After the Average - The New Science of Retail

For two centuries, retail thrived by treating every customer the same. Uniformity was efficiency; efficiency was progress. That era is over. Kosta Du traces the collapse of the standardised model — the phlogiston theory of modern commerce — and the rise of something stranger and more powerful in its place. The most successful retailers of the next decade will not scale sameness; they will scale difference. They will build data infrastructures, deploy artificial intelligence, and adapt to each individual in real time. From the luxury carmakers of Munich to the fast-fashion cathedrals of Galicia, from the warehouse algorithms of Seattle to the neighbourhood bakeries of Paris, the evidence is mounting: the average customer is an obsolete concept. Only fifteen per cent of retail investment today lands effectively. The other eighty-five per cent is waste — not by accident, but by doctrine. After the Average is a clear-eyed account of the transformation already underway, and a practical guide for anyone preparing to compete in the retail economy that is taking its place.