amazon started as an e-commerce platform for books, and eBay allowed online users to put up their items for auction. Amazon, in particular, grew at a massive scale, introducing a Prime membership for fast shipping and other benefits. It reached $637.95 billion in revenue in 2024.

Companies like PayPal were also founded and supported online money transfers as a convenience for online shoppers. Today, retailers recognize the Monday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday as Cyber Monday, encouraging online purchases with deep discounts.

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Smartphones and QR Codes come into play

The QR Code’s history goes back to 1994, but it wasn’t until the early 2010s, when most consumers had smartphones, that opportunities for retailers opened up. It started with third-party QR scanner apps, but in 2017, Apple released iOS 11, which offered a QR scanner via the camera. Earlier in the decade, in 2011, Alipay and WeChat Pay pioneered the use of QR Codes for digital payments, removing the need for a point-of-sale terminal. 

Beyond payment, more retail stores began utilizing QR Codes for their loyalty programs, discount offers, and marketing opportunities. The COVID-19 pandemic further fueled their consumer-facing growth when more no-contact interactions were required.

The future of in-store shopping

Technological advances won’t slow down, and consequently, in-person retail stores will have to keep pace and adapt to the growing use of new tools. QR payments are already highly integrated into the retail experience in China and are projected to continue growing in popularity in the U.S. More stores may also start using QR Codes to prevent product counterfeiting. And in true futuristic fashion, some retailers are even using QR codes to enable AR or VR on-site shopping experiences.  

Services like Apple Pay and contactless credit cards with RFID and NFC technology are also steadily replacing traditional card readers. Big-box retailers have tested different concepts, such as smaller stores. Even an e-commerce giant like Amazon has experimented with physical retail spaces, such as Amazon Go stores, which allow customers to walk out with items and automatically charge their accounts

Several other developing technologies could shift the way retailers do business. Smart glasses could replace the smartphone’s scanning functionality and allow shoppers to identify brands, prices, and available quantities for their desired products. With advanced analytics, consumers may walk into a store and instantly get recommendations based on their previous purchases and behavior.

Artificial intelligence may also have a prominent role in advertising and personalized shopping, potentially using consumer data to suggest everything shoppers need without them even asking. The future of in-store shopping is shaping up to be a blend of physical and digital.

Story editing by Carren Jao. Additional editing by Elisa Huang. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn. Photo selection by Ania Antecka.

This story was produced by
Uniqode and was produced and
distributed in partnership with
Stacker.