The shopping mall of things: Black Friday in an IoT world

FRIDAY Nov 27, also known as Black Friday 2015, saw a surge in online spending, particularly in the UK where online sales totalled £1.1 billion (S$2.3 billion). However, high street footfall was lower than expected. The success of Black Friday as the number one date in the shopping calendar was one reason fewer analysts are reporting "the death of the high street" than in 2012 when smartphone ownership tripled. Shopping that required moving about looked set to become a distant memory.

While we have seen examples of some high street retailers closing their doors for good, there are still opportunities for bricks and mortar retailers - particularly those that use technology to their advantage. In early November, Amazon, the original nemesis of the high street, opened its first-ever physical bookstore at University Village, Seattle, after 20 years of selling onlin…