During the Institute of Service Excellence at SMU (ISES) Industry Forum on June 26, the panel, which includes SMU Assistant Professor of Marketing and ISES Academic Director Marcus Lee, advised that consumer behaviour will continue to evolve, and companies in the retail and infocommunications sectors need to stay on top of these changes or risk losing their customers, no matter how successful or popular they may be at present. He also offered insights into evolving consumer behaviour. For one, customers' technical competence will only increase. "If you have a problem with an existing product, you will generally do all you can to fix the problem yourself, by researching online for example. Only at the point when you can't fix it yourself, then you call the contact centre for help," said Assistant Prof Lee. He added that with the rise of online retail, more and more categories of products are becoming search goods – products or services that consumers can decide to purchase just by examining its specifications.