Retail guru John Stanley urged his Glee seminar audience to make 2013 a Gold Medal year for gardening as the pace of retail change accelerates.

He said pundits had predicted that retail would change more in the next five years than in the last 100. “Businesses that re-invent themselves will be the ones with the profitable future,” he said.

This year, he said, had been what experts called the Year of Disruption, creating condition and opportunities for major change. Quoting recent examples of research that had predicted growth of between 8 and 15% for the garden industry next year and beyond, he said it would be exciting…unless you hate change.  “If you don’t like new ideas, it could be very bad for you for the next few years,” he said. Urban living would becoming greener, consumers would become more demanding and communicating them would require new thinking. “Only 26% of people open emails,” he said, “but 97% open text messages,:” he said. “Texting is what you will be looking at as a way of keeping in touch with them.”

He urged retailers to understand the needs of consumer groups such as young mums – described in the US as Power Moms. They demanded retailers whose “whole philosophy is child-friendly”. “And we need to think a lot more about connecting children with nature,” he said.