The new lifestyle as a service (LSaaS) encompasses not only the things people use, but people themselves. As services such as health monitoring and augmented reality become the norm, the individual increasingly becomes a nodal point in an expanding service network: a consumption point rather than a production point. In fact, in a very real sense, the individual is on the verge of becoming another “thing” in an expanding internet of things.

Such a lifestyle requires a new approach to retail as well as a new form of service provision. As the individual consumer becomes a collection of services that exist in a service relationship in virtual space, the way in which services are marketed and consumed will change. The individual will become the physical manifestation of a digital twin in the cloud. This has profound implications, both for society as well as service providers.

In this report, Stratecast explores the implications of the virtual LSaaS and proposes a new model for service provision. Anyone serving the consumer retail market needs to pay close attention.