1.282013

Nine Tenets for Retail in 2013

Nearly 30,000 thousand people gathered at the National Retail Federation’s Retail BIG Show 2013 to hear from thought-leaders on the challenges and opportunities in retail.  Here are key tenets from the conversations.

more on retail:

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Transcript:

Online retail has matured

Online retail is the pawn that has become the queen.

According to Forrester Research,

online has grown to 9% of retail sales and is projected to generate $327 billion in sales in 2016

According to Shop.org,

270MM people shopped in 2012 holiday season

129MM shopped on Cyber Monday

 

In the digital world, our brand can be much bigger than our footprint.  Wherever [our customer] is, we’ll be there.

– Thomas Belk, Chairman and CEO, Belk, Inc.

 

Mobile holds even more potential

Social and mobile aren’t emerging technologies. The revolution is already over – the customer is in control.

According to Whale Shark Media,

there’s been a 51.9% growth in time spent on mobile

 

Forrester Research predicts

the $5.5 billion spent in retail (media, CE, apparel) mobile commerce in 2012 to grow to $24.5 in 2017

 

 

Capability in new areas, particularly mobile, is mission critical.  It can’t be an afterthought. We must invest in it to get ahead of the technology and the growth curve.

– Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Corporation

 

Mobile is no longer just a channel.  It’s not a one-way pipeline of content to consumers – it is an intrinsic part of consumer behavior.      — Susan Jurevics, SVP, Global Retail CRM and Brand Marketing, Sony Corporation of America

 

Showrooming
must be embraced

The question is not how do you defend against [showrooming], but how do you leverage it in your business model.

According to Forrester Research,

37% of smart phone owners plan to showroom more in the future

47% of men aged 18-34 plan to show room more

so, you need to have a price matching strategy

and we will see more UPP (unilateral pricing policies)

Showroomers don’t end at the sale – they’re active consumers.  58% visit online communities 1+/day and half write reviews (positive ones.) They’re not your enemy.   — Jill Puleri, VP, Global Industry Leader – Retail, Global Business Services, IBM

 

Organizational silos are hindering progress

 

Channel blur:  Consumers are going to force you to match prices online.  Online and in-store merchandising groups are going to have to talk, compare notes, require coordination.

– Cotter Cunningham, CEO, WhaleShark Media

CEOs are pushing for company-wide digital strategy, but digital departments still often operate independently.

— Vicki Cantrell, Shop.org Executive Director and NRF Senior Vice President of Communities

 

Business beats government

Charity alone won’t save the world; we need business and capitalism.

This [retail] industry is the greatest engine of growth in the U.S. today.  We offer hope, opportunity, and career progression.

– Bill Simon, CEO, Walmart

The world needs a lot of care and compassion and business is singularly positioned to deliver on that.

– Walter Robb, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods

 

Business is the most creative force in the world.

If we’re waiting on government, we’re waiting on a process that can’t act with the same speed as business.

– Bill Simon, CEO, Walmart

Retailers shouldn’t just produce for the middle and upper classes; “the third world is waiting for retail.”

– Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations

 

Employees and culture should be priority #1

 

Think of labor not as a unit cost, but as truly the heart and soul of business.

– Walter Robb, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods

If content is king, culture is checkmate – you need the right people within the company on the bus.

– Eric Qualman, author of Socialnomics

 

 

The most important brand building tool of all is the ability to inspire our people – not only about what we’re doing but why, and getting them to exceed expectations in way that’s authentic and real.

– Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Corporation

Excellence is tremendous amount of fun; mediocrity is not.  People really want to work with great people and achieve great things.

— Kip Tindell, Chairman & CEO, The Container Store

 

The ecosystem of stakeholders is powerful

 

Shared Conversation concept:  The conversation is owned by consumers, peers, retailers, and countless influencers, bloggers, stylists, media critics and more.

— Susan Jurevics, SVP, Global Retail CRM and Brand Marketing, Sony Corporation of America

“The market” is more than the consumer – it includes employees, customers, distributors, etc.  All vote and shape our brand everyday.  This requires new ways of working together against shared value.

– Allison Lewis, Senior Vice President, Marketing, North America Division, The Coca-Cola Company

 

 

When you operate with this stakeholder view, the universe conspires to assist you.

— Kip Tindell, Chairman & CEO, The Container Store

The opportunity is to become more of who are you and realize your full potential.  Many businesses aren’t exploring the full potential of their connections with stakeholders.

– Walter Robb, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods

 

 

Innovate or die

 

Relentless innovation will continue:

flash sales ? daily deals ? subscriptions ?

curated commerce / distributed commerce / crowdsourcing commerce

— Sucharita Mulpuru, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

Any business that embraces business as status quo…is literally facing a collision course with time.

– Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Corporation

 

Capitalism

re-imagined:

Reimagine what is possible with business.  There is nothing more powerful than the imagination and creativity of individual team members.

– Walter Robb, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Whole Foods

It has never been more important to push for innovation at every level – we must do everything to push for self renewal, reinvention, a new level of surprise and delight with our customers.

– Howard Schultz, Chairman and CEO, Starbucks Corporation

 

 

Brick and mortar is not dead

Retail at its basic level is individual connection.

Your customer engagements will be your “30-second spots.”

–Tom Feltenstein, CEO/Founder of Tom Feltenstein’s Power Marketing Academy

Physical retail still has a lot of promising stories that will continue to grow and drive industry in the future.

— Sucharita Mulpuru, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research

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